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 .■» ''rVi::'&fif- 
 
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 y'-^Tffi' LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY * 
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 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 ^li^."-U».Ui|JW" 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY, 
 
 W _ 0^t^m IM L^ Bif»B^M« r -^ i j L<IIJ'-H l t> ■ «] ,»J » ■■■ W T .yW .' ^- J j r^ UlJ 
 
PRINTED BY JAQUES AND CO. LOMBARD 
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THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL 
 
 DICTIONARY. 
 
 BY M, DE VOLTAIRE, 
 
 A NEW AND CORRECT EDITION. 
 WITH NOTES, 
 
 CONTAINING A REFUTATION OF SUCH PASSAGES AS ARE 
 ANY WAY EXCEPTIONABLE IN REGARD TO RELIGION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 I'RINTED FOR WYNNE AND SCHOLEY, 45, AND JAMES 
 WALLIS, 46, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1802. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 X HE great noise which the following work 
 has made on account of the author's freedom 
 in regard to matters of religion, may probably 
 occasion some people to be offended with the 
 republication of it. But an exception of this 
 kind must surely be the effect of prejudice, and 
 is impossible to be defended upon the prin- 
 ciples of reason and philosophy. True reli- 
 gion is not afraid of bearing the strictest exa- 
 mination; the attacks of infidels, instead of 
 weakening her authority, rather contribute to 
 her triumphs. She is ever ready to hear 
 what her adversaries have to oppose ; and calm- 
 ly endeavours to refute their errors. This is a 
 maxim agreeable to sound sense, and the con- 
 trary doctrine is calculated only for the meri- 
 dian of the inquisition. 
 
 wmr^Q^m 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, however, that in 
 writings of this sort, some regard ought to be 
 shewn to the illiterate and the vulgar ; neither 
 is it fit that their minds should be unhinged in 
 their assent to the true religion. This indul- 
 gence to the public is shewn in the following 
 translation ; care has therefore been taken to 
 make^proper strictures on such passages as are 
 most exceptionable, and even to- refute at large 
 some articles which may be suspected to have 
 a dangerous tendency. 
 
 These are blemishes, which, as a judicious 
 critic observes, are capable of disfiguring, but 
 not of intirely destroying the merit of this work. 
 Though our author is no divine, he is a poet, 
 an historian, a philosopher, and in many re- 
 spects a most agreeable writer. In such a 
 multiplicity of articles he has an opportunity of 
 displaying not only his wit and humour, but 
 likewise a great fund of erudition. Where he 
 does not intermeddle with 'religion, he is very 
 
 enter- 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 entertaining, and oftentimes instructive. Even 
 when writing on religious matters, he is not 
 always deserving of censure ; for instance, his 
 article of toleration contains excellent doctrine, 
 and shews him to be endowed with good na- 
 ture and humanity. This appears even in the 
 singularity of many of his notions, which were 
 owing to the favourable opinion he entertains 
 of mankind. He thinks that we are nt)t natu- 
 rally prone to vice; that virtue consists only in 
 doing good to our neighbour ; that neither the 
 Greeks nor Romans were idolaters; opinions, 
 which, however erroneous, are an indication of 
 his benevolent disposition. 
 
PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ABRAHAM. 
 
 J^BRAHAM is a name famous in Asia Minor 
 and Arabia, like Thaut among the Egyptians, 
 the first Zoroaster in Persia, Hercules in Greece, 
 Orpheus in Thracia, Odin among the Northern 
 nations, and many others, known rather by 
 their celebrity than by any authentic history. 
 Here I speak only of prophane history; for as 
 to that of the Jews, our teachers and our ene- 
 mies, whom we believe and detest at the same 
 time, the history of this people having mani- 
 festly been written by the Holy Ghost, we have 
 for it all the sentiments we ought. We here 
 address ourselves only to the Arabs, who boast 
 of being descended from Abraham by Ishmael, 
 and believe that this patriarch built Mecca, and 
 that he died in this city. The truth is, that 
 Ishmael's progeny has been favoured by God 
 infinitely more than that of Jacob. Both races 
 indeed have produced robbers, but the Arabian 
 robbers have prodigiously surpassed the Jewish. 
 
 B Jacob's 
 
2 ABRAHAM. 
 
 Jacob's descendants conquered only a very small 
 country, and that they afterwards lost ; whereas 
 the descendants of Ishmael have extended their 
 conquests over a part of Europe, Asia, and 
 Africa, have founded an empire greater than 
 the Romans, and have driven the Jews from 
 those holes of theirs, which they called the 
 Land of Promise. 
 
 To judge of things only by the instances of 
 modern histories, it is not likely that Abraham 
 should have been the father of two nations so 
 very different: we are told that he was born in 
 Chaldea, the son of a poor potter, who subsisted 
 by making little earthen idols. Now how should 
 this potter's son go and found Mecca, at the 
 distance of three hundred leagues, and over im- 
 practicable deserts? If he was a conqueror, he 
 certainly would have bent his arms against the 
 fine country of Assyria ; and if only a poor- 
 man, as represented to us, he could hardly found 
 kingdoms in foreign parts, his only monarchy 
 must have been his home. 
 
 Genesis makes him seventy-five years of age 
 when he left the country of Haran, after the 
 death of his father Terah the potter. But the 
 same book says, that Terah having begotten 
 Abraham in his seventieth year, he lived to the 
 age of two hundred and five years ('), and that 
 
 Abraham 
 
 (*) M. Voltaire is ready to start objections, but 
 never offers to give any solution. The scripture says, 
 Gen. xi. that " Terah, after having lived seventy 
 " years, begot Abraham, Nachor, and Haran." Now 
 though Abraham be named first, it is not certain that 
 
 he 
 
ABRAHAM.' 3 
 
 Abraham did not leave Haran till after his fa- 
 ther's decease : thus from Genesis itself it is clear, 
 that Abraham, when he left Mesopotamia, was 
 an hundred and thirty-five years of age ; and he 
 only went from one idolatrous country to ano- 
 ther, called Sichem in Palestine. And where- 
 fore did he go thither ? why leave Euphrates* 
 fertile banks for so rocky, so barren (^) a coun- 
 try, as that of Sichem, and withal fo remote ? 
 
 The 
 
 he was the eldest of the three : on the contrary, it 
 seems probable, that he was not born in the seven- 
 tieth year of Terah; because it is expressly said, in the 
 following chapter, that Abraham going from Haran im- 
 mediately after the death of his father, who departed 
 this life at the age of two hundred and five years, was 
 then only seventy-five years old. The consequence is, 
 that Abraham was born in the one hundred and thir- 
 tieth year of the life of Terah, and not in the seven- 
 tieth : so that Terah having begun to have children in 
 the seventieth year of his life, Haran and Nachor 
 must necessarily have been born before Abraham ; 
 therefore Abraham departed from Haran in Mesopota- 
 mia, not in the one hundred and thirty-fifth, but in the 
 feventy-fifth year of his age. 
 
 (^ ) The author, upon all occasions, represents the 
 country of Palestine as a barren disagreeable spot, and 
 not at all answering the description in Holy Writ, 
 where it is called a Land flowing with Milk and Ho- 
 ney. But we may observe, with the learned Dr. Shaw, 
 that, were the Holy Land so well peopled and culti- 
 vated at present as in former times, it would still be 
 more fruitful than the very best part of Syria and 
 Phcenice. The barrenness or scarcity, which some 
 authors, either ignorantly or maliciously, complain 
 of, does not proceed from the incapacity or natural 
 unfruitfulness of the country, but from the want of 
 inhabitants, and the great aversion there is to labour 
 
 B Q. and 
 
A ABRAHAM. 
 
 The Chaldean tongue muft have been very dif- 
 ferent from that of Slchem, neither was it a 
 trading place. Sichem is above an hundred 
 leagues from Chaldea, and with many desarts to 
 pass through; but God ordered him on this jour- 
 ney, intending to shew him the country which 
 his issue were to possess many centuries after 
 him. The reasons ot such a journey are what 
 the human mind can never conceive (^). 
 
 No sooner has he reached the little rocky 
 country of Sichem, than a iamine obliges him as 
 hastily to decamp, and he goes away to Egypt, in 
 quell of a subsistence. Memphis lies two hun« 
 dred leagues from Sichem; now is it natural to 
 go for corn so very far, and where one knows 
 nothing of the tongue ? These are odd peregri- 
 nations for a man near an hundred and forty years 
 
 old. 
 
 With him he brings to Memphis his wife 
 Sarah, who, in age, was little more than a child 
 to him, being only in her fixty-fifth year. As she 
 had a great share of beauty, he was for turning 
 it to account : make as if you were only my sis- 
 ter, 
 
 and industry in those few who possess it ; otherwise 
 the land is still capable of affording its neighbours 
 the like supplies of corn and oil, which it is known 
 to have done in the time of Solomon. Thus there is 
 no forming an idea of its ancient flourifhing state 
 from its present barren condition, which is entirely 
 owing to the want of culture. 
 
 (3) One would imagine our author had never heard 
 of such a memorable asra as "The Call of Abraham," 
 when this holy man was made choice of to be the 
 jtock and father of all believers. 
 
ABRAHAM. 5 
 
 tcr, said he to her, that I may have kindness 
 shewn to me for your sake. He rather should 
 have said to her, Make as if you were my 
 daughter. — The king became smitten with young 
 Sarah, and gave her sham brother abundance ot 
 sheep, oxen, he asses, she asses, camels, and man 
 servants, and maid servants ; a proof that Egypt, 
 even then, was a very powerful and well policed 
 and consequently a very antient kingdom ; and 
 that brothers coming to make a tender of their 
 sister to the kings of Memphis were magnificent- 
 ly rewarded. 
 
 Young Sarah had, according to scripture, 
 reached her ninetieth year, when God promised 
 her that Abraham, then full an hundred and fixty, 
 should get her with child within the twelve- 
 month. 
 
 Abraham, being fond of travelling, went into 
 the frightful wilderness of Kadesh, with his preg- 
 nant wife, who, it seems, was still so young and 
 pretty, as to kindle in a king of this wilderness 
 the like passion which the Egyptian monarch 
 had felt for her. The father of the Faithful here 
 enjoined her the same lie as in Egypt : and thus 
 his wife, passing for his sister, got more cattle 
 and servants ; so that Sarah turned out no incon- 
 siderable fortune to him. Commentators having 
 written a prodigious number of volumes to justify 
 Abraham's condu6l{-^), and reconcile chronology, 
 to those commentaries we must refer the reader. 
 They are all the works of men of great parts and 
 sagacity, consummate metaphysicians, void of all 
 
 pre- 
 
 C*) There is no necessity for justifying Abraham's 
 condu6l : though Sarah might have been Abraham's 
 
 B 3 sister 
 
^^ ANGEL. 
 
 prepossession, and the farthest in the world from 
 any thing of pedantry. 
 
 ANGEL. 
 
 Ai 
 
 .NGEL, in Greek a Messenger: it mat- 
 ters little to be informed that the Persians had 
 their Peries, the Hebrews their Malacs, and the 
 Greeks their Demonoi. 
 
 But what may, perhaps, be more interesting 
 to know is, that the supposition of intermediate 
 beings between the Deity and us, prevailed among 
 the first men ; these are the demons and genii 
 ieigned by antiquity ; man has always made the 
 gods in his own likeness. As princes were feen 
 to fignify their orders by messengers, the Deity of 
 course also dispatches couriers. Mercury and 
 Iris were celestial couriers and messengers. 
 
 The Hebrews, that chosen people, under the 
 immediate guidance of the Deity itself, at first 
 gave no names to the angels whom God, after 
 some time, was pleased to send to them ; but, 
 during their captivity in Babylon, they borrowed 
 the names used by the Chaldeans. The first 
 word we hear of Michael and Gabriel is in Da- 
 niel, then a slave among those people. Tobias, 
 
 a Jew, 
 
 sister by the father's side, and consequently the ex- 
 pression be true ; yet it was ambiguous, and calculated 
 for deception, and therefore cannot be justified. Abra- 
 ham, though father of the faithful, was fubject to hu- 
 man infirmities, and here, in particular, lie betrayed 
 his distrust of God's providence. 
 
ANGEL. 7 
 
 a Jew, who lived at Nineveh, knew the Angel 
 Raphael, who took a journey with his son, to 
 help him in getting a sum ot money due to him 
 by Gabel, likewise a Jew. 
 
 In the Jewish laws, i.e. in Leviticus and Deu- 
 teronomy, not the least mention is made of the 
 existence of angels, much less of worshipping 
 them ; accordingly the Sadducees believed no 
 such thing. 
 
 But in the histories of the Jews they frequent- 
 ly occur"; these angels were corporeal, and with 
 wings at their back, as the Mercury of the Pagans 
 had at his heels. Sometimes they concealed their 
 wings under their apparel. Bodies they surely 
 had, for they ate and drank ; and the inhabitants 
 of Sodom were for abusing the angels who had 
 come on a visit to Lot. 
 
 The antient Jewish tradition, according to 
 Ben Maimon, makes ten degrees or orders ot 
 angels, i. The Chalos Acodesh, pure, holy. 
 2. The Osamins, rapid. 3. The Oralim, the 
 strong. 4. The Chasmalim, the flames. 5. The 
 Seraphim, sparks. -6. The Malachim, angels, 
 messengers, deputies. 7. The Eloim, the gods, 
 or judges. S. The Ben Eloim, children ot the 
 gods. 9. Cherubim, images. 10. Ychim, the 
 animated. 
 
 The history of the fall of the angels is not to be 
 met with in the books of Moses ; the first word 
 of it is in the prophet Isaiah, who, in a divine 
 rapture, calls out to the king of Babylon, *' What 
 is become of the exacterof tributes ? the fir-trees 
 and cedars rejoice at thy overthrow : how art 
 thou fallen from heaven, O Helel, thou morn- 
 ing star?" This Helel has been rendered by 
 the Latin word Lucifer ; the appellation of Luci- 
 
 B 4 ier 
 
g ANGEL. 
 
 fer has afterwards been allegorlcally transferred 
 to the prince oi the angels who dared to make 
 war in heaven. And lastly, this name, originally 
 signifying phosphorus, and the dawn of day, is 
 come to denote the devil. 
 
 The Christian religion is founded on the fall 
 of the angels : the rebels were tumbled down 
 from the spheres of bliss into hell, in the center 
 of the earth, and became devils. A devil tempted 
 Eve under the figure of a serpent, and brought 
 damnation upon mankind, till Jesus came to 
 deliver them, triumphing over the devil, who, how- 
 ever, still tempts us. Yet is this fundamental tradi- 
 tion to be found only in the apocryphal book of 
 Noah (^), and there quite differently from the re- 
 ceived traditions. 
 
 St. Austin, in his hundred and ninth letter, ex- 
 pressly attributes ethereal or very thin bodies both 
 to good and bad angels. Pope Gregory II. has 
 reduced the ten degrees of Jewish angels to nine 
 choirs, to nine hierarchies or orders. These are 
 the Seraphim, the Cherubim, Thrones, Domi- 
 nions, Virtues, Powers, Archangels, and lastly, 
 the Angels, from whom the other eight hierar- 
 chies receive their appellation. 
 
 The 
 
 (5) If our author means by fundamental tradition 
 the " Fall of the angels," as he seems to do, he is cer- 
 tainly mistaken when he says it is to be found only in 
 the apochr)'phal book of Noah : for in the 2d of St. 
 Peter, c. ii. ver. 4. it is expressly said, " For if God 
 " spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
 ** down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
 " darkness." The like we find in the epistle of St. 
 Jude, ver. 6. " And the angels which kept not their 
 " first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath 
 " reserved in everlasting chains under darkness." 
 
ANTHROPOPHAGI. 9 
 
 The Jews had in the temple two cherubim, 
 each with two heads, one of an ox, the other ot 
 an eagle, with six wings: but tor some time past 
 they have been painted as a flying head, with two 
 little wings under the ears, as angels and archan- 
 gels are under the figure ot young persons, with 
 two wings at their back. As to the thrones and 
 dominions, the pencil has not yet presumed to 
 meddle with them. 
 
 St. Thomas, question 118, article 2, says, 
 That the thrones are as near to God as the cheru- 
 bim and seraphim, because it is on them that God 
 sits. Scotus has computed the angels to amount 
 to a thousand millions. The ancient mythology 
 of good and bad genii having spread itself into 
 Greece, and so on to Rome, it has there been 
 sanctified, and to every man has been assigned a 
 good and evil angel ; one assisting him, and the 
 other annoying him, from his cradle to his cof- 
 fin : but, whether these good and evil angels con- 
 tinually shitt stations from one to another, or 
 whether they are relieved by others of their or- 
 der, is not yet known. Hereupon St. Thomas's 
 Summary of Divinity may be consulted. 
 
 Neither is it exactly known, where the angels 
 keep themselves, whether in the air, the void, or 
 the planets ; this God has thought fit to conceal 
 from us. 
 
 ^ ANTHROPOPHAGI, 
 
 OR MAN-EATERS. 
 
 T 
 
 HAT there have been Anthropophagi, or 
 man-eaters, is but too true ; such were found in 
 America, and there may be some still; and in 
 
 ancient 
 
lO ANTHROPOPHAGI. 
 
 ancient time it was not the Cyclops alone who 
 sometimes fed upon human flesh. Juvenal relates, 
 that among the Egyptians, that people so famous 
 for its laws, so wise, and so very devout as to 
 worship crocodiles and onions, the Tintirites ate 
 one of their enemies who had fallen into their 
 hands. And this is not a tale on hear-say : this 
 inhuman act was committed almost under his eyes, 
 he being then in Egypt, and but a little way from 
 Tintira. He farther quotes the Gascons and the 
 Sagontines, who used to eat their countrymen. 
 
 In 1725, four Mississippi savages were brought 
 to Fontainbleau, where I had the honour of con- 
 versing with them. One being a lady of thecoun- 
 tiy, I took the liberty to ask her, whether she had 
 ever eaten men, to which, with an unconcerned 
 frankness, she answered in the affirmative. On 
 my appearing something shocked, she excused 
 herself, saying, that it was better, after killing an 
 enemy, to eat him, than to leave him to be de- 
 voured by beasts, and that conquerors deserved 
 the preference. We in pitched battles or en- 
 counters kill our neighbours, and, for a most 
 scanty hire, prepare a most plentiful meal for ra- 
 vens and worms. Herein it is that lies the horror, 
 here is the guilt; what signifies it to a dead man 
 being eaten by a soldier, or a crow, or a dog ? 
 
 We shew a greater respect to the dead than the 
 living; but both claim our regard. The policed 
 nations, as they are called, were in the right not 
 to spit their enemies, as from eating neighbours 
 they would soon come to eat countrymen, by 
 which the social virtues would be reduced to 
 a low ebb. But the policed nations, far from 
 having been always so, were for a long time wild 
 and savage, and amidst the multitude of revolu- 
 tions 
 
ANTHROPOPHAGI. il 
 
 tlons in this globe, the human race has been some- 
 times very numerous, and sometimes very thin. 
 The present case of the elephants, lions, and 
 tygers, whose species are very much decreased, 
 has been that of man. In times, when a coun- 
 try was bare of inhabitants, they lived chiefly by 
 hunting; scarce any other arts or trades were 
 known among them; and the custom of feed- 
 ing on what they had killed, almost naturally 
 led them to treat their enemies like their deer 
 and boars. The sacrifice of human victims was 
 the effect of superstition, the eating thera was 
 owing to necessity. 
 
 Which is the greater crime, to hold a solemn 
 assembly, in order to plunge akniie, by way of 
 honouring the Deity, into the heart of a beautiful 
 girl, adorned with fillets and ribbons ; or to pick 
 the bones of an ugly fellow, whom we have 
 killed in our own defence? 
 
 Yet we have more instances of sacrificinggirls 
 and boys, than of eating them ; there is scarce 
 a known nation where Such sacrifices have not 
 obtained. Among the Jews it was called the 
 Anathema ; this was a real sacrifice, and the 27th 
 chapter of Leviticus enjoins not to spare the souls 
 which have been devoted: but in no place arc 
 they ordered to eat them ; they are only threat- 
 ened with it ; and Moses, as we have seen, says to 
 the Jews, that if they fail in observmg his cere- 
 monies, they shall not only be plagued with the 
 itch, but that mothers shall eat their children (^j. 
 In Ezekiel's time, indeed, the eating of human 
 
 flesh 
 
 (^) This is denounced as a curse, that the mothers 
 shall eat their children through extreme hunger. 
 
12 ANTHROPOPHAGI. 
 
 flesh must have been common among the JewSj 
 as he foretels them in chap, xxxix, that God 
 will give them not only to eat the horses of their 
 enemies, but even the riders, and the other great 
 warriors. This is clear and positive ('); and in- 
 deed why might not the Jews have been man-eat- 
 ers, since this only was wanting to render the 
 chosen people ot God the most abominable upon 
 earth. 
 
 I have read in the anecdotes ot" the history of 
 England, in Cromwell's time, ot a woman who 
 kept a tallow-chandler's shop at Dublin, whose 
 candles were remarkably good and made of the 
 fat of Englishmen. Some time afterone of her 
 customers complaining that her candles were not 
 so good as usual, why, said she, for this month 
 past I have had few or no Englishmen. I would 
 fain know who was most guilty, they who mur- 
 dered the English, or this woman who made such 
 good candles of their tallow ? 
 
 APIS. 
 
 (') This is a strange perversion of Ezekiel : the 
 chapter above-mentioned contains God's judgment 
 upon Gog, Israel's victory, and the feaft of the 
 fowls. The prophet foretels a complete victory over 
 Gog, his princes, and his army. The field where 
 they are slain is compared to a table of entertainment, 
 and the feathered fowls and beasts of the field are in- 
 vited to partake of it. " Come and gather yourselves 
 to my sacrifice, ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, 
 and drink the blood of the princes of the earth ; ye 
 shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots.'* 
 that is, with horsemen and thofe who ride in chariots. 
 Is this a proof, that the eating of human flesh was 
 common among the Jews, because, after the slaughter 
 of an enemy, their dead bodies were exposed to the 
 feathered fowls and beasts of the field } 
 
APIS. 13 
 
 APIS. 
 
 W A S it as a god, as a symbol, or as an ox, 
 that Apis was worshipped at Memphis ? I am in- 
 clined to think that it was as a god by the fanatics, 
 and only as a mere symbol by the wise, whilst 
 the stupid people worshipped the ox. Was it 
 well in Cambyses, when he had conquered Egypt, 
 to kill this ox with his own hands ? why not ? he 
 gave the weak to see that their god might be 
 roasted, and nature not stir a finger to revenge 
 such a sacrilege. The Egyptians have been greatly 
 cried up ; but I, for my part, scarce know a more 
 contemptible people. There must ever have been 
 both in their temper and government, some radi- 
 cal vice, by which they have been kept in a per- 
 petual servitude. I allow that in those times of 
 which we have scarce any knowledge, they over- 
 ran the earth, but since the historical ages, they 
 have been subdued by all who thought it worth 
 their while ; by the Assyrians, the Persians, the 
 Greeks, the Romans, the Arabians, the Mame- 
 lucs,the Turks ; in short, by every body except 
 our Croises, these being more imprudent than 
 the Egyptians were cowardly. It was the corps 
 of Mamelucs which defeated the French. Per- 
 haps there are but two tolerable things in this na- 
 tion ; the first, a freedom of conscience ; they 
 who worshipped an ox never compelling those 
 who worshipped a monkey to change their reli- 
 gion; the second, the hatching ot chickens in 
 ovens. 
 
 We have many pompous accounts of their py- 
 ramids; but these very pyramids are monuments 
 
 of 
 
14 THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 of their slavery, for the whole nation must have 
 been made to work on them, otherwise such un- 
 wieldy masses could never have been finished. 
 And what is the use of them ? Why, forsooth, 
 in a little room within them is kept the mummy 
 of some prince or governor, which his soul is, 
 at the term of a thousand years, to re-animate. 
 But if they expected this resurrection of the bo- 
 dies, why take out the brain before embalming 
 them ? Were the Egyptians to rise again without 
 brains ? 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 J 
 
 USTIN MARTYR, who wrote in the year 
 170 of our aera, is the first that mentions the 
 Apocalypse, attributing it, in his Dialogue with 
 Tryphon, to the apostle John the Evangelist. 
 This Jew asks him whether he does not believe 
 that Jerusalem is one day to be restored in all its 
 former splendor ? Justin answers him that it is 
 the belief of all Christians who have a right way 
 of thinking. ** There was," says he, " among 
 " us a respectable person named John, one of 
 ** Jesus*s twelve apostles; he has foretold that 
 " the faithful shall dwell a thousand years in Je- 
 *' rusalem." 
 
 The thousand years reign went current a long 
 time among the Christians, and this period was 
 in great repute among the gentiles. At the end 
 of a thousand years the souls of the Egyptians re- 
 turned into their bodies ; the souls in Virgil's 
 purgatory underwent a purification for the same 
 space of time, et mille per annos. The 
 Millenarian new Jerusalem was to have twelve 
 
 gates 
 
THE APOCALYPSE. I^ 
 
 gates, in remembrance of the twelve apostles, the 
 form square, the length, breadth, and height, 
 twelve thousand stades, that is five hundred 
 leagues ; so that the houses must have been five 
 hundred leagues high ; this could not but make 
 it to those living in the upper story something 
 troublesome : but however, this is what the Apo- 
 calypse says (^), chap. xxi. 
 
 Though Justin be the first who attributes the 
 Apocalypse to St. John, some persons disallow 
 his testimony, seeing, in the same dialogue with 
 the Jew Tryphon, he says that, according to the 
 apostle's narrative, at Jesus Christ's going down 
 into Jordan, the waters of that river boiled, and 
 were all in a flame; yet not a jot of this is to 
 be found in the apostolic writings. 
 
 The same St. Justin confidently cites the 
 oracles of the Sybils, and farther pretends to 
 have seen the remains of the little houses in the 
 Pharos of Egypt, where the seventy-two inter- 
 preters were shut up in Herod's time. For such 
 an assertion the author seems to have been him- 
 self a proper subject for confinement, 
 
 St. Irenaeus, next in succession, and who also 
 held the Millenium, says, that he was informed 
 by an old man, that St. John composed the Apo- 
 calypse : but it has been objected to St. Irenaeus, 
 
 that 
 
 (^) The description of the New Jerusalem is en- 
 tirely figurative ; so that to take each metaphor in a 
 literal sense is ridiculous. The length, and the breadth, 
 and the height of it are represented equal, to denote 
 that in the new city all parts shall be equal in perfec- 
 tion. The design of the whole is only to shew, that 
 the mansions of the blessed will be most glorious 
 places. 
 
l6 THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 that, he has written, there can be but four gospels, 
 as there are but tour parts ot the world, and tour 
 cardinal winds, and that Ezekiel saw only four 
 be.:;sts. This reasoning he calls a demonstration; 
 and it must be ow ned, that Irenaeus' demonstrat- 
 ing carries as much weight as Justin's seeing. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, in his Electa, men- 
 tions only an Apocalypse of St. Peter's, which 
 was highly respected. Tertullian, a warm stick- 
 ler for the Millenium, not only affirms that St. 
 ]ohn has predicted this resurrection, and reign 
 ill the city of Jerusalem, but that this Jerusalem 
 was then forming in the air; that all the Chris- 
 tians in Palestine, and the very Pagans, had seen 
 it forty nights successively, but unluckily this 
 city disappeared at day-light. 
 
 Drigen, in his preface to St. John's Gospel, 
 quotes the oracles of the Apocalypse, but he like- 
 wise quotes the oracles of the Sybils : yet St. Dio- 
 nysiusof Alexandria, who wrote about the middle 
 of the third century, says in one of his frag- 
 ments preserved by Eusebius, that almost all the 
 doctors rejected the Apocalypse, as a senseless 
 book, that, instead of being written by St. John, 
 the author of it was one Cerinthus, who borrow- 
 ed a respectable name, to give the greater v/eight 
 to his chimeras. 
 
 The council of Laodicea, held in 360, did not 
 admit the Apocalypse among the canonical books; 
 and it was something odd, that Laodicea, a church 
 to which the Apocalypse was directed, should re- 
 ject a treasure particularly appointed for it ; and 
 even the bishop of Ephesus, a member of the 
 council, should also reject this book of St. Johnj 
 though buried in his metropolis. 
 
 It 
 
ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 1^ 
 
 It was visible to all that St. John kept stirring 
 in his grave, the earth continually heaving and 
 falling ; yet the same persons who were sure 
 that St. John was not actually dead, were also 
 sure that he did not write the Apocalypse. But 
 the Millenarians tenaciously persisted in their 
 opinions. Sulpicius Severus, in his Sacred His- 
 tory, Book IX. calls those who did not hold the 
 Apocalypse, mad and impious. At length, after 
 many doubts and controversies, and council 
 clashing with council, Sulpicius's opinion pre- 
 vailed ; and the point having undergone a tho- 
 rough discussion, the church (from whose judg- 
 ment their lies no appeal) has decided the Apoca. 
 lypse to have been indisputably written by St. 
 John. 
 
 Every Christian sect has attributed to itself the 
 prophecies contained in this book. The English 
 have found it in the revolutions of Great Britain ; 
 the Lutherans in the disturbances in Germany ; the 
 French Reformed in the reign of Charles IX. and 
 the regency of Catherine de Medicis ; and they 
 are all equally in the right. Bossuet and New- 
 ton have both commented on the Apocalypse : 
 but, after all, the eloquent declamations of the 
 former, and the sublime discoveries of the latter, 
 have done them much greater honour than their 
 comments. 
 
 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 a 
 
 ORMERLY he who was possessed of any 
 secret in an art, ran great risque of being looked 
 upon as a sorcerer; every new sect was accused 
 of murdering infants in the celebration of its mys- 
 
 C teries; 
 
l8 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 teries ; and every philosopher who departed from 
 the jargon of schools, fanatics and cheats never 
 failed to charge with atheism, and ignorant and 
 weak judges so surely passed sentence on them, 
 
 Anaxagoras took upon him to affirm, that the 
 sun is not guided by Apollo, sittmg in a car 
 drawn by four mettlesome steeds ; on this he is 
 exclaimed against as an atheist, and obliged to 
 fly his country. 
 
 Aristotle being accused of atheism by a priest, 
 and not able to procure justice against his accu- 
 ser, withdraws to Chalcis. But in all the history 
 of Greece there is not a more heinous transaction 
 than the death of Socrates. 
 
 Aristophanes (he whom commentators admire 
 because he was a Greek, not considering that 
 Socrates was also a Greek) Aristophanes was the 
 first who brought the Athenians to account So- 
 crates an atheist. 
 
 This comic poet, who is neither comic nor a 
 poet, would not have been allowed among us to 
 have exhibited farces at St. Laurence's fair. To 
 me he seems more contemptible, more low-lived, 
 and scurrilous than Plutarch makes him, who 
 speaks of him in this manner : " Aristophanes's 
 *' language is, indeed, that of a wretched quack, 
 *' full of the lowest and most disagreeable points 
 ** and quirks; he cannot raise a laugh among the 
 •* very vulgar, and to persons of judgment and 
 *' honour he is quite insupportable; his arro- 
 *' gance is beyond all bearing, and all good 
 
 people detest his malignity." 
 
 So this, by the bye, is the buffoon whom Ma- 
 dam Dacier, amidst all her admiration of So- 
 crates, can find in her heart to admire. This is 
 the man who remotely prepared the poison by 
 
 which 
 
 (( 
 
ATHEIST, ATHEISM. ig 
 
 which infamous judges put an end to the exist- 
 ence of the most virtuous man then living in 
 Greece. 
 
 The tanners, the shoe-makers, and semp- 
 stresses of Athens were hugely diverted with a 
 farce, where Socrates being haled up into the 
 air in a basket, proclaims that there is no god, 
 and makes his boast, that he had stole a cloak, 
 whilst he was teaching philosophy. Such a peo- 
 ple, and whose bad government could counte= 
 nance such scandalous licentiousness, well de- 
 served what has happened to them, to be brought 
 under subjection to the Romans, and to be at 
 present slaves to the Turks. 
 
 We shall pass over the common space of time 
 between the Roman commonwealth and our 
 days; observing only, that the Romans, who 
 were much wiser than the Greeks, never mo- 
 lested any philosopher for his opinion. It was 
 not so among the Barbarous nations who seated 
 themselves in the Roman empire. The emperor 
 Frederic II. having some difference with the 
 popes, was immediatelv arraigned of atheism, 
 and reported to have been, jointly with his chan- 
 cellor de Vineis, the author of the book intitled 
 The Three Impostors. 
 
 Our Chancellor de I'Hopital, that excellent 
 man, was branded as an Atheist, because he op- 
 posed persecutions, " Homo doctus sed verus 
 ** atheos'," A Jesuit, Garasse, as much be- 
 low Aristophanes as the latter was below Homer j 
 a wretch whose name is become ridiculoiis 
 among the very fanatics, makes every body 
 
 atheists; 
 
 (*) Commentarium Rerum Gallicarum. I. xxviii. 
 
20 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 atheists ; at least this is the appellation he gives 
 to all who have incurred his displeasure. With 
 him Theodore de Beze is an atheist, and he it 
 is who led the people into an error concerning 
 Vanini. 
 
 Vanini's wretched end raises no indignation 
 or pity like that of Socrates. This Italian was 
 only an insignificant pedant: yet was he no 
 atheist, for which he suffered, but as far from 
 it as man ceuld be. 
 
 He was a poor Neapolitan churchman, a kind 
 of preacher and professor of divinity, a vehe- 
 ment disputer in quiddities and universals ; *' et 
 ** utrum chimera bombinans in vacuo possit co- 
 ** medere secundas inteiitiones." There was no- 
 thing in him which looked toward atheism ; and 
 his ideas of God are perfectly agreeable to the 
 most sound and most approved theology. " God 
 ** is his beginning and end, the Father of both, 
 " in no need of either; eternal without existing 
 ** in time, every-where present without being in 
 ** any place. To him there is neither past nor 
 *• future, space nor time; the Creator and Go- 
 vernor of all things ; immutable, infinite with- 
 out parts; his power is his will, &c." 
 Vanini was for reviving the fine thought of 
 Plato, espoused by Averroes, that God had 
 created a chain of beings from the most minute 
 to the largest, and the last link of which is fasten- 
 ed to his eternal throne; a notion which, though 
 it has more of sublimity than truth, is as far from 
 atheism as something from nothing. 
 
 He travelled to dispute and make his fortune ; 
 but unluckily, disputing is the very opposite road 
 to fortune, every person against whom one enters 
 the list being thus made a rancorous and irrecon- 
 
 cileable 
 
 
ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 21 
 
 cileable enemy. Hence Vanini's misfortunes ; 
 his heat and rudeness in disputing brought on 
 him the hatred of some divines; and having a 
 quarrel with one Francon, or Franconi, this 
 man, being connected with his enemies, charged 
 him with being an atheist, and teaching atheism. 
 
 This Francon, or Franconi, supported by- 
 some witnesses, had the barbarity, when con- 
 fronted with Vanini, to maintain, with aggrava- 
 tions, the whole of what he had advanced ; 
 whereas Vanini being interrogated, what he 
 thought of the existence of God, made answer, 
 That, agreeably to the church, he worshipped 
 one God in three Persons ; and taking up a 
 straw, which lay on the ground, " This," says 
 he, " sufficiently proves that there is a Creator;" 
 then made a very fine speech on vegetation and 
 motion, and the necessity of a Supreme Being, 
 without whom there could be neither motion or 
 vegetation. 
 
 The President Gramont gives us an account 
 of this speech in his history of France, now 
 scarce known ; and this historian, from an in- 
 conceivable prepossession, will have it that 
 Vanini spoke only out of *' vanity or fear, and 
 " not from a sincere persuasion." 
 
 What grounds could the President Gramont 
 have for such a rash and sanguinary judgment? 
 It is manifest, that, on Vanini's answer, he 
 ought to have been cleared of the charge of 
 atheism. But what was the issue? This un- 
 happy foreign priest dabbled likewise in physic : 
 a large living toad, which he kept in a vessel of 
 water, being found at his house, was made use 
 of to charge him with sorcery, and the toad was 
 said to be the only deity he worshipped. Seve- 
 
 C 3 ral 
 
22 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 ral passages of his books were wrested to an 
 impious meaning, than which nothing is more 
 easy and more common, taking the objections 
 for answers, putting a malicious construction on 
 every ambiguous phrase, and misrepresenting 
 innocent expressions. At length his enemies 
 extorted from the judges a capital sentence 
 against him. 
 
 This death could not be justified without ac- 
 cusing this unfortunate creature of most horrid 
 crimes; and one Mersenne, a Minim, a name 
 quite suitable to his character, has been so mad 
 as to affirm in print, that Vanini set out from 
 Naples with ten of his apostles, to go and con- 
 vert all nations to atheism. Such incongruity! 
 How could a poor priest have twelve men in 
 his pay ? how should he have prevailed with 
 twelve Neapolitans to undertake an expensive 
 journey, and at the hazard of their lives, for the 
 sake of disseminating this abominable doctrine ? 
 Could a king afford to hire twelve preachers of 
 atheism ? This is such an absurdity as never 
 came into any one's mind but Father Mersenne. 
 But from him the tale has been repeated over 
 and over; the journals and historical dictionaries 
 have been stained and sullied with it; and the 
 public, who are fond of extraordinary things, 
 have greedily swallowed it. 
 
 Bayle himself, in his Miscellaneous Thoughts, 
 speaks of Vanini as an atheist, making use of 
 him in support of his paradox, " That a society 
 " of atheists can subsist." He affirms that Va- 
 nini was a man of very regular morals, and died 
 a martyr to his philosophical opinions. Now, 
 in both, is he mistaken ; Vanini, though a priest, 
 in his dialogue written in imitation of Erasmus, 
 
 does 
 
ATHEIST, ATHEISM.' 23 
 
 does not hide from us that he had a mistress, 
 named Isabella ; he was both a free liver and a 
 free writer, but he was no atheist. 
 
 A century after his death, the learned La 
 Croze, and another under the name of Philale- 
 thes, wrote a vindication of him; but the me- 
 mory of a poor Neapolitan being what few give 
 themselves any concern about, these ingeni- 
 ous persons might have saved themselves that 
 trouble. 
 
 The Jesuit Hardouin, with all Garasse's rash- 
 ness, but much more learning, in his Athei 
 DETECTI, accuses the Descartes, the Arnaulds, 
 the Paschals, the Nicolas, the Malbranches, of 
 atheism ; but it was their good fortune to come 
 to a better end than poor Vanini. 
 
 From all these facts, I now proceed to Bayle's 
 moral question, " Whether a society of atheists 
 ** could subsist ?" And here let us previously ob- 
 serve, the enormous contradiction of men in 
 disputes; they who most furiously inveighed 
 against Bayle's opinion, they who have with 
 the greatest rancour denied the possibility of a 
 society of atheists, have since as confidently 
 maintained, that atheism is the established reli- 
 gion in China. 
 
 They are certainly very little acquainted with 
 China; for had they only read an edict of the 
 emperors of that vast country, they would have 
 seen that these edicts are like sermons, frequently 
 making mention of the Supreme Being, as go- 
 vernmg, punishing, and rewarding. 
 
 At the same time they are not less m.istaken 
 concerning the impossibility of a society of 
 atheists ; and I wonder how Mr. Bayle came to 
 
 C 4 overlook 
 
24 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 overlook a striking example, which would have 
 given a decisive victory to his cause. 
 
 Why is a society ot atheists thought impos- 
 sible ? Because it is thought that men under no 
 restraint could never live together ; that laws 
 avail nothing against secret crimes ; and that 
 there must be an avenging God, punishing in 
 this world or the other those delinquents who 
 have escaped human justice. 
 
 Though Moses's laws did not teach a life to 
 come, did not threaten any punishments after 
 death, and did not give the primitive Jews the 
 least insight into the immortality of the soul ; 
 still the Jews, so far from being atheists, so far 
 from denying a divine vengeance against wick- 
 edness, were the most religious men on the face 
 of the earth. They not only believed the exist- 
 ence of an eternal God, but they believed him 
 to be ever present among them ; they dreaded 
 being punished in themselves, in their wives, in 
 their children, in their posterity to the fourth 
 generation ; and this was a very powerful re- 
 straint. 
 
 But, among the Gentiles, several sects had 
 no curb; the Sceptics doubted of every thing; 
 the Academics suspended their judgment con- 
 cerning every thing ; the Epicureans held that 
 the Deity could not concern itself about human 
 affairs, and, in reality, they did not allow of 
 any Deity ; they were persuaded that the soul is 
 not a substance, but a faculty born and perish- 
 ing with the body; consequently tlieir only 
 check was morality and honour. The Roman 
 senators and knights were downright atheists, as 
 neither to fear or expect any thing from the 
 
 gods 
 

 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 2^ 
 
 gods amounts to a denial of their existence ; ^o 
 that the Roman senate, in Cassar and Cicero's 
 time, was, in fact, an assembly of atheists. 
 
 That great orator, in his speech tor Cluen. 
 tius, says to a full senate, " What hurt does 
 " death do to him? All the idle tales about hell 
 
 none of us give the least credit to ; then what 
 
 has death deprived him of? Nothing but the 
 
 feeling of pain." 
 
 Does not Caesar, Cataline's friend, in order 
 to save that wretch from an indictment brought 
 against him by the same Cicero, object, that to 
 put a criminal to death is not punishing him ; 
 that death is nothing, that it is only the end of 
 our sufferings, that it is rather a happy than a 
 fatal moment ? And did not Cicero and the whole 
 senate yield to these arguments ? so that the 
 conquerors and legislators of the known universe 
 were evidently a society of men without any fear 
 of God ; and thus were real atheists. 
 
 Bayle afterwards examines whether idolatry 
 be more dangerous than atheism ; whether the 
 disbelief of a deity be more criminal than the 
 having unworthy opinions of him ? and herein 
 he is of Plutarch's mind, thinking a disbelief 
 preferable to an ill opinion. But, with sub- 
 mission to Plutarch, nothing can be more evi- 
 dent than that it was infinitely better for the 
 Greeks to stand in awe of Ceres, Neptune, 
 and Jupiter, than to be under no manner of 
 awe ; the sacredness of oaths is manifest and ne- 
 cessary, and they who hold that perjury will be 
 punished, are certainly more to be trusted than 
 those who think that a false oath will be attended 
 with no ill consequence. It is beyond all ques- 
 tion. 
 
26 ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 
 
 tion, that in a policed city, even a bad religion 
 IS better than none, 
 
 Bayle, thcretore, should rather have exa- 
 mined which is the more dangerous, fanaticism 
 or atheism? Now fanaticism is certainly a thou- 
 sand times more mischievous; for atheism sti- 
 mulates to none of those sanguinary procedures 
 for which fanaticism is notorious; if atheism does 
 not suppress crimes, fanaticism incites to the 
 commission of them. Allowing the author of 
 
 COMMENTARIUM ReRUM GaLLICARUM, that 
 
 Chancellor de I'Hopital was an atheist, still the 
 laws he made are wise and good, and all his 
 counsels tended to moderation and concord. 
 The fanatics committed the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew. Hobbs was accounted an atheist, 
 yet he led a quiet harmless life, whilst the fana- 
 tics were deluging England, Scotland, and Ire- 
 land with blood. Spinosa was not only an 
 atheist, but taught atheism; yet who can say he 
 had any hand in the juridical murder of Barne- 
 weldt ? It was not he who tore the two De Wits 
 to pieces, and broiled and ate their flesh. 
 
 Atheists, for the most part, are men of study, 
 but bold and erroneous in their reasonings, and 
 not comprehending the creaiion, the original of 
 evil, and other difficulties, have recourse to the 
 hypothesis of the eternity of things, and of ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 riic sensualist and the ambitious have little 
 time for speculation, or to embrace a bad system ; 
 to compare Lucretius with Socrates is quite out 
 of their way. Such is the present state of things 
 among us ! 
 
 It was otherwise with the senate of Rome, 
 which almost totally consisted of atheists both 
 
 in 
 
ATHEIST, ATHEISM. 2/ 
 
 in theory and practice, believing neither in Pro- 
 vidence nor a future state. It was a meeting of 
 philosophers, of votaries to pleasure and am- 
 bition ; all very dangerous sets of men, and who, 
 accordingly, overturned the republic. 
 
 I would not willingly lie at the mercy of an 
 atheistical prince, who might think it his inte- 
 rest to have me pounded in a mortar : I am very 
 certain that would be my fate. And, were I a 
 sovereign, I would not have about me any athe- 
 istical courtiers, whose interest it might be to 
 poison me, as then I must everyday be taking 
 alexipharmics; so necessary is it both for princes 
 and people, that the minds be thoroughly im- 
 bibed with an idea of a Supreme Bemg, the 
 Creator, Avenger, and Rewarder. 
 
 There are atheistical nations, says Bayle, in 
 his Thoughts on Comets. The CafFres, 
 the Hottentots, the Topinamboux, and many 
 other petty nations, have no god : that may be ; 
 but it does not imply that they deny the exist- 
 ence of a Deity; they neither deny nor affirm : 
 they have never heard a word about him; tell 
 them that there is a God, they will readily be- 
 lieve it ; tell them that every thing is the work 
 of nature, and they will as cordially believe it ; 
 you may as well say, that they are Anti-Cartesi- 
 ans as to call them atheists. They are mere 
 children, and a child is neither atheist nor theist; 
 he is nothing. 
 
 What are the inferences from all this? That 
 atheism is a most pernicious monster in sove- 
 reign princes, and likewise in statesmen, how- 
 ever harmless their life be, because from their 
 cabinet they can make their way to the former ; 
 ithat if it be not so mischievous as fanaticism, it 
 
 C 2 is 
 
28 BAPTISM. 
 
 is almost ever destructive of virtue. I congra- 
 tulate the present age, on there being fewer 
 atheists now than ever; philosophers having dis- 
 covered that there is no vegetable without a 
 germ, no germ without design, &:c. and that 
 corn is not produced by putrefaction. 
 
 Some unphilosophical geometricians have re- 
 jected final causes, but they are admitted by all 
 real philosophers ; and, to use the expression of 
 a known author, " A catechist makes God known 
 ** to children, and Newton demonstrates him to 
 *• the learned." 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 ijAPTISM, a Greek word, signifying immer- 
 sion : men being ever led by their senses, easily 
 came to fancy that what washed the body like- 
 wise cleansed the soul. In the vaults under the 
 Egyptian temples were large tubs for the ablu- 
 tions of the priefts and the initiated. The Indi- 
 ans, from time immemorial, purified themfelves 
 in the Ganges, and the ceremony still subsists 
 among them. The Hebrews adopted it, baptiz- 
 ing all proselytes who would not submit to be 
 circumcised ; especially the women, as exempt 
 from that operation, except in Ethiopia only, 
 were baptized ; it was as regeneration ; it impart- 
 ed a new soul, among them, as in Egypt. Con- 
 cerning this, see Epiphanius, Maimonides, and 
 the Gemara. 
 
 John baptized in the Jordan ; he baptized even 
 Jesus Christ himself, who, however, never bap- 
 tized any one, yet was pleased to consecrate this 
 ancient ceremony. All signs are of themselves 
 indifferent, and God annexes his grace to such 
 
 as 
 
BAPTISM. 29 
 
 as he thinks fit to chuse. Baptism soon became 
 the principal rite, and the seal of Christianity. 
 The first fifteen bishops of Jerufalem were all 
 circumcised, and there is no certainty of their 
 having ever been baptized. 
 
 In the first ages of Christianity this sacrament 
 was abused, nothing being more common than 
 to delay baptism till the agony of death ; of this 
 the emperor Constantine is no slight proof. This 
 was his way oi reasoning : Baptism washes away 
 all sin, so that I may kill my wife, my son, and 
 all my relations, then I'll get myself baptized, 
 and so go to heaven ; and he acted accordingly. 
 Such an instance carried danger with it; and, by 
 degrees, the custom of delaying the sacred laver 
 till death, wore off. 
 
 The Greeks always adhered to baptism by im- 
 mersion ; but the Latins, towards the end of the 
 eighth century, having extended their religion 
 over Gaul and Germany, and seeing that immer- 
 sion in cold countries did not agree with children, 
 substituted in its stead aspersion, or sprinkhng, 
 for which they were often anathematized by the 
 Greek church. 
 
 St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, being asked 
 whether they whose bodies had been only sprink- 
 led were really baptized ; he answers, in his seven* 
 tieth letter, that several churches did not hold 
 them to be Christians ; that he does, but withal, 
 what grace they have, is infinitely less than that 
 of those who, according to the primitive rite, had 
 been dipped three times. 
 
 After immersion a Christian became initiated ; 
 whereas before he was only a catechumen ; but 
 initiation required securities and sponsors, who 
 were called by a name answerable to that of god- 
 fathers. 
 
30 BAPTISM. 
 
 fathers, that the church might be sure of the 
 fidelity of the new Christians, and the sacred- 
 mysteries be not divulged. Wherefore during 
 the first centuries, the Pagans, in general, knew 
 as little of the Christian mysteries, as the Chris- 
 tians did of the mysteries ot Isis and Eleusis. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria, in a writing of his against 
 the emperor Julian, delivers himself thus: •' I 
 •' would speak a word of baptism, did I not fear, 
 *• that what I say might come to those who are 
 *' not initiated." 
 
 Children were baptized so early as the second 
 century, it being, indeed, very natural that Chrif- 
 •tians should be solicitous for this sacrament to be 
 administered to their children, as without it they 
 would be damned ; and, at length, it was con- 
 cluded that the time of administration should be 
 at the end of eight days, in imitation of the Jews 
 administring circumcision. The Greek church 
 still retains this custom. However, in the third 
 century the cuftom prevailed ot not being bap- 
 tized till near death. 
 
 Those who died in the first week, some rigid 
 fathers of the church held to be damned ; but 
 Peter Chrysologus, in the fifth century, found 
 out Limbo, a kmd of mitigated hell, or, proper- 
 ly, the borders, or suburbs, of hell, whither un- 
 baptized children go ; and the abode of the pa- 
 triarchs betore Jesus Christ descended into hell. 
 And ever since it has been the current opinion, 
 that Jesus Christ descended into Limbo, and not 
 into hell itself. 
 
 It has been debated whether a Christian could, 
 in the deserts ot Arabia, be baptized with sand ; 
 but carried in the negative : whether rose-water 
 might be used for baptism ; it was decided thai 
 
 it 
 
BEASTS. 31 
 
 it must be pure water, yet muddy water would 
 do on an emergency. Thus the whole of this 
 discipline appears to depend on the prudence 
 of the primitive pastors, by whom it was insti- 
 tuted. 
 
 BEASTS. 
 
 As it possible any one should say, or affirm in 
 writing, that beasts are machines, void of know- 
 ledge and sense, have a sameness in all their 
 operations, neither learning nor perfefting any 
 thing, &c. 
 
 How ! this bird which makes a semicircular 
 nest when he fixes it against a wall, who, when in 
 an angle, shapes it like a quadrant, and circular 
 when he builds it in a tree ; is this having a 
 sameness in its operations ? Does this hound, after 
 three months teaching, know no more than when 
 you first took him in hand ? Your canary-bird, 
 does he repeat a tune at first hearing, or rather 
 is it not some time before you can bring him to 
 it ? is he not often out, and does he not improve 
 by practice ? 
 
 Is it from my speaking that you allow me sense, 
 memory, and ideas ? Well ; I am silent; but you 
 see me come home very melancholy, and with 
 eager anxiety look for a paper, open the bureau 
 where I remember to have put it, take it up and 
 read it with apparent joy. You hence infer, that 
 I have felt pain and pleasure, and that I have 
 memory and knowledge. 
 
 Make then the like inference concerning this 
 dog, who, having lost his master, runs about 
 every where with melancholy yeilings, comes 
 
 home 
 
32 BEASTS. 
 
 home all in a ferment, runs up and down, roves 
 from room to room, till at length he finds his be- 
 loved master in his closet, and then expresses 
 his joy in softer cries, gesticulations, and fawn- 
 ings. 
 
 This dog, so very superior to man in affection, 
 is seized by some barbarian virtuosos, who nail 
 him down on a table, and dissect him while liv- 
 ing, the better to shew you the meseraic veins. 
 All the same organs of sensation which are in 
 yourself you perceive in him. Now, Machinist, 
 what say you ? answer me, has nature created all 
 the springs of feelings in this animal, that it may 
 not feel ? Has it nerves to be impassible ? For 
 shame ! charge not nature with such weakness 
 and inconsistency. 
 
 But the fcholastic doftors ask what the soul of 
 beasts is ? This is a queftion I don't understand. 
 A tree has the faculty of receiving sap into its 
 fibres, of circulating it, of unfolding the buds of 
 its leaves and fruits. Do you now ask me what the 
 soul of a tree is ? It has received these properties 
 as the animal above has received those ot sensa- 
 tion, memory, and a Certain number of ideas. 
 Who formed all those properties, who has im- 
 parted all these faculties ? He who causes the 
 grass of the field to grow, and the earth to gra- 
 vitate towards the sun. 
 
 The souls of beasts are substantial forms, says 
 Aristotle, who has been followed by the Arabian 
 school, and this by the Angelic school, and the 
 Angelic school by the Sorbonne, and the Sorbonne 
 by no body in the world. 
 
 The souls of beasts are material, is the cry of 
 other philosophers, but as little to the purpose as 
 
 the 
 
BEASTS. 33 
 
 the former; when called upon to define a mate- 
 rial soul, they only perplex the cause : they muft 
 neceflarily allow it to be sensitive matter. But 
 whence does it derive this sensation ? from a 
 material soul ; which must mean, that it is matter 
 giving sensation to matter; beyond this circle 
 they have nothing to say. 
 
 According to others, equally wise, the soul of 
 beasts is a spiritual essence, dying with the body, 
 but where are your proofs ? What idea have you 
 of this spiritual being ? which with its sensation, 
 memory, and its (hare of ideas and combinations, 
 will never be able to know so much as a child of 
 six years. What grounds have you to think, 
 that this incorporeal being dies with the body ? 
 But still more stupid are they whoaffirm this soul 
 to be neither body nor spirit. A fine system 
 truly I By spirit we can mean only something 
 unknown, which is not body ; so that the upshot 
 of this wise system is, that the soul of beasts is a 
 substance, which is neither body, nor something 
 which is not body. 
 
 Whence can so many contradictory errors 
 arise ? From a custom which has alvvays prevail- 
 ed among men, of inveftigating the nature of a 
 thing before they knew whether any such thing 
 existed. The sucker, or clapper, of a bellows is 
 likewise called the soul of the bellows. Well, 
 what is this soul ? it is only a name I have given 
 to that sucker, or clapper, which falls down, lets 
 ^in the air, and rising again, propels it through a 
 pipe on my working the bellows. 
 
 Here is no soul distinct from the machine it- 
 self ; but who puts the bellows of animals in mo- 
 tion ? I have already told you : he who puts the 
 heavenly bodies in motion, Tiie philosopher 
 
 D who 
 
34 BEAUTY, BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 who said ** Deus est anlma brutorum," was In 
 the right : but he should have gone farther'. 
 
 BEAUTY, BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 A: 
 
 .SK a toad what is beauty, the supremely 
 beautiful, the to-kalon, he will answer you, 
 that it is his female, with two large round eyes 
 projecting out of its little head ; a broad and 
 flat neck, yellow belly, and dark brown back. 
 Ask a Guinea Negro ; and with him beauty is a 
 greasy black skin, hollow eyes, and a flat nose. 
 
 Put the question to the devil, and he will tell 
 vou, that beauty is a pair oi horns, four claws, 
 and a tail. Consult the philosophers likewise, 
 they will give you some unintelligible jargon for 
 answer, they must have something correspondent 
 
 to BEAUTY IN THE ABSTRACT, tO the TO- 
 KALON, 
 
 • I once sat next to a philosopher at a tragedy ; 
 that's beautiful, said he! How beautiful ? said I! 
 because the author has attained his end. The 
 next day he took a dose of physic, which had a 
 very good effect ; that's a beautiful physic, said 
 I, it has attained its end : he perceived that a 
 medicine is not to be called beautiful, and that 
 the word beauty is applicable only to those things 
 which give a pleasure accompanied with admi- 
 ration ; that tragedy, he said, had excited these 
 two sensations in him, and that was the to-ka- 
 LON, the beautiful. 
 
 We 
 
 * This is the Pythagorean system, " Quod Deus sit 
 anima mundi." See Ruasus on Virg. JEn. lib. vi, 
 ver. 726. 
 
BODY. 3^ 
 
 We went to England together, and happened 
 to be at the same play, pertectly well translated; 
 but the spectators, one and all, yawned. Oh-ho! 
 said he, the to-kalon, I find, is not the same in 
 England as in France ; and, after several perti- 
 nent reflections, he concluded that beauty is 
 very relative ; that what is decent at Japan is in- 
 decent at Rome, and what is fashionable at Paris 
 is otherwise at Pekin ; and thus he saved himself 
 the trouble of composing a long treatise on the 
 beautiful. 
 
 BODY. 
 
 xjlS we know nothing of spirit, so are we alike 
 ignorant of body: we perceive some properties; 
 but what is this subject in which these properties 
 reside? All is body, said Democritus and 
 Epicurus; there is no body at all, said the dis- 
 ciples of Zeno the Elaean. 
 
 Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, is the last who 
 has gone about to prove the non-existence of 
 bodies ; and he deals chiefly in captious sophisms : 
 there is, says he, neither colour, smell, nor 
 heat, in them ; these modalities are in your sen- 
 sations and not in the objects; a truth, which 
 being before sufficiently known, he needed not 
 to have taken the trouble of proving. But from 
 thence he proceeds to extension and solidity, 
 which are essential to body, and is for proving 
 that there is no extension in a piece of green 
 cloth, because this cloth, in reality, is not green ; 
 this sensation of green is only in you, therefore 
 the sensation of extension is likewise only in you : 
 and having overthrown extension, he concludes, 
 
 D 2 that 
 
g6 BODY. 
 
 that solidity being annexed to it, falls of itself, 
 and thii3 there is nothing in the world but our 
 ideas. So that, according to this philosopher, 
 ten thousand men killed by as many cannon shot, 
 are, in reality, only ten thousand conceptions of 
 our minds. 
 
 My lord of Cloyne might have avoided expo- 
 sing himself to such ridicule; he fancies that he 
 proves that there is no such thing as extension, 
 because a body through a glass appeared to him 
 four times larger than to his naked eye, and four 
 times smaller through another glass : thence he 
 concludes, that as the extension of a body cannot, 
 at the same time, be four feet, six feet, and only 
 one foot, such extension exists not; then there 
 is nothing. He needed only to have taken a 
 measure, and say, however extended a body 
 may appear to me, its actual extension is so many 
 of these measures. 
 
 He might easily have seen that extension and 
 solidity are very different from sounds, colours, 
 tastes, and smells, &c. These are manifestly 
 sensations excited by the configuration of the 
 parts. But extension is not a sensation : 
 though on the going out of a fire I no longer 
 feel heat ; on the agitation of the air ceasing I hear 
 nothing; and from a withered rose I smell no- 
 thing; yet the fire, the air, and the rose, have 
 all their extension, without any relation to me. 
 Berkeley's paradox really does not deserve a 
 formal refutation. 
 
 But the cream of the jeft is to know what led 
 him into this paradox. A long time ago I had 
 some talk with him, when he told me, that his 
 opinion originally proceeded from the incon- 
 ceivableness of what the subject of extension is; 
 
 and 
 
BODY. 37 
 
 and indeed he triumphs in that part of his book, 
 where he asks Hilas what this same subject, this 
 SUBSTRATUM, this substance, is? It is, an- 
 swers Hilas, the body extended; then the bishop, 
 under the name of Philonous, laughs at him; 
 and poor Hilas, perceiving that he had said ex- 
 tension was the subject of extension, and thus ' 
 had talked sillily, is quite abashed, and owns that 
 it is utterly inconceivable to him; that there is 
 no such thing as body; that the world, instead of 
 being material, as commonly thought, is intel- 
 lectual. 
 
 It would have become PhilonoUs only to have 
 said to Hilas, we know nothing concerning the 
 constitution of this subject, of this extended, 
 solid, divisible, moveable, figured, substance, 
 &c. We know no more of it than of the think- 
 ing, feeling, and willing subject; still this sub- 
 ject certainly exists, since it has essential pro- 
 perties from which it cannot be separated. 
 
 We are all, like the Paris ladies; they live 
 high without knowing the ingredients in ragouts ; 
 so we make use of bodies without knowing the 
 composition of them. What is body made of? 
 of parts, and these parts are reducible to other 
 parts. What are those last parts ? still bodies ; so 
 you go on dividing, and are never nearer the mark. 
 
 At length, a subtile philosopher, observing 
 that a picture is made of ingredients, none of 
 which is a picture, and a house of m.aterials of 
 which none is a house, fancied bodies to be con- 
 structed of innumerable little beings, which are 
 not bodies, and these are the monades so 
 much talked of. This system, however, has 
 its fair side, and, had it been confirmed by Re- 
 velation, I should think it very possible. All 
 
 D 3 these 
 
38 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 these minute beings would be mathematical 
 points, species of souls waiting only for a tegu- 
 ment to put themselves into it; this would make 
 a continual metempsychosis, a monade entering 
 sometimes into a whale, sometimes into a tree, 
 and sometimes into a juggler. This system is 
 full as good as another; I can relish it full as 
 well as the declension of atoms, the substantial 
 forms, versatile grace, and Don Calmet's vam- 
 pires. 
 
 THE CHINESE CATECHISM; 
 
 OR 
 
 Dialogues between Cu-su, a disciple of Con- 
 fucius, and Prince Kou, son to the King of 
 Lou, tributary to the Chinese emperor Gn en - 
 VAN, four hundred and seventeen years before 
 our common aera. 
 
 Translated into Latin by Father Fouquet, for- 
 merly a Jesuit. The manuscript is in the Vati- 
 can library, Number 42759. 
 
 Kou. 
 
 W HAT is meant by my duty to worship hea- 
 ven (Chang-ti)? 
 
 Cu-su. Not the material heaven, which we 
 see with our eyes ; for this heaven is nothing but 
 the air, and the air is composed of every kind of 
 earthly exhalations. Now what a folly would 
 it be to worship vapours ? 
 
 Kou. It is, however, what I should not 
 much wonder at; men, in my opinion, have 
 given into greater follies. 
 
 Cu-su. 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 39 
 
 Cu-su. Very true; but you being born to 
 rule over others, it becomes you to be wise. 
 
 Kou. There are whole nations who worship 
 heaven and the planets. 
 
 Cu-su. The planets are only so many eartlis 
 like ours; the moon, for instance, might as well 
 worship our sand and dirt, as we prostrate our- 
 selves before the moon's sand and dirt. 
 
 Kou. What is the meaning of what we so 
 often hear; heaven and earth, to go up to hea- 
 ven, to be deserving of heaven? 
 
 Cu-su. It is talking very sillily; there is no 
 such thing as heaven (*J; every planet is environed 
 with its atmosphere as with a shell, and rolls in 
 the space round its sun ; every sun is the center 
 of several planets, which are continually going 
 their rounds; there is neither high nor low, up 
 nor down. Should the inhabitants of the moon 
 talk of going up to the earth, of making one's 
 self deserving of the earth, it would be talking 
 madly; and we are little wiser in talking of de- 
 serving heaven. We might as well say a man 
 must make himself deserving of the air, deserving 
 of the constellation of the dragon, deserving of 
 space. 
 
 Kou. I believe I understand you; we are 
 only to worship God who made heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 Cu-su. To be sure, we are to worship God 
 alone. But in saying that he made heaven and 
 earth, however devout our meaning may be, it 
 
 is 
 
 (*) This is only disputing about words; a place of 
 future rewards, which the Chinese philosopher seems 
 to allow, is Heaven, wherever it be. 
 
 D4 
 
40 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 is talking very sillily. For if by heaven we* 
 inean the prodigious space in which God kindled 
 so many suns, and set so many worlds in motion, 
 it is much more ridiculous to say, *' Heaven and 
 *• earth," than to say, " the mountains and a grain 
 »*'of sand." Our globe is infinitely less than a 
 (grain of sand, in comparison of those millions of 
 ten thousands of millions of worlds, among the 
 infinitude'of. which we are lost. All that we can 
 do, is to join our feeble voice to that of the innu- 
 merable beings; which, throughout the abyss of 
 expansion, ascribe homage and glory to their 
 adorable Creator. 
 
 Kou. It was, then, a great imposition to 
 tell us, that Fo came down among us from the 
 fourth heaven, assuming the form of a white 
 elephant. 
 
 Cu-su. These are tales which the bonzes 
 tell to old women and children. The eternal 
 Author of all beings is alone to be worship- 
 ped. 
 
 Kou. But how can one being make the 
 other beings ? 
 
 Cu-su. You see yonder star: it is fifteen 
 hundred thousand millions of Lis from our globe, 
 and emits rays which on your eyes form two 
 angles equal at the top; and the like angles they 
 form on the eyes of all animals ; is not this mani- 
 fest design? Is not this an admirable law? and 
 is it not the workman who makes a work? and 
 who frames laws but a legislator? Therefore 
 there is an eternal Artist, an eternal Legislator. 
 
 Kou. But who made this Artist, and what 
 is he like? 
 
 Cu-su. My dear prince, as I was yesterday 
 walking near the vast Palace, lately built by the 
 
 king 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM, :^l 
 
 king your father, I over-heard two crickets; 
 one said to the other, What a stupendous fabric 
 is here! Yes, said the other; and though I am 
 not a little proud of my species, he who has 
 made this prodigy, must be something above a 
 cricket; but I have no idea of that being; such a 
 one 1 see there must be, but what he is I know 
 not."' 
 
 Kou. You are a cricket of infinitely more 
 knowledge than I; and what I particularly like 
 in you, is your not pretending to know what 
 you really do not know. 
 
 SECOND DIALOGUE. 
 
 Cu-su. You allow, then, that there is an 
 Almighty Being, self-existent, supreme Creator, 
 and Maker of all nature. 
 
 Kou. Yes; but if he be self-existent he is un- 
 limited, consequently he is every-where, he 
 exists throughout all matter, and in every part 
 of myself. 
 
 Cu-su. Why not? 
 
 Kou. I should then be a part of the Deity. 
 
 Cu-su. Perhaps that may not be the conse- 
 quence ; behold this piece of glass, you see the 
 light penetrates it every where, yet will you say it 
 is light ? It is mere sand, and nothing more : un- 
 questionably every thing is in God; that by 
 which every thing is animated must be every 
 where. God is not like the Emperor of China, 
 who dwells in his palace, and sends his orders by 
 kolaos. As existing he must necessarily fill the 
 whole of space, and all his works ; and since he 
 is in you, this is a continual document never to 
 do any thing to raise shame or remorse. 
 
 Kou. 
 
42 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 Kou. But for a person serenely to consider 
 liimself before the Supreme Being without shame 
 or disgust, what must he do ? 
 
 Cu-su. Be just. 
 
 Kou. And what further? 
 
 Cu-su. Be just. 
 
 Kou. But LAOKium's sect says, there is no 
 such thing as just or unjust, vice or virtue. 
 
 Cu-su. And does Laokium's sect say 
 there is no such thing as health nor sickness ? 
 
 Kou. No, to be sure ; what egregious non- 
 sense that would be ! 
 
 Cu-su. And let me tell you, that to think 
 there is neither health nor sickness of soul, nor 
 virtue nor vice, is as egregiou«-an error, and much 
 more mischievous. They who have advanced 
 that every thing is alike, are monsters ; is it alike, 
 carefully to bring up a son, or, at his birth, to 
 dash him against the stones ; to relieve a mother, 
 or to plunge a dagger into her heart ? 
 
 Kou. That is hotrible! I detest Laoki- 
 um's sect ; but just and unjust are oftentimes so 
 interwoven, that one is at a loss. Who can be 
 said precisely to know what is forbidden and what 
 is allowed ? Who can safely set limits to good 
 and evil ? I wish you would give me a sure rule 
 for this important distinction. 
 
 Cu-su. There can be no better than that of 
 CoNFUTZEE,my master, ** Live as thou wouldst 
 *' have lived when thou comest to die ; use thy 
 ** neighbour as thou wouldst have him use thee." 
 
 Kou. Those maxims, I own, should be man- 
 kind's standing law. But what am I the better 
 for my good life, when I come to die ? What 
 mighty advantage shall I get by my virtue? 
 That clock goes as well as ever clock did ; but when 
 
 it 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 43 
 
 it comes to be worn out, or should it be destroy- 
 ed by accident, will it be happy for having 
 struck the hours regularly ? 
 
 Cu-su. That clock is without thought or 
 feeling, and incapable of remorse, which you 
 sharply feel on the commission of any crime. 
 
 Kou. But what if by frequent crimes I 
 come to be no longer sensible of remorse. 
 
 Cu-su. . Then it is high time an end should 
 be put to your being ; and take my word for it, 
 that, as men do not love to be oppressed, should 
 that be the case, one or another would stop you 
 in your career, and save you the committing 
 any more crimes. 
 
 Kou. At that rate God, who is in them, af- 
 ter allowing me to be wicked, would allow them 
 likewise to be so. 
 
 Cu-su. God has endued you with reason, 
 neither you nor they are to make a wrong use of 
 it ; as otherwise you will not only be unhappy 
 in this life, but how do yqU know but you may 
 likewise be so in another ? 
 
 Kou. And who told you there is another life ? 
 
 Cu-SU. The bare uncertainty of it should make 
 you behave as if it was an undoubted certainty. 
 
 Kou. But what if I am sure there is no such 
 thing ? 
 
 Cu-su. That I defy you to make good. 
 
 THIRD DIALOGUE. 
 
 Kou. You urge me home, Cu-SU ; my be- 
 ing rewarded or punished after death, requires 
 that something which feels and thinks in me, 
 must continue to subsist after me ; now as no 
 part in me had any thought or sense before my 
 birth, why should it after my death ? What can 
 
 this 
 
^4 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 this incomprehensible part of myself be ? Will 
 the humming ot that bee continue after the end of 
 its existence ? Or the vegetation of this plant, 
 when plucked up by the roots ? Is not vegetation 
 a word made use of to express the inexplicable 
 mode appointed by the Supreme Being, for the 
 plants imbibing the juices of the earth ? So the 
 soul is an invented word, faintly and obscurely 
 denoting the spring of human life. All animals 
 have a motion, and this ability to move is called 
 active force ; but this force is no distinct being 
 whatever. We have passions, memory, and 
 reason ; but these passions, this memory, and 
 reason, are surely not separate things, they are 
 not beings existing in us, they are not diminutive 
 persons of a particular existence, they are gene- 
 rical words invented to fix our ideas. Thus the 
 soul itself, which signifies our memory, our rea- 
 son, our passions, is only a bare word. Whence 
 then motion in nature ? from God. Whence 
 vegetation in the plant ? from God. Whence 
 motion in animals ? from God. Whence cogi- 
 tation in man ? from God '. 
 
 Were the human soul a diminutive person, in- 
 closed withm our body, to direct its motions and 
 ideas, would not that betray in the eternal Mak- 
 er of the world an impotence and an artifice quite 
 unworthy of him ? He then must have been in- 
 capable of making automata, which shall have 
 the gill of motion and thought in themselves. 
 When I learned Greek under you, you made me 
 
 read 
 
 * This opinion of the Chinese is the Pythagorean 
 dogma of the " Anima Mundi," which has been 
 fully refuted by Cud worth, Dr. Clarke, and several 
 other learned divines. 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 45 
 
 read Homer, where Vulcan appears to me an 
 excellent smith, when he makes golden tripods, 
 going of themselves to the council of the gods ; 
 but had this same Vulcan concealed within 
 those tripods one of his boys, to make them 
 move without being perceived, I should think 
 him but a bungling cheat. 
 
 Some iow-thoughted dreamers have been 
 charmed with the fancy of the planets being 
 rolled along by genii, as something very grand 
 and sublime ; but God has not been reduced to 
 such a paltry shift : in a word, wherefore put 
 two springs to a work when one will do ? That 
 God can animate that so little known being 
 which we call matter, you dare not deny ; why 
 then should he make use of another agent to ani- 
 mate it ? 
 
 Farther ; what may that soul be which you 
 are pleased to give to our body ? From whence 
 did it come ? When did it come ? Must the 
 Creator of the universe be continually watching 
 the copulation of men and women ? closely ob- 
 serve the moment when a germ issues from a 
 man's body and passes into that of a woman, and 
 then quickly inject a soul into this germ ? And 
 if this germ dies, what becomes of its soul ? 
 either it must have been created ineffectually, or 
 must wait another opportunity. 
 
 This is really a strange employment for the 
 Sovereign of the world ; and it is not only on the 
 copulation of the human species, that he must be 
 continually intent, but must observe the like vi- 
 gilance and celerity with all animals whatever; 
 for, like us, they have memory, ideas, and pas- 
 sions ; and if a soul be necessary for the for- 
 mation of these sentiments, these ideas, these 
 
 passionS) 
 
46 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 passions, and this memory, God must be perpe- 
 tually at work about souls for elephants and fleas, 
 for fish and for bonzes. 
 
 What ideas does such a notion give of the 
 Architect of so many millions of worlds, thus 
 obliged to be continually making invisible props 
 for perpetuating his work ? 
 
 These are some, though a very small sample, 
 of the reasons for questionmgthe soul's existence. 
 
 Cu-su. You reason candidly; and such a 
 virtuous turn of mind, even if mistaken, cannot 
 but be agreeable to the Supreme Being. You 
 may be in an error, but as you do not endeavour 
 to deceive yourself, your error is excusable. 
 But consider what you have proposed to me are 
 only doubts, and melancholy doubts; listen to 
 probabilities of a solacing nature : to be annihi- 
 lated is dismal ; hope then for life. A thought 
 you know is not matter, nor has any affinity with 
 it. Why then do you make such a difficulty of 
 believing that God has put a divine principle in- 
 to you, which being indissoluble, cannot be 
 subject to death ? Can you say that it is impossi- 
 ble that you should have a soul ? No, certainly: 
 and if it be possible that you have one, is it not 
 also very probable ? How can you reject so no- 
 ble a system, and so necessary to mankind? Shall 
 a few slender objections withhold your assent ? 
 
 Kou. 1 would embrace this system with all 
 my heart, on its being proved to me ; but it is 
 not in my power to believe without evidence. I 
 am always struck with this grand idea, that God 
 has made every thing, that he is every where, 
 that he penetrates all things, and gives life and 
 motion to all things ; and if he is in all the parts 
 of my being, as he is in all the parts of nature, 
 
 I do 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM, 47 
 
 I do not see any need I have of a soul. Where 
 is the use or importance of this little subaltern 
 being to me who am animated by God himself? 
 Of what improvement can it be ? It is not 
 from ourselves that we derive our ideas, they ge- 
 nerally obtrude themselves on us against our 
 wills ; we have them when locked in sleep ; 
 every thing passes in us without our intervention. 
 What would it signify to the soul, were it to say 
 to the blood and animal spirits, be so kind as to 
 gratify me in running this way, they will still 
 circulate in their natural course. Let me be the 
 machine of a God whose existence all things 
 proclaim aloud, rather than of a soul whose 
 existence is a very great uncertainty. 
 
 Cu-su. Well, if God himself animates you, 
 be very careful of committing any crime, as de- 
 filing that God, who is within you ; and if he 
 has given you a sotil, never let it offend him. In 
 both systems you have a volition, you are free, 
 that is, you have a power of doing what you 
 will; make use of this power in serving that God 
 who gave it you. If you are a philosopher, so 
 much the better, but it is necessary for you to be 
 just; and you will be more so when you come 
 to believe that you have an immortal soul. 
 
 Be pleased to answer me. Is not God sovereign 
 and perfect justice ? 
 
 Kou. Doubtless;, and could he cease to be 
 so (which is blasphemy to think] I would myself 
 act equitably. 
 
 Cu-su. Will it not be your duty, when on 
 
 the throne, to reward virtue and punish vice ? 
 
 and can you think of God's not doing what is 
 
 incumbent on yourself to do? You know that 
 
 ■ there are, and ever will be, in this life, good 
 
 men 
 
48 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 men distressed, whilst wicked men prosper 2 
 therefore good and evil must be finally judged 
 in another life. It is this so simple, so general, 
 and so natural an opinion, which has introduced 
 and fixed among so many nations the belief of the 
 immortality of our souls, and their being judged 
 by divine justice on their quitting this mortal te- 
 nement. Is there, can there be, a system more 
 rational, more suitable to the Deity, and more 
 beneficial to mankind'? 
 
 Kou. Why then have so many nations re- 
 jected this system? You know, that in our pro- 
 vince we have about two hundred families of the 
 old Sinous, who formerly dwelt in part of Ara- 
 bia Petrea ; and neither they nor their ancestors 
 ever believed any thing of the immortality of 
 the soul : they have their five books as we have 
 our five King; I have read a translation of 
 them ; their laws, which necessarily correspond 
 with those of all other nations, enjoin them to 
 respect their parents, not to steal nor lye, to ab- 
 stain from adultery and bloodshed ; yet these laws 
 are whollv silent as to rewards and punishments 
 in another life. 
 
 Cu-su. If this truth has not yet been made 
 known to those poor people, unquestionably their 
 eyes will one day be opened. But what signifies 
 a small obscure tribe, when the Babylonians, 
 the Egyptians, the Indians, and all policed na- 
 tions, have subscribed to this salutary doctrine ? 
 If you were sick, would you decline making use 
 
 of 
 
 * Our author has omitted the natural proofs of the 
 immortality of the soul, which the reader may see in 
 Br. Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Revealed Reli- 
 gion, p. 265. See also our remarks on the word Soul, 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 4^ 
 
 of a remedy approved by all the Chinese, because 
 some barbarous mountaineers had expressed a 
 dislike of it ? God has endued you with reason, 
 and this reason tells you that the soul must be 
 immortal, therefore it is God himself who tells 
 you so. 
 
 Kou. But how can I be rewarded or pu- 
 nished, when I shall cease to be myself, when 
 jiothing which had constituted my person will be 
 remaining ; it is only by my memory that I am 
 always myself : now my memory I lose in my 
 last illness; so that, after my death, nothing un- 
 der a miracle can restore it to me, and thus re- 
 place me in my former existence. 
 
 Cu-su. That is as much as to say, should a 
 prince, after making his way to the throne by the 
 murder of all his relations, play the tyrant over 
 his subjects, he need only say to God, It is not 
 I ; I have totally lost my memory ; you mistake, 
 I am no longer the same person. Think you 
 God would be very well pleased with such a so- 
 phism ? 
 
 Kou. Well, I acquiesce ; I was for living 
 irreproachable for my own sake, now I will do 
 so to please the Supreme Being. I thought the 
 whole matter was for my soul to be just and vir- 
 tuous in this life ; but I will now hope that it 
 will be happy in another: this opinion, I do per- 
 ceive, makes for the good both of subjects and 
 sovereigns; still the worship of the Deity per. 
 plexes me. 
 
 FOURTH DIALOGUE. 
 
 Cu-su. Why, what is there that can offend 
 you in our Chu-king, the first canonical book, 
 
 £ and 
 
^O CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 and which all the Chinese emperors have so 
 greatly respected. You plough a field with your 
 own royal hands, by way of setting an example 
 to the people, and the first fruits of it you offer 
 to the Chang-ti, to the Tien, to the Supreme Be- 
 ing, and sacrifice to him four times every year. 
 You are king, and high-priest, you promise God 
 to do all the good which shall be in your power; 
 is there any thing in this which you cannot di- 
 gest ? 
 
 Kou. I am very far from making any excep- 
 tions ; I know that God has no need either of 
 our sacrifices or prayers, but the offering them to 
 him is very needful for us ; his worship was not 
 instituted for himselt but on our account. I am 
 very much delighted with praying, and am parti- 
 cularly careful that there shall be nothing ridicu- 
 lous in my prayers ; for were I to cry out till my 
 throat is flead, " That the mountain of the Chang-ti 
 •' is a fat mountain, and that fat mountains are not 
 ** to be looked on ;" though I should have put the 
 sun to flight, and dried up the moon, will this 
 rant be acceptable to the Supreme Being, or ot 
 any benefit to my subjects or myself? 
 
 Especially, I cannot bear with the silliness of 
 the sects about us ; on one side is Laotze, whom 
 his mother conceived by the junction of heaven 
 and earth, and was fourscore years pregnant with 
 him. I as little believe his doctrine of univer- 
 sal deprivation and annihilation, as his being 
 born with white hair, or his going to promulgate 
 his doctrine on a black cow. 
 
 The god Fo I put on the same footing, not- 
 withstanding he had a white elephant for his fa- 
 ther, and promises immortal life. 
 
 One thing, at which 1 cannot forbear taking 
 
 great 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 5I 
 
 preat offence, is the bonzes continually preaching 
 such chimeras, thus deceiving the people in or- 
 der the better to sway them ; they gain to them- 
 selves respect by mortifications, at which indeed 
 nature fhudders. Some deny themselves, during 
 their whole lives, the most salutary foods, as 
 if there was no way of pleasing God but by a 
 bad diet. Others carry a pillory about their 
 necks, and sometimes they richly deserve it ; 
 they drive nails into their thighs as into boards ; 
 and for these things the people follow them in 
 crowds. On the king's issuing any edict which 
 does not suit their humour, they coolly tell their 
 auditors that this edict is not to be found in the 
 commentary of the god Fo, and that god is to be 
 obeyed preferably to men. Now, how am I to re- 
 medy this popular distemper, which is extravagant 
 to the highest degree, and not less dangerous 
 Toleration, you know, is the principle of the 
 Chinese, and indeed of all Asiatic govern- 
 ments; but such an indulgence must be owned 
 highly mischievous, as exposing an empire to 
 be overthrown on account of some fanatical 
 notions, 
 
 Cu-su. God forbid that I should go about 
 to extinguish in you the spirit of toleration, that 
 quality so eminently respectable, and which to 
 souls is what the permission of eating is to bo- 
 dies. By the law of nature, every one may 
 believe what he will, as well as eat what he will. 
 A physician is not to kill his patients for not ob- 
 serving the diet which he had prescribed to them; 
 neither has a sovereign a right to hang his sub- 
 jects for not thinking as he thinks ; but he has a 
 right to prevent disturbances^ and with prudent 
 measures he will very easily root out superstitions 
 
 E 2 of 
 
52 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 of all kinds. You know what happened to Daon^ 
 the sixth king of Chaldea, about four thousand 
 years ago. 
 
 Kou. No. I pray oblige me with an ac- 
 count of it. 
 
 Cu-su. The Chaldean priests had taken it 
 into their heads to worship the pikes of the Eu- 
 phrates, pretending that a famous pike called 
 Oannes, had formerly taught them divinity ; that 
 this pike was immortal, three feet in length, and 
 a fmall crescent on the tail. In veneration to 
 this Oannes, no pikes were to be eaten. A 
 mighty difpute arofe among the divines, whether 
 the pike Oannes had a soft or hard roe. Both 
 parties not only fulminated excommunications, 
 but they several times came to blows. To put 
 an end to such disturbances, King Daon made 
 use of this expedient. 
 
 He ordered a strict fast for three days to both 
 parties ; and at the expiration of it, sent for the 
 sticklers for the hard roed pike, who accordingly 
 were present at his dinner ; a pike was brought to 
 him three feet in length, and on the tail a small 
 crescent had been put. Is this your god, said he 
 to the doctors ? Yes, Sir, answered they ; we 
 know him by the crescent on the tail, and make 
 no question but he is hard-roed. On this the 
 king ordered the pike to be opened, it was found 
 to have the finest melt that could be. Now, said 
 the king, you see this is not your god, it being 
 soft-roed ; and the king and his nobles ate the 
 pike, and the hard-roed divines were not a little 
 pleased that the god of their adversaries had been 
 fried. 
 
 Immediately after the doctors of the opposite 
 side were sent for, and a pike of three feet, with 
 
 a crescent 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 53 
 
 a crescent on his tail, being shewn to them, they, 
 with great joy, assured his majesty, that it was 
 the god Oannes, and that he had a soft roe; but 
 behold ! on being opened, it was found hard- 
 roed. At this the two parties, equally out of 
 countenance, and still fasting, the good-natured 
 king told them that he could only give them a 
 dinner of pikes, and they greedily fell to eating 
 both hard and soft-roed without distinction. 
 This closed the civil war, with great applauses 
 of king Daon's wisdom and goodness; and since 
 that time the people have been allowed to eat 
 pikes as often as they pleased. 
 
 Kou. Well done, king Daon! and I give you 
 my word I will follow his example on every oc- 
 casion, and as far as I can, without injuring any 
 one; there shall be no worshipping of Fo's and 
 pikes. 
 
 I know that in the countries of Pegu and 
 Tonquin, there are little gods and little Tala- 
 poins which bring down the moon, when in the 
 wane, and clearly foretel what is to come, that 
 is, they clearly see what is not, for futurity is 
 not. I will take care that the Talapoins shall 
 not come within my reach, to make futurity pre- 
 sent, and bring down the moon. 
 
 It is a shame that there should be sects ramb- 
 ling from town to town, propagating their de- 
 lusions, as quacks their medicaments. What a 
 disgrace is it to the human mind, for petty na- 
 tions to think that truth belongs to them alone, 
 and that the vast empire of China is given up 
 to error? Is then the Eternal Being only the 
 god of the island of Formosa or Borneo ? Has 
 he no concern for the other parts of the uni- 
 verse ? My dear Cu-su, he is a father to all men, 
 
 E 3 he 
 
^4 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 he allows every one to eat pike : the most ac- 
 ceptable homage which can be paid to him is 
 being virtuous ; the finest of all his temples, as the 
 great emperor Hiao used to say, is a pure heart. 
 
 FIFTH DIALOGUE. 
 
 Cu-su. Since you love virtue, in what man- 
 ner do you propose to practise it when you come 
 to be king ? 
 
 Kou. In not being unjust to my neighbours 
 or my subjects. 
 
 Cu-su. To do no harm does not come up 
 to virtue. I hope my prince will do good, will 
 feed the poor by employing them in useful la- 
 bour, and not endow sloth; mend and embellish 
 the highways, dig canals, iDuild public edifices, 
 encourage arts, reward merit of every kind, and 
 pardon involuntary faults. 
 
 Kou. This 1 call not being unjust; those 
 things are plain duties. 
 
 Cu-su, Your way of thinking becomes a 
 king ; but there is the king and the man ; the 
 public life and private life. You will be mar- 
 ried ; how many wives do you think of having? 
 
 Kou. Why, a dozen, I think, will do: a 
 greater number might be an avocation from bu- 
 siness ; I do not approve of kings with their 
 three hundred wives and seven hundred concu- 
 bines, and thousands of eunuchs to wait on them. 
 This humour of having eunuchs, especially, ap- 
 pears to me a most execrable insult and out- 
 rage to human nature. The castrating of cocks 
 I can forgive, as eating the better for it ; but I 
 never have heard of eunuchs being roasted. What 
 is the use of their being thus mutilated? It im- 
 proves their voices; the Dala-i Lama has fifty 
 
 of 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 55 
 
 of them purely to sing in his pagod. Let him 
 tell me whether the Chang-ti is much delighted 
 with the clear pipes of these fifty geldings. 
 
 Another most ridiculous thing is the bonzes 
 not marrying. They boast of being wiser than 
 the other Chinese; well then, let them shew 
 their wisdom in getting wise children. An odd 
 manner of worshipping the Chang-ti, to deprive 
 him of worshippers ; and, to be sure, they must 
 have a great affection for mankind, who go the 
 way to extinguish the species ! The good little 
 Lama called Stelca isant Erepi, used to 
 say, " That every priest ought to get as many 
 •' children as he could:" what he preached he 
 practised, and was very useful in his generation. 
 For my part, I shall marry all the lamas and 
 bonzes, and lamasses and bonzesses, who shall 
 appear to have a call to this holy work ; besides 
 making them better patriots, I shall think it no 
 small service to my dominions. 
 
 Cu-su. What an excellent prince shall we 
 have in you! I cannot forbear weeping for joy. 
 But you will not be satisfied with having wives 
 and subjects, for, after all, one cannot be per- 
 petually drawing up edicts, and getting chil- 
 dren ; you will likewise make yourself some 
 friends. 
 
 Kou. I am not without some already, and 
 those good ones, putting me in mind of my 
 faults, and 1 allow myself the liberty of reprov- 
 ing theirs ; we likewise mutually comfort and 
 encourage one another ; friendship is the balm 
 of life, it excels that of the chemist Eruil, and 
 even all the nostrums of the great Ranoud are 
 not comparable to it. I think friendship should 
 
 E ^ have 
 
^6 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 have been made a religious precept. I have a 
 good mind to insert it in our ritual. 
 
 Cu-su. By no means; friendship is suffici- 
 ently sacred of itself. Never enjoin it; the 
 heart must be free : besides, were you to make 
 a precept, a mystery, a rite, a ceremony, of 
 friendship, it would soon become ridiculous 
 through the fantastical preachings and writings 
 of the bonzes: let it not be exposed to such pro- 
 fanation. 
 
 But how will you deal with your enemies ? 
 Confutzee, I believe, in not less than twenty 
 places, direct us to love them : does not this ap- 
 pear something difficult to you ? 
 
 Kou. Love one's enemies! Oh, dear doc- 
 tor ! nothing is so common. 
 
 Cu-su. But what do you mean by love ? 
 
 Kou. Mean by it what it really is. I was 
 a volunteer under the prince of Decon against 
 the prince of Vis-brunk; when a wounded ene- 
 my fell into our hands we took as much care of 
 bim as if he had been our brother: we have 
 often parted with our beds to them, and we lay 
 by them on tygers skins spread on the bare 
 ground ; we have tended and nursed them our- 
 selves : Is not this loving our enemies ? You 
 would not have us love them as a man loves his 
 mistress ? 
 
 Cu-su. I am exceedingly pleased with your 
 talk, and wish that all nations could hear you, 
 for I have been informed of some so very con- 
 ceited and impertinent as to say that we know 
 nothing of true virtue ; that our good actions 
 are only specious sins ; that we stand in need of 
 their Talapoins to instruct us in right prin- 
 ciples. Poor creatures ! A few years ago there 
 
 was 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. t;^ 
 
 was no such thing as reading or writing among 
 them, and now they are for teaching their 
 masters. 
 
 SIXTH DIALOGUE. 
 
 Cu-su. I shall not repeat to you the com- 
 mon places, which for these five or six thousand 
 years past, have been retailed among us, re- 
 lating to all the several virtues. Some there 
 are which only concern ourselves, as prudence 
 in the guidance of our soul, temperance in the 
 government of our bodies ; but these are rather 
 dictates of policy, and care of health : the real 
 virtues are those which promote the welfare of 
 society, as fidelity, magnanimity, beneficence, 
 toleration, &c. and, thank heaven, these are 
 the first things which every woman, among us, 
 teaches her children; they are the rudiments of 
 the rising generation, both in town and coun- 
 try ; but I am sorry to say it, there is a great 
 virtue which is sadly on the decline among us. 
 
 Kou. Quickly name it, and no endeavour 
 of mine shall be wanting to revive it. 
 
 Cu-su. It is hospitality; for since inns 
 have got footing among us, this so social 
 virtue, this sacred tie. of mankind, becomes more 
 and more relaxed : that pernicious institution, I 
 am told, we have borrowed from some western 
 savages ; who, probably, have no houses to en- 
 tertain travellers. My heart melts with delight 
 when I have the happiness of entertaining, in 
 the vast city of Lou, in Honcham, that superb 
 square, or my delicious seat of Ki, some gene- 
 rous stranger come from Samarcande, to whom, 
 from that moment, I become sacred, and who, 
 by all laws human and divine, is bound to en- 
 tertain 
 
^8 CHINESE CATECHISM. 
 
 tertain me, on any call I may have intoTartary, 
 and to be my cordial friend. 
 
 The savages I am speaking of do not admit 
 strangers into their huts, filthy as they are, with- 
 out their paying, and dearly too, for such sordid 
 reception; and yet those wretches, I hear, think 
 themselves above us, and that our morality is 
 nothing in comparison of theirs. Their preach- 
 ers excel Confutzee himself; in a word, they 
 alone know what true justice is, and a sign of it 
 is, they sell on the roads some sophisticated stuff 
 for wine, and their women, as if mad, rove about 
 the streets, and dance, whilst ours are breeding 
 silk-worms. 
 
 Kou. I very much approve of hospitality, 
 and the practice of it gives me pleasure ; but I 
 am afraid it will be much abused. Near Thibet 
 dwells a people, who, besides the badness of 
 their habitations, being of a roving disposition, 
 will, on any trifle, go from one end of the world 
 to the other ; and, on your having occasion to 
 go to Thibet, so far from returning your hospi- 
 tality, they have nothing to set before you, nor 
 so much as a bed for you to lie on ; this is 
 enough to put one out of conceit with courtesy. 
 
 Cu-su. These disappointments may easily 
 be remedied, by entertaining such persons only 
 as come well recommended. Every virtue has 
 its difficulties and dangers, and without them 
 the practice of virtue would want much of its 
 glory and excellence. How wise and holy is 
 our Confutzee ? There is not a virtue which 
 he does not inculcate ; every sentence of his is 
 pregnant with the happiness of mankind : one, 
 at present, recurs to me, I think it is the fifty- 
 third : 
 
 *♦ Kind- 
 
CHINESE CATECHISM. 59 
 
 ** Kindnesses acknowledge with kindness, and 
 never revenge injuries.'* 
 
 What maxim, what law, can the western people 
 bring in competition with such exalted morality? 
 Then in how many places, and how strongly, 
 does he recommend humility ? Did this amiable 
 virtue prevail among men, there would be a total 
 end of all quarrels and broils. 
 
 Kou. I have read all that Confutzee, and 
 the sages before him, have said about humility ; 
 but none of them, I think, have been sufficiently 
 accurate in their definition of it. There may, 
 perhaps, be but little humility in taking on one 
 to censure them ; but, with all due humility, I 
 own that they are beyond my comprehension. 
 What is your idea of humility ? 
 
 Cu-su. Humility I take to be mental mo- 
 defty ; for as to external modefty, it is no more 
 than civility. Humility cannot consist in deny- 
 ing to one's self that superiority vhich we may 
 have acquired above another. An able phyficiaii 
 cannot but be sensible that he is possessed of a 
 knowledge infinitely beyond his delirious patient. 
 The teacher of astronomy must necessarily think 
 himself more learned than his scholar ; but they 
 must not pride themselves in their superior ta- 
 lents. Humility is not debasement, but a cor- 
 rective to self-love, as modesty is the tempera- 
 ment to pride, 
 
 Kou. Well, it is in the practice of all these 
 virtues, and the worfliip of one simple and uni- 
 versal God, that I propose to live, tar from the 
 chimeras of fophists, and the illusion ot false 
 prophets. The love of mankind shall be my 
 virtue, and the love of God my religion. As to 
 
 the 
 
6o JAPANESE CATECHISM. 
 
 the god Fo, and Laotzee, and Vitsnou, who has 
 so otten become incarnate among the Indians, 
 and Sammonocodom, who came down from 
 heaven to fly a kite among the Siamefe, together 
 with the Camis, who went from the moon to 
 visit Japan; I cannot endure such impious fool- 
 eries. 
 
 How weak, and at the same time how cruel, 
 is it for a people to conceit that there is no god 
 but with them only ! it is downright blafphemy. 
 The light of the fun irradiates all nations, and the 
 light of God shines only in a little insignificant 
 tribe in a corner of this globe. That ever such 
 a thought could enter the mind of man! The 
 Deity fpeaks to the heart of all men of all na- 
 tions, and they should, from one end of the uni- 
 verse to the other, be linked together in the bonds 
 of charity. 
 
 CU'SU. O wise Kou ! you have spoke like 
 one inspired by the Chang-ti himself; you will 
 make a worthy prince. From being my pupil 
 you are become my teacher. 
 
 THE JAPANESE CATECHISM. 
 
 THE INDIAN. 
 
 Is it SO, that formerly the Japanese knew no- 
 thing of cookery ; that they had submitted their 
 kingdom to the great Lama ; that this great Lama 
 arbitrarily prescribed what they fliould eat and 
 drink ; that he used, at times, to send to you an 
 inferior Lama for receiving the tributes, who, in 
 return, gave you a sign ot protection, which he 
 made with his own fore-fingers and thumb ? 
 
 THE 
 
JAPANESE CATECHISM. 6l 
 
 THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Alas ! it is but too true ; nay, all the places of 
 the Canusi, or the chief cooks of our island, 
 were disposed of by the Lama, and the love of 
 God was quite out of the queftion. Farther, 
 every house of our seculars paid annually an 
 ounce of silver to this head-cook ot Thibet, 
 whilst all the amends we had was some small 
 plates of RELICS, and these none of the best 
 tasted ; and on every new whim of his, as mak- 
 ing war against the people of Tangut, we were 
 saddled with fresh subsidies. Our nation fre- 
 quently complained, but all we got by it was to 
 pay the more for presuming to complain. At 
 length love, which does every thing for the best, 
 freed us from this galling thraldom, One of our 
 emperors quarrelled with the great Lama about 
 a woman ; but it must be owned that they who 
 in this affair did us the best turn, were our Ca- 
 nusi, or Pauxcospies ; it is to them that, in fact, 
 we owe our deliverance, and it happened in this 
 manner : 
 
 The great Lama, forfooth, insisted on being 
 always in the right; our Dairi and Canusi would 
 have it that sometimes, at least, they might be in 
 the right. This claim the great Lama derided, 
 as an absurdity ; on which our gentry, being 
 as stifF as he was haughty, broke with him for 
 ever. 
 
 Ind. Well, ever since you have had golden 
 days, I suppose ? 
 
 Jap. Far from it ; for near two hundred 
 years there was nothing but perfecutions, vio- 
 lences, and bloodshed among us. After all our 
 
 Canusis 
 
62 JAPAN.ESE CATECHISM. 
 
 Canusis pretending to be in the right, it is but 
 an hundred years since they have had their right 
 reason ; but since this time, we may boldly 
 esteem ourselves one of the happiest nations on 
 the earth. 
 
 Ind. How can that be, if, as reported, you 
 have no less than twelve different sects of cookery 
 among you ? Why you must always be at daggers 
 drawing. 
 
 Jap. Why so ? If there are twelve cooks, 
 and each has a different receipt, shall we, instead 
 of dining, cut each other's throats ? No : every 
 one may regale himself at that cook's whose 
 manner of dressing victuals he likes best. 
 
 Ind. True; tastes are not to be disputed 
 about : yet people will make them a matter of 
 contention, and all sides grow hot. 
 
 Jap. After long disputing, men come to see 
 the mischiefs of these jarrings, and at length 
 agree on a reciprocal toleration ; and certainly 
 they can do nothing better. 
 
 Ind. And pray what are these cooks who^ 
 make such a stir in your nation about the art of 
 eating and drinking ? 
 
 Jap. First, there is theBreuxehs, who never 
 allow any pork or pudding ; they hold with the 
 old-fashioned cookery ; they would as soon die, 
 as lard a fowl ; then they deal much in numbers, 
 and if an ounce of silver be to be divided between 
 them and the eleven other cooks, they instantly 
 secure one-half to themselves, and the remainder 
 take who will. 
 
 Ind. I fancy you do not often foul a plate with 
 these folks. 
 
 Jap. Never. Then there is the Pifpates, 
 who, on some days of the week, and even for a 
 
 con- 
 
JAPANESE CATECHISM. 63 
 
 considerable time of the year, will gormandize 
 on turbot, trouts, soals, salmon, sturgeon, be 
 they ever so dear, and would not for the world 
 touch a sweetbread of veal, which may be had 
 for a groat. 
 
 As for us Canusi, we are very fond of beef and 
 a 'kind of pastry ware, in Japanese called pud- 
 ding. Now all the world allows our cooks to be 
 infinitely more knowing than those of the Pis- 
 pates : nobody has gone farther than we in find- 
 ing out what was the garum of the Romans ; we 
 surpass all others in our knowledge of the onions 
 of ancient Egypt, the locust paste of the primi- 
 tive Arabs, the Tartarian horse-flesh ; and there 
 is always something to be learned in the books of 
 those Canusi commonly known by the name of 
 Pauxcospies. 
 
 I shall omit those who eat only inTarluh, those 
 who observe the vincal diet, the Batistans, and 
 others ; but the Quekars deserve particular no- 
 tice. Though I have very often been at table 
 with them, 1 never saw one get drunk, or swear 
 an oath. It is a hard matter to cheat them, but 
 then they never cheat you. The law of loving 
 one's neighbour as one's self seems really pecu- 
 liar to them ; for, in good truth, how can an ho- 
 nest Japanese talk of loving his neighbour as 
 himself, when, for a little pay, he goes as a hire» 
 ling, to blow his brains out, and hew him with a 
 four inch broad sabre, and all this in form ; then 
 he, at the same time, exposes himself to the like 
 fate, to be shot or sabred : so he may with more 
 truth be said to hate his neighbour as himself. 
 This is a phrenzy the Ouckars were never pos- 
 sessed with. They say, and very justly, that 
 poor mortals are earthen vessels, made to last 
 
 but 
 
64 JAPANESE CATECHISM. 
 
 but a very short time, and that they (hould not 
 wantonly go and break themselves to pieces one 
 against another. 
 
 1 own, that were I not aCanusi, I should take 
 part with the Quekars ; for you see, that there 
 can be no wranglings nor blows with such peace- 
 able cooks. There is another and very numerous 
 branch oF cooks called Diestos ; with thefe every 
 one, without distinction, is welcome to their 
 table, and you are at full liberty to eat as you 
 like ; you have larded or barded fowls, or neither 
 larded nor barded, egg sauce, or oil ; partridge, 
 salmon, white or red wines ; these things they 
 hold as matters of indifiference, provided you say 
 a short prayer before and after dinner, and even 
 without this ceremony before breakfast; and with 
 good natured worthy men they will banter about 
 the great Lama, theTurlah, Vincaland Memnon, 
 &c. only these Diestos must acknowledge our 
 Canusi to be very profound cooks ; and espe- 
 cially let them never talk of curtailing our in- 
 comes ; then we shall live very easily together. 
 
 Ind. But still there must be cookery by law 
 establifhed, or the king's cookery. 
 
 Jap. There must so ; but when the king of 
 Japan has regaled himself plentifully, he should 
 be chearful and indulgent, and not hinder his 
 good subjects from having their repasts. 
 
 Ind. But should some hot-headed people 
 take on themfelvcs to eat sausages close to the 
 king's nose, when the king is known to have an 
 aversion to that food; should a mob of four or 
 five thousand of them get together, each with his 
 gridiron, to broil their sausages, and insult those 
 who are against eating them — 
 
 Jap. In such a case they ought to be punished 
 
 as 
 
(( 
 <( 
 
 JAPANESE CATECHISM. 65 
 
 as turbulent drunkards. But we have obvi- 
 ated this danger; none but those who tollow the 
 royal cookery are capable of holding any employ- 
 ment ; all others may, indeed, eat as they please, 
 but this humour excludes them from fome emo- 
 luments. Tumults are strictly forbidden, and 
 instantly punished without mercy or mitigation ; 
 all quarrels at table are carefully restrained by a 
 precept of our great Japanese cook, who has 
 written in the sacred language. ** Suti raho, cus 
 flat, natus in usum laetitiae scyphis pugnare 
 tracum eft:" that is, *' the intent of feasting 
 is a sober and decent mirth; but to throw 
 glasses at one another is savage." 
 Under these maxims we live very happily; 
 our liberty is secured by our Taicosemas; we 
 are every day growing more and more opulent; 
 we have two hundred junks of the line, and are 
 dreaded by our neighbours. 
 
 Ind. Why then has the pious rhymer Recni 
 (son to the so justly celebrated Indian poet Rec- 
 na) said in a didaftic work of his, intitled Grace, 
 and not the Graces, ^ 
 
 Le Japon ou jadis brilla tant de lumiere, 
 Ne'est plus qu'un triste amas de foUes visioBS, 
 
 ** Japan, once famed for intellectual light, 
 " lies now involved in error and chimerical 
 *' vision." 
 
 Jap. That Recna is himself an arrant vision- 
 ary. Does not that weak Indian know, that it is 
 we who have taught his contrymen what light is t 
 That it is to us India owes its knowing the course 
 of the planets; that it is we who have made 
 known to man the primitive laws of nature, and 
 
 F the 
 
66 JAPANESE CATECHISM. 
 
 the doctrine of fluxions ? To descend to things 
 of more common use; by us his countrymen 
 were taught to build junks in mathematical pro- 
 portions ; they are beholden to us for those co- 
 verings of their legs which they call wove stock- 
 ings. Now is it possible that, after such admira- 
 ble and useful inventions, we should be mad- 
 men ? And if he has rhimed on the follies of 
 others, does that make him the only wise man? 
 Let him leave us to our own cookery, and, if he 
 must be versifying, I would advise him to chuse 
 more poetical subjects. 
 
 This Recna, trusting to the visionaries of his 
 country, has advanced, ** That no good sauces 
 •* were to be made unless Brama himself, out 
 ** of his particular favour, taught his favourites 
 ** to make the sauce ; that there was an infinite 
 " number of cooks, who, with the best intentions 
 ** and most earnest endeavours,^ were under an 
 ** impossibility of making a ragout; Brama, 
 *• from mere ill will, disabling them." Such 
 stuff will not go down in Japan, where the fol- 
 lowing sentence is esteemed an indisputable 
 truth : 
 
 " God never acts by partial will, but by general laws. 
 
 Ind. What can be said! He is full of his 
 country's prejudices, those of his party, and 
 his own, 
 
 Jap. a world of prejudices indeed ! 
 
 The 
 
THE COUNTRY PRIEST's CATECHISM. 6/ 
 
 The COUxNTRY PRIEST's CATECHISM. 
 
 ARISTUS. 
 
 i30, my dear Theotimus, you are going to be 
 a country parson. 
 
 THEOTIMUS. 
 
 Yes, I have had a small parish conferred on 
 me, and I like it better than a jarger; it is more 
 suited both to my parts and my activity; having 
 but one soul myself, the superintendance and 
 direction of seventy thousand would certainly be 
 too much for me ; and I have ever wondered at 
 the daringness of those who have taken on them 
 the care ot those immense districts. I cannot, 
 in any tolerable measure, find myself equal to 
 such a charge; a large stock really frightens me, 
 but with a small one I may perhaps do some 
 good. I have a smattering of the law, enough, 
 with my careful endeavours, to prevent my poor 
 parishioners from ruining one another by litiga- 
 tions; I am so far a physician as to prescribe to 
 them in common cases; and I have so far looked 
 into our best treatises on agriculture, that my ad- 
 vice may sometimes be of service to them. The 
 lord of the manor and his lady are mighty good 
 sort of people, and no devotees ; they will second 
 my endeavours to do good, so that I promise 
 myself a very happy time of it, and that those 
 among whom I am to live will not be the worse 
 lor my company. 
 
 Arist. But could you not like to have a 
 wife? It would be a great comfort after preach- 
 
 F 2 ing. 
 
68 THE COUNTRY PR1EST*S CATECHISM. 
 
 ing, singing, confessing communicating, bap- 
 tizing, and burying, to be welcomed at your 
 return home by an affectionate, cleanly, and 
 virtuous wife; she would take care of your 
 linen and person, divert you when in health, 
 tend you in sickness, and make you the father 
 of pretty children, the good education of whom 
 would be of public advantage. I really pity 
 your order, whose whole time is spent in the 
 most valuable service of mankind, yet are de- 
 barred of a comfort and solacement so delectable, 
 and withal so necessary. 
 
 Theot. The Greek church makes a point 
 of encouraging marriage in their priests; the 
 church of England and the Protestants univer- 
 sally act with the like wisdom ; but the policy of 
 the Latin church is quite opposite, and 1 must 
 submit to it. Perhaps in the present prevalence 
 of a philosophical spirit, were a council convened, 
 its decrees would be more favourable to human 
 nature than those of the council of Trent; but 
 till that happy time, I must conform to the pre- 
 sent laws; I am no stranger to its difficulties, 
 but so many of my betters having taken the yoke 
 on them, it is not for me to murmur. 
 
 Arist. You have a great share of learning, 
 and are likewise master of a nervous eloquence; 
 how do you intend to preach before a congrega- 
 tion of villagers? 
 
 Theot. As I would before kings. I will 
 insist on morality, and never meddle with con- 
 troversy. God forbid that I should go about 
 diving into concomitant grace, effectual grace 
 which may be resisted, sufficient grace which 
 does not suffice ; or examining whether the angels 
 who came to Lot had a body, or only feigned to 
 
 eat. 
 
THE COUNTRY PRIEST's CATECHISM. 69 
 
 eat. A thousand things there are, which my 
 congregation would not understand, nor I nei- 
 ther: my endeavour shall be to make them good, 
 and to be so myself; but I shall make no divines, 
 nor be so myself, no more than shall be abso- 
 lutely necessary. 
 
 Arist, You will make a good priest, in- 
 deed! I think I must purchase a country-house 
 in your parish. But be so kind as to tell me how 
 you will manage confession. 
 
 Theot. Confession is highly beneficial, a 
 strong curb to vice, and a very early institution. 
 It was anciently practised at the celebration of all 
 the mysteries of the church; and we have imi- 
 tated and sanctified so devout an observance: it 
 avails greatly, turning resentment and hatred 
 into forgiveness and friendship; by it the pretty 
 rogues are induced to restore what they had stolen. 
 I own it has also its inconveniences. There are 
 too many indiscreet confessors, chiefly among 
 the monks, who sometimes teach girls more 
 fooleries than they learn among the young men. 
 In confession there should be no particulars; it 
 is no juridical interrogatory, but only a sinner's 
 acknowledgment of his faults to the Supreme 
 Being, before another sinner, who is soon to 
 make the like acknowledgment. This salutary 
 avowal is not made to gratify a frivolous cu- 
 riosity. 
 
 Arist. And excommunications; will you 
 ever proceed to such extremities? 
 
 Theot. No; some rituals excommunicate 
 grashoppers, sorcerers, and stage-players. Gras- 
 hoppers I shall never exclude from my church, 
 for they never come there; as little shall I ex- 
 communicate sorcerers, seeing there are none ; 
 
 F 3 and 
 
7© THE COUNTRY PRIEST S CATECHISM. 
 
 and stage-players being authorized by the magis- 
 trates, and pensioned by his majesty, 4t would 
 ill become me to brand them with infamy: and, 
 to be ingenuous, I can with pleasure read a play, 
 when kept within the limits ot decency ; such, 
 for instance, as Athaliah and the Misanthrope, 
 which contain a great deal of moral instruction. 
 The lord of our manor has some such pieces 
 acted at his seat by young people of a theatrical 
 turn; these exhibitions lead to virtue through the 
 attractive of pleasure, form the taste, and greatly 
 contribute to a just elocution. Now, for my 
 part, in all this I see nothing but what is very 
 innocent, and even very useful; so that I intend, 
 purely for my instruction, to be sometimes a 
 spectator, but in a latticed box, to avoid giving 
 olience to the weak. 
 
 Arist. The more you let me into your way 
 of thinking, the more desirous am I of becoming 
 your parishioner; but one point remains, which 
 I think of very great importance. How will 
 you do to hinder the peasants from fuddling on 
 the holidays, which, you know, is their chief" 
 way of keeping festivals? Some, overcome, by 
 a liquid poison, are seen with their heads drooping 
 almost to their knees, their hands dangling, 
 their sight and hearing lost, in a condition very 
 much beneath beasts; led home reeling by their 
 lamenting wives, incapable of going to work the 
 next day, often sick, and sometimes irrecover- 
 ably besotted. Others, inflamed by wine, raise 
 quarrels, which soon come to furious blows; and 
 these brutal scenes, a disgrace to human nature, 
 have not seldom been known to end in a murder. 
 It is a known truth, that the state loses more sub- 
 jects by holidays than by wars; now how will 
 
 you, 
 
THE COUNTRY priest's CATECHISM. 7I 
 
 you, if not eradicate this execrable custom out 
 of your parish, at least bring it under some 
 regulation ? 
 
 Theot. I have a remedy at hand; I shall 
 not only give them leave, but exhort them to 
 follow their occupations after divine service; and 
 that I will take care to begin very early, for it is 
 their being unemployed on such days which sends 
 them to public-houses ; on the working days we 
 hear of no riot or bloodshed. Moderate labour 
 is good both for soul and body : besides, the state 
 wants their labour. Let us suppose, and the 
 supposition is within bounds, five millions of 
 men, one with another, doing ten pennyworth 
 of work, and that these five millions of men are, 
 by such a custom, rendered quite useless no less 
 than thirty days in the year; consequently the 
 state is deprived of work to the value of thirty 
 times five millions of tenpences ; now God never 
 enjoined drunkenness, nor such detrimental ob- 
 servance of festivals. 
 
 Arist. This will be reconciling devotion 
 and business, and both are of God's appoint- 
 ment; thus you serve God, and do good to your 
 neighbour- But amidst our ecclesiastical feuds, 
 with which party will you side? 
 
 Theot. With none. Virtue never occa- 
 sions any disputes, because it comes from God; 
 all these heart-burnings are about opinions, 
 which are the inventions of men. 
 
 Arist. Excellent! I wish all priests were 
 like you. 
 
 CERTAIN, 
 
7^ CCRTAlNr CERTAINTY. 
 
 CERTAIN, CERTAINTY. 
 
 xlOW ol-d may your friend Christopher be? 
 Twenty-eight. I have seen both his contract 
 of marriage, and the register of his birth : I have 
 known him from a child ; twenty-eight is his 
 age. I am as certain of it as certain can be. 
 
 Soon after this man's answer, who was so sure 
 of what he said, and of twenty others, in con- 
 firmation of the same thing, I happened to be 
 informed that, for private reasons, and by an 
 odd contrivance, the register of Christopher's 
 birth was antedated. They to whom I had 
 spoken, knowing nothing of this, are still in 
 the greatest certainty of what is not. 
 
 Had you, in Copernicus's time, asked all the 
 world. Did the sunrise, did the sun set, to-day? 
 they would, one and all, have answered, That's 
 a certainty; we are fully certain of it: thus they 
 were certain, and yet mistaken. 
 
 Witchcraft, divinations, and possessions, 
 were, for a long time, universally accounted the 
 most certain things in the world, What num- 
 berless crowds have seen all those fine things, 
 and have been certain of them! but at present, 
 such certainty begins to lose its credit. 
 
 A young man, just entered on geometry, and 
 gone no farther than the definition of triangles, 
 calls on me: Are not you certain, said I to him, 
 that the three angles of a triangle are equal to 
 two right angles? He answers me, that, so far 
 from being certain, he has not a clear idea of 
 the proposition; on which I demonstrate it to 
 him ; this, indeed, makes him very certain of 
 it, and he will be so as long as he lives. 
 
 Here 
 
CERTAIN, CERTAINTY. 73 
 
 Here is a certainty very different from the 
 former: they were only probabilities, which, 
 on being searched into, are found errors; but 
 mathematical certainty is immutable and eternal, 
 
 I exist, I think, I feel pain; is all this as 
 certain as a geometrical truth ? Yes. And why ? 
 Because these truths are proved by the same 
 principle, that a thing cannot, at the same time, 
 be and not be. I cannot, at one and the same 
 time, exist and not exist, feel and not feel. A 
 triangle cannot have and not have a hundred and 
 eighty degrees, the sura of two right angles. 
 
 Thus the physical certainty of my existence 
 and my sensation, and mathematical certainty, 
 are of a like validity, though differing in kind. 
 
 But this is by no means applicable to the cer- 
 tainty founded on appearances, or the unanimous 
 relations of men. 
 
 How, say you, are not you certain that there 
 is such a city as Pekin? Have you not some 
 Pekin manufactures? Are you not certain of 
 the existence of Pekin from the accounts of 
 persons of different nations and different opi- 
 nions, and writing violently against each other, 
 when preaching the truth in that city. I answer, 
 that it is highly probable there was such a city at 
 that time, but I would not lay my life on its ex- 
 istence; whereas at any time will I stake my life 
 that the three angles of a triangle are equal to 
 wo right angles. 
 
 The DiCTiONAiRE Encyclopedique has 
 a very droll assertion, that should all Paris say 
 that Marshal Saxe is risen from the dead, a man 
 ought to be as sure and certain of it, as he is that 
 the marshal gained the battle of Fontenoy, on 
 hearing all Paris say so. Excellent reasoning! 
 
 I believe 
 
/"tJ) chain of events. 
 
 1 believe all Paris when it tells me a thing mo- 
 rally possible; must I therefore believe all Paris 
 when it tells me a thing which is both morally 
 and naturally impossible ? 
 
 The author ot this article, I suppose, was in a 
 bantering strain, and the other author against 
 whom it was written, probably means no more 
 by his extatic applauses at the end of it. 
 
 CHAIN OF EVENTS. 
 
 At is an old supposition, that all events are 
 linked together by an invincible fatality : this is 
 destiny, which Homer makes superior to Jupiter 
 himself. This sovereign of gods and men trankly 
 declares that he cannot save his son Sarpedon 
 from dying at the time appointed. Sarpedon 
 was born at the very instant that he was to be 
 born, at any other he could not be born ; so he 
 could not die any where but before Troy ; he 
 could be buried no where but in Lycia; his body 
 was at the destined time to produce herbs 
 and pulse, which were to be changed into 
 the substance ot some Lycians. His heirs were 
 to institute a new form of government in his 
 dominions ; this new form was to afFeft the 
 neighbouring kingdoms, and this put those who 
 bordered on these neighbouring kingdoms on 
 new measures of peace or war : thus the fate of 
 the whole earth came gradually to be determined 
 by that of Sarpedon, which depended on another 
 event, and this by a chain of other events, was 
 connected with the origin of things. 
 
 Had only one of these transactions been dif- 
 ferently disposed, it would have caused a differ- 
 ent universe; and that the present universe 
 
 should 
 
CHAIN OF EVENTS. '^'J ^ 
 
 should exist and not exist is an impossibility, 
 therefore it was not possible for Jupiter, with all 
 his omnipotence, to save his son's life. 
 
 This system of necessity and fatality, has, ac- 
 cording to Leibnitz, been struck out by himself, 
 under the appellation of sufficient reason, 
 but it is in reality of very ancient date ; that 
 no effect is without a cause, and that, often, 
 the least cause produces the greatest effects, is 
 what the world is not to be taught at this time 
 of day. 
 
 My Lord Bolingbroke owns, that the trivial 
 quarrel between the Duchess of Marlborough 
 and Mrs. Masham put him upon making the 
 separate treaty between Queen Anne and Lewis 
 XIV. This treaty brought on the peace of 
 Utrecht. This peace settled Philip V. on the 
 Spanish throne. Philip V. dispossessed the 
 house of Austria of Naples and Sicily ; 
 thus the Spanish prince, who is now king of 
 Naples, evidently owes his sovereignty to Mrs, 
 Masham : he would not have had it, perhaps he 
 would not so much as have been born, had 
 the Duchess of Marlborough behaved with due 
 complaisance towards the Queen of England ; 
 his existence at Naples depended on a few fol- 
 lies committed at the court of London. En- 
 quire into the situation of all the nations on the 
 globe, and they all derive from a chain of 
 events, apparently quite unconnected with any 
 one thing, and connected with every thing. In 
 this immense machine all is wheel-work, pully, 
 cords, and spring. 
 
 It is the same in the physical system : a wind 
 blowing from the south of Africa and the aus- 
 tral seas, brings with it part of the African at- 
 mosphere, 
 
76 CHAIN OF EVENTS. 
 
 mosphere, which falls down again in rain among 
 the vallies of the Alps, and these rains fructify 
 our lands. Again. our northern wind wat^ts our 
 vapours among thfe negroes : thus we benefit 
 Guinea, and are benefited by it ; and this chain 
 reaches from one end of the universe to the 
 other. 
 
 But the truth of this principle, I think, has 
 been stretched to a strange excess. Some will 
 have it, that there is no atom ever so minute 
 but its motion contributed to the present dis- 
 position of the whole world ; and that every 
 petty incident, whether among men or brutes, is 
 an essential link in thh great chain of fatality. 
 
 Let us understand one another: every effect 
 has evidently its cause, recurring from cause to 
 cause, up to the abyss of eternity; but every 
 cause has not its effect traced forward to the end 
 of time. That all events proceed from others I 
 own ; as the past has brought forth the present, 
 the present produces the future ; every thing 
 has fathers, but every thing has not always 
 children. This cannot be better elucidated than 
 by a genealogical tree; every family is deduced 
 from Adam, but many of its branches die with- 
 out issue. 
 
 The events of this world are not without their 
 genealogical tree : the inhabitants of Gaul and 
 Spain are indifputably defccnded from Gomer, 
 and the Russians from Magog, his younger bro- 
 ther, for so it is said in many huge books; then 
 we are of course indebted to Magog for the 
 sixty thousand Russians now in arms towards 
 the confines of Pomerania, and the sixty thou- 
 sand French in the neighbourhood of Fianck- 
 fort. But I do not see how Magog's spitting 
 
 to 
 
CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS. (''77) 
 
 to the right or left near Mount Caucasus, or his 
 making two or three arches on the inside of a 
 well, or his lying on his right or his left side, 
 could have any considerable influence in the 
 Czarina Elizabeth's resolution of sending an ' 
 army to the assistance of Mary Theresa, Empress 
 of the Romans. That my dog dreamed or did 
 not dream in its sleep has any relation to the 
 grand Mogul's concerns, is what I cannot see 
 into. 
 
 It must be considered, that all things are not 
 full in nature ; and that every motion is not 
 communicated successively, so as to be conti- 
 nued round the world. On throwing into water 
 a body of equal density, you easily conceive 
 that in some short time the motion of such body, 
 and that which it has caused in the water, will 
 cease; motion is lost and recovered: thus the 
 motion which might have been produced by 
 Magog's spitting in a well, can have no affinity 
 with what is now doing in Russia and Prussia ; 
 thus the present events are not issued from all 
 the former events ; they have their direct Imes ; 
 but a thousand petty collateral lines do not in 
 the least conduce to them: I say it again, every 
 being has its fathers, but every being has not 
 children. I may possibly enlarge on this head, 
 when I come to speak of Destiny. 
 
 CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS. 
 
 J\T my first reading Plato, I was charmed 
 with his gradation of beings, rising from the 
 slightest atom to the supreme essence. Such a 
 Scale struck me with admiration ; but, on a closer 
 survey of it, this august phantom disappeared, as 
 
 formerly 
 
78 CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS* 
 
 formerly ghosts used to hie away at the crowirig 
 of the cock. 
 
 Fancy is, at first, ravished in beholding the 
 imperceptible ascent from senseless matter to 
 organized bodies, from plants to zoophytes, 
 from zoophytes to animals, from these to men, 
 from men to genii, from these aethereal genii to 
 immaterial essence, and lastly numberless dif- 
 ferent orders of these essences, ascending through 
 a succession of increasing beauties and perfec- 
 tions, to God himself. The devout are mightily 
 taken with this hierarchy, as representing the 
 pope and his cardinals, followed by the arch- 
 bishops and bishops, and then by the reverend 
 train of rectors, vicars, unbeneficed priests, dea- 
 cons, and subdeacons ; then come the regulars, 
 and the capuchins bring up the rear. 
 
 But from God to his most perfect creatures 
 the distance is something greater than between 
 the pope and the dean of the sacred college ; 
 this dean may come to be pope, whereas the 
 most perfect of the genii never can be God.' 
 Infinitude lies between God and him. 
 
 Neither does this chain, this pretended gra- 
 dation, exist any longer in vegetables and ani- 
 mals, some species of plants and animals being 
 totally extinguished. The murex is not to be 
 found; it was forbidden to eat the griffin and 
 ixion, which, whatever Bochart may say, have, 
 for ages past, not been in nature ; where then 
 is the chain ? 
 
 If no species have been lost, yet it is manifest 
 they may be destroyed, for lions and rhinoce- 
 roses are growing very scarce. 
 
 It is far from being improbable that there 
 have been breeds of men now no longer existing ; 
 
 but 
 
CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS. 79 
 
 but I grant that they all have been preserved, as 
 truly as the whites, the blacks, the Caffres, to 
 whom nature has given a membraneous apron 
 hanging from their belly half down their thighs; 
 the Samoiedes, where one of the nipples oi the 
 women's breasts is of a fine ebony, &c. 
 
 Is there not a manifest chasm between the 
 monkey and man ? Is it not easy to conceive a 
 two-legged animal without feathers, endowed 
 with understanding, but without speech or our 
 shape, which we might tame and instruct, so that 
 it should answer to our signs, and serve us to 
 many purposes ; and between this new species 
 and that of man, might not others be contrived ? 
 Farther, divine Plato, you quarter in the fir- 
 mament a series of coelestial substances. As for 
 us, we believe the existence of some of these 
 substances, being taught so by our faith. But 
 what grounds can you have for such a belief ? It 
 is to be supposed that you never conversed with 
 Socrates's genius ; and the good man Heres, who 
 kindly rose from the dead, purely to communi- 
 cate to you the mysteries of the other world, did 
 not say a word to you about such substances. 
 
 This supposed chain is not less imperfect in 
 the sensible universe. 
 
 What gradation, pray, is there between those 
 planets of yours ? The moon is forty times 
 smaller than our globe. In your journey from 
 the moon through the ether you meet with 
 Venus, which is nearly as big as the earth. 
 Whence you come to Mercury turning in an 
 ellipsis, which is very different from Venus' 
 orbits ; he is twenty-seven times smaller than 
 our planet, and the sun is a million times larger. 
 Mars is five times smaller; the former performs 
 
 his 
 
8o CHARACTER. 
 
 his orbit in two years, Jupiter its neighbour in 
 twelve, Saturn takes up thirty, and yet Saturn, 
 the most distant of any, is not so large as Jupiter. 
 Amidft these disproportions what becomes ot the 
 gradation ? 
 
 And then, how can you think that, in such 
 immense voids, there can be a chain whereby 
 every thing is connected ; if such a chain there 
 be, it is certainly that discovered by Newton, 
 and by which all the globes of the planetary 
 world gravitate towards each other, throughout 
 these immense spaces. 
 
 Oh! Plato, thou so much admired, your 
 writings swarm with fables and fictions ; and the 
 Cassiterides, where, in your time, men went 
 quite naked, has produced a philosopher, who 
 has taught the world truths as great and sublime 
 as your notions were erroneous and puerile. 
 
 CHARACTER 
 
 'OMES from a Greek word, signifying im- 
 pression and graving; it is what nature has en- 
 graven in us ; then can we efface it ? This is a 
 weighty question. A mishapen nose, cats eyes, 
 or any deformity in the features, may be hidden 
 with a masque, and can I do more with the cha- 
 racter which nature has given me ? A man na- 
 turally impetuous and passionate comes before 
 Francis I. king of France, to complain of an out- 
 rage : the prince's aspect, the respectful beha- 
 viour of the courtiers, the very place, make a 
 powerful impression on him. With eyes cast 
 down, a soft voice, and every sign of humility, he 
 presents his petition, so that one would think 
 he was naturally as mild and polite, as are (at 
 
 least 
 
CHARACTER. 8r 
 
 least at that time) the courtiers, among whom he 
 is even out of countenance ; hut ii Francis I. 
 be a physiognomist, he will easily discover by the 
 sullen fire in his eyes, by the straining of the 
 muscles in his face, and the compression of his 
 lips, that this man is not really so mild as he is 
 obliged to appear. The same man follows him 
 to Pavia, is taken with him, and confined in the 
 same prison at Madrid ; here the impression made 
 on him by Francis's aspect and grandeur ceases ; 
 he grows familiar with the object ot his respect. 
 One day drawing on ihe king's boots, and doing 
 it wrong, the king, soured by his misfortune, 
 takes pet ; on this my gentleman, shaking off' all 
 respect to his majesty, throws the boots out of 
 the window. 
 
 Sixtus Quintus was naturally petulant, obsti- 
 nate, haughty, violent, revengeful, and arro- 
 gant; this character, however, seems quite mol- 
 lified amidft the trials of his noviciate. But no 
 sooner has he attained to some consideration in 
 his order, than he flies into a passion againfl his 
 superior, and severely belabours him with his fists, 
 till he lays him sprawling. On his being made 
 inquisitor at Venice, his insolence became in- 
 tolerable. On his promotion to the purple, he 
 was immediately seized with the rabbia pa- 
 PALE, which so far got the better of his natural 
 character, that he affected obscurity, mortifica- 
 tion, humility, and a very weak state of health. 
 At length he is chosen Pope, and now the spring 
 recovers its whole elasticity, which had been so 
 long under restraint : never was a more haughty 
 and despotic sovereign known. 
 
 " Naturam expellas, furca tamen ipsa redibit." 
 
 G Religion 
 
82 CHARACTER. 
 
 Religion and morality lay a check on the force 
 of the natural temper, but cannot extirpate it. A 
 sot, when in a convent, reduced to half a pint of 
 cyder at each meal, will no longer be seen drunk, 
 but his love of wine will ever be the same. 
 
 Age weakens the natural character; it is a 
 tree which produces only some degenerate fruits, 
 still are they of one and the same nature. It 
 grows knotty, and over-run with moss, and 
 worm-eaten : but amidst all this, it continues 
 what it was, whether oak or pear-tree. Could 
 a man change his character, he would give him- 
 self one; he would be superior to nature. Can 
 we give ourselves any thing ? What have we that 
 we have not received ? Endeavour to rouze the 
 indolent to a conflant activity, to ireeze the impe- 
 tuous into an apathy, to give a taste for poetry 
 and music to one who has neither taste or ears, 
 you may as well go about washing the Black- 
 moor white, or giving sight to one born blind. 
 We only improve, polish, and conceal, what na- 
 ture has put into us ; we have nothing of our 
 own putting. 
 
 A country gentleman is told, there are too many 
 fish in that pond, they will never thrive ; your 
 meadows are crowded with sheep, they have not 
 grass sufficient, they fall away to nothing. Some- 
 time after this advice, it so falls out, that the 
 pikes devour half the carps, and the wolves thin 
 his meadows, so that what sheep are left, fatten 
 apace. Shall he pique himself on his manage- 
 ment ? Well, this country gentleman is no other 
 than thyself: one of thy passions has swallowed 
 up the rest, and thou boastest of self-conquest. 
 How very few among us, who may not be com- 
 pared to that decrepid general, ninety years old, 
 
 wh» 
 
CHINA. 83 
 
 who meeting some young officers making a little 
 free with girls, said to them, quite in a passion, 
 Fy, gentlemen, what do you mean ! do I set you 
 any such example ? 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 W E go to fetch earth from China, as if we 
 had none ; stuffs, as if we were without stuffs ; 
 a small herb to infuse into water, as if our cli- 
 mates did not afford any simples. In return, 
 which is a very commendable zeal, we are for 
 converting the Chinese ; but we should not of- 
 fer to dispute their antiquity, and tell them that 
 they are idolaters : for, indeed, what would be 
 thought of a capuchin who, after being kindly 
 entertained at a seat of the Montmorenci's, should 
 go about to persuade them that they were but 
 new made nobles, like secretaries of state, and 
 accuse them of being idolaters, having observed 
 in this seat two or three of the constable's statues, 
 which they highly value. 
 
 The celebrated Wolfi^, mathematical professor 
 in the university of Halle, once made a judicious 
 oration on the Chinese philosophers : he praised 
 this ancient race of men, though different from 
 us in the beard, eyes, nose, ears, and reasoning; 
 he commended the Chinese as adoring one Su- 
 preme God, and cherishing virtue, thus doing 
 justice to the emperors of China, to the Kolaos, 
 to the tribunals, to the literati : the justice, which 
 the bonzes deserve, is of a different kind. 
 
 This Wolff, you must know, drew to Halle a 
 great resort of scholars from all nations : there 
 was in the same university a professor of divinity 
 named Engel, who had scarce a single scholar ; 
 
 G % this 
 
84 CHINA, 
 
 this man, exasperated at starving with cold in hh- 
 empty auditory, conceived a design, and, to be 
 sure very justly, to ruin the professor of mathe- 
 matics, and, as usual with such men, he charged 
 him with not believing in God. 
 
 Some European writers, utter strangers to Chi- 
 na, had affirmed, that all the men of any note or 
 consideration at Pekin were atheists ; now WolfF 
 had commended the Pekin philosophers; Wolff 
 therefore was an atheist ; envy and hatred never 
 formed better syllogisms. Yet this argument, 
 with the help of a cabal and a protector, appeared 
 so conclusive to the king of the country, that he 
 sent the mathematician a dilemma in form, the 
 import of which was, either to leave Halle in 
 twenty-four hours, or to be hanged. As Wolff 
 always reasoned very justly, he immediately left 
 the city; but by his departure the king lost two 
 or three hundred thousand crowns a year, which 
 the great number of that philosopher's scholars 
 brought into the kingdom. 
 
 May this be a document to sovereigns, not al- 
 ways to lend an ear to calumny, and sacrifice s. 
 great man to the rancour of a blockhead. 
 
 Let us return to China. 
 
 What do we mean here, at the farthest part of 
 the west, thus virulently to dispute whether Fohi, 
 Emperor of China, was the fourteenth Emperor 
 or not, and whether Fohi lived three thousand, or 
 two thousand nine hundred years before our com- 
 mon aera? 1 should laugh at two Irishmen wrang- 
 ling at Dublin about who, in the tweltth century, 
 was the owner ol the estate which 1 now hold ; is 
 it not clear that they should be determined by me, 
 as having ihc writings in my hands ? The case, I 
 think, is similar, with regard to the first emperors of 
 
 China; 
 
CHINA. S5 
 
 China ; the tribunals of the country are the best 
 judges. 
 
 After all your important altercations about the 
 fourteen princes who reigned before Fohi, the 
 2-esult will be, that China was then very well 
 peopled, and had laws and a political constitu- 
 tion. Now, let me ask you, whether a nation 
 living in towns, and having laws and sovereigns, 
 does not imply a prodigious antiquity ? Consi- 
 <ler the time that must have passed, and the con- 
 currence of circumstances, before iron could 
 be found out in the mines, and then fitted tor 
 agriculture ; and likewise before the invention 
 of the shuttle and all other trades. 
 
 Some who play the fool with their pens have 
 contrived a whimsical sort of calculation ; the 
 Jesuit Petau, in his sagacious computation, at 
 the epocha of only two hundred and eighty-five 
 years after the deluge, gives the earth an hun- 
 dred times more inhabitants than can be supposed 
 in it at present. Cumberland and Whiston are no 
 less ridiculous in their calculations. Good men ! 
 Had they only consulted the registers of our 
 American colonies, they would have been asto- 
 nished. They would have seen how very slowly 
 the human species multiplies, and very often, so 
 far from increasing, diminishes. 
 
 Let us, therefore, who are but of yesterday, 
 descendants from the Celts, who have but just 
 cleared our wild countries from the forests with 
 which they were over-run ; let us, I say, leave 
 the Chinese and the Indians in the quiet enjoy- 
 ment of their fine climate and their antiquity; 
 especially let us forbear calling the Emperor of 
 China and the Soubah of Decan idolators: nei- 
 ther are we to be infatuated with Chinese merit. 
 
 G 3 The 
 
86 CHINA. 
 
 The constitution of their empire is, indeed, the 
 best in the whole world, the only one which is 
 entirely modelled from paternal power (the man- 
 darins, however, chastise their children very se- 
 verely) the only one where the governor of a 
 province is punished, if, at the expiration of his 
 office, the people do not shew their approbation 
 of his conduct by loud acclamations ; the only 
 one which has instituted prizes for virtue, whilst 
 every where else the laws only punish vice ; the 
 only one whose laws have recommended them- 
 selves to its conquerors, whilst we are still swayed 
 by the cuftoms of our conquerors, the Burgun- 
 dians, the Franks, and the Goths. But it must 
 be owned, that the commonalty who are bonze- 
 ridden, are no less knavish than ours; that fo- 
 reigners are extremely imposed on, as amongst 
 us ; that in sciences the Chinese are two hundred 
 years behind us; that, like us, they have a thou- 
 sand ridiculous notions, that they give credit to 
 talismans and judicial astrology, which was also 
 our case for a long time. 
 
 It must farther be owned, that they were 
 amazed at our thermometer, at our way of freez- 
 ing liquors by salt-petre, and with Torricelli's 
 and OhtoGueric's experiments, just as we our- 
 selves were at our first seeing those physical ex- 
 hibitions : farther, their physicians do not cure 
 mortal distempers any more than ours ; and the 
 slighter illnesses nature alone cures them, as 
 here: notwithstanding all this, the Chinese, four 
 thousand years ago, when we did not know our 
 letters, were masters of all that is essentially use- 
 ful in that knowledge which we so much value 
 ourselves on at present. 
 
 CHRIS- 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 HISTORICAL DISQUISITIONS CONCERNING 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 AN vain have several of the learned expressed 
 their wonder, that in the historian Josephus (9) 
 
 they 
 
 (^ ) That the passage concerning Christ in Josephus's 
 history is universally allowed to be interpolated, is not 
 true ; very learned men have maintained the contrary. 
 Besides, this is but a negative argument, which can be 
 of no manner of weight against the positive and un- 
 doubted authorities of Pagan writers, not one of 
 whom is mentioned by our author. Nothing can be 
 more disingenuous. The star that appeared at Christ's 
 birth, and the journey of the Chaldean wifemen, arc 
 mentioned by Chalcidius the Platonist: " Est quoque 
 *' aha sanctior & venerabilior historia, quae perhibet 
 *' ortu stellae cujusdam non morbos mortesque denun- 
 ** ciatas, sed descensum Dei venerabiUs ad humanae 
 *' conservationis, rerumque mortaliuni gratiam : quam 
 ** stellam cum nocturno tempore inspexissent Chal- 
 ** daeorum profedo sapientes viri, & consideratione 
 *' rerum caelestium satis exercitati, quaesisse dicuntur 
 ** recentis ortum Dei, repcrtaque ilia maj estate 
 *' puerili veneratos esse, &c vota Deo tanto conveni- 
 *' entia nuncupasse. In Commentario ad Timseum." 
 The slaughter of the innocents by Herod is related by 
 Macrobius, who, at the same time, has given us a re- 
 flection made on that occasion by the Emperor Augus- 
 tus : " Cum audisset inter pueros, quos in Syria He- 
 " rodes rex Jud^orum intra bimatum jussit intertici, 
 *' filium quoque ejus occisum, ait, " Mehus est He- 
 *' rodis porcum esse quam fiiium." Lib. ii. cap. 4. 
 
 G 4 Christ's 
 
88 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 they meet with no trace of Jesus Christ, the 
 little passage relating to him in his history being 
 now universally given up as interpolated. Yet 
 Josephus's father must have been an eye-witness 
 
 of 
 
 Christ's crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is related by 
 Tacitus : " Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem 
 " Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat." Lib. xv. 
 The earthquake and miraculous darkness attending it, 
 are recorded by Phlegon, lib. xiii. Chronicorum sive 
 Olympiadum. TcD §' grsi rris C. B. 'Oxvixirid^oq 
 cyEVETO 8/cXs(\)/»5:^Xi>s /xeyt^yj rcov eyvcu^KTixivcuvza^ors- 
 qov* aoti vv^ cu^gt. rrjy rifMs^ixs 'iyivsro, cu'iS xcci oisiqoc? 
 fcV 'Ȥavai (pocvrrDOLiy (rei(rfx6<; re (/.eyas xaroc BiSfvt'av 
 yBvo/xEvos roc zsoKkocNix-ccius nacrissy^s . — Besides, these 
 very circumstances were mentioned in the public Ro- 
 man records, to which the early writers of Christianity 
 used to appeal, as of undoubted authority with their 
 adversaries. See Grotius de Ver. Rel- Chr. lib. iii. 
 Dr. Clarke on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed 
 Religion, p. 357. And Mr. Addison, in his little 
 treatise on the Christian Religion, sect. 2. 
 
 The difficulties in the history of the Evangelists are 
 such as may be easih, removed by consulting the an- 
 notations of learned expositors, or even by a diligent 
 meditation of the Scriptures. If the obscurity of a 
 work were an argument against its authority, there 
 would be an end of all historical credibility. We 
 meet with difficulties in Polybius, Livy, Plutarch, and 
 yet we doubt not of their veracity. 
 
 But to come to the difficulties mentioned by our au- 
 thor: I, The Zachariah mentioned by St. Matthew, 
 is most probably concluded to be the son of Jehoiada, 
 whom the Jews stoned to death iu the very court of 
 the temple, at the command of Joash (Chron. ii. 24.) 
 And as for the father's name not agreeing, Jehoiada 
 
 might 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 @f Jesus's miracles. This historian was of the 
 priestly lineage, and being related to queen Ma- 
 riamne, Herod's wife, is minutely particular on 
 all that prince's proceedings, yet wholly silent as 
 to the life and death of Christ. Though neither 
 concealing nor palliating Herod's cruelties, not 
 
 a word 
 
 might have two names, which was not an uncommon 
 thing among the Jews. Beside*^, even if we could 
 not find such a Zachariah in the Jewish history, is it 
 a proof that he never existed ? Is it to be supposed 
 the Scripture has given us every transaction of that 
 nation, and that nothing has been omitted by the sa- 
 cred historian ? 
 
 2. The difficulties about the genealog)' of Christ have 
 at all times been made use of as an argument by the ad- 
 versaries of our holy religion. St. Matthew and St. Luke 
 have given us two genealogies, which differ in ap- 
 pearance, but agree in the main. The Jews were very 
 exact in their genealogies, and no doubt but the evan- 
 geUsts took that of our Saviour from the public records. 
 But it is supposed by very learned writers, and with 
 the greatest probability, that one of these genealogies 
 is that of Mary, and the other that of Joseph. St. 
 Matthew made the genealogy of Joseph, who was 
 the last male of David's race descended from Solo- 
 mon ; and St. Luke that of the Virgin Mary, by Na- 
 than from David. There are other opinions in regard 
 to the solution of this difficulty; but this is sufficient 
 to shew that the two genealogies may be reconciled. 
 To conclude, we may safely affirm, with the learned 
 Dr. Clarke, that the evidence which God has afforded 
 for the truth of our religion is abundantly sufficient; 
 and that the cause of men's infidelity is not the want 
 of better evidence, but the dominion of their passions, 
 which prevents them from hearkening to any reason- 
 able conviction. 
 
90 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 a word does he say about his ordering the chil« 
 dren to be massacred, on an intonnation that a 
 king of the Jews was just born. According to 
 the Greek calendar the number of children put 
 to death on that occasion amounted to fourteen 
 thousand. 
 
 Of all the cruelties ever committed by all the 
 tyrants that ever lived, this was the most horrible ; 
 a like instance is not to be found in history. 
 
 Yet the best writer the Jews ever had, the 
 only one of any account with the Romans and 
 Greeks, makes no manner of mention of a trans- 
 action so very extraordinary, and so very dread- 
 ful. He says not a word of the new star which 
 had appeared in the east at the Saviour's nativity; 
 and a phoenomenon so singular could not escape 
 the knowledge of such an accurate historian as 
 Josephus : he is likewise silent as to the darkness 
 which, at noon day, covered the whole earth for 
 the space of three hours, whilst the Saviour was 
 on the cross ; the opening of the tombs at that 
 awful time; and the number of the just who rose 
 from the dead. 
 
 It is no less a matter of wonder to the learned 
 that these prodigies are not taken notice of by any 
 Roman historian, though they happened in the 
 reign of Tiberius, under the very eyes of a Ro- 
 man governor and garrison, who naturally would 
 have sent the emperor and senate a circumstan- 
 tial account of the most miraculous event ever 
 heard of. Rome itself must for three hours have 
 been involved in thick darkness, and surely such 
 a prodigy would have been noted in the annals of 
 Rome, and those of all other nations. But God, 
 I suppose, would not allow that such divine 
 
 things 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 9I 
 
 things should be committed to writing by pro- 
 phane hands (*). 
 
 The same learned persons likewise meet with 
 some difficulties in the e^^angelical history. They 
 observe, that in St. Matthew, Jesus Christ says 
 to the Scribes and Pharisees, that upon them 
 should come all the innocent blood shed on the 
 earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to that 
 of Zachariah the son of Barac, whom they slew 
 between the temple and the altar. 
 
 In all the history of the Hebrews, say they, we 
 meet with no such person as Zachariah killed in 
 the temple before the coming of the Messiah, nor 
 in his time; but Josephus, in his history ot the 
 siege of Jerusalem, (chap. xix. book iv.) men- 
 tions a Zachariah the son of Barachiah, who was 
 killed in the middle of the temple, by the faction 
 of the Zelotes. This has given rise to a suspi- 
 cion that St. Matthew's gospel was not written 
 till after the taking of Jerusalem by Titus. But 
 if we consider the infinite difference there must 
 be between books divinely inspired and such as 
 are merely human, all these doubts, difficulties, 
 and objections, immediately vanish. It was 
 God's pleasure that his birth, life, and death, 
 should be shrouded in a cloud of respectable 
 darkness. His ways in all things are different 
 from ours. 
 
 The learned are also at a great loss to recon- 
 cile the difference of the two genealogies of 
 Christ. In St. Matthew, Joseph's father is 
 
 Jacob, 
 
 " (*) Josephus's silence is very well accounted for by 
 the bishop of Cloyne, in his Minute Philoso- 
 pher, p. 313, 
 
gi CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Jacob, Jacob's Matthan, Matthan*s Eleazar; 
 whereas St. Luke says that Joseph was the son 
 of Heh, Heli of Matthat, Matthat of Levi, Levi 
 of Janna, &c. They cannot reconcile the fifty-six 
 ancestors in Christ's genealogy from Abraham, 
 mentioned by Luke, to the two and forty differ- 
 ent ancestors in the genealogy from the same 
 Abraham, given by St. Matthew; and they are 
 shocked that Matthew, mentioning forty-two 
 generations, enumerates no more than forty- 
 one. 
 
 They likewise are at a stand about Jesus not 
 being the son of Joseph but of Mary. They 
 farther have their doubts concerning the miracles 
 of our Saviour, and quote St, Austin, St. Hi- 
 lary, and others, who interpret the account of 
 these miracles, in a mystic and allegorical sense: 
 as the cursing and withering the fig-tree for not 
 bearing figs when it was not the time of figs ; the 
 sending the devils into the swine in a country 
 where those creatures were not allowed of; the 
 turning the water into wine towards the end of 
 an entertainment, when the guests were already 
 heated with liquor. But all these cavils of the 
 learned are put to silence by faith, whose merit 
 is enhanced by these difficulties. The scope of 
 this article is purely to follow the historical clue, 
 and give a just and precise idea of those facts 
 which nobody offers to controvert. 
 
 First, Jesus was born under the Mosaic law; 
 in conformity to this law he was circumcised ; 
 he conformed to all its precepts; he kept all its 
 feasts, and preached only morality, he made no 
 revelation ot the mystery of his incarnation; he 
 never told the Jews that he was born of a Virgin ; 
 he received John's benediction, being baptized 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 by him in the river Jordan, a ceremony to which 
 great numbers ot Jews submitted ; he said no- 
 thing about the seven sacraments, nor did he 
 institute, in his life-time, the ecclesiastical, 
 hierarchy. He concealed from his cotemporaries 
 that he was the Son of God, generated from all 
 eternity, consubstantial with God, and that the 
 Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the 
 Son; he did not intorm them that his person 
 ■was composed of two natures and two wills: 
 these great mysteries were, in after-times to be 
 declared to man by persons illuminated with the 
 light of the Holy Ghost. During his whole 
 life he did not in the least deviate from the law 
 of his forefathers. He shewed himself to the 
 world only as a just man, acceptable to God, 
 persecuted by envious doctors, and condemned 
 to die by prejudiced magistrates. It was his 
 pleasure that all the rest should be done by' the 
 holy church which he established. 
 
 Josephus, in the 12th chapter of his history, 
 mentions an austere sect of Jews then recently 
 founded by one Judas Galileus, *' They make 
 light," says he, *' of all earthly evils. Such 
 is their resolution, that they brave tortures, 
 and on an honourable motive, prefer death to 
 life. They have chose to be burnt, to be 
 slain, and even their bones to be broken, ra- 
 ther than utter the least word against their 
 legislator, or eat any forbidden food." 
 This character seems to belong to the Judaites 
 and not to the Essenes ; for Josephus's words 
 are, " Judas was the author of a new sect totally 
 ** different from the other three, i. e. the Sad- 
 ** ducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes." And 
 further on, he says; " They are by natiun Jews, 
 
 '* they 
 
 4( 
 
 it 
 
 a 
 (t 
 
 (( 
 i( 
 
 it 
 
Q4 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 •* they live in a close union among themselves, 
 ♦♦ and hold all sensuality vicious and sinful." 
 Now the natural import of this phrase shews the 
 author to be speaking of the Judaites. 
 
 However it be, these Judaites were known 
 before Christ's disciples began to make any con- 
 siderable figure in the world. 
 
 The Therapeutes were a society differing both 
 from the Essenians and the Judaites, and had 
 some affinity to the Indian Gymnosophists and 
 Bramins. " They have," says Philo, " impulses 
 ** of heavenly love, by which they kindle into 
 *' all the enthusiasm of the Coribantes and 
 •' the Bacchanalians, and are raised to that state 
 " of contemplation after which they aspire. 
 ♦* This sect had its rise in Alexandria, where 
 " the Jews were very numerous, and spread ex- 
 •' ceedingly throughout Egypt." 
 
 John the Baptist's disciples likewise spread a 
 little in Egypt, but especially in Syria and 
 Arabia; Asia-minor also was not without them. 
 The Acts of the apostles, ch. xix. says that St. 
 Paul met with several at Ephesus; and asking 
 them, *' Have you received the Holy Ghost?'* 
 They answered, ** We have not so much as heard 
 *' that there is a Holy Ghost:" he said to them, 
 " What baptism, then, have you received?" 
 They answered him, "The baptism of John." 
 For some little time after Jesus's death, there 
 were several different sects and societies among 
 the Jews; the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the 
 Essenes, the Judaites, the Therapeutes, the dis- 
 ciples of John, and the disciples of Christ, whose 
 little flock God led by paths unknown to human 
 wisdom. 
 
 Believers first had the name of Christians at 
 
 Antioch, 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 95 
 
 Antiocb, about the sixtieth year of our common 
 asra; but, as we shall see in the sequel, they 
 were known in the Roman empire by other ap- 
 pellations. Before that time they distinguished 
 themselves only by the name of Brothers, Saints, 
 and Faithful. Thus God, who had come down 
 on earth to be a pattern of meekness and self-de- 
 nial, founded his church on very weak, and ap- 
 parently mean beginnings, and kept it in the 
 same humble and mortified condition in which 
 it pleased him to be born. All the first believers 
 were of low parentage, obscure men, working 
 with their own hands. The apostle Paul inti- 
 mates, that he supported himselt by making of 
 tents. St. Peter raised to lite Dorcas a semp- 
 stress, who used to make garments for the bre- 
 thren; and the believers ot Joppa used to hold 
 their meetincrs in the house oi one Simon a 
 tanner, as may be seen in chap. ix. of the Acts 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 The faithful secretly spread themselves in 
 Greece, and some went from thence to Rome, 
 mingling with the Jews, to whom the Romans 
 allowed a synagogue. At first they continued 
 with the Jews, and so far practised circutn* 
 cision, that, as we have elsewhere observed, the 
 fifteen first bishops of Jerusalem were everyone 
 circumcised. 
 
 The apostle Paul, on taking with him Timothy, 
 whose father was a Gentile, circumcised him 
 himself, at the little town of Lystra; but Titus, 
 his other disciple, would not submit to that 
 ceremony. The disciples of Jesus continued in 
 unity with the Jews, till Paul bringing strangers 
 into the temple, the Jews raised a persecution 
 against him, and charged him with an intent of 
 
 subverting 
 
it 
 «( 
 
 96 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 subverting the Mosaic law by the doctrine of 
 Jesus Christ. It was in order to clear himself 
 from this accusation, that James proposed to 
 Paul his having his head shaved, and purifying 
 himself in the temple, along with four Jews, 
 who had made a vow to be shaved: *' Them 
 *' take, and purify thyself with them," says 
 James to him (Acts ch. xxi.) '* that all may know, 
 
 that all things whereof they were informed 
 
 concerning thee are nothing, and that thou 
 
 keepest the law of Moses." 
 
 This did not in the least abate the charge of 
 impiety and heresy against Paul, and his trial 
 was of some continuance ; but the very articles 
 for which he was indicted evidently shew, that 
 he was come to Jerusalem to observe the Jewish 
 rites. 
 
 His own words to Titus (Acts chap, xxv.) are, 
 ** Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against 
 " the temple, have I offended any thing at all." 
 
 The apostles promulgated Jesus Christ as a 
 Jew, an observer of the Jewish law, and sent by 
 God to inforce the observance of it. ** Circum- 
 ** cision verily profiteth," says the apostle Paul, 
 (Rom. ii.) '* if thou keepeft the law ; but if thou 
 •' be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is 
 •* made uncircumcision. If the uncircumcisior. 
 ** keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his 
 ** uncircumcision be counted for circumcision ? 
 •* He is a Jew who is one inwardly." 
 
 When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in 
 his epistles, he does not make known the ineffable 
 mystery of his consubstantiality with God. •' We 
 •* are," says he, in the fifth chapter to the Ro- 
 mans, " delivered by him from the wrath of 
 ** God; the gift of God is come to us through 
 
 ♦* the 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 97 
 
 *' the grace imparted to one only man, Christ 
 *♦ Jesus ; Death has reigned by the sin of one 
 *' man, and the just shall reign in life by one 
 ** man, Jesus Christ." And in chap. viii. "We 
 *' are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ:*' 
 and in chap. xvi. " To God, who alone is wise, 
 ** be honour and glory through Jesus Christ." — 
 •' Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Cor. i. 3. 
 And 1 Cor. xv. 27. *' All things are subject to 
 *' him, God certainly excepted, who hath subject- 
 ** ed all things to him." 
 
 Some difficulties have occurred in explaining 
 the following passage in the epistle to the Philip- 
 pians : *' Let nothing be done through vain glory, 
 ** but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other 
 ** better than themselves ; let this mind be in you 
 ** which was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the 
 *' form of God, thought it not robbery to be 
 " equal with God" (*). The sense of the passage 
 
 seem-s 
 
 (^) This passage has been greatly strained by the 
 Socinians, from whom our author seems to have bor* 
 rowed his remark. The original is, 'O; sv fjiopfpn 
 ©eS uTTccpy^^oJv 89' otpzjocytJ^ov riyno'ocTcy ro iivoci Itra, ©?&' : 
 which in our English Testament is almost literally 
 rendered thus : *' Who being in the form of God, 
 *' thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Nov/ 
 we grant it would be difficult to find the example of 
 modesty and humility meant by St. Paul, and' alluded to 
 by the churches of Vicnne and Lyon in the above lines 
 alone ; but we should take the whole passage toge- 
 ther, and what follows will demonstrate the sense : 
 ** but made himself of no reputation, and took upon 
 ** him the form of a servant, humbled himself, and 
 ** became obedient unto death." That is, though in 
 his divine form or nature, he thought it not robbery. 
 
 H 01 
 
98 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 seems very well set forth in a most valuable mo- 
 nument of antiquity, a letter from the churches' 
 of Vienne and Lyon, written in the year 117 ; 
 part of it turns on the modesty of fome of the 
 faithful : •* They would not," fays the letter, 
 *' take on themselves the august title of martyrs 
 " (for a few tribulations) imitating Jesus Christ, 
 *' who bearing the likeness or image of God, did 
 *' not think the title of God's equal belonged 
 *' to him," Origen, likewise, in his commen- 
 tary on John, says, *' Christ's greatness has ap- 
 *' peared more resplendent in his humiliation, 
 •' than if he had thought it no robbery to be God's 
 ♦* equal." And, in reality, the contrary expli- 
 cation is a palpable inconsistency. What can 
 be meant by '* believe others your betters, 
 " imitate Jesus, who thought it no robbery, no 
 " usurpation, to make himself God's equal ?" 
 This would be a flat contradiction, overthrowing 
 what precedes ; it is giving an example of ambi- 
 tion for a pattern of meekness ; it is a trespass 
 against common sense. 
 
 Thus it was that the wisdom of the apostles 
 founded the infant church, and this wisdom was 
 not difcomposed by the contest between the 
 
 apostles 
 
 or any usurpation, to be equal with God ; yet conde- 
 scended to take the form of a servant, that is, human 
 nature, and to lessen himself for the salvation of his 
 people. Is not this an unparallelled example of hu- 
 mility and modefty ? and is not this the plain obvious 
 s,ense of the above passage ? And doci, not this shew 
 how easy it is to wrest the meaning of any text of 
 Scripture, as the Arians and Socinians have done in 
 the present case, in order to evade a very strong proof 
 of Christ's divinity. 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 99 
 
 apostles Peter, James, and John, on one fide, 
 and Paul on the other. It happened at Antioch : 
 the apostle Peter, alias Cephas, alias Simon Bar- 
 jona, used to eat with the Gentile converts, 
 overlooking the ceremonies of the law, and the 
 distinftions of aliments : he and Barnabas, toge- 
 ther with other disciples, made no manner of 
 scruple to eat pork, things strangled, or animals 
 which divide the hoof, hut do not chew the cud ; 
 but a number of Jewish Christians coming there, 
 St. Peter associated with them, returning to his 
 former abstinence from forbidden meats, and the 
 observance of the Mosaic ceremonies. 
 
 This procedure has an air of discretion ; he 
 was unwilling to give any offence to his Jewish 
 brethren ; but St. Paul declared againft him with 
 some harshness: " I withftood him," says he, 
 *' to his face, for he was to blame." Gal. ii. 
 
 This quarrel appears the more extraordinary in 
 St. Paul, who, as having at first been a perse- 
 cutor, should have shewn more temper ; befides, 
 he himself had gone into the temple at Jerusalem 
 to sacrifice, had circumcised his disciple Timo- 
 thy, and had performed those Jewish rites for 
 which he now upbraids Cephas. St. Jerom will 
 have it that this bickering between Paul and 
 Cephas was only a feint. In his first Homily, 
 tome iii. he says, that they acted like two plead- 
 ers at the bar, who grow warm, and use keen 
 language, only that their clients may have the 
 higher opinion of them ; that Peter Cephas be- 
 ing appointed to preach to the Jews, and the 
 Gentiles being Paul's department, they affected 
 a quarrel ; Paul to gain the Gentiles, and Peter 
 to gain the Jews. But St. Austin can by no 
 means relish this opinion. ** lam sorry," saya 
 
 H 2 he, 
 
100 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 he, in his epistle to Jerom, ** that so great a 
 ** man should patronize a falsity, patron UM 
 
 *' MENDACII." 
 
 Farther, iF Peter was appointed apostle to the 
 Jews, and Paul to the Gentiles, it is very pro- 
 bable that Peter never came to Rome. The Acts 
 of the Apostles make no mention of Peter's 
 journey into Italy. 
 
 However that be, about the year sixty of our 
 aera, the Christians began to separate themselves 
 from the Jewish communion ; and this was what 
 drew on them such censures, invectives, and 
 persecutions from the synagogues of Rome, 
 Greece, Egypt, and Asia. Their Jewish bre- 
 thren not only charged them with impiety and 
 atheism, but formally excommunicated them 
 three times in their synagogues, even on the sab- 
 bath-day : still God upheld them amidst all their 
 trials and sufferings. 
 
 Several churches were gradually formed, and 
 before the end of the first century, the separation 
 between the Jews and Christians became total ; 
 but the Roman government knew nothing of this 
 schism ; neither the senate nor the emperors of 
 Rome concerning themselves about the wrang- 
 lings of a little party, which, till then, God had 
 conducted in obscurity, and was raising by in- 
 sensible degrees. 
 
 Let us take a view of the state of the religion 
 of the Roman empire at that time. Mysteries 
 and expiations were in vogue almost all over the 
 earth. Though the emperors, the grandees, and 
 philosophers, secretly made a jest of those mys- 
 teries, still it behoved them outwardly to con- 
 form to the public worship, lest they should ir- 
 ritate the people, who, in religious affairs, give 
 
 Jaw 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 101 
 
 law to their betters ; or rather these, to chain 
 them the faster, appear to wear the same chains. 
 Cicero himself was initiated into the Eleusinian 
 mysteries. The principal tenet set forth in these 
 mysteries and splendid festivals was the know- 
 ledge ot one only God ; and it must be owned 
 that Paganism has nothmg more pious, and in 
 every respect, more admirable, than the prayers 
 and hymns used m those mysteries, and of which 
 fragments are still remaining. 
 
 The Chriflians likewise, worshipping only one 
 God, paved the way to their success in convert- 
 ing Gentiles. Even some philosophers of Plato's 
 sect became Christians : hence it is, that the 
 fatheis of the church, for the three first centuries, 
 were all Platonics. 
 
 The inconsiderate zeal of some did not affect 
 the fundamental truths. St. Justin, one of the 
 first fathers, is censured for saying, in his Com- 
 mentary on Isaiah, that the saints sl\ould reign a 
 thousand years on the earth, in full enjoyment 
 of all sensual delights ; he has been blamed for 
 a position in his Apology for Christianity, that 
 God, after making the earth, left the care of it 
 to angels, that these fell in love with the women, 
 and that the issue of this passion are the devils. 
 Lactantius and other fathers have been con- 
 demned for mventing Sybilline oracles ; he af- 
 firmed that theSybilla Erythrea made four Greek 
 verses, of which the literal interpretation is, 
 
 " With five loaves and two fishes 
 
 He shall feed five thousand men in the desert, 
 
 And gathering up the remains, 
 
 With them shall fill twelve baskets.*' 
 
 H 3 It 
 
102 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 It lias likewise been made a crime to the first 
 Chriftians, that they were for palming on the 
 world some acrostics, as written by an old Sybil, 
 all beginning with the initial letters of the name 
 of Jesus Christ, each in its order. 
 
 But, notwithftanding this zeal of fome Chrif- 
 tians, which was not according to knowledge, 
 the church, under a divine superintendency, was 
 daily increasing. At first the Christians used 
 to celebrate their mysteries in lonely houses and 
 taverns, and in the night time ; from which prac- 
 tice, according to Minutius Felix, they got the 
 appellation of Lucifugaces ; Philo calls them 
 Gesseans ; but, during the four first centuries, 
 they were most commonly known to the Gen- 
 tiles by the name of Galileans and Nazarenes ; 
 that of Chriftians has, however, obtained beyond 
 any other. 
 
 Neither the hierarchy, nor the rites and usages, 
 were established all at once; the apostolic times 
 were different from the succeeding. St. Paul, 
 in his first epistle to the Corinthians, directs 
 them, that, in a public assembly of the brethren, 
 whether circumcised or uncircumcised, when 
 several prophets were for speaking, only two or 
 three should speak ; and in the mean time, if any 
 one had a revelation, the prophet who had begun 
 to speak was to be silent. 
 
 It is owing to this custom of the primitive 
 church that to this day, some Christian sects hold 
 their assemblies without any hierarchy. Every 
 one was then allowed to speak in the church, 
 women excepted ; what we call the sacred mass, 
 and celebrate in the morning, was the Lord's 
 Supper, originally administered in the evening; 
 these usages altered as the church gathered 
 
 strength. 
 
CHRISTIANITY. IO3 
 
 •Strengths A more extended society required 
 •more regulations, and the prudent pastors con- 
 formed to times and places. 
 
 According to St. Jerom and Eusebius, when 
 the churches had received a form, they gradually 
 came to consist of five different classes. The 
 superintendents, episcopi, whence are derived 
 the bishops ; the elders of the society, presby- 
 teroi, the priests, ministers, or deacons; the 
 Pistoi, believers, or initiated, that is, the baptized, 
 who were admitted to the Agapaes, or feasts 
 of charity ; and the catechumens and energu- 
 menes, who were candidates for baptism. None 
 ot these five orders were distinguished by any 
 particular vesture or garb, nor was any of them 
 bound to celibacy ; witness Tertullian'sdedicat- 
 mg a book to his wife ; witness the example of 
 -the apostles. No painting or sculpture was seen 
 in {heir assemblies during the first three cen- 
 turies. The Christians used careiully to conceal 
 their books from the Pagans, and trusted none 
 with them except the initiated ; the catechumens 
 were not permitted to say the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 But what most distinguished the Christians, 
 and continued down to our times, was the power 
 of driving out devils with the sign of the cross. 
 Origen, in his treatise against Celsus, owns, 
 Numb. 133, that Antinous, who had been de- 
 ified by the emperor Adrian, wrought miracles 
 in Egypt, by charms and prestiges ; but the 
 devils, says he, quit the body oi the possessed, 
 on the bare pronunciation ot the name of Jesus. 
 Tertullian goes still farther, and from the re- 
 mote part ot Africa where he was, says, in chap. 
 ■:33. of his Apologeticon, " It your gods do not, 
 -'* in the presence of a true Christian, own them- 
 
 H ^ *' selves 
 
104 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 " selves to be devils, we freely consent that you 
 ** put that Christian to death. Can there be a 
 ** more evident demonstration ?" 
 
 Jesus Christ, indeed, sent his apostles to 
 drive out devils. The Jews, likewise, in his 
 time, had this power ; for, when Jesus had re- 
 lieved some demoniacs, and sent the devils into 
 the body of a herd of swine, and performed 
 many otlier such cures, the Pharisees said, It is 
 by the power of Belzebub he drives out devils : 
 but Jesus answers, *' If I drive them out by 
 '* Belzebub, by whom do your sons drive them 
 '* out ?" That the Jews boasted of such a power 
 •is indisputable; they had exorcists and exor- 
 cisms. On these occasions they called on the 
 name of the God of Jacob and of Abraham, 
 and consecrated herbs were put up the demo- 
 niac's nose (Josephus gives some account of 
 these ceremonies). This power over the devils 
 was taken away from the Jews, and transferred 
 to the Christians, who, for some time past, seem 
 likewise to have lost it. 
 
 This exorcising power comprehended that 
 of preventing or defeating magical operations ; 
 ior magic was ever in repute among all nations. 
 All the fathers of the church bear witness to it. 
 St. Justin owns, in his Apologetic, book iii, 
 that the souls of the deceased are ohen evoked, 
 and trom thence draws an argument in favour 
 of the soul's immortality. Lactantius, book vii, 
 of his Divine Institution, says, " Should any 
 ** one dare to deny the existence of souls after 
 *' death, the magician will soon convince him 
 ** by making it appear." Ireneus, Clement 
 Alexandrinus, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, all af- 
 firm the like. At present, indeed, it is other- 
 wise, 
 
CHRISTIANITY, lO^ 
 
 wise, and we hear no more of magicians or de- 
 moniacs ; yet such there will be, when it so 
 pleases God. 
 
 When the congregations of Christians were 
 become considerable, and several presumed to 
 insult the Roman worship, the civil power ex- 
 erted itself against them, and the commonalty, 
 especially, were most violent in persecuting this 
 new religion. The Jews, who confined them- 
 selves to their synagogues, so far from being 
 persecuted, had particular privileges, and were 
 allowed the exercise of their religion at Rome, 
 as they are at present; all the different worships 
 in the several parts of the empire were tole- 
 rated, though the senate did not adopt them: 
 but the Christians making no secret of their 
 detestation of all those worships, and especially 
 that of the empire, were several times exposed 
 to cruel trials. 
 
 One of the first and most celebrated martyrs 
 was Ignatius Bishop of Antioch; he was con- 
 demned by the Emperor Trajan himself, then 
 in Asia, and, by his order, sent to Rome to be 
 exposed to beasts, at a time when other Chris- 
 tians were under no open molestation in that 
 city: His accusation is not known ; but that 
 Emperor being otherwise famous for clemency, 
 St. Ignatius's enemies must have been very vio- 
 lent in their prosecution. The history of his 
 martyrdom relates that the name of Jesus Christ 
 was found engraven on his heart in golden cha- 
 racters; and thence it is, that the Christians, in 
 some places, took the name of the Theophori, 
 which Ignatius had given to himself. 
 
 We have still a letter of his, in which he 
 iritreats the bishops and Christians not to oppose 
 
 his 
 
jo6 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 his martyrdom ; whether that, even then, the 
 Christians were strong enough to attempt a 
 rescue, or that some of them might have in- 
 terest to obtain his pardon. Another very re- 
 markable circumstance is, that the Christians 
 of Rome were allowed to go and meet him, 
 when he was brought thither; which evidently 
 proves, that the man and not the sect was 
 punished. 
 
 The persecutions were so far from being con- 
 tinued, that Origen, in his third book against 
 Celsus, says, " It is easy to compute what 
 *' number of Christians have died for their re- 
 *' ligion ; few, and only from time to time, and 
 ** by intervals, having died on that account." 
 ^" So careful was God of his church, that, in 
 spite of all its enemies, five councils were held 
 in the first century, sixteen in the second, and 
 thirty in the third; all tolerated: though some* 
 times they were forbidden, the magistrates, in 
 their mistaken timidity, fearing that they might 
 produce disturbances. Few of the reports of 
 the proconsuls and praetors who pronounced 
 sentence on the Christians are now remaining, 
 and those are the only vouchers for ascertaining 
 the accusations brought against them, and their 
 punishments. 
 
 We have a fragment of Dionysius of Alex- 
 andria, containing an extract of a pro-consul 
 of Egypt, under the Emperor Valerian, which 
 is as follows: ** Dionysius, Faustus, Maximus, 
 and Cheremon, being brought into court, 
 the prefect Emilian thus addressed them : 
 From my discourse with you, and from the 
 many particulars I wrote to you, you 
 must have been sensible that our princes 
 
 ** have 
 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 10/ 
 
 have shewn you great lenity and indulg- 
 ence; I again repeat it to you, they refer 
 your life and safety to yourselves, and put 
 your late into your own hands : they require 
 of you only one thing, and that no more 
 than what reason requires, which is to 
 worship the patron gods of their empire, and 
 to forsake that other worship, which is so 
 contrary to nature and good sense. 
 *' Dionysius answered: Every one has not 
 the same gods, and every one worships those 
 whom he believes to be really such. 
 *' The prefect Emilian replied ; I see you are 
 a set of ungrateful people, obstinately slighting 
 the kindness which the emperors would shew 
 you. Assure yourselves, no longer shall you stav 
 here ; I will order you away to Cephro, in the 
 farther part of Lybia ; that, by the emperor's 
 command, is to be the place of your banish- 
 ment : farther, do not imagine you shall be 
 allowed there to hold your meetings, or to go 
 to pray in those places, which you call Ceme- 
 teries; any such thing is absolutely lorbidden 
 you, and what I will not allow." 
 Nothing bears more evident marks of truth 
 than this trial, and it shews that these meetings 
 were occasionally prohibited ; as with us, the 
 Calvinists are not allowed to hold any meeting 
 whatever in Languedoc ; and ministers and 
 preachers have been hanged, and even broke 
 upon the wheel, for their disobedience. Like- 
 wise in England and Ireland, the Roman Catho- 
 lics lie under the same prohibition, and, on some 
 occasions, the delinquents have been condemned 
 to die. 
 
 Amidst 
 
108 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Amidst all the severity of the Roman laws 
 God inspired several emperors with indulgence 
 towards the Christians. Dioclesiari himself, 
 whom ignorant people reckon a persecutor, and 
 the first year of whose reign is still the epocha of 
 martyidoms, for above eighteen years openly 
 countenanced Christianity, and the most impor- 
 tant posts about his person were filled by Chris- 
 tians. He even allowed a stately church to be 
 built opposite his palace at Nicomedia, where he 
 frequently resided ; and, to crown all, he married 
 a Christian lady. 
 
 Galerius Cssar, from some unhappy preju- 
 dices against the Christians, by whom he ima- 
 gined himself ill used, induced Dioclesian to 
 demolish the cathedral at Nicomedia. A Chris- 
 tian ot more zeal than wisdom tore to pieces the 
 Emperor's edict, and this gave rise to that so 
 famous persecution, in which, throughout the 
 whole extent ot the Roman empire, above two 
 hundred persons were sentenced to die, exclu- 
 sive ot those whom the populace, ever fanatic 
 and inhuman, might massacre, without any form 
 of law. 
 
 So great was the number of martyrs at differ* 
 ent times, that much circumspection is requisite, 
 to avoid weakenmgthe truth of the history of the 
 real contessors of our holy religion, by a dange- 
 rous mixture ot fables and false martyrs. 
 
 The Benedictine Don Ruinart, otherwise a 
 person ot learning equal to his zeal, should have 
 chosen his authentic acts with more discretion. 
 A manuscript, tor being laken from the abbey 
 of St. Benedict on the Loire, or from a convent 
 of Caslestines at Paris, and its agreement with a 
 manuscript of the Feuillans, is not the more 
 
 authentic ; 
 
tHRISTIANITY. I09 
 
 authentic; its antiquity must be evident, it must 
 have been written by persons living at the time 
 of the event, and farther must bear all the marks 
 of truth and genuineness. 
 
 He might very well have omitted the story of 
 Romanus, which happened in 303. This young 
 man, it seems, had obtained Dioclesian's pardon 
 atAntioch; yet, as he says, the judge Asclepi- 
 ades condemned him to be burnt. The Jews, 
 who had flocked to the execution, mocked young 
 St. Romanus, and floutingly asked the Christians 
 how their God, who had delivered Shadrach, 
 Meshach, andAbednego, should sufler them to 
 be burnt; on this, though the day was remarkably 
 fine, such a tempest arose as immediately 
 quenched the fire : then the judge ordered young 
 Romanus's tongue to be cut out ; and the empe- 
 ror's first physician being present, officiously 
 performed the operation, cutting his tongue off 
 at the root. The young man, who before stam- 
 mered, now spoke very fluently. The emperor 
 was very much surprised at any one's speaking 
 so well without a tongue; and the physician, to 
 repeat the experiment, cut out the tongue of a 
 man who happened to be passing by, but he died 
 immediately after the operation. 
 
 Eusebius, from whom the credulous Ruinart 
 has taken this tale, should have had so much 
 respect for the real miracles performed in the 
 Old and New Testament, which no body will 
 ever call in question, as not to foist among them 
 such suspicious stories, which may give offence 
 to the weak. 
 
 This last persecution did not spread through- 
 out the whole empire. England had at that time 
 some glimmerings of Christianity, which, how- 
 ever. 
 
no CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ever, soon were smothered, but appeared again 
 under the Saxon kings. The southern parts of 
 Gaul and Spain swarmed with Christians. Caesar 
 Constantius Chlorus shewed them very great 
 favour in all those provinces. He had a concu- 
 bine who was a Christian, and this no less a per- 
 son than Constantine's mother, or St. Helena, 
 for they were never openly married; and he 
 even dismissed her in the year 292, on his mar- 
 rying the daughter of Maximian Hercules; but 
 she retained her ascendency, and made use of 
 it to inspire him with a strong affection tor our 
 holy religion. 
 
 Divine Providence, by means apparently hu- 
 man, now brought about the establishment and 
 superiority ot this church. Constantius Chlorus 
 dying at York in 306, and his children by the 
 daughter of a Caesar not being of age to claim the 
 empire, Constantine boldly got himself chosen 
 at York by a body of soldiers, mostly Germans, 
 Gauls, and Britons. It was not likely that such 
 an election, made without the consent of the city 
 of Rome, the senate, and the army could sub- 
 sist; but God gave him a complete victory over 
 Maxentius, who had been chosen at Rome, and 
 at length rid him of all his colleagues. It must 
 be owned that, at first, he rendered himself ut- 
 terly unworthy of the Divine favour, murdering 
 his wife, his son, and all his near relations. 
 
 What Zozimus relates on this head may be 
 questioned: he says, that Constantine, tortured 
 with remorse, after so many crimes, enquired 
 of the pontiffs of the empire, if they had any 
 expiations for him ; and their answer was, that 
 they knew of none. Indeed there had been none 
 for Nero, for in Greece he did not presume to 
 
 assist 
 
CHRISTIANITY. Ill 
 
 assist at the sacred mvsterles. Yet the Tauroboh 
 were then in use, and it is not easy to believe, 
 that a despotic emperor should not have found one 
 priest to grant him expiatory sacrifices. Perhaps, 
 It is still less to be believed, that Conftantine, 
 being taken up with war, actuated by ambition, 
 and surrounded with flatterers, could be at leisure 
 for remorses. Zozimus adds, that an Egyptian 
 priest, who came from Spain, having gamed 
 admittance to him, assured him of an expiation 
 of all his crimes in the Christian religion. Osius, 
 bishop of Corduba, is suspected to have been 
 thi-s priest. 
 
 However that be, Constantine openly com- 
 municated with the Christians, though he ne- 
 ver was above a catechumen, deferring his 
 baptism to the hour oi death. He built the city 
 of Constantinople, which became the center of 
 the empire, and of the Christian religion. Now 
 the church begins to assume an august appear- 
 ance. 
 
 It is to be observed, that from the year 314, 
 before Constantine resided in his new city, the 
 Christians smartly revenged themselves on their 
 persecutors. They threw Maximian's wife into 
 the Orontes, they murdered all his relations in 
 Egypt and Palestine, they massacred all the ma- 
 gistrates who had distinguished themselves by 
 their zeal against Christianity. Dioclesian's 
 widow and daughter, who had concealed them- 
 selves at Thessalonica, were discovered, and 
 their bodies thrown into the sea. It were to be 
 wished that the Christians had not given way so 
 much to the spirit of revenge; but God, in his 
 vindictivejustice,* was pleased that the hands of 
 the Christians, as soon as they were at liberty to 
 
 act, 
 

 112 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 act, should be dyed with the blood of their unjust 
 persecutors. 
 
 Constantine convened at Nicea, opposite to 
 Constantinople, the first oecumenical council; 
 and in which Osius presided. There was deter- 
 mined the great question, which disturbed the 
 church concerning Christ's divinity : one side 
 availing themselves of the opinion of Origen, 
 who, in chap. 6. against Celsus, says, " We 
 *' offer up our prayers to God, through Jesus, 
 ** who holds the middle place between created 
 ** natures and the uncreated nature, who brings 
 
 to us his Father's grace, and presents our 
 
 prayers to the great God as our high priest." 
 They also pleaded several passages of St. Paul, 
 some of which have been mentioned ; but their 
 capital foundation was these words of Jesus 
 Christ himself: ** My Father is greater than I;" 
 and they held Jesus, as the first-born of creation, 
 as the most pure emanation from the Supreme 
 essence, but not precisely as God, 
 
 The other side, who were the orthodox, pro- 
 duced passages more suitable to the eternal deity 
 of Jesus, as this: " My Father and I are the 
 " same thing;" words which the adversaries 
 make to mean no more than *' My Father and I 
 ** have the same design, the same will; I have 
 " no other desires than those of mv Father." 
 Alexander bishop of Alexandria, and after him 
 Athanasius, headed the orthodox : in the oppo- 
 site party were Eusebius bishop of Nicomedia, 
 seventeen other bishops, the priest Arius, and 
 many other priests. The quarrel immediately 
 was inflamed, St. Alexander having called his 
 adversaries Antichrists. 
 
 At length, after much disputing and wrang- 
 ling* 
 
CHRISTIANITY. II3 
 
 Kng, the Holy Ghost, by the mouths of tw^ 
 hundred and ninety-nine bishops against eighteen, 
 gave the following decision ; " Jesus is the only 
 ** son of God, begotten of the Father, i. e. of 
 ** the substance of the Father, God of God, 
 " Light of Light, very God of very God, of 
 ** one substance with the Father ; we likewise 
 " believe in the Holy Ghost, &c." Such was 
 the form of words in that council, and this in- 
 stance shews the great superiority of the bishops 
 above mere priests ; for, according to two pa- 
 triarchs of Alexandria, who have written the 
 Chronicle of Alexandria in Arabic, two thou- 
 sand persons of the second order sided with 
 Arius. He was exiled by Constantine, but 
 soon after the like punishment fell on Athana- 
 sius< and Arius was recalled to Constantinople: 
 with such fervour, however, did St. Macarius 
 pray to God that he would deprive Arius of life 
 before he came into the cathedral, that God heard 
 his prayer, and Arius died in 330/ in his way to 
 the- church. The emperor Constantine departed 
 this life in 337, delivering his will into the hands 
 of an Arian priest, and expiring in the arms of 
 the chief of the Arians, Eusebius bishop of Ni. 
 comedia: he was- not baptized till on his death, 
 bed; but he left the church triumphant though 
 divided. ' ■ » ^ "-.• 
 
 The Athanasians and Eusebians made war on 
 each other with the most implacable animosity; 
 and what is now called Arianism was, for: a long 
 time, the established doctrine in all the provin* 
 ces of the empire. 
 
 Julian the Philosopher, nicknamed the Apos- 
 tate, was for accommodating these divisions, but 
 failed in his good endeavours, 
 
 I The 
 
114 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The second general council was held in 381-' 
 at Constantinople. In it was explained what the 
 council of Nice had not thought fit to say, con- 
 cerning the Holy Ghost, adding to the Nicean 
 form, " That the Holy Spirit is the vivifying 
 *' Lord, proceeding from the Father, and that 
 " he is worshipped and glorified with the Father 
 ** and the Son." 
 
 It was not till towards the ninth century, that 
 the Latin Church gradually enacted, " That the 
 ** Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the 
 
 In 143 1 the third general council, held at 
 Ephcsus, determined that Mary was really the 
 mother of God, and that Jesus had two natures 
 and one person. Nestorius, bishop of Constan- 
 tinople, for moving that the Blessed Virgin- 
 should be called the mother of Christ, was de- 
 clared by the council a second Judas; and the 
 two natures were farther confirmed by the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedonia. 
 
 I shall slightly pass over the following ages as 
 pretty well known. Unfortunately every one 
 of these disputes occasioned wars, and the church 
 was obliged to be continually in arms. God 
 farther permitted, to exercise the patience of the 
 faithful, that in the ninth century the Greeks 
 and Latins should come to an irreconcileable 
 rupture; he farther permitted that the West 
 should be distracted with twenty-nine bloody 
 schisms for the see ot Rome. 
 
 In the mean time, almost the whole Grecian 
 churchv and the whole of the African church, 
 were eris^aved by the Arabs, and afterwards 
 fell under the Turks, who erected Mahomedism 
 on the ruins of Christianity. The Roman 
 
 church 
 
CHRISTIANITY. II5 
 
 thurch subsisted, but always defiled with blood, 
 in the course of above six hundred years of 
 discord between the Western empire and the 
 priesthood: but these very quarrels encreased 
 her power; for the German bishops and abbots 
 made themselves princes, and the popes, by de- 
 grees, acquired an absolute dominion in Rome, 
 and a country of a hundred leagues in extent. 
 Thus God tried his church by humiliations, 
 disturbances, and by prosperity and magnifi- 
 cence. 
 
 This Latin church, in the sixteenth century, 
 lost half Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Eng- 
 land, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, and 
 Holland. It has, indeed, by the Spanish con- 
 quests, gained more ground in America than it 
 has lost in Europe ; but if its territories are en- 
 larged, its subjects are much decreased. 
 
 Divine Providence seemed to design that Ja- 
 pan, Siam, India, and China, should be brought 
 to acknowledge the Pope's supremacy, as an 
 equivalent tor the loss of Asia-minor, Syria, 
 Greece, Egypt, Africa, Russia, and the coun- 
 tries abovementioned. St. Francis Xavier, a 
 Jesuit, who carried the holy gospel to the East 
 Indies and Japan, when the Portuguese went 
 thither for costly merchandize, performed mi- 
 racles in plenty, all attested by his reverend 
 brethren: some say that he raised nine persons 
 from the dead; but father Ribadeneira, in his 
 Flower of Saints, reduces the number to four, 
 and that's full enough. Providence so eminently 
 prospered this enterprize, that, in less than an 
 hundred years, there were thousands of Roman 
 Catholics within the Japanese islands. But the 
 devil was not wanting to sow his tares among the 
 
 I 2 g< od 
 
Il6 CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 good seed. The Christians formed a destructive 
 plot, which being followed by a cruel war, they 
 were all extirminated in the year 1638. Here- 
 upon the natives denied all strangers admittance 
 into their harbours, except the Dutch, accounting 
 them to be mere merchants, and not Christians : 
 they were obliged to tread on the cross before 
 they were allowed to dispose of their goods; and 
 this was done in a prison where they were con- 
 fined immediately on their arrival at Nangazaki, 
 
 The Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion 
 was not proscribed in China till of late, and with 
 less cruelty. The Jesuits, indeed, had not dis- 
 played their supernatural power at the court of 
 Pekin, by raising the dead to life; they had hum- 
 bly limited themselves to the teaching of aftro- 
 nomy, the casting of cannon, and being man- 
 darins. Their unhappy disputes with some Do- 
 minicans and others gave such offence to the 
 great emperor Yontchin, that this prince, though 
 all equity and goodness, was so blind as to put a 
 Stop to the teaching ot our holy religion, because 
 our missionaries did not agree among themselves. 
 He ordered them to depart the empire, but it was 
 with all the tenderness of a father, supplying 
 them with carriages and every conveniency as 
 far as the confines of his dominions. 
 
 All Asia, all Africa, half of Europe, the Dutch 
 and English possessions in America, with the se- 
 veral unconquered parts of that vast continentj 
 all the austral countries, which made a fifth part 
 of the globe, are left as a prey to the devil, in 
 verification of that holy saying, " Many are called 
 •* but few are chosen." If, as some learned 
 persons say, the number of all the inhabitants of 
 the several parts of the globe is about sixteen 
 
 hundred 
 
CIRCUMCISION. 117 
 
 hundred millions, the holy catholic universal 
 Roman church has within its pale near fixty 
 millions, which amounts to more than the twen- 
 ty-fixth part of the inhahitants of the known 
 world. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 H] 
 
 ERODOTUS, in relating what he had 
 heard from the Barbarians, among whom he tra- 
 velled, mentions some fooleries, and most of our 
 modern travellers do the like : he, indeed, does 
 not require his readers to believe him, when he 
 is giving an account of Gyges and Candaule ; 
 of Arion's being saved by a dolphin ; of the 
 consultation of the oracle, to know what Croesus 
 was doing, with its answer that he was then boil- 
 ing a tortoise in a covered pot ; of Darius's horse 
 neighing first, which gave his master the empire ; 
 and of a hundred other fables, which children 
 are highly delighted with, and rhetoricians insert 
 in their collections : but when he speaks of what 
 he has seen, of customs which he has inquired 
 into, of antiquities which he has examined, he 
 then speaks to men. 
 
 ** The inhabitants of Colchis," says he, in the 
 book Euterpe, '* appear to come originally from 
 " Egypt. This opinion I hold more from my 
 '* own observation than from any hear-say ; for 
 " I found that in Colchis the ancient Egyptians 
 ** were remembered much more than the ancient 
 " customs of Colchis in Egypt. 
 
 " Those people who dwell along the Pontus 
 ** Euxinus said they were a colony settled there 
 ** by Sesostris ; this I conjectured of mys^, not 
 
 I 2 " only 
 
Il8 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 •* only from their swarthy complexion and friz- 
 " zled hair, but because the people of Colchis, 
 " Egypt, and Ethiopia are the only people on 
 ** earth who have practised circumcision from 
 " time immemorial : for the Phoenicians and 
 " the inhabitants of Palestine own that they 
 *' adopted circumcision from the Egyptians. 
 ** The Syrians, now seated on the banks of the 
 " Thermodon and Pathenia, together with the 
 *• Macrons their neighbours, acknowledge, that 
 •• it is not long since they conformed to this 
 *• Egyptian custom. It is chiefly by this that 
 *' they are perceived to be of Egyptian ori- 
 •* ginal. 
 
 " As to Ethiopia and Egypt, this ceremony 
 *' being of a very ancient date among both na- 
 *• tions, I cannot say which was the original ; 
 *• however, it is probable that the Ethiopians 
 *' took it from the Egyptians ; as, on the other 
 ** hand, the Phoenicians, by their traffic and 
 *' intercourse with the Greeks, have abolished 
 " the custom of circumcising new-born chil- 
 dren." 
 
 It is clear from this passage of Herodotus (*), 
 
 that 
 
 (*) Whether the ceremony of circumcision was 
 firft introduced into the world by the Jews or by the 
 Egyptians, has been much contested, and is not very 
 material to the cause of religion. It is sufficient for 
 us to know that God instituted circumcision as a co- 
 venant to Abraham and his seed, without giving our- 
 selves the trouble of enquiring whether it had been 
 ever adopted by other nations. It seems, however, 
 to be certain, that no nation except the Hebrews 
 practised it universally. The priests, indeed, were 
 
 obliged 
 
CIRCUMCISION. 119 
 
 ^liat several nations had taken circumcision from 
 Egypt ; but no nation has ever said that they de- 
 rived it from the Jews. To which then must 
 the origin of this custom be attributed, to that 
 nation from whom five or six others acknowledge 
 they hold it, or to another nation much inferior 
 in power, less commercial, less military, hidden 
 in a nook of Arabia Petrea, and which has never 
 been able to introduce the least of its customs in 
 any nation ? 
 
 The 
 
 obliged to be circumcised, but the rest of the people 
 were left to their liberty, M. Voltaire has adopted 
 the opinion of Le Clerc upon this subject, which 
 makes the Hebrews to have derived this ceremony 
 from the Egyptians; and he has alfo made use of the 
 'very argument of that learned writer, viz. The impro- 
 bability that the Egyptians should borrow such a' ce- 
 remony from so contemptible a nation as the Hebrews. 
 But were the Hebrews so contemptible in the time of 
 Joseph ? Or how could they be so contemptible after 
 their departure from Egypt, when the inhabitants of 
 that country beheld the Deity operating miracles in 
 their favour ? Besides, our author is mistaken , when 
 he says that the Jews were not circumcised the whole 
 time they resided in Egypt, viz. two hundred and five 
 years. The scripture tells us, that those " who came 
 ** out of Egypt had been circumcised," but were 
 dead ; and " those who had been born in the Desert, 
 " were not circumcised," because they were separated 
 from other nations^-and had no necessity for any 
 mark to distinguish them, till they entered the land 
 of Canaan. Then Joshua circumcised all the people, 
 and the Lord said unto him, " This day have I rolled 
 ^' away the reproach of Egypt from you," " oppro- 
 *' brium Egvpti ;" the plain sense of which is not, 
 as our author says, I have delivered you from what 
 was a reproach to you among the Egyptians j but I 
 
 I 4 have 
 
120 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 The Jews say that they were first received into 
 Egypt by way of compassion and charity ; now 
 is it not very probable, that the little people 
 adopted a practice ot the great people, and that 
 the Jews joined in some of their masters cus- 
 toms ? 
 
 Clement of Alexandria relates that Pythagoras, 
 when travelling in Egypt, could not gain admit- 
 tance to the mysteries till he was circumcised ; 
 consequently there was no being an Egyptian 
 priest without circumcision. This priestly order 
 subsisted when Joseph came into Egypt ; the 
 government was of great antiquity, and the old 
 ceremonies of Egypt were observed with the 
 most scrupulous preciseness. 
 
 The Jews acknowledge that they continued in 
 Egypt two hundred and five years ; they say 
 that in all that time they were not circumcised ; 
 this shews that, during those two hundred and 
 five years, the Egyptians did not borrow cir- 
 cumcision from the Jews : is it then to be sup- 
 posed that they borrowed this custom, after the 
 Jews, according to their own testimony, runaway 
 with all the vessels which they had so kindly 
 
 lent 
 
 have delivered you from what rendered you like the 
 Egyptians, and redounded to your shame and confu- 
 sion, by cutting off a little of the foreskin, which was 
 not observed by that unclean and uncircumciscd na- 
 tion. Is not this a more natural construction than 
 that of our author ? Besides, what occasion was there 
 for delivering them from what had been a reproach to 
 them among the Egyptians, when they had quitted 
 Egypt, and were gone to reside in another country ? 
 They had no need to mind the reproach of the Egyp- 
 tians in the land of Canaan. 
 
CIRCUMCISION. 121 
 
 lent them ? Will a master adopt the principal 
 mark of his slave's religion, after rohbing him, 
 and running away? Human nature is not of 
 such a make. 
 
 The book of Joshua says, that the Jews were 
 circumcised in the Desert: '• I have delivered 
 •* you from what was a reproach to you among 
 " the Egyptians (')." Now what else could this 
 reproach be to people hemmed in between the 
 Phoenicians, Arabians, and Egyptians, but that 
 for which those three nations despised them ? 
 How is this reproach removed ? by taking away 
 from them a little of the foreskin. Is not this 
 the natural import of that passage ? 
 
 The book of Genesis says that Abraham had 
 been circumcised before ; but Abraham having 
 travelled into Egypt, which had, for a long time, 
 been a flourishing monarchy, governed by a 
 powerful king, circumcision may not improbably 
 be supposed to have obtained in a kingdom of 
 such antiquity, before the Jewish nation was 
 formed. Farther, the circumcision of Abraham 
 terminated in himself; it was not till Joshua's 
 time his posterity underwent that ceremony. 
 
 Now, before Joshua, the Israelites, by their 
 own confession, came into many of the Egyp- 
 tian customs ; they imitated that nation in several 
 sacrifices and ceremonies, as in fasting on the 
 eve of Isis's feasts, in ablutions, in shaving the 
 priests heads, likewise the burning of incense, 
 the branched chandelier, the sacrifice of the red 
 heifer, the purifying with hysop, the abstaining 
 
 from 
 
 (* ) Our translation has it : " I have rolled away 
 " the reproach of Egypt from off you." Josh. v. 9. 
 
I2B CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 from pork, the abomination of the kitchen uten« 
 sils of strangers : all these things bear witness, 
 that the little Hebrew people, whatever aversion 
 they might have to the great Egyptian nation, 
 had retained a vast number of their old masters 
 customs. The driving of the goat Azazel into 
 the desert, as laden with the sins of the people, 
 is a plain imitation of an Egyptian practice ; the 
 very rabbins allow, that the word Azazel is not 
 Hebrew. Where, then, is the improbability of 
 the Hebrews having imitated the Egyptians in 
 circumcision ; it was no more than the Arabs 
 their neighbours had done? 
 
 It is not at all strange that God, having sanc- 
 tified baptism, which is of such an ancient date 
 among the Asiatics, should likewise have sancti- 
 fied circumcision, of no less antiquity among the 
 Africans. It has already been noticed, that it is 
 in his power to annex his graces to such signs as 
 he shall please to chuse. 
 
 Again, the Jews, ever since their circumcision 
 under Joshua, have constantly retained this cus- 
 tom down to the present time. The Arabians 
 have also adhered to it ; but the Egyptians, who, 
 at first, circumcised both male and female chil- 
 dren, in process of time discontinued this ope- 
 ration on the females, and, at length, limited it 
 to priests, astrologers, and prophets. This we 
 learn from Clement of Alexandria and Origen. 
 None of the Ptolemies appear to have been cir- 
 cumcised. 
 
 The Latin authors, who contemptuously call 
 the Jews ** Curtus apella ; credat Judaeus apella, 
 •' curti Judaei," give no such epithets to the 
 Egyptians. At present the whole people of 
 Egypt are circumcised, but from another reason, 
 
 because 
 
CONVULSION FITS. I23 
 
 because Mahometism borrowed the ancient cir- 
 cumcision practised in Arabia. 
 
 It is this Arabian circumcision which has been 
 introduced among the Ethiopians, where both fe- 
 males and males are still circumcised. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that this ceremony 
 of circumcision seems, at first, something odd ; 
 but let it be observed, that the oriental priests 
 consecrated themselves to the deities by particu- 
 lar marks. An ivy leaf was engraved with a 
 bodkin on Bacchus's priests. Lucian tells us, 
 that the votaries of the goddess Isis made certain 
 characters on their wrists and necks ; the priests 
 of Cybele emasculated themselves. 
 
 It is very likely that the Egyptians, who re- 
 vered the inflrument of generation, and carried 
 the figure of it in pompous processions, took it 
 into their heads to offer up to Isis and Osiris, by 
 whom every thing on earth was engendered, a 
 small part of that member, by which those deities 
 iiad appointed that the human species should be 
 j)erpetuated. The eastern customs are so ex- 
 tremely different from ours, that to a man of ever 
 so little reading, nothing should appear strange, 
 A Parisian, on being told that the Hottentots cut 
 out one of tlieir male children's testicles, is quite 
 astonished ; and perhaps a Hottentot is equally 
 surprised that the Parisians retain both. 
 
 CONVULSION FITS. 
 
 x\BOUT the year 1724, dancings were seen 
 in St. Medard's church-yard; many were the 
 miracles wrought there ; one the Duchess Du 
 Maine has immortalized in a song : 
 
 « Un 
 
JL24 CONVULSION FITS. 
 
 " Un decroteur a la royale, 
 Du talon gauche estropie, 
 Obtint pour grace speciale 
 D'etre boiteux de Tautre pied.** 
 
 The substance of which is : that " a tip-top 
 shoe japanner, lame in his left foot, obtained, 
 as a special favour, that his right should be- 
 *• come as bad." 
 
 The miraculous fits are known to have conti- 
 nued till a guard was placed at the church-yard; 
 
 " De par le roi defense a Dieu 
 De plus frequentur en ce lieu." 
 
 
 
 God is hereby forbidden, in the King's 
 name, ever more to come within this place," 
 
 The Jesuits, as is likewise known, being un- 
 able to perform any such miracles, since their 
 Xdvier had exhausted all the society's gifts by 
 raising nine persons from the dead, by way of 
 counterpoise to the credit of the Jansenists en- 
 graved a print of Christ in a Jesuit's habit ; and 
 it is farther known that a wag of the Jansenist 
 party put under the print, 
 
 ** Admirez Tartifice extreme 
 
 De ces moines ineenieux ; 
 
 lis vous ont habille comme eux, 
 
 Mon Dieu, de peur qu'on ne vous aime.'* 
 
 
 ** The contrivance of these cunning monks ! 
 That thou mayest not be loved, O God, 'they 
 have dressed thee up in their garb." 
 
 The Jansenists, the better to prove that Jesus 
 Christ could never have put on the habit of a Je- 
 suit, 
 
CONVULSION FITS. I25 
 
 suit, filled Paris with convulsions, and drew 
 every body to their party. Carre de Montgeron, 
 a Counsellor of Parliament, went and delivered 
 to the King a collection in quarto of all their 
 miracles, attested by a thousand witnesses ; for 
 which, with very good reason, he was put under" 
 confinement, and obliged to go through a regi- 
 men to bring him to his senses : but truth is al- 
 ways too strong for persecution ; the miracles 
 went on for thirty years successively, without 
 any intermission. Sister Rose, sister Illumi- 
 nated, sister Promised, sister Devout, were per- 
 petually sent for to people's houses : they used 
 to have themselves whipped, and no marks of it 
 were to be seen the next day. They could bear, 
 without any shew of pain, to be beaten on the 
 breasts with sticks (no wonder ; since it had beeii 
 well fenced for the exhibition of such a farce); 
 they were laid before a great fiie, with their faces 
 copiously plaistered over with pomatum, and did 
 not burn. At length, as time improves all arts, 
 the: scenery ended in sticking swords into their 
 fleshy parts, and crucifying them; even a cele- 
 brated divine had likewise the honour of bemg 
 extended on the cross, and all this to convince 
 the world that a certain bull was absurd and 
 ridiculous, which might have been done at a 
 much cheaper rate. Yet have both Jansenists 
 arid Jesuits, one and all, leagued together against 
 
 the" Spirit of Laws, and against , and 
 
 against ...... and against , and against 
 
 • . . . .; and, after such doings, we have the 
 face to laugh at the Laplanders, the Samo- 
 yedes, and the Negroes ! 
 
 COUNTRY. 
 
126 COUNTRY. 
 
 COUNTRY. 
 
 A 
 
 Country is composed of several families ; 
 and as self-love generally leads us to stand up for, 
 and support our particular families, when a con- 
 trary interest does not intervene; so, from the 
 like self-love, a man stands up for his town or 
 village, which he calls his native home. 
 
 The more extended this native home is, the 
 less we love it, for division weakens love; it is 
 impossible in nature to have a tender love for a 
 family so numerous as scarce to be known. 
 
 The candidate, amidst his ambitious intrigues 
 to be chosen asdile, tribune, prxtor, consul, dic- 
 tator, makes a noise about his love for his coun- 
 try, whereas it is only himself that he loves ; 
 every one is for securing to himself the freedom 
 of lying at his own home, and that it shall be in no 
 man's power to turn him out ; everyone is. for be- 
 ing sure of his life and fortune. , Thus the whole 
 society coinciding in the like wishes, private 
 interest becomes that of the public ; and an indi- 
 vidual, in praying only for himself, prays in 
 effect for the whole community. 
 
 Every state on the whole earth indisputably 
 has originally been a republic; it is the natural 
 progress of human nature; a number of families, 
 at first entered into an alliance to secure one ano- 
 ther against bears and wolves ; and that which, 
 had plenty of grain, bartered witl? another .which 
 had nothing but wood. 
 
 On our discovery of America, all the several 
 
 tribes throughout that vast part of the world were 
 
 found divided into republics; but there were 
 
 . only 
 
COUNTRY. 127 
 
 only two kingdoms. Of a thousand nations, 
 only two were subdued. 
 
 It was anciently so on our side of the globe : 
 before the petty Kings of Etruria and Rome 
 started up, Europe was full of republics. Africa 
 has still its republics; Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, 
 which lie so far north, as, in some measure, to 
 confine on Europe, are commonwealths of rob- 
 bers. The Hottentots, a people on the south of 
 Africa, still live, as men are said to have lived in 
 the primitive ages of the world, free, all equal, 
 no masters, no subjects, no money, and few or 
 no wants; their sheep supply them both with food 
 and raiment, and their mansions are huts of wood 
 and earth : they are the very filthiest of men, 
 and with a most rank smell ; but this they are 
 not sensible of, and they both live and die more 
 quietly than we. 
 
 Europe has eight republics without monarchs ; 
 Venice, Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Lucca, 
 Ragusa, Geneva, St. Marino. Poland, Swe- 
 den, and England, may be looked on as republics 
 under a king, but Poland alone calls itself such. 
 Now, which would you have your country to 
 be? a monarchy or a republic? This is a 
 question which has been bandied to and fro 
 these four thousand years. Ask the rich which is 
 best, and they will unanimously vote for an aris- 
 tocracy; enquire of the people and they will one 
 and all cry up a democracy: as for royalty, it is 
 only kings who will pieferit. How then comes 
 it to pass that almost the whole earth is governed 
 by monarchs ? Ask the rats who proposed to 
 hang a bell about the cat's neck. But the true 
 reason is, that men very rarely deserve to be 
 their own governors. 
 
 It 
 
128 CRITICISM. 
 
 It is a sad case, that often there is no being a 
 good patriot without being an enemy to other 
 men. The elder Cato, that worthy patriot, in 
 giving his vote in the senate, used always to say. 
 Such is my opinion ; and down with Carthage. 
 A great part of patriotism is thought to consist 
 in wishing one's native country a flourishing 
 trade and distinguished successes in war. Now 
 it is manifest, that for one country to gain, ano- 
 ther must lose, and its successes in war must of 
 course spread calamity in other parts. Such, 
 then, is the state of human affairs, that to wish 
 an increase of grandeur to one's native country 
 is wishing harm to its neighbours. He who is a 
 citizen ot the universe would have his country 
 neither greater nor smaller, richer nor poorer. 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 JL Do not here intend to speak of the criticism 
 of scholiasts, who pretend to restore a word of 
 an ancient author, very well understood before : 
 neither shall I meddle with those real critics, 
 who, as far as is possible, have cleared up an- 
 cient history and philosophy. The satirical cri- 
 tics are the men I am now to deal with. 
 
 A man of letters one day reading Tasso with 
 me, fell on this stanza : 
 
 " Chiama gli habitator dell* ombre eteme 
 II rauco suon della Tartarea tromba, 
 Treman le spaziose atre caverne, 
 E i'aer cieco a quel rumor rimbomba ; 
 Ne si stridendo mai dalle superne 
 Region! del cielo il fulgor piomba. 
 Ne si scossa giammai trema la terra, 
 Quando i vapori in sen gravida serra." 
 
 He 
 
CRITICISM. 129 
 
 He afterwards read, as they fell under his eye, 
 several stanzas of the like force and harmony : 
 how, cried he, is this what your Boileau is 
 pleased to call tinsel ! Is it thus he strives to de- 
 preciate a great man who lived a hundred years 
 before him, the better to exalt another great man 
 who lived sixteen hundred years before him, and 
 who would not have failed to have done justice 
 to Tasso ? 
 
 Be easy, said I to him, let us look into Qui- 
 naut's operas : what we met with at the opening 
 of the book, could not but incense us against 
 the petulancy of criticism ; it was the following 
 passage in the admirable opera of Armida. 
 
 SiDONIE. 
 
 " La haine est affreuse et barbare, 
 L'amour contraint les coeurs dont il s'empare, 
 A soufFrir des maux rigoureux. 
 Si votre sort est en votre puissance, 
 Faites choix de Tinditference, 
 Elle assure un sort plus heureux, 
 
 Armide. 
 
 Non, non, il ne m'est pas possible 
 
 De passer de mon trouble en un etat paisible; 
 
 Men coeur ne se peut plus calmer ; 
 Renaud m'offense trop, il n'est que trop aimable, 
 C'est pour moi desormais un choix indispensable 
 
 De le hair ou de Taimer.'' 
 
 We went through the whole piece, and it must 
 be owned that the beauty of Tasso's genius is 
 enhanced by Quinaut : Well, said I to my 
 friend, after this could you think that Boileau 
 should continually make it his business to expose 
 Quinaut as a wretched poetaster? He even 
 brought Lewis XIV. to believe, that this beau- 
 
 K tilul, 
 
130 CRITICISM. 
 
 tiful, soft, pathetic, elegant writer owed all liis^ 
 merit to Lully's music. That I can very easily 
 account for, answered my friend ; it was not 
 the musician Boileau was jealous of, but the 
 poet : however, what signifies the saying of a 
 man who, to tag a rhime to a line ending in aut, 
 sometimes fell foul of Boursaut, sometimes of 
 Henaut, sometimes of Quinaut, according to the 
 terms on which he stood with those gentlemen? 
 But, that your warmth against injustice may 
 not cool, only go to the window, and view that 
 grand front ot the Louvre, by wnich Perraut has 
 gained immortal reputation : this ingenious artist 
 happened to be brother to a very learned mem- 
 ber of the academy, between whom and Boileau 
 there had been some literary wrangling, and for 
 this, truly, Mr. Boileau transmits this man to 
 posterity with the character of a paltry architect. 
 
 My friend, after a pause, replied with a sigh, 
 this is the temper of man. The Duke de Sully, 
 in his Memoirs, speaks of the Cardinal d'Ossat 
 and Secretary Villeroy as bad ministers. Louvois 
 strove to suppress in himself any esteem for the 
 great Colbert : they, said I, did not print any- 
 thing against each other whilst living, that is a 
 folly scarce seen in any but divines, scholars, 
 and lawyers. 
 
 We had a man of merit, Lamotte, who has 
 written very fine stanza^. 
 
 " Quelquefois au feu qui la charme, 
 
 Resiste une jeune beaute, 
 
 Et centre elle meme elle s'arme, 
 
 D*iine penible fermete. 
 
 Helas cette contrainte extreme 
 
 La prive du vice qu'cUe aime, 
 
 Pour 
 
CRITICISM. 131 
 
 Pour fuir la honte qu'elle hait : 
 Sa severite n'est que faste, 
 Et I'honneur de passer pour chaste 
 La resout a I'etre en effet." 
 
 ** A blooming beauty sometimes withstands a 
 " pleasing passion, and to prompting nature op- 
 •' poses a painful firmness. This violent con- 
 " straint, to avoid dreaded shame, preserves her 
 ** from the vice to which her heart is attached ; 
 " her purity was pride and show ; and the repu- 
 ** tation of chastity determined her againft the 
 " violation of it." 
 
 ** En vain ce severe stoiquc 
 
 Sous mille defauts abattu, 
 
 Se vante d'une ame heroique, 
 
 Toute vouee a la vertu ; 
 
 Ce n'est point la vertu qu'il aime, 
 
 Mais son coeur y vre de lui meme 
 
 Voudroit usurper les autels : 
 
 Et par sa sagesse frivole 
 
 II ne veut que parer Tidole 
 
 Qu'il offre au culte des mortals." 
 
 *• This austere Stoic, the slave of a multitude 
 " of vices, boasts of heroism, of a soul absolutely 
 ** consecrated to virtue. Absurd conceit ! Virtue 
 *' has none of his love; but his inflated heart 
 *' claims altars; and the «ole scope of his varnish- 
 *' ed wisdom is to deck the idol tor universal 
 •* worship.' 
 
 )) 
 
 " Les champs dePharsale & d'Arbelle 
 Ont vu triompher deux vainqueurs, 
 L'un et I'autre digrne modele 
 Que se proposent les grands coeurs. 
 
 K 2 Mais 
 
132 CRITICISM. 
 
 Mais le succes a fait leur gloire ; 
 Et si le sceau de la victoire 
 N'eiit ronsacre ces demi-dieux, 
 Alexandre aux yeux du vulgaire 
 N'aurait ete qu'un Temeraire, 
 Et Cesar qu'un seditieux," 
 
 ** Pharsalia and Arbella's plains beheld the 
 ** triumph of two victors, the model and admi- 
 " ration ot all martial spirits; but to success 
 *' they owe their whole glory ; for had not vic- 
 " tory consecrated these demi-gods, Alexander 
 " Would have been accounted a Hotspur, and 
 " Cassar an incendiary.'* 
 
 This amiable author, says he, more than once 
 arrayed philosophy in the graceful attire of poesy. 
 Had he always written such stanzas, he would 
 have been the chief lyric poet among us ; yet 
 whilst such beautiful pieces came irom him, a 
 cotemporary of his could call him a Green 
 Goose, and in another place say, " the tiresome 
 ** beauty of his propositions ;" and in another, 
 ** they have but one fault, they should have been 
 " written in prose; one sees with half an eye 
 ** they came from Quinaut." 
 
 He pursues him every where, every where 
 charges him with dryness and want of harmony. 
 
 Perhaps you would be glad to see the odes 
 written some years after by this same censor, 
 who tried La Motte in so arbitrary a manner, and 
 decried him with such contempt. Here arc 
 some specimens. 
 
 *' Cette influence souveraine 
 N'est pour lui qu*une illustre chainc, 
 Qui I'attache au bonheur d*autrui ; 
 Tous ks brillans qui rembellissent, 
 
 Tou* 
 
CRITICISM. 133 
 
 Tous les talents qui rannoblissent, 
 Sont en lui, mais non pas a lui." 
 
 " This sovereign power is but a glittering 
 ** chain, binding him to the happiness ot others ; 
 ** all the brilliant qualities which adorn him, all 
 *' the talents which enoble him, though in him, 
 •* are not his." 
 
 " II n'est rien que le temps n'absorbe ne devore, 
 
 Et les faits qu'on ignore, 
 Sont bien peu differents des faits non avenus.'* 
 
 *' Nothing escapes the devouring jaws of time; 
 ** and what is unknown differs very little from 
 " what never happened.'* 
 
 *' La bonte qui brille en ellc 
 De ses charmes les plus doux, 
 Est une image de celle, 
 Qu'elle voit briller en vous. 
 Et par vous seule enrichie, 
 Sa politesse affranchie 
 Des moindres obscurites, 
 Est la lueur reflechie, 
 Des vos sublimes clartes." 
 
 *' That goodness which in her displays its most 
 ** engaging charms, is the image of that which, 
 ** admiring, slie beholds in you ; and by you 
 ** alone enriched : her politeness, freed from the 
 ** least darkening spot, is a light reflected from 
 -•* your resplendency." 
 
 " lis ont vu par ta bonne foi 
 De leurs peuples troubles d'efFroi 
 La crainte heureusement de^ue. 
 Et deracinee a jamais 
 La haine fi fouvent recue, 
 En furvivance de la paix." 
 
 K 3 *» Through 
 
134 CRITICISM. 
 
 " Through thy probity they have seen the 
 terrors ot their appaled people happily mis- 
 taken ; and hatred, often received in reversion 
 lor peace, for ever extirpated," 
 
 '* Devoile a ma viie empressee 
 Ces deites.d'adoption, 
 Synonimes de la pensee, 
 Svmboles de I'abstraction." 
 
 n 
 
 (( 
 
 Unveil to my eager sight those adopted dei- 
 ties, synonimous with cogitation, emblems ot 
 
 ** abstractedness.'* 
 
 " N'est ce pas une fortune, 
 Quand d'line charge commune, 
 Deux moities portent le faix ? 
 Que le moindre le reclame, 
 Et que du bonheur de I'ame 
 Le corps seul fassc les fraix.'* 
 
 (t 
 
 Is it not a rare happiness, where, in a 
 " burthen common to two, the least insists on 
 ** bearing the whole load? Thus the body lays 
 " itself out for the gratifications of the soul." 
 
 To be sure, said my judicious philologist, 
 this is wretched trash to be published as models, 
 after criticising a writer with so much scurrility. 
 The author had done much better to have left 
 his adversary in the quiet enjoyment of his merit, 
 and have retained his own share of it ; but alas! 
 the " genus irritabile vatum," is still as sick as 
 ever with the overflowings of an acrid bile. The 
 public, its views extending no farther than 
 amusement, overlooks these trifles in men of 
 talents. It sees, in an allegory called Pluto, 
 
 some 
 
DELUGE. 135 
 
 some judges condemned to be flead, and sitting 
 in hell, on a seat covered with their skins, in- 
 stead of thelillies (*): the reader never troubles 
 himself whether the judges deserved it or not, or 
 whether the plaintiff who had summoned them 
 before Pluto be in the right or wrong; he reads 
 those verses purely tor his pleasure, and it they 
 give him pleasure that is all he desires: if the 
 allegory disgusts him, he shuts tne book, and 
 would not stir a foot to have the sentence con- 
 firmed or annulled. 
 
 Racine's inimitable tragedies have been all 
 criticised, and very badly, because the critics 
 were rivals. The competent judges of an art 
 are the artists; true, but when is it the artists are 
 not corrupted? 
 
 An artist very skilful, and, withal, a man of 
 taste, without either prejudice or envy, would 
 make an excellent critic; but a hard matter it is 
 to find such a man. 
 
 DELUGE. 
 
 JL HAT ever the whole globe was at one time 
 totally overflowed with water, is physically im- 
 possible. The sea may have covered all parts 
 successively, one after the other; and this could 
 be only in a gradation so very slow, as to take 
 up a prodigious number of ages. The sea, in 
 the space of five hundred years, has withdrawn 
 from Aiguesmortes, from Frejus, and from 
 Ravenna, once large ports, leaving about two 
 
 leagues 
 
 (^) The arms of France embroidered on the co- 
 vering of tlie benches in courts of justice. 
 
 K4 
 
136 DELUGE. 
 
 leagues of land quite dry. This progression 
 shews, that, to make the circuit of the globe 
 it would require two millions two hundred and 
 fifty thousand years. A very remarkable cir- 
 cumstance is, that this period comes very near 
 to that which the earth's axis would take up in 
 raising itself again, and coinciding with the 
 equator ; a motion so far from improbable, that, 
 for these fifty years past, some apprehension has 
 been entertained of it, but it cannot be accom- 
 plished under two millions three hundred thou- 
 sand years. "* 
 
 The strata, or beds of shells, every where 
 found, sixty, eighty, and even a hundred leagues 
 from the sea, prove, beyond all dispute, that it 
 has insensibly deposited those maritime pro- 
 ducts on grounds which were once its shores : 
 but that the water, at one and the same time, 
 covered the whole earth, is a physical absurdity, 
 which the laws of gravitation, as well as those 
 of fluids, and the deficiency of the quantity of 
 water, demonstrate to be impossible. Not that 
 any thing here is meant in the least to affect the 
 great truth of the universal deluge as related in 
 the Pentateuch ; on the contrary, this is a mi- 
 racle, and therefore to be believed; it is a mi- 
 racle, therefore could not be effected by physi- 
 cal causes. 
 
 The whole history of the deluge is miraculous. 
 It is a miracle that forty days rain should have 
 submerged the four parts of the world ; that the 
 waters rose fifteen cubits above all the highest 
 mountains : it is a miracle that there should have 
 been cataracts, doors, and apertures in heaven ; 
 it is a miracle that all animals should have re- 
 paired to the ark, from the several parts of the 
 
 world I 
 
DELUGE.- 137 
 
 world; it is a miracle that Noah should have 
 found fodder for them during ten months ; it is 
 a miracle that all the creatures, with their pro- 
 visions, could be contained in the ark ; it is a 
 miracle that most of them did not die there ; it 
 is a miracle that, at going out of the ark, suste- 
 nance could be found for man and beast ; it is 
 likewise a miracle, that one Pelletier should have 
 conceited that he had explained how all the 
 several kinds of creatures might very naturally 
 be contained and led in the ark. 
 
 Now, the history of the deluge being the most 
 miraculous thing ever heard ot, it is idle (J) to 
 
 (*) Our author is mistaken, when he says it is idle 
 to go about elucidating the history of the deluge, and 
 that the whole must be resolved into a miracle. That 
 the divine assistance must be called in on this occa- 
 sion may be allowed ; but that every part of the his- 
 tory is miraculous we cannot assent to. The diffi- 
 culty of finding out such a prodigious quantity of 
 water as was requisite for covering all the globe to 
 fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, has made 
 some modern writers imagine, that this deluo;e over- 
 whelmed only one part of the earth. But all antiquity 
 believed that the deluge was universal, and the Scrip- 
 ture expresses it in the strongest terms. Had not all 
 the earth been covered with the waters of the deluge, 
 the building of the ark would have been needless. 
 It would have been sufficient for God to have warned 
 Noah to go to some other country, which was not 
 to have been overwhelmed with water. Besides, it 
 would have required no less a miracle to keep up the 
 waters in one part of the earth, than to drown the 
 whole. As to the difficulty of finding out waters 
 sufficient to overflow the world, without having re- 
 course 
 
138 iJm.uge. 
 
 go about elucidating it; there are mysteries 
 which we believe through faith ; and faith con- 
 sists in believing what reason does not believe : 
 which again is another miracle. 
 
 Thus the story of the universal deluge is 
 like that of the tower of Babel, ol Balaam's ass, 
 of the fall of Jericho at the blowing of the trump- 
 ets, of the waters turned into blood, the passage 
 of the Red Sea, and all the miracles which God 
 was pleased to perform in behali ot his chosen 
 people. These are depths unfathomable by the 
 line of human reason. 
 
 DESTINY. 
 
 course to a miracle, is it not very rational to make 
 answer, that as, in the beginning, the whole mass of 
 the earth was covered with waters, which retired into 
 cavities of the earth, or were drawn up in clouds; 
 so those cavities having thrown out those waters by 
 the motion of the earth, and the clouds being dis- 
 solved into water, the same quantity of water meet- 
 ing, might again cover the globe of the earth. This 
 is what Moses meant, when he said, " That the foun- 
 *' tains of the deep and the cataracts of heaven were 
 *' opened." It must be owned, indeed, that to draw 
 this quantity of water out of the abyss on the surface 
 of the earth required the exertion of the Divine Power. 
 The other difficulties about Noah's ark may be easily 
 solved. That the space in such a vessel was abun- 
 dantly sufficient to contain both Noah and his fami- 
 ly, as well as the animals, and all necessary provi- 
 sions for them, appears most evidently, whatever our 
 author may pretend, from the geometrical calcula- 
 tions of learned men, as Bishop Wilkins and others. 
 See the Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 220. as also Wilkins's 
 Essay towards a real character, and Peletier Dissert. 
 8ur I'Arche de Noe# 
 
DESTIlMf. 
 
 DESTINY. 
 
 kJF all the books which have reached our 
 times, the most ancient is (') Homer: here we 
 become acquainted with the manners of pro- 
 fane antiquity, with heroes and gods, as rude 
 and unpolished as it" made in the likeness of 
 man; but- there, on the other hand, we mee^ 
 with the elements of philosophy, and especially 
 the notion of Destiny, no less lord of the gods, 
 than the gods are lords of the world. 
 
 Jupiter would fain save Hector ; he consults 
 the destinies ; he weighs the fates of Hector 
 and Achilles in scales ; and finding that the 
 Trojan must absolutely be slain by the Greek, 
 he is sensible all opposition to it would be fruit- 
 less: and from that moment Apollo, Hector's 
 guardian genius, is obliged to forsake him 
 (Iliad, lib. xxii.) and though Homer, according 
 to the privilege of antiquity, often interlards 
 his poem with quite opposite ideas, yet is he 
 the first in whom the notion of destiny occurs ; 
 so that it must be supposed to have been cur- 
 rent in his time. 
 
 This notion of destiny was not received by 
 
 the 
 
 (*) This is a mistake, the history of Moses is the 
 most ancient book in the world : for whether Moses 
 was cotemporary with Inachus, the first king of Ar- 
 gos, who lived 600 years before the Trojan war ; or 
 whether he did not live till the days of Cecrops, king 
 of Athens, who reigned 300 years before that war, 
 it is certain he is much more ancient than Homer or 
 Hesiod. 
 
|fl4a DESTINY. 
 
 the Jewish Pharisees till several ages after; for 
 the Pharisees themselves, who, among that in- 
 significant people, were the principal literati, 
 were but of a modern date. At Alexandria 
 they adulterated the ancient Jewish opinions 
 with many Stoic tenets. St. Jerom even says, 
 that their sect is but little prior to our vulgar 
 sera. 
 
 Philosophers never stood in need of Homer, 
 or the Pharisees, to be convinced that every 
 thing is done by immutable laws, that every 
 thing is settled, and that every thing is a neces- 
 sary effect. 
 
 Either the world subsits by its own nature, 
 by its physical laws, or a Supreme Being has 
 formed it by his primitive laws ; in either 
 case, these laws are immutable; in either case 
 every thing is necessary : heavy bodies gravitate 
 towards the center of the earth, and cannot 
 tend to remain in the air; pear-trees can never 
 bear pine-apples ; the instinct of a spaniel can 
 never be the instinct of an ostrich ; every thing 
 is arranged, set in motion, and hmited. 
 
 Man can have but a certain number of teeth, 
 hairs, and ideas; and a time comes when he ne- 
 cessarily loses them : it is a contradiction that 
 what was yesterday has not been, and what is 
 to-day should not be; no less a contradiction 
 is it that a thing which is to be should not come 
 to pass. 
 
 If thou couldest give a turn to the destiny of 
 a fly, I see no reason why thou mightest not 
 as well determine the destiny of all other flies, 
 of all other animals, of all men, and of all na- 
 ture ; so that, at last, thou wouldest be more 
 powerful than God himself. 
 
 It 
 
DESTINY. 
 
 & 
 
 It is common for weak people to say, such a 
 physician has cured my aunt of a most danger- 
 ous illness; he has made her live ten years 
 longer than she would. Others as weak, but, 
 in their own opinion, very wise, say, the prudent 
 man owes his fortune to himselif, 
 
 ** Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia, sed nos 
 *' Te facimus fortuna Deam coeloque locamus.'* 
 
 But the prudent man oftentimes is crushed 
 by his destiny, instead of making it; it is their 
 destiny that renders men prudent. 
 
 Some profound politicians affirm, that, had 
 Cromwell, Ludlow, Ireton, and about a dozen 
 more parliamentarians, been made away with a 
 week before the cutting off Charles the First's 
 head, that king might have lived longer, and 
 have died in his bed. They are in the right, 
 and may farther add, that, had all England been 
 swallowed up by the sea, that monarch would 
 not have ended his days on a scaffold at White- 
 hall, near the Banqueting-house ; but by the 
 arrangement of occurrences Charles was to 
 have his head cut off. 
 
 Cardinal d'Ossat was unquestionably a man 
 of more prudence than yon lunatic in Bedlam; 
 but is it not manifest that the wise d'Ossat's 
 organs were of another texture than that mad- 
 man's? So a fox's organs differ from those of a 
 crane or a lark. 
 
 The physician has saved thy aunt. Allowed ; 
 but herein he certainly did not reverse the order 
 of nature ; he conformed to it. It is evident 
 that thy aunt could not hinder her being born 
 in such a town, and having a certain illness at 
 
 such 
 
*<^^^ DESTINY. 
 
 such a time; that the physician could be no 
 where but in the town where he was ; that thine 
 aunt was to send for him ; and that he was to 
 prescribe for her those medicaments which have 
 effected her cure. 
 
 A peasant imagines that the hail which has 
 fallen in his ground is purely matter of chance ; 
 but the philosopher knows that there is no such 
 thing as chance; and that by the constitution of 
 the world, it must necessarily have hailed that 
 day, in that very place. 
 
 Some, alarmed at this truth, are for having it, 
 as straitened debtors offer half to their creditors* 
 desiring some forbearance for the remainder* 
 There are, say they, necessary events (^), and 
 others which are not so : but it would be odd, 
 indeed, that one part of this world were fixed 
 and not the other; that some things which hap- 
 pen were to happen, and that others which hap- 
 pen were not necessarily to happen. On a close 
 examination, the doctrme which opposes that of 
 destiny, must appear loaded with absurdities, and 
 contrary to the idea of an eternal providence: 
 but many are destined to reason wrongly, others 
 
 not 
 
 (*) The physical world is subject to invariable 
 laws; man, therefore, as a physical being, is, like 
 other bodies, governed by those invariable laws : but 
 as an intelligent being, his nature requires him to be 
 a free agent. Our author has taken his notions on 
 this article, and on that of Liberty, from Mr. Locke, 
 who denies that there is such a power in man as a 
 Liberty of Will; which you may see refuted by the 
 ingenious Dr. Clarke, on the Being and Attri- 
 butes, p. 86. 
 
DREAMS. 143 
 
 jiot to reason at all, and others to persecute those 
 who do reason. 
 
 You ask me what, then, becomes of liberty? 
 I understand you not. I know nothing of that 
 liberty you speak of, nor yourself, indeed; 
 else you would not be so long controverting 
 about its nature. If you will, or, rather, if you 
 can, calmly examine with me- what it is, turn 
 to the letter L. 
 
 DREAMS. 
 
 ** Somnia qu2e ludunt animos volitantibus um- 
 
 bris, 
 Non delubra deum, nee ab aethere numina mit- 
 
 tunt, 
 Sed sua quisque facit." 
 
 -DUT how so, when all the senses are deadened 
 in sleep, is there one within still alive and 
 active (*J? What! when your eyes have lost 
 
 their 
 
 (*) M. Voltaire does not seem to be sufficiently 
 acquainted with the cause of dreams, or to have rightly 
 examined that part of natural philosophy. In order to 
 clear up this matter, we should previously inquire 
 into the nature of waking and sleeping. Waking 
 consists in this, that the animal spirits being at that 
 time in great plenty in the brain, and capable of being 
 easily determined to run from thence through all the 
 nerves, they fill them in such a manner as to keep all 
 the capillaments of them stretched and distinct from 
 each other. Sleeping, on the contrary, is caused by 
 a scarcity, or failure, of spirits; so that the pores of 
 the brain, through which the spirits usually run into 
 the nerves, not being kept open by tlic continual 
 
 flowing 
 
144 DREAMS. 
 
 their sight, and your ears their hearing, do you still 
 -see and hear in your dreams ? The dog hunts in 
 his dreams, barks, chases his prey, and feasts 
 on his reward. That the poet versifies in his 
 sleep, the mathematician views figures, the me- 
 taphysician reasons right or wrong, we have 
 many striking instances. 
 
 Is this the action only of the body's organs, or 
 is it merely the soul, which, now ireed from the 
 power of the senses, acts in the full enjoyment 
 of its properties. 
 
 If the organs alone produce our dreams by 
 night, why not our ideas by day ? If it be merely 
 the soul, acting of itself, and quiet by the sus- 
 pension of the senses, which is the only cause 
 and subject of all your sleeping ideas, whence is 
 it, that they are almost ever irrational, irregular, 
 and incoherent? Can it be, that, in the time of 
 the soul's most abstract quietude, its imagination 
 should be the most confused ? Is it fantastical 
 when free? Were it born with metaphysical 
 ideas, as some writers, who were troubled with 
 
 waking 
 
 flowing of the spirits, shut up of themselves. The 
 spirits being dissipated, and no new ones flowing in, 
 the capillaments of the nerves will become soft, and 
 cleave to each other; and if, at that time, any object 
 makes an impression on any part of the body, those 
 nerves cannot transmit it to the brain. And hence it 
 follows, that there can be no sensation. But, it may 
 happen that, while we are asleep, some of the animal 
 spirits which are in the brain may shake some of the 
 parts of the brain, in the same manner as they would 
 be shaken by an external object aff^ectingthe corporeal 
 senses; then there will be a sensation raised in the 
 soul, and such a sort of perception is called a dream. 
 
DREAMS. 145 
 
 waking dreams, have affirmed, its pure and lu- 
 minous ideas of being, of infinitude, and of all 
 primary principles, naturally should awake in 
 her With the greatest energy when the body is 
 sleeping, and men should philosophise best in 
 their dreams. 
 
 Whatever system you espouse, however you 
 may labour to prove that memory stirs the brain, 
 and your brain your soul, you must allow that, 
 in all your ideas in sleep, you are intirely pas- 
 sive; your will has no share in those images. 
 Thus it is clear, that you can think seven or 
 eight hours on a stretch, without having the least 
 inclination to think, and even without being 
 certain that you do think. Consider this, and 
 tell me what is man's compound? 
 
 Superstition has always dealt much in dreams; 
 nothing, indeed, was more natural. A man 
 deeply concerned about his mistress who lies 
 ill, dreams that he sees her dying; and the next 
 day she actually dies : then, to be sure, God had 
 given him previous knowledge of his beloved's 
 death. 
 
 A commander of an army dreams of gaining 
 a battle; gains it; then the gods had intimated 
 to him that he should be conqueror. 
 
 It is only such dreams as meet with some ac- 
 complishment that are taken notice of, the others 
 we think not worth remembrance. Dreams 
 make full as great a part of ancient history as 
 oracles. 
 
 The end of ver. 26. cap. xix. of Leviticus, 
 
 the Vulgate renders thus: *' Thou shalt noi 
 
 ** observe dreams (')." But the word dream 
 
 . . i$ 
 
 V) Most translations have Times, 
 L 
 
END, FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 is not in the Hebrew ; and it would be some^ 
 thing odd, that the observance ot dreams should 
 be torbidden in the same book, which tells us 
 that Joseph saved Egypt, and brought his family 
 to great prosperity by interpreting three dreams. 
 The interpretation of dreams and visions was 
 so common, that something beyond this know- 
 ledge was required; the magician was some- 
 times even to guess what another had dreamed, 
 Nebuchadnezzar forgetting a dream, ordered 
 the magicians, on pain of death, to find it out; 
 Daniel the Jew, who was of the same school as 
 the magicians, saved their lives, both finding 
 out and interpreting the king's dream. This 
 and many other accounts prove, that oneiromancy, 
 or the intrepretation ot dreams, was not pro- 
 hibited by the Jewish institutes. 
 
 END, FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 A 
 
 MAN, it seems, must be stark mad to deny 
 that the stomach is made for digestion, the eye to 
 see, and the ear to hear. 
 
 On tlie other hand, he must be strangely at- 
 tached to final causes, to affirm, that stone was. 
 made to build houses, and that China breeds 
 silk worms to furnish Europe with sattin.* 
 
 But it is said, if God has manifestly made one 
 thing with design, he had a design in every 
 thing. To allow a Providence in one case, and 
 deny it in another, is ridiculous. Whatever is made 
 was foreseen and arranged ; now every arrange- 
 ment has its object, every effect its cause ; there- 
 fore every thing is equally the result, or the pro- 
 duct of a final cause; therefore it is equally true 
 to say that noses were made to wear spectacles, 
 
 and 
 
END, FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 and fingers to be decorated with diamonds, as It 
 is true to say, that the ears have been made to 
 hear sounds, and the eyes to receive light. 
 
 This difficukv, I apprehend, may be easily 
 cleared up, when the effects are invariably the 
 same in all times and places ; when such uniform 
 effects are independent of the beings they apper- 
 tain to, there is then evidently a final cause. 
 
 All animals have eyes and they see; all have 
 ears and. they hear ; all a mouth with which they 
 eat ; a stomach, or something similar, by which they 
 digest ; all an orifice which voids the excrements ; 
 all an instrument of generation, and these natu- 
 ral gifts operate in them without the intervention 
 of any art. Here are clear demonstrations of 
 final causes, and to gainsay so universal a truth, 
 would be to pervert our faculty of thinking. 
 
 But it is not in all places, nor at all times, that 
 stones form edifices; all noses do not wear spec- 
 tacles; all fingers have not a ring, nor are all 
 legs covered with silk, stockings : therefore a silk 
 worm is not made to cover my legs, as your 
 mouth is made to eat, and your backside for eva- 
 cuation. Thus there are effects produced by 
 final causes, but withal many which cannot come 
 ■within that appellation. 
 
 But both the one and the other are equally 
 agreeable to the plan of general Providence ; for 
 certainly nothing comes to pass in opposition to 
 it, or so much as without it. Every particular 
 within the compass of nature is uniform, immu- 
 table, and the immediate work of their Author. 
 From him are derived the laws by which the 
 moon is three- fourths of the cause of tides, and 
 the sun the other fourth ; it is he who has given 
 a rotary motion to the sun, by which in five mi- 
 
 L 2 nutes 
 
148 END, FINAL CAUSED. 
 
 nutes and a half it emits rays of light into the 
 eyes of men, crocodiles, and cats. 
 
 But if, after many centuries, we have hit on 
 the invention of shears and spits, with the for- 
 mer sheering the sheep of their wool, and with 
 the latter roasting them for food, what can be in- 
 ferred from thence, but that God has so made us, 
 that, one day we should necessarily grow ingeni- 
 ous and carnivorous ? 
 
 Sheep, doubtless, were not absolutely made 
 to be dressed and eaten ; since several nations 
 abstain from that sanguinary practice. Men 
 were not essentially created to butcher one ano- 
 ther, for the Bramins and Quakers never kill 
 any body ; but the composition we are made of 
 is frequently productive of massacres, as it pro- 
 duces calumnies, vanities, persecutions, and im- 
 pertinencies : not that the formation of man is 
 precisely the final cause of our follies and bruta- 
 lities, a final cause being universal and invariable 
 in all places and at all times. The crimes and 
 absurdities of the human mind are, nevertheless, 
 in the eternal order of things. In threshing corn, 
 the flail is the final cause of the grain's separa- 
 tion ; but if the flail, in threshing the corn, de- 
 ftroys a thousand insects, this is not from any 
 determinate will of mine, neither is it mere 
 chance : these insects were at that time under 
 my flail, and it was determined they were to be 
 there. 
 
 It is consequential to the nature of things, that a 
 man is ambitious, forms other men into military 
 bodies, that he is beaten or gains a victory ; but 
 never can it be said that man was created by God 
 10 be knocked on the head in battle. 
 
 The 
 
EQUALITY. Cm9 
 
 c The instruments given to us by nature cannot 
 always be final causes, ever in motion, and in- 
 fallible in their effect. The eyes, given us for 
 sight, are not always open ; every sense has its inter- 
 vals of rest : there are even some senses we make 
 no use of; for instance, in the case of a poor 
 girl of fourteen, immured in a convent, that 
 door, from which was to proceed a new genera- 
 tion, is for ever shut up: still the final cause 
 subsist s, and as so on as it is jr(;g will ^rt- 
 
 EQUALITY. 
 
 Wi 
 
 HAT does one dog owe to another, and 
 one horse to another horse ? Nothing. No ani- 
 mal depends on its fellow ; but man, partaking 
 of that spark of divinity called reason, what ad- 
 vantage accrues to him from this ? To be a slave 
 almost every where throughout the earth. 
 
 Were this earth what it apparently should be, 
 that is, did man every where meet with an easy, 
 certain, and safe subsistence, and a climate suit- 
 able to his nature, it is manifestly impossible that 
 one man could have enslaved another. When 
 this earth shall every where produce salubrious 
 fruits ; when the air, which should contribute to 
 our life, shall not bring us sicknesses and death : 
 when man shall stand in need of no other lodg- 
 ing and bed than that of the deer and roebuck ; 
 then the Gengis Khans and the Tamerlanes will 
 have no other domestics than their children, and 
 these will have so much natural affection as to as- 
 sist them in their old age. 
 
 In this so natural state, which all quadrupeds, 
 birds, and reptiles enjoy, man would be as happy 
 as they ; dominion would then be a chimera, an 
 
 L 3 absurdity, 
 
1^0 EQUALITY. 
 
 absurdity, which no one would think of; for who 
 would make a bustle to get servants without any 
 want ot their service ? 
 
 Should any individual, of a tyrannical dispo- 
 sition, and extraordinary strength, take it into 
 his head to make a slave of his weaker neigh- 
 bour, the thing would be impracticable ; the 
 party oppressed would be an hundred leagues out 
 of the oppressor's reach before he had taken his 
 measures. 
 
 Thus a freedom from wants would necessarily 
 make all men equal. It is the distress annexed 
 to our species which subjects one man to ano- 
 ther: not that inequality is a real misfortune; 
 the grievance lies in dependance. What signi- 
 fies one man being stiled his highness, another 
 his holiness ? but to serve either is disagreeable. 
 
 A numerous family has successfully culti- 
 vated a good soil, whilst two small neighbouring 
 families cannot bring their stubborn grounds to 
 produce any thing; the two poor families must 
 either become servants to the opulent family, or 
 extirpate it; this is self-evident: one of the two 
 indigent families, for a subsistence, goes and of- 
 fers its labour to the rich ; the other goes to dis- 
 possess it by torce of arms, and is beaten. The 
 former is the origin of domestics and labourers, 
 and from the latter slavery is derived. 
 
 In our calamitous globe, it is impossible that 
 men living together in society, should not be di- 
 vided into two classes, one the rich who com- 
 mand, the other the poor who serve or obey: 
 these two are subdivided into a thousand, and 
 these thousands have their farther subdivisions 
 and gradations. 
 
 All the oppressed are not absolutely unhappy. 
 
 Most 
 
EQUALITY. I5IJ 
 
 ost of them being born in a servile state, con- 
 tinual labour preserves them from too sensible a 
 feeling ot their situation ; but whenever they 
 feel it, wars are the conseq.uence, as at Rome 
 between the plebeian and patrician parties; like- 
 wise those of the peasants in Germany, England, 
 and France. All these wars terminate, soon or 
 late, in the subjection of the people, because 
 the great have money, and money does every 
 thing within a state ; I say \vithina state ; for be- 
 tween nation and nation it is otherwise. A nation 
 which handles iron best, will ever be too strong 
 for that which, with its abundance of gold, is 
 deficient in skill and courage. 
 
 Every man is born with no small propensity to 
 power, riches, and pleasure, and has naturally 
 a delight in indolence ; consequently every man 
 is for having the money, wives, or daughters of 
 others; would subject them to all his humours, 
 and do no work, or at least what only pleased 
 himself. You see, that for men with such fine 
 dispositions to be equal, is as impossible as that 
 two preachers, or two professors of divinity, 
 should not be jealous of one another. 
 
 Mankind, in the present state, cannot subsist, 
 unless an infinity of useful men have the misfor- 
 tune ot being without any possession whatever : 
 for, to be sure, no man in easy circumstances 
 will plough your grounds ; and, if you are in 
 want of a pair of shoes, you must find some 
 other hand than a Serjeant at law to make them 
 for you. Thus, inequality is, at the same time, 
 both the most natural and the most chimerical 
 thing in the world. 
 
 Men being excessive in everything where they 
 can be so, this inequality has been carried too 
 
 L 4 far; 
 
1^2 EQUALITY. 
 
 far; in several governments it is a standing 
 maxim, that a citizen is not allowed to quit the 
 country where he happened to be born : the im- 
 port of this law is visibly this : ** The country 
 " is so bad and ill governed, that we forbid any 
 " person whatever to go out, lest every body 
 *' should leave it." Now act more wisely, 
 create in your subjects a delight to stay in your 
 country, and in foreigners a desire of coming 
 thither. 
 
 Every man has a right to believe himself natu- 
 rally equal to other men : but it does not from 
 hence follow that a cardinal's cook may order 
 his eminence to dress his dinner; the cook in- 
 deed may say, I am as much a man as my master ; 
 like him I cried at my birth, and he will die in 
 the same agonies, and amidst the same ceremo- 
 nies as I ; the animal functions are alike in both; 
 if the Turks make themselves masters of Rome, 
 and I should then come to be a cardinal, and my 
 master reduced to turn cook, I will take him 
 into my service. There is nothing in this solilo- 
 quy but what is rational and just; yet till the 
 grand seignior makes himself master of Rome, 
 the cook is to do his duty, else there's an end of 
 human society. 
 
 As to him who is neither cook to a cardinal 
 nor holds any state employment, and who has 
 no connection or dependence, but who is cha- 
 grined at being every where received either with 
 an air ot protection or contempt ; who plainly 
 sees, that many Monsignors have neither more 
 learning, more genius, nor more virtue than 
 himseit, and to whom it is a torment to be some- 
 times in their anti-chamber — What would you 
 have him do ? Take himself away. 
 
 EZEKIEL, 
 
vr 
 
 £ZEKIEL. 153 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 OF SOME SINGULAR PASSAGES IN THAT PROPHET, 
 AND SOME ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 
 
 AT is at present very well known, that we are 
 not to judge at ancient customs by modern times. 
 He who would go about to reform the court of 
 Alcinoiis in the Odyssey, by that of the grand 
 seignor or of Lewis XIV. would be little ap- 
 plauded by the learned; and to find fault with 
 Virgil for having represented king Evander re- 
 ceiving ambassadors with a bear skin for his 
 mantle, and a dog on each side of him, would 
 be very bad criticism. 
 
 The manners of the ancient Egyptians and 
 Jews vary from ours still more than those of king 
 Alcinoiis, of Nausicae his daughter, and the 
 good man Evander. — Ezekiel, when a slave 
 among the Chaldeans, had a vision near the 
 little river of Chebar, which runs into the 
 Euphrates. 
 
 It is not to be thought strange that he should 
 have seen animals with four faces, and lour 
 wings, and their feet like those of calves; nor 
 that he saw wheels self-moving, and having in 
 them the spirit of life. These symbols are 
 pleasing to the very imagination; but several 
 critics cannot be reconciled (*J to the order 
 
 given 
 
 (•) Our author acknowledges that the descriptions 
 which he has extracted from this prophet, how shock- 
 ing soever they may appear at first sight, only 
 denote the iniquities of Jerusalem and Samaria; yet as 
 
 weak 
 
154 EZEKIEL. 
 
 given him by the Lord that, 'during three hun- 
 dred and ninety days he should eat barley, wheat, 
 
 and 
 
 weak minds may be offended at his picking out these 
 passages, without explaining them, we shall make a 
 few remarks on that head. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel is very obscure, particularly 
 towards the beginning and end, for which reason the 
 Jews would not permit their people to read him till 
 the age of thirty. He foretels the captivity and 
 destruction of Jerusalem, the restoration of the Jewish 
 people, and the rebuilding of the temple. 
 
 In the fourth chapter, under the type of a siege, he 
 shews the time from Jeroboam's defection to the cap- 
 tivity. Here he enumerates the hardships of the 
 besieged, for want of provisions. Their bread, he 
 says, is to be given them by weight, because of the 
 scarcity of grain. They shall also drink their water 
 by measure; and there will be so great a scarcity of 
 fuel, that they will be obliged to bake their bread with 
 dung that cometh out of man; that is, they will be 
 obliged to make fire of man's dung instead of cow- 
 dung, because of the scarcity of cattle. This is very 
 different from ordering the -prophet to besmear the 
 bread with man's dung, as M. Voltaire understands 
 it, according to the vulgar acceptation. The prophet 
 is still uneasy, and tells the Lord, he hath hitherto 
 abstained from every thing that the law deems pol- 
 luted, and therefore begs he may not be obliged to 
 make use of what is naturally polluted; viz. man's 
 dung for the purpose of baking. The Lord is moved 
 with his prayer, mitigates his sentence, and says he 
 shall have cow's dung for man's dung, to prepare his 
 bread therewith; that is, to bake it, not, according to 
 our author's comment, to knead it. The conclusion is, 
 that, a s cow's dung was also unclean, the Israelites should, 
 in punishment for their iniq\uties, be certainly polluted. 
 
 With 
 
EZEKIEL. 135 
 
 rjnd millet bread, besmeared with man's dung, 
 ^'hen said the prophet, ♦' Ah, Lord God, be- 
 hold, 
 
 With regard to the contradiction mentioned by our 
 author, between the passage in this prophet, chap, 
 ixviii. viz. That the son shall not bear the iniquity of 
 the father, and that in Numbers chap. xxviiL we are 
 to observe in the fir^t place, that our author mistakes 
 the book of Numbers for that of Exodus, where, 
 chap. XX. ver. 5. the passage referred to is to be 
 found. Secondly, the contradiction is removed by a 
 right consideration of the whole passage in Ezekiel: 
 the Jews complained that they underwent great hard- 
 -ships in punishment for the sins of Manasseh, " The 
 *' fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's 
 " teeth are set on edge." This has been the case in 
 all times, for people labouring under calamities to 
 exculpate themselves, and to blame their forefathers; 
 hence Horace, " Delicta majorum immeritus lues, 
 *' Romane." The prophet makes answer, that they 
 are punished for their own guilt, and not for that of 
 their ancestors. See other explications in Pool's 
 "Synopsis. 
 
 The objection against the 25th verse of the 20th 
 chapter of Ezekiel is easily answered; " God gave the 
 " Jews statutes that were not good," that is, unplea- 
 sant on account of the multipHcity of ceremonial laws, 
 which were troublesome in practice, yet necessary to 
 that stiff-necked people, because of their proneness to 
 idolatry. 
 
 With respect to the other passages from chap. xvi. 
 and xxiii. they are certainly allegorical, and denote the 
 wickedness and corruption of )erusalcm, whivh was 
 grown worse than Sodom. And as the communication 
 with the Deity is represented frequently in the Scrip- 
 tures under the emblem or figure of nuptials, so the 
 estrangement or wandering from the Deity is described 
 
 as 
 
J56 EZEKIEL. 
 
 hold, my soul hath not hitherto been polluted^ 
 And the Lord answered, Well, instead of man*^ 
 excrements, I allow thee cow dung, and thou 
 shalt prepare thy bread therewith." 
 
 As it is not customary with us to eat brea3 
 with such marmalade, these orders, to the gene- 
 rality of men, appear unworthy of the Divine 
 Majesty, It must, however, be owned, that 
 cow dung and all the diamonds of the mogul, 
 are entirely alike, not only in the eyes of a 
 Divine Being, but in those of a genuine philo- 
 sopher; and as to the reasons God might have 
 for ordering such repasts to his prophet, it is 
 not for us to be examiners. 
 
 It is sufficient to shew, that these orders, how- 
 ever odd and disgustful to us, did not seem so 
 to the Jews. True it is, that in St. Jerom's 
 time, the synagogue did not allow the reading of 
 Ezekiel under thirty years of age; but this was 
 because, in chap, xviii. it is said that " the son 
 ** shall no longer bear the iniquity of the fa- 
 •' ther," and it shall be no more said " the 
 fathers have eaten sour grapes and the chil- 
 dren's teeth have been set on edge." 
 This was expressly contradicting Moses, who, 
 in the xxviii. chapter of Numbers, declares that 
 the children shall bear the iniquity of their fathers 
 to the third and fourth generation. 
 
 Farther, Ezekiel in chap. xx. makes the Lord 
 
 to 
 
 as a spiritual prostitution, or whoredom. But we refer 
 the reader to the different commentators for an appli- 
 cation of the allegory, and agree with our author, 
 that the expressions which to us may appear mdelicate> 
 were not so in regard to the Jews. 
 
 
EZEKIEL. l^f 
 
 to say, that he gave to the Jews '* precepts 
 " which were not good." This was the princi- 
 pal reason ot the synagogue's prohibiting young 
 persons from reading Ezekiel, as it might bring 
 them to doubt of the irrefragability of the Mosaic 
 laws. 
 
 The cavillers of our times are still more 
 astonished at the manner of the prophet's de- 
 scribing the wickedness of Jerusalem, in chapter 
 xvi. where he introduces the Lord speaking to 
 a girl: and the Lord said to the girl, '* In the 
 day thou wast born, thy navel-string was not 
 cut, thou wast neither salted nor swaddled; I 
 pitied thee; thou art grown up, thy breasts are 
 fashioned, and thine hair is grown; I passed by 
 thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was 
 the time of love. I spread my skirt over thee, 
 and covered thy nakedness: thou becamest 
 mine, I washed thee with water, and anointed 
 thee with oil ; I cloathed thee and shod thee; I 
 girded thee about with fine linen, and covered 
 thee with silks; I decked thee also with orna- 
 ments, and put bracelets en thy hands, and a 
 chain on thy neck; I put a jewel on thy fore- 
 head, and ear-rings in thy ears, and a crown on 
 thy head, &c. But thou didst trust in thy 
 beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy 
 renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on 
 every one that passed by: thou hast built an 
 eminent place, thou hast prostituted thyself in 
 public places, thou hast spread thy legs to every 
 one that passed by ... . and thou hast lain with 
 Egyptians .... and, lastly, thou hast paid thy 
 .lovers, and hast made presents to them to lie with 
 thee, .... and in paying instead of being paid, 
 thou hast done the reverse of other girls .... 
 
 there 
 
•'■* 
 
 f ( 
 
 C( 
 
 
 158 EZEKIEt. 
 
 there Is a proverb, Like mother like daughter'^ 
 \ and the like is said of thee." 
 
 Still greater clamour is raised against chap, 
 xxiii. A mother had two daughters, who 
 parted with their virginity very early in life; the 
 name of the elder was Aholah, and of the 
 younger Aholibah : . , . . . *• Aholah doated on 
 " young lords, and captains, and rulers; she 
 *' committed whoredom with the Egyptians in 
 •' her youth .... Aholibah her sister was more 
 corrupt in her whoredoms than she, with cap- 
 tains and rulers cloathed most gorgeously, 
 horsemen riding upon horses, all of them de- 
 ** sirable young men; she has discovered her 
 *' nakedness, she has increased her whoredoms, 
 she has eagerly sought the embraces of those 
 (') whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and 
 ** whose issue is like the issue of horses." 
 
 These descriptions, which scandalize so many 
 weak minds, signify no more than the sins of Je- 
 rusalem and Samaria. Expressions to us indeli- 
 cate and obscure, were not so at that time. The 
 like plainness openly shews itself in other pas- 
 sages of Scripture. It often speaks of *' opening 
 " the womb." The terms in which are expressed 
 the junction of Boaz with Ruth, and of Judah 
 with his daughter-in-law, in Hebrew, having 
 nothing unseemly in them ; but would be very 
 much so in our language. 
 
 He 
 
 (*) M. Voltaire translates the above passage thus* 
 ** Whose member is like that of an ass, and who 
 " cast their seed like horses." Whether that, be more 
 agreeable to the original tjt^n oUrs, is not of great con- 
 sequence; the idea is tli'e^S^e, 
 
 ^% 
 
EZEKIEL. 159 
 
 . He who is not ashamed of being naked does 
 not cover himself: where was the shame of 
 naming the genitals in those times, when it was 
 customary, on any important promise, to touch 
 the genitals of him to whom the promise was 
 made ? It was a mark of respect, a symbol of 
 fidelity ; as formerly among us, the feudal te- 
 nants put their hands between those of their pa- 
 ramounts. 
 
 We have thought fit to render the genitals by 
 thigh ; Eliezer puts his hand under Abraham's 
 thigh ; the like Joseph does to Jacob. This had 
 been a custom of very great antiquity in Egypt; 
 and so far were that people from annexing shame 
 and turpitude to what we dare neither expose 
 nor name, that they carried in procession a large 
 figure of the virile member called Phallum, 
 in thanksgiving to the gods for their goodness 
 in making that member the instrument of human 
 propagation. 
 
 AH this sufficiently proves, that our ideas of 
 decency and purity do not correspond with those 
 of other nations. At what period of time did 
 politeness prevail among the Romans more than 
 in the Augustan age ? Yet Horace, the orna- 
 ment of that age, and in a moral piece, roundly 
 sa}'s, 
 
 " Nee metuo, ne dnm futuo vir rure recurrat." 
 
 Augustus makes use of the same expression in 
 an epigram against Fulvia. 
 
 He who, among us, should openly pronounce 
 the word answering to futuo, would be looked 
 on with as much coritempt as a drunken porter : 
 this word, and several others made use of by. 
 Horace and other elega^^^uthors, to us appear 
 
 *'■' still 
 
 ir 
 
l6o FABLES. 
 
 Still more indecent than Ezekiel's expressions. 
 Whether we read ancient authors, or travel in 
 distant countries, let us lay aside all our preju- 
 dices. Nature is every where the same, and cus- 
 toms every where different. 
 
 FABLES. 
 
 -t\.RE not the most ancient fables manifestly 
 allegorical ? The first we know of, according to 
 our chronology, is it not that related in the 9th 
 chapter of the book of Judges ? The trees were 
 about chusing a king ; the olive would not quit 
 the care of its oil, nor the fig-tree of its figs, nor 
 the vine-tree of its rich juice ; and all the other 
 trees had their fruit no less at heart ; so that the 
 thistle being good for nothing, and having 
 prickles which could do hurt, made itself 
 
 king. 
 
 The Pagan fable of Venus, as we have it in 
 Hesiod, is it not an allegory of all nature ? The 
 generative parts fell from the sky on the sea- 
 shore ; Venus receives her being from this pre- 
 cious spume : her first name signifies *' Lover of 
 generation :" can there be a more sensible image ? 
 This Venus is the goddess of beauty ; beauty is 
 no longer amiable than when accompanied by 
 the graces ; beauty gives rise to love, love has 
 shafts which every heart has felt ; he is hood- 
 winked, to conceal the faults of the object be- 
 loved. 
 
 Wisdom is conceived in the brain of the so- 
 vereign of the gods, under the name of Minerva; 
 the soul of man is a divine fire, which Minerva 
 
 jshewfi 
 
 li 
 
\ 
 
 f ALSITY OF HUMAN NATURE. l6l 
 
 shews to Prometheus, and he made use of this 
 divine fire to animate man. 
 
 Every body must perceive in these fables a 
 lively portraiture of nature. Most of the other 
 fables are either corruptions of ancient histories, 
 or the chimeras of imagination. It is with an- 
 cient fables as with modern tales ; some are of 
 the moral kind and quite charming, and there 
 are others as insipid. 
 
 FALSITY OF HUMAN VIRTUES. 
 
 VV HEN the Duke de Rochefoucault had 
 published his Thoughts on Self-love, one M. 
 Esprit of the Oratory wrote a captious book, in- 
 titled. The Falsity of Human Virtues. This ge- 
 nius says there is no such thing as virtue ; but, 
 at the close of every chapter, kindly refers his 
 readers to Christian charity : so that, according 
 to M. Esprit, neither Cato, nor Aristides, nor 
 Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus, were good men; 
 and a good reason why, these are only to be 
 found among Christians. Again, among Chris- 
 tians the catholics are the only virtuous ; and 
 among the catholics the Jesuits, enemies to 
 the Oratorians, should have been excepted ; 
 therefore there is scarce any virtue on earth but 
 among the enemies of the Jesuits. 
 
 This Sieur Esprit sets out with saying that 
 prudence is not a virtue ; and his reason is, be- 
 cause it is often mistaken : which is as much as 
 to say, Caesar was nothing of a soldier because 
 he had the worst of it at Dyrachium. 
 
 Had this reverend gentleman been a philoso- 
 
 M pher, 
 
 
l62 FANATICISM. 
 
 pher, he would not have treated of prudence as 
 a virtue, but as a talent, a happy and useful qua- 
 lity ; for a villain may be very prudent, and I 
 have known such. The madness of pretend- 
 ing that virtue is the portion only of us and our 
 partisans ! 
 
 What is virtue, my friend ? It is doing good« 
 Do me some, and that is enough ; as for your 
 motive, that you may keep to yourself. How ! 
 According to you, there is no difference between 
 the president de Thou and Ravaillac; between 
 Cicero and that wretch Popilius, whose life he 
 had saved, and who yet hired himself to cut ofT 
 his head ? You will pronounce Epictetus and 
 Porphyry to be rascals, because they did not 
 hold with our doctrines ? Such insolence is 
 quite shocking; but I have done, lest I grow 
 warm. 
 
 FANATICISM. 
 
 JL ANATICISM is to superstition what a deli* 
 rium is to a fever, and fury to anger : he who 
 has extasies and visions, who takes dre.ams for 
 realities, and his imaginations for prophecies, is 
 an enthusiast ; and he who sticks not at support- 
 ing his folly by murder, is a fanatic. Bartho- 
 lomew Diaz, a fugitive at Nuremberg, who was 
 firmly convinced that the pope is the Anti Christ 
 in the Revelations, and that he has the mark of 
 the beast, was only an enthusiast ; whereas his 
 brother, who set out from Rome with the godly 
 intention of murdering him, and who actually 
 did murder him for God's sake, was one of the 
 most execrable fanatics that superstition could 
 form. 
 
 Polieuctes, 
 
 *f 
 
FANATICISM. 
 
 Polieuctes, who on a Pagan festival, wentllito 
 the temple, pulling down and breaking the images 
 and other ornaments, shewed himself a fanatic, 
 less horrible, indeed, than Diaz, but equally 
 rash and imprudent. The murderers of Francis 
 Duke of Guise, of William Prince of Orange, 
 of the Kings Henry III. and Henry IV. and of 
 so many others, were demoniacs, agitated by the 
 same evil spirit as Diaz. 
 
 The most detestable instance of fanaticism is 
 that of the citizens of Paris, who, on the feast of 
 St. Bartholomew, could massacre their fellow 
 citizens for not going to mass. 
 
 Some are fanatics in cool blood : these are the 
 judges who can sentence people to death with- 
 out any other guilt than for not being in their 
 way of thinking : these judges are the more 
 guilty, and the more deserving of universal ex- 
 ecration, as not being under a fit of rage like the 
 Clements, the Chatels, the Ravaillacs, the Ge- 
 rards, the Damiens, one would think they might 
 listen to reason. 
 
 When once fanaticism has touched the brain, 
 the distemper is desperate. I have seen convul- 
 sionists, who, in speaking of the miracles of St. 
 Paris, grew hot involuntarily ; their eyes glared, 
 they trembled in all their limbs, their counte- 
 nance was quite disfigured with rancour, and 
 they unquestionably would have killed any one 
 who had contradicted them. 
 
 The only remedy to this infectious disease is | 
 a philosophical temper, which spreading through ] 
 society, at length softens manners, and obviates / 
 the accesses of the distemper ; for whenever itj 
 gets ground, the best way is to fly from it, and 
 «tay till the air be purified. The laws and reli- 
 
 M 2 gion 
 
Cl6£> FANATICISM. 
 
 gion are no preservative against this mental pes- 
 tilence. Religion, so far from being a salutary 
 aliment in these cases, in infected brains becomes 
 poison. These unhappy creatures dwell conti- 
 nually on the example of Ehud, who assassinated 
 King Eglon ; of Judith, who cut off Holopher- 
 nes's head when lying with him ; and of Samuel 
 hewing King Agag in pieces. They are not 
 aware that these instances, however respectable 
 in antiquity, are abominable in our times : they 
 foment their phrenzy with religion, which abso- 
 lutely condemns it. 
 
 ThelaAvsJikewisCjJhave^^ 
 tuJ^^gamsTlihiFlpir^^ it~ls, indee d," 
 
 jJ^eTea 3 ing~af i order_oF"cojjjQ£il to a lunatic. 
 These creatures are firml y persua ded that the 
 spirk 'By^ which ^Key are actuated Is* above all 
 laws,, and that their erithusTalimjs^he'onlyJaw 
 tLey areJtpjregard.. 
 
 yV'h at can be answered to a perso n who tells 
 you that hejiad rather oBey^ljoa than men, an d 
 who, in consequence oFthaT choice, is certain 
 of gaining heaven by cutting your throat ? 
 
 The leaders of fanatics, and who put the dag- 
 ger into their hands, are usually designing knaves ; 
 they are like the old man of the mountain, who, 
 according to history, gave weak persons a fore- 
 taste of the joys of paradise, promising them an 
 eternity of such enjoyments, provided they 
 would go and murder all those whom he should 
 name to them. In the whole world, there has 
 been but one religion clear of fanaticism, which 
 is that of the Chinese literati. As to the sects 
 of philosophers, instead of being infected with 
 this pestilence, they were a remedy and preser- 
 vative against it : for the effect of philosophy is 
 
 to 
 
tRAUD. 165 
 
 to compose the soul, and fanaticism is incompati- 
 ble with tranquility. As to our holy religion 
 having been so often corrupted by these in- 
 fernal impulses, it is the tolly of men that is to 
 be blamed. 
 
 FRAUD. 
 
 WHETHER PIOUS FRAUDS ARE ALLOWABLE? 
 
 JjAMBABEF, the Fakir, one day met a dis- 
 ciple of Confutsee, whom we call Confucius ; 
 and this disciple's name was Ouang : Bambabef 
 maintained that it is proper sometimes to deceive 
 the people, and Ouang insisted that we are never 
 to deceive any one. The substance of their dis- 
 pute was as follows : 
 
 Bam. We are to imitate the Supreme Being, 
 who does not shew us things as they are; he shews 
 us the sun in a diameter of only two or three 
 feet, though that body be a million of times 
 larger than the earth ; he shews us the moon and 
 the stars as fixed on one and the same blue 
 ground, though they are at different and immense 
 distances ; he would have a square tower appear 
 round to us afar off; he would have the fire 
 seem hot to us, though it be neither hot nor 
 cold ; in a word, he encompasses us with errors 
 suitable to our nature. 
 
 Ou. What you call error is no such thing. 
 That sun, which is placed millions of millions of 
 lis (') from our globe, is not that sun we see, 
 
 M 3 we 
 
 (*) A lis signifies 124 paces. 
 
l66 FRAUD. 
 
 we cannot have any real sight but of the sun 
 which reflects itself on our retina in a determi- 
 nate angle. Our eyes were not given us for the 
 knowledge of dimensions and distances ; this re- 
 quires other instruments and operations. 
 
 Bambabef stared at such language ; but Ouang, 
 being endued with an uncommon patience, ex- 
 plained to him the theory of optics ; and Bam- 
 babef, having a clear head, acquiesced in the de- 
 monstrations produced by Confutsee's disciple, 
 and then returned to the dispute in these terms. 
 
 Bam. If God does not deceive us by the me- 
 dium of our senses, as I thought ; you must own, 
 however, that physicians always cheat children 
 for their good ; they will tell them they are 
 giving them sugar, when, at the same time, it 
 is rhubarb, so that I, as a Fakir, may deceive 
 the people, they having no more knowledge or 
 understanding than children. 
 
 Ou. I have two sons, and never have I de- 
 ceived them. When they are sick, I say to 
 them this physic is very bitter, but you must 
 pluck up a good heart and take it, the more bit- 
 ter the more good will it do you ; were it sweet 
 it would hurt you : I never allowed their gover- 
 nesses or preceptors to frighten them with ghosts 
 and apparitions, with hobgoblins and wizards : 
 and thus they are grown up to be brave and sen- 
 sible young men, 
 
 Bam. The common people are not born with 
 the like happy talents and dispositions as your 
 family. 
 
 Ou. All men are alike, they are born with 
 the same propensities; it is the Fakirs who vi- 
 tiate human nature. 
 
 Bam. We do teach them errors, I own, but 
 
 it 
 
FRAUD. 167 
 
 it is for their good ; we make them believe that, 
 if they do not buy of our consecrated nails, or 
 expiate their sins by giving us money, they will, 
 in the next world, be post-horses, dogs, or liz- 
 zards. This terrifies them into goodness. 
 
 OUc Are you not aware that this is perverting 
 the poor people ? Reasoning is not so scarce 
 among them as is imagined ; there are great 
 numbers who refleft; who laugh at your nails, 
 your miracles, your superstitions; and who 
 know better than their being changed into liz- 
 zards or post-horses. What is the consequence ? 
 They have sense to see that you preach up a 
 sophisticated religion, but not enough to raise 
 themselves to a pure religion, free from super- 
 stition and folly such as ours. Their passions 
 lead them to believe there is nothing in reli- 
 gion ; the only religion taught them being mani- 
 festly ridiculous; and thus you share in all the 
 guilt into which they plunge themselves. 
 
 Bam. Not in the least : for we only teach 
 them a good morality. 
 
 Ou. You would get yourself stoned to death 
 were you to preach a false morality; men are of 
 such a make that amidst all their iniquity they 
 will not bear the preaching of it to them : but 
 absurd fables should not be intermixed with 
 good morality; for thus, by your impostures, 
 which might as well be suppressed, you weaken 
 that morality, which, for self-preservation, you 
 are obliged to teach. 
 
 Bam. How I do you imagine there is any such 
 thing as teaching truth to the people without cal- 
 ling in fables ? 
 
 Ou. To be sure I do. Our literati are of 
 the same texture as our taylors, weavers and 
 
 M 4 farmers. 
 
l68 FRAUD. 
 
 farmers. They worship one God, the creator 
 of all things, who rewards and punishes; their 
 religion is not darkened with absurd systems, 
 nor disfigured with fantastical ceremonies ; and 
 much less wickedness is there among the lite- 
 rati than among the common people. Where- 
 fore then do you not condescend to instruct our 
 artificers as we instruct our literati? 
 
 Bam. That would be idle indeed, as if they 
 were to have all the good breeding and know- 
 ledge of a counsellor ; that is neither possible 
 nor proper. White bread for masters; and 
 brown bread will go down with servants. 
 
 Ou. All men, I own, should not have an 
 equal stock of knowledge ; but some points there 
 are necessary to all : it is necessary that all men 
 should be just; and the surest method to make 
 men so, is to teach them pure religion, without 
 any superstitions. 
 
 Bam. a specious scheme, only impracti- 
 cable. Think you that for men to believe a 
 rewarding and punishing God, will do the bu- 
 siness ? You say that the sensible part of the 
 people are offended at my fables ; and as little 
 will they digest your bare truths; they will say, 
 how am I certain that God punishes and re- 
 wards ? Your proofs ? Where is your mission ? 
 What miracles have you done for me to believe 
 you? It is you they will flout at, and not me. 
 
 Ou. There lies your mistake. Because they 
 reject dangerous absurdities, and fictions shock- 
 ing to common sense, you fancy they will not 
 admit a doctrine highly probable, conducive to 
 virtue, productive of the greatest benefit to all 
 mankind, and perfectly consonant with human 
 
 reason ? 
 
 The 
 
FRAUD. 169 
 
 The people are thoroughly, inclined to refer 
 to their magistrates : when the belief recom- 
 mended by these is rational, they readily close 
 with it. Miracles are not necessary to in force 
 a belief of a just God, to whom all hearts are 
 open; the idea is too natural to be long opposed. 
 To tell precisely how, and in what manner, God 
 will punish and reward is out of the question. 
 Believe him just, and that's enough ; I assure 
 ' you I have seen whole cities with scarce any 
 other tenet, and no where have I observed so 
 much virtue. 
 
 Bam. Fair and softlv ; those same cities swarm 
 with philosophers, who deny both rewards and 
 punishments. 
 
 Ou. You must withal own that those philo- 
 sophers will much more peremptorily deny your 
 inventions, so that makes but little on your side. 
 As for philosophers differing from my prin- 
 ciples, they may still be good men, still as sedu- 
 lous in the cultivation of virtue, which is to be 
 embraced from love, and not out of fear. But I 
 aver that no philosopher can ever be assured 
 that Providence has not in store punishments for 
 the wicked, and recompences for the good: for 
 should they ask me, who told me that God 
 punishes ? my answer is, who told them that 
 God does not punish ? In short, the philoso- 
 pher, I dare say, instead of opposing me would 
 second me. Are you inclined to be a philo- 
 sopher ? 
 
 Bam. Very much so; but not a word of it to 
 the Faquirs. 
 
 FRIEND. 
 
f/O FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 RIENDSHIP is a tacit contract between two 
 sensible and virtuous persons, I say SENSIBLE; 
 for a monk, a hermit, may not be wicked, yet 
 live a stranger to friendship. I add VIRTU- 
 OUS, for the wicked have only accomplices, 
 the voluptuous have companions, the designing 
 have associates, the men of business have part- 
 ners, the politicians form a factious band ; the 
 bulk of idle men have connections ; princes 
 have courtiers : but virtuous men alone have 
 friends. Cethegus was Cataline's accomplice, 
 and Mecenas was Octavius's courtier; but Cicero 
 was Atticus's friend. 
 
 What is implied in this contract between two 
 tender and ingenuous souls ? Its obligations are 
 stronger and weaker, according to their degree 
 of sensibility, and the number of good offices 
 performed, &;c. 
 
 The enthusiasm of friendship was stronger 
 among the Greeks and Arabs than among us. 
 The tales on friendship composed by those peo- 
 ple are admirable ; we have nothing like them ; 
 in every thing we are somewhat dry and jejune. 
 
 Among the Greeks friendship was a point of 
 religion, and an object of the legislation. The 
 Thebans had a regiment called the regiment of 
 lovers, and a fine regiment I dare say it was ; 
 some have mistaken it for a regiment of So- 
 domites, but this is a gross error, taking an 
 accessory for the principal. Among the Greeks 
 friendship was recommended both by the law and 
 religion. Unhappily their manners allowed of 
 
 pederasty ; 
 
GLORY. 171 
 
 pederasty; but the law is not to be charged with 
 anyshametul abuses. 
 
 GLORY. f») 
 
 B 
 
 EN-AL-BETIF that worthy superior of the 
 Dervises, one day said to them : Brethren, it is 
 very fit, that you should often use that sacred form 
 in our Koran, *' in the name of the most merci- 
 *' ful God," for God sheweth mercy, and you 
 learn to practise it by the frequent repetition of 
 words, recommending a virtue, without which 
 there would be tew people remaining on earth : 
 but, brethren, far be it from you to imitate the 
 presumption of those, who are continually 
 boasting, that what they do is for the glory of 
 God. When a raw scholar maintains a thesis on 
 the Categories before some furred ignoramus of 
 a president, he is sure to write in large characters 
 at the head of his thesis: " Ek allha abron doxa, 
 *' Ad majoram Dei gloriam." So a devout 
 mussulman, having caused his saloon to be white- 
 washed, must have the like folly engraved over 
 his door ; a Saka likewise carries water to pro- 
 mote 
 
 (') There is a good deal of quibble in this article. 
 If by GLORY our author means addition of realpo^\er 
 or greatness, it is certain, that the creature can make 
 no such addition to the Creator. But this should not 
 hinder us from expressing our gratitude for the favours 
 received of the Supreme. This we are taught to do 
 in sundry parts of scripture : thus the multitude of the 
 heavenly host praised God, saying, Glory to God in 
 the highest. To deny the propriety of giving glory 
 to God in this sense betrays an ingratitude in man, 
 and strikes at all external worship. 
 
172 GLORY, 
 
 mote God's glory. This is a devout practice of 
 a prophane custom. What would you say of a 
 pitiful Chiaoux, who, when emptying our Sul- 
 tan's close-stool should bawl out, To the greater 
 glory of our invincible monarch ? Now certainly 
 the difference is greater between the Sultan and 
 God, than between the pitiful Chiaoux and the 
 sublime Sultan. 
 
 Ye poor earth-worms, called men, what have 
 you in common with the glory of the infinite es- 
 sence ? Can he desire glory, can he receive any 
 from you ? Can he enjoy it ? How long, ye two- 
 legged featherless animals, will you make God in 
 your likeness ! being yourselves vain and fond 
 of glory, God must needs be so too! Were 
 there several Gods, each of them would be de- 
 sirous ot the applause of his equals, and in that 
 would consist the glory of a God. If infinite 
 grandeur might be brought into a comparison 
 with the extremity of meanness, such a God 
 would be like King Alexander or Scander, who 
 would enter the lill against kings only : but you, 
 poor creatures, what glory can you give to God ? 
 Forbear any longer to prophane his sacred 
 name. An emperor, named Octavius Augustus, 
 ordered no panegerics to be made on him in the 
 schools of Rome, that his name might not be de- 
 based. But you can neither debase, nor exalt 
 the Supreme Being. Prostrate yourselves, and 
 worship in silence. 
 
 Thus spoke Ben-al-betif, and the Dervises 
 shouted. Glory to God ! well has Ben-al-betif 
 spoken. 
 
 GOD 
 
GOD, 173 
 
 GOD. 
 
 In the reign of Arcadius, Logomacos, a theo- 
 logue of Constantinople, went into Scythia, and 
 stopped at the foot of mount Caucasus in the fer- 
 tile plains of Zephirim, bordering on Colchis. 
 The good old man Dondindac was, after a light 
 repast, kneeling in his large hall between his vast 
 sheepfold and his ample barn, with his wife, his 
 five sons and five daughters, some of his kindred 
 and his domestics, all chanting the praises of the 
 bounteous giver of all good things, Ho! what 
 art thou about, idolater, said Logomacos to 
 him ? I am no idolater said Dondindac. An 
 idolater thou must be, said Logomacos, as being 
 a Scythian, or at least no Greek. Well, and 
 what wast thou gabbling in thy Scythian jargon? 
 All languages are alike in God's ear, answered 
 the Scythian ; we were singing his praises. Very 
 extraordinary indeed, replied the theologue, a 
 Scythian family worshipping God without any 
 previous instruction from us ! He soon entered 
 into a conversation with Dondindac, for the the- 
 ologue had a smattering of the Scythian, and the 
 other understood a little Greek. This conver- 
 sation is lately come to light in a manuscript kept 
 in the Imperial library at Constantinople. 
 
 Log. I will see whether thou knowest thy 
 catechism ; why prayest thou to God ? 
 
 Don. Because it isjust and proper to v/orship 
 the Supreme Being, as ot him we hold all we 
 have. 
 
 Log. Pretty well for a barbarian : and what 
 afkest thou of him ? 
 
 Don. I thank God for the good things he 
 
 gives 
 
174 ^o°» 
 
 gives me, and even for the crosses with which 
 he tries me. But as tor asking him any thing, 
 that's what I never presume to do ; he knows 
 what we stand in need of better than ourselves; 
 besides, I should be afraid to ask for sun-shine, 
 when rain would better suit my neighbour. 
 
 Log. Ah! I apprehended we should soon have 
 some nonsense or other from him. Let us take 
 a retrospect of things : who told thee there is a 
 God ? 
 
 Don. All nature. 
 
 Log. That's nothing; what idea hast thou of 
 God? 
 
 Don. That he is my creator, my master, 
 who will reward me if 1 do well, and punish me 
 if I do amiss. 
 
 . Log. That is but trivial and low ; let us come 
 to the essential. Is God infinite " secundum 
 quid," or in his essence? 
 
 Don. I don't understand you. 
 
 Log. Stupid dolt! is God in a place, or out 
 of all place, or is he every where ? 
 
 Don. I know nothing of that; it may be 
 just as you please. 
 
 Log. Ignorant wretch ! Well ; can he make 
 what has been not to have been, or that a stick 
 shall not have two ends ? Is futurity to him as fu- 
 ture or as present ? How does he do to bring no- 
 thing into existence, and to annihilate existence ? 
 
 Don. 1 never bestow a thought on those 
 things. 
 
 Log. What an oaf is this I well, I must let 
 myself down, I must suit myself to the meanness 
 of his intellects. Tell me, friend, believest 
 thou that matter can be eternal ? 
 
 Don . What i$ it to me whether it exists from 
 
 eternity 
 
GOD. 175 
 
 eternity or not ? 1 did not exist from eternity. 
 God is always my master and instructor. He 
 has given me the knowledge of justice, and it is 
 my duty to act accordingly. I do not desire to 
 be a philosopher, let me be a man. 
 
 Log. What a plague it is to have to do with 
 such thick-headed creatures. I must proceed gra- 
 il ually with him ? What is God? 
 
 Don. My sovereign, my judge, my father. 
 
 Log. That's not what I ask you ; what is his 
 nature ? 
 
 Don. To be powerful and good. 
 
 Log. But whether is he corporeal or spi- 
 ritual ? 
 
 Don. How should I know. 
 
 Log. What ! not know what a spirit is ! 
 
 Don. Not I in the least, and what should I 
 be the better for such knowledge ? Will it mend 
 my morals, make me a better husband, a better 
 father, better master, or better member of so* 
 ciety ? 
 
 LoQ. A man must be absolutely taught what 
 
 a spirit is, since it is, it i3, it is well, we 
 
 will let that alone till another time. 
 
 Don. I fancy, instead of being able to tell 
 me what it is, you will rather tell me what it is 
 not. But after so much questioning, may I take 
 the freedom to a^k you a question ? I was for- 
 merly in one of your temples, and why do you 
 paint God with a long beard. 
 
 Log. That is a very abstruse question, and 
 the solution of which would be above your com- 
 prehension, without some preliminary instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 Don. Before you enter on your instructions, 
 I must tell you a circumstance, which 1 hope 
 
 never 
 
1^6 GOD. 
 
 never to forget. I had just built a summer- 
 house at the end of my garden ; and one 
 day sitting in it, heard a mole and a chafer des- 
 canting on it : A superb edifice it certainly is, 
 said the mole, and of very great parts must that 
 molc'have been who built it. A mole forsooth ! 
 I say a mole too ! quoth the chafer ; the archi- 
 tect of that pretty building, could be no other 
 than some chafer of an extraordinary genius. 
 This colloquy put me on a resolution never to 
 dispute. 
 
 GOVERNMENTS^ 
 
 WHICH IS THE BEST? 
 
 JL Never yet knew any man who had not go- 
 verned some state or other. I do not speak of 
 their High Mightinesses the ministers, who go- 
 vern in reality, some two or three years, others 
 six months, and others as many weeks; I mean 
 all other men, who over a bottle, or in their 
 closet, display their system of government, and 
 reform navy, army, law, finances, and church. 
 Abbe Bourzeis took upon himself to govern 
 France about the year 1645 under the name oi 
 Cardinal Richelieu, and composed that Political 
 Will, in which he is for having the nobility en- 
 rolled in the cavalry for three years ; the land 
 tax to be paid to the chambers of accounts and 
 the parliament, and taking away from the king 
 the produce of the salt-tax : in order to take the 
 field with 50,000 men, he makes it a point of 
 ceconomy to raise 100,000. He affirms, that 
 *' Provence alone has many more fine sea-ports 
 " than Spain and Italy put together." 
 
 This 
 
GOVERNMENTS. 177 
 
 This ecclesiastical schemer had not travelled. 
 Besides, his v/ork swarms with anachronisms and 
 errors. As he makes Cardinal Richelieu speak 
 what he never did speak, so his signature is no 
 less different from that of the cardinal. Farther, 
 he fills a whole chapter with saying, that "reason 
 •* is to be the rule of a state;" and in labouring 
 to prove such a notable discovery. This work ol 
 darkness, this bantling of the abbi Bourzeis 
 passed a long time for Cardinal Richelieu's legiti- 
 mate offspring, and all the academicians in their 
 inauguration speeches never failed to pour forth 
 the most excessive eulogiums on this master- 
 piece of policy. 
 
 One St. Gratien de Courtils, seeing the great 
 success of Cardinal Richelieu's Political Legacy, 
 fell to writing Colbert's Legacy, with a fine let- 
 ter to the king; whereas had that minister drawn 
 up such will, he ought to have been declared 
 NON COMPOS; yet have some authors thought 
 fit to quote this composition. Another starve- 
 ling, too mean to be known, published Lou- 
 vois's Will, which, if such a thing could be, 
 was still worse than Colbert's ; and by the fertile 
 brain of one Abbe de Chevremont, Duke Charles 
 of Lorrain likewise had his Will. We have also 
 had the political testaments of Cardinal Alberoni, 
 Marshal Belleisle, and lastly, that of Mandrin. 
 
 M. de Boisguilebert, author of le Detail de 
 la FrancCy printed in 1695, troubled the pub- 
 lic with the impracticable project of the regal 
 tenths, under the name of Marshal Vauban. 
 
 One Jonchere, a crazy fellow who had not 
 bread to eat, met with a bookseller who pub- 
 lished a scheme of his on the finances in four 
 volumes; and some blockheads have quoted 
 
 N this 
 
178 GOVERNMENTS.^ 
 
 this production as a work of the treasurer-geiie- 
 ral, on a notion that a book of finances, writ- 
 ten by a treasurer, must be a choice piece. 
 
 It must, however, be owned that very wise 
 men, and men perhaps every way quaHfied for 
 government, have in France, in Spain, and in 
 England, written on political administration-. 
 And great good have their books done ; not 
 that they have amended the ministers who were 
 in place when those books came out ; for a mi- 
 nister never amends, there is no changing him ; 
 he has taken his bent ; and for informations and 
 counsels, the stream of business carries him 
 away so as not to leave leisure to listen to them: 
 but young persons designed for employmcntSj 
 and princes themselves are instructed by these 
 good books; and thus the second generation 
 reaps the benefit of them. 
 
 The advantages and disadvantages of all go- 
 vernments have of late been closely canvassed. 
 Now you who have travelled, and read, and 
 seen a great deal, pray in which state, and under 
 what form of government would you chuse to 
 be born? I fancy a French nobleman with* a 
 large landed estate would not be sorr)^ to have 
 been born in Germany, as there, instead of 
 being a subject, he would be a sovereign* = A 
 peer of France doubtless would be very glad to 
 have the privileges of the English peerage, as 
 raising him to a share in the legislature. 
 
 For the lawyer and the financier, France is 
 the country which of all others brings the most 
 grist to their mill. 
 
 But what country would a wise man, of -a 
 free turn of mind, unprejudiced, and of a mid» 
 dling fortune, make choice of? ' 
 
 A mem« 
 
GOVERNMENTS, I79 
 
 A member of the council of Pondicherry, a 
 gentleman of some learning, was returning into 
 Europe over land, in company with a Bramin, 
 who knew more than most of his brethren. 
 How do you like the Grand Mogul's govern- 
 ment, said the counsellor ? Nothing more abo- 
 minable, answered the Bramin ; but how can a 
 state be well governed by Tartars ? If our Rayas, 
 our Omrahs, our Nabobs, are entirely satisfied 
 and easy ; it is otherwise with the people, and 
 millions of people are something. 
 
 The counsellor and the Bramin traversed all 
 Upper Asia, amidst political conversations. An 
 observation occurs to me, said the Bramin, that 
 all this vast part of the world does not afford 
 one republic. Here was, anciently, that of Tyre^ 
 said the counsellor, but it did not continue long: 
 then there was another towards Arabia Petrea, 
 in a small nook called Palestine, if the honour- 
 able appellation of republic may be given to a 
 tribe of robbers and usurers, sometimes governed 
 by judges, sometimes by a sort of kings, some- 
 times by high-priests, subdued and enslaved 
 seven or eight times, and, at last, driven out of 
 the country which it had usurped. 
 
 I apprehend, said the Bramin, that republics 
 are very scarce in all parts ; it is but seldom 
 that men deserve to govern themselves. This 
 happiness must belong only to small nations, 
 concealing themselves in islands, or amidst 
 mountains, like rabbits shunning .carnivorous 
 beasts, but at length discovered and devoured. .- 
 
 The two travellers being come into Asia Mi'- 
 nor, the counsellor said to the Bramin, Could 
 you think there had ever been a republic in a 
 corner of Italy, which subsisted above five hun- 
 
 N 2 dred 
 
l8o GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 dred years, and made itself mistress of this- 
 Asia Minor, Asia, Africa, Greece, the Gauls,. 
 Spain, and all Italy? I daresay it soon became 
 changed to a monarchy, said the Bramin. Very 
 right, said the other ; but that monarchy is long^ 
 since come to nothing, and every day fine dis- 
 sertations are composed to find out the causes of 
 its declension and catastrophe. You give your- 
 selves a deal of needless trouble, said the Indian ; 
 that empire fell because it existed : every thing 
 will fall ; I hope in God the empire of the Great 
 Mogul will one day have its fall. 
 
 Now we are upon this head, said the Euro- 
 pean, do you think honour is most necessary in- 
 a monarchy, and virtue in a republic ? The In- 
 dian, after the meaning of the word honour had, 
 at his desire, been explained to him, answered 
 that honour was of greater necessity in a re- 
 public and virtue in a monarchy : For, says he, 
 a man who sets up to be chosen by the people 
 will not be chosen, if he be reputed a man of 
 no honour ; whereas at court he may easily in- 
 sinuate himself into a post, according to the 
 maxim of a great prince, that a courtier to make 
 his fortune should be without honour or pride. 
 As to virtue, an immense deal of it is requisite 
 to dare speak truth at court ; a virtuous man is 
 much more at ease in a republic ; there's nobody 
 to flatter. 
 
 It is your opinion, said the native of Europe, 
 that the laws and religions are made for the 
 climates, as furs suit Moscow, and gauze stuffs 
 Delly ? To be sure, said the Bramin, all laws 
 relative to the human constitution are calculated 
 for the climate where one lives; one wife will 
 
GRACE.' iSl 
 
 i'do for a German, a Persian must have three or 
 four. 
 
 It is the same with religious rites. Were I 
 a Christian, how could I say mass in my pro- 
 vince, which affords neither bread nor wine ? 
 As to articles of faith, that's another case ; in 
 ihese the climate is out of the question. Did 
 not your religion commence in Asia, from whence 
 'it has been expelled ? and again, is it not esta- 
 blished about the Baltic Sea, where it was once 
 unknown ? 
 
 ' In what state, under what government should 
 you like best to live ? said the counsellor. Any 
 where but in my own country, said his compa- 
 nion ; and many Siamese, Tonquinese, Persians, 
 and Turks have 1 met with, who said the very 
 same thing. But tell me, in what particular 
 state you would preferably like to spend your 
 days. The Bramin answered. In that where 
 obedience is paid only to the laws. That's an 
 old answer, said the counsellor. And never 
 the worse for that, said the Bramin. But where 
 is that country, said ihe Pondicherrian ? It must 
 ie sought for, said the Bramin. 
 
 GRACE. 
 
 JL E sacred couissellors of modern Rome, ye 
 illustrious and infallible theologists, no person 
 has more respect for your decisions than my- 
 self; but were Paulus Emilius, Scipio, Cato, 
 Cicero, Caesar, Titus, Trajan, and Marcus Au- 
 relius to revisit that Rome which they formerly 
 raised to some consideration, you must own 
 they would be a little staggered at your determi- 
 aiations concerning grace. What would they 
 
 N 3 say 
 
:l82 GRACE. 
 
 say to your debates on St. Thomas's grace of 
 health, on Cajetan's medicinal grace, on exter- 
 nal and internal grace, on gratuitous, sanctifying, 
 actual, habitual, co-operating grace, or effectual 
 grace which is sometimes ineffectual, on suf- 
 ficient grace often insufficient, on versatile and 
 congruous grace ; sincerely, would they under- 
 stand it more than yourselves or I ? 
 
 Those illustrious personages would be quite at 
 a loss without your sublime instructions : I 
 think I hear them say, 
 
 Reverend fathers, you are stupendous geni- 
 uses ; we foolishly conceived the eternal Being 
 never to be guided by particular laws like mean 
 mortals, but by his own general laws, eternal 
 like himself. It never came into any of our 
 heads that God was like a brain-sick master, 
 giving a comfortable farm to one slave, and de- 
 nying necessary food to another; ordering one 
 slave without a hand to knead dough, a dumb 
 slave to read to him, and a cripple to be his 
 courier. 
 
 Every thing from God is grace : by his grace 
 the globe which we dwell in was formed ; by 
 his grace the trees grow, and animals are nou- 
 rished : but if a wolf finds a lamb in his way to 
 make a good meal of, and another wolf is fa- 
 mishing, will any one say that God has shewn 
 particular grace to the former wolf? has he by a 
 preventing grace been busied in causing one oak 
 to grow preferably to another oak, which has 
 withered for want of sap ? If all beings through- 
 out all nature are subject to general laws, how 
 can any single species of creatures be exempt 
 from those laws ? 
 
 Why 
 
 # 
 
GRACE. 1,83 
 
 f Why should. the absolute master of all have 
 been more intent on disposing the inside of one 
 man alone ('J, than in conducting all the other 
 parts of nature ? From what humour or fickle- 
 ness should he make any alteration in the heart 
 
 o£ 
 
 (*) Our autlior may be right in ridiculing the opi- 
 Mions of schoolmen concerning grace, as they abound 
 in fantastical niceties altogether unintelligible. But 
 whatever Marcus Aurelius may say, a Christian is 
 bound to believe that without the grace of God by 
 Christ, we have no power to do good works, plea- 
 sant and acceptable to the Deity. As to the above 
 question, Why should the absolute master of all have 
 been more intent on disposing the inside of one man 
 alone, than in conductingall tiie other parts of nature ? 
 it shews, our author to be ignorant of the doctrine of 
 continual providence, as he indeed is of many other 
 sound doctrines. The infinitely wise Being cannot 
 but know every thing that is done in every part of 
 the universe, and with equal ease take notice of the 
 minutest things as of the greatest : but it is a mistake 
 to believe him more intent upon one thing than upon 
 another ; and it is only according to our weak concep- 
 tions that we say, God takes more particular notice 
 of the moral actions of his rational creatures. M. Vol- 
 taire labours very hard on all occasions to represent 
 man as a yile worm unworthy of the care of the Deity, 
 not reflecting that such a care is attended with no dif- 
 ficulty in the supreme creator of all things. Besides, 
 how inconsiderable soever man may be, yet he is the 
 chief, and indeed, the only inhabitant, for whose sake 
 our earthly globe was formed into a habitable world; 
 and this earth of ours, as Dr. Clarke observes, for 
 aught we know, is as considerable, and worthy of the 
 divine care, as any other part of the system, and this 
 system as considerable as any pther system in the 
 universe. N 4 
 
184 GRACE. 
 
 of a Courlander or a Biscayan, when he is seen 
 not to make the least alteration in the laws, 
 which he has impressed on all the heavenly 
 bodies ? 
 
 How weak is it to suppose that he is conti- 
 nually making, unmaking, and remaking senti- 
 ments in us ! and what presumption is it to think 
 ourselves privileged above all other beings! far- 
 ther, it is only for those who observe confession 
 that all these mutations are invented. A Savoyard 
 or native of Bergamo shall, on Monday, have 
 the grace to bestow twelve sous to have a mass 
 said; on Tuesday grace will fail him, and he 
 will go to the tavern; on Wednesday he shall 
 have co-operating grace, which will send him 
 away to confession, but without the efficacious 
 grace of perfect contrition ; Thursday it will be 
 a sufficient grace, which will prove insufficient. 
 God shall be continually at work in the head 
 of this Savoyard, sometimes forcibly, other 
 times weakly, without minding any other thing 
 upon earth, without caring what becomes of the 
 inside of the Indians and Chinese. Really, my 
 reverend fathers, if you have a spark of reason 
 left, does not this system appear to you prodi- 
 giously ridiculous ? 
 
 Wretches, behold the oak towering to the 
 clouds, look down on that rush bending at its 
 feet; you will not say that efficacious grace has 
 been given to the oak, and denied to the rush. 
 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, see the eternal 
 Demiurgus creating millions of worlds, all gra- 
 vitating towards each other by general and eter- 
 nal laws. Behold the same light reflected from 
 the sun to Saturn, and from Saturn. to us ; and 
 amidst this harmony of so many luminous bodies 
 
 in 
 
THE. HEAVENS. 185 
 
 in a course amazingly rapid, amidst this general 
 obedience of all nature, I defy you to believe 
 that God minds giving a versatile grace to sister 
 Theresa, and a concomitant grace to sister 
 Agnes. 
 
 Thou atom, to whom a stupid atom has said 
 that the Eternal has particular laws for some 
 atoms in thy neighbourhood ; that he gives his 
 grace to this, and refuses it to that ; and that 
 which has not grace to day shall have it to- 
 morrow; never let such impious folly come 
 from thy lips. God has created the universe, 
 and does not concern himself about making new 
 winds to shake some bits of straw in a corner of 
 that universe. Theologistsare like Homer's war- 
 riors, who thought that the gods sometimes fought 
 on their side, and sometimes against them. 
 Homer is to be considered as a poet, otherwise 
 we make him a blasphemeri 
 
 These are Marcus Aurelius's words, not 
 mine ; for God, who inspires you, has given me 
 grace to believe all you say, all you have said, 
 and all you shall say. 
 
 THE HEAVENS (^), 
 
 OR SKY, ACCORDING TO THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 x\ Silk worm might as well give the name of 
 heaven to the little down which surrounds its 
 
 shell. 
 
 (') In this article our author displays some erudi- 
 tion, but he is very reprehensible, when he says, 
 *' There is properly no heaven," By heaven we 
 
 mean 
 
l86 THE HEAVENS. 
 
 «hell, as the ancients gave that appellation to 
 the atmosphere, which, as M. Fontenelk in his 
 Plurality of Worlds, prettily says, is the down 
 of our shell. 
 
 The vapours which exhale from our seas and 
 land, and form clouds, meteors, and thunder, 
 were at first taken for the residence of the gods. 
 Homer always brings down the deities in golden 
 clouds; and thence it is that our painters still 
 represent them seated on a cloud ; but it being 
 very proper that the master of the gods should 
 live in greater state than the others, he was pro- 
 vided with an eagle to carry him, the eagle fly- 
 ing higher than any other bird. 
 
 The ancient Greeks seeing that princes lived 
 in citadels built on the top of some mountain, 
 conceived that the gods might likewise have 
 their citadel, and placed it in Thessalia on mount 
 Olympus, the summit of which is sometimes 
 hid in the clouds, so that their palace was even 
 with their heaven. 
 
 »' Afterwards the st^rs andplanets which seemed 
 fixed to the azure arch of our atmosphere, be- 
 came 
 
 me^n not the air, nor the stars nor planets, nor the 
 vast expanse in which those great orbs perform their 
 motions, but the seat or mansion of the blessed. 
 Where that is we cannot pretend to determine, but 
 we are bound to believe there is such a place. In 
 
 , this sense we say, " Our father, who art in heaven."* 
 To say absolutely there is no heaven, subverts the 
 notion of a future state, and the consolation of the 
 just from the expectation of eternal happiness. This 
 
 , our author cannot intend, as in more places than one 
 he acknowledges a place, of future rewards, and, pu- 
 nishments. 
 
THE HEAVENS. 187 
 
 came the mansion of deities j seven of whom had 
 their respective planets, the others taking up 
 with what quarter they could find ; the general 
 council of the gods was held in a large saloon, to 
 which they went by the milky way; for men 
 having council-chambers on earth, the gods, to 
 be sure, should have one in the heavens. 
 
 When the Titans, a kind of creatures between 
 the gods and men, declared war, and not with- 
 out some grounds against those deities, to recover 
 part of their inheritance, (being on the father's 
 side the sons of Coelum and Terra,) they only 
 heaped two or three mountains one on the other, 
 concluding, that would be full enough for them 
 to reduce the citadel of Olympus, together with 
 the heavens. 
 
 Neve foret terris securior arduus aether, 
 Affectasse ferunt regnum coeleste gigantes, 
 Altaque congestos struxisse ad sidera montes. 
 
 This absurd system of physics was of prodi- 
 gious antiquity; yet certain it is, that the 
 Chaldeans had as just ideas of what is called the 
 heavens as we ourselves. They placed the sun 
 in the centre of our planetary world, and nearly 
 at the same distance we have found it to be; and 
 they held the revolution of the earth, and of all 
 the planets round that body: this we are in- 
 formed of by Aristarchus of Samos; and it is the 
 true system of the world, since revived by Co- 
 pernicus. But the philosophers, tobe the more 
 respected by sovereigns and people, or rather to 
 avoid being persecuted, kept the secret to them- 
 selves. 
 
 The language of error is so familiar to men, 
 
 that 
 
XS8 THE HEAVENS. 
 
 that we still give the name of heavens to our 
 vapours, and to the space between the earth and 
 moon : we say to go up to heaven, as we say the 
 sun turns round, though we know it does not; 
 probably we are the heaven to the moon, and 
 every planet makes the neighbouring planet its 
 heaven. Had Homer been asked to which hea- 
 ven the soul of Sarpedo went, and where that of 
 Hercules was, the poet would have been a little 
 puzzled, and eluded the question by some har- 
 monious verses. 
 
 What certainty was there that the aerial soul 
 of Hercules would have had a better time of it 
 in Venus, or Saturn, than on our globe ? it is 
 not to be supposed that its residence was ap- 
 pointed in the sun; the place would have been 
 too hot. After all, what did the ancients mean 
 by the heavens? They knew nothing of the 
 matter; they were perpetually bawling heaven 
 and EARTH, which is just as much as to cry 
 iufinitude and an atom. Properly speaking, 
 there is no such thing as the heavens ; there is 
 a prodigious number of vast globes rolling in the 
 void expanse, and our globe rolls like the 
 others. 
 
 The ancients thought that the way to the hea- 
 vens was by ascent: no such thing; the celes- 
 tial globes are sometimes above our horizon, 
 and sometimes below: thus, supposing Venus 
 was returning from Paphos to her planet after its 
 setting, the goddess, relatively to our horizon, 
 instead of going up went down; and in such a 
 case we ought to say to go down to heaven. 
 But the ancients were not so nice; their notions 
 in every thing relating to natural philosophy were 
 vague, uncertain, and contradictory. Immense 
 
 volumes 
 
THE HEAVENS. !% 
 
 volumes have been written to know what their 
 opinion was on many such questions; whereas 
 five words would have done, *' they never thought 
 " of it/' 
 
 Here, however, we must except a few wise 
 men; but they came late: few opened their 
 minds freely, and those who did, the empyrics 
 on earth took care to dispatch them to heaven 
 the shortest way. 
 
 A writer, I think his name is Pluche, has 
 pretended to make Moses a great natural philo- 
 sopher; another before him, in a place called 
 Cartesius Mozaizans had reconciled Moses with 
 Descartes. According to him, Moses first 
 found out the vortices and the subtile matter; 
 but it is well known that God meant Moses for 
 a great legislator and a great prophet, and not for 
 a professor of physics; he instructed the Jews in 
 their duty, and not a word in philosophy. 
 Calmet, who has compiled a vast deal, and never 
 once reflected, talks of the system of the Hebrews ; 
 but so far was that rude people from having a 
 system, that they had not so much as a geometry- 
 school ; the bare name was unknown to them, 
 ^l they understood was brokerage and usury. 
 
 In their books we meet with some vague inco- 
 herent ideas on the structure of the heavens, 
 and such as shew them to have been a dull illi- 
 terate people. Their first heaven was the air, 
 the second the firmament, to which the stars 
 were fastened. This firmament was solid and of 
 ice, and supported the upper waters, which, at 
 the time of the deluge, made their way out of 
 this reservoir, thro* gates, sluices, and cata- 
 racts. 
 
 Over this firmament, or these upper waters, 
 
 was 
 
i^O THE HEAVENS* 
 
 was the third heaven or the Empyreum, to 
 which St. Paul was caught up. The firmament 
 was a kind of demi-arch round the earth. They 
 little thought of the sun moving round a glob^, 
 whose form they were ignorant of. When it got 
 to the west, it had some unknown path for re- 
 turning to the east; and as to its not being seen, 
 Baron Feneste accounts for that, by saying it 
 came back in the night. i 
 
 Farther, these whimsical ideas the Hebrews 
 had borrowed from other nations, of whom, ex- 
 cept the Chaldean school, the greater part looked 
 on the heavens as solid ; the earth was fixed and 
 immoveable, and by a third longer from east to 
 west than from south to north, whence are de- 
 rived our geographical terms longitude and 
 latitude. This opmion, it is evident, admitted 
 no antipodes ; accordingly, St, Austin calls the 
 notion of antipodes an absurdity; and Lactantius 
 flatly says, ** Are there any so foolish as to be- 
 •* lieve there are men whose head is lower than 
 *• their feet?" 
 
 St. Chrysostom, in his fourteenth homily, 
 calls out, " Where are they who say the heaven* 
 •* are moveable, and their form round?" 
 
 Lactantius again says, b. iii. of his Institu- 
 tions, ** 1 could prove to you by a miihitude of 
 " arguments, that it is impossible the heavens 
 ** should encompass the earth." - -^ - - 
 
 The author of Spectacle de la" Nature is" we!i. 
 come to tell the chevalier over and over, that 
 Lactantius and Chrysostom were eminent philo- 
 sophers; still it will be answered that they were 
 great saints, which they may be without any 
 acquaintance with astronomy. We believe them 
 -■• ' • to 
 
HELL* 191 
 
 to be in heaven, but own that in what part of 
 the heavens they are we know not. 
 
 HELL. 
 
 W HEN men came to live in society, the^ 
 couid not but perceive, that many evil doers 
 escaped the severity of the laws: these could 
 affect only open crimes; so that a curb was 
 wanting against clandestine guilt, and religion 
 alone could be such a curb. The Persians, the 
 Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, 
 introduced a belief of punishments after this life; 
 and of all ancient nations we are acquainted with, 
 the Jews alone admitted only temporal punish* 
 ments. It is ridiculous to believe, or to pretend 
 to believe from some very obscure passages, 
 that the ancient Jewish laws, their Leviticus; 
 and their Decalogues correspond with the doc«. 
 trine of future punishments; when the author 
 of those lav/s says not a single word which bears 
 any relation to that doctrine. One might justly 
 say to the compiler of the Pentateuch: you arc 
 inconsistent with yourself; you have no more 
 judgment than probity; you a legislator, as you 
 stile yourself! How ! you conscious of a tenet 
 so coercive, so powerful, so necessary to people 
 as that of hell, and yet not make it known expli*. 
 citly, nor urge it ? and though received among 
 all the nations round about you, you leave so 
 momentous a doctrine to be guessed at by some 
 commentators, who are not to come into ex*. 
 istence till four thousand years after your time; 
 and will wrest and distort some of your words to 
 find in them what you never said? Either you 
 are an ignoramus, who don't know that this was 
 
 the 
 
198 HELL. 
 
 the universal belief in Egypt, in Chaldea, and 
 Persia ; or a very weak man, if being acquainted 
 with this doctrine you did not make it the basis 
 of your religion. 
 
 The very best answer the authors of the Jewish 
 laws could make, is this: we own ourselves ex- 
 tremely ignorant; it was very late before we 
 learned to write ; our people, a savage and bar- 
 barous tribe, which, by our own accounts, 
 wandered for near half a century amidst deserts, 
 at length by the most heinous violences, and the 
 most detestable cruelties ever mentioned in his- 
 tory, seized on a small territory : we had no in- 
 tercourse with policed nations ; then how could 
 we (the most earthly minded of all men) invent 
 a system entirely spiritual ? 
 
 We used the word answering to SOUL only 
 to signify Lif E; we thought God and his angels 
 to be corporeal beings: the distinction of soul 
 and body, the idea of a life after death, can be 
 only the result of long meditation, and refined 
 philosophy. Ask the Hottentots and Negroes, 
 whose country is a hundred times larger than ours, 
 whether they know any thing of a future life ? We 
 thought we had done wonders in persuading our 
 people that God punished evil-doers to the fourth 
 generation, either by the leprosy, a sudden death, 
 or the loss of what little substance a person might 
 have possessed. 
 
 To this apology it may be replied ; you have 
 invented a system palpably ridiculous ; for the 
 evil-doer, who was in health, and whose family 
 prospered, must necessarily laugh at you. 
 
 The apologist of the Jewish law would then 
 rejoin : that is your mistake ; for among us where 
 one delinquent reasoned rightly, a hundred did 
 
 not 
 
HELL. 19^ 
 
 not reason at all. He who on the commission of 
 a crime, found no punishment declaring itself 
 against him nor his son, still feared for his grand- 
 son. Farther, though to-day he had no putrid 
 ulcer on him, to which by the bye we were very 
 subject, it was odds within some years it hap- 
 pened not to be his case ; no family is without 
 misfortunes and afflictions, and we brought the 
 people to believe that these misfortunes were sent 
 by a divine hand, punishing secret transgressions.' 
 
 This answer admits of an easy reply : your ex- 
 cuse will not hold water ; for every day we see 
 very good people seized with sickness, and by 
 one misfortune or other deprived of their sub- 
 stance ; now if there be no family totally free 
 from all misfortunes, and if these misfortunes 
 are divine chastisements, all the individuals of 
 your families were then knaves and profligates. 
 
 The Jewish priest might farther reply, that 
 there are misfortunes annexed to human nature, 
 and others sent expressly by God. But this rea- 
 soner's mouth might soon be stopped, by shew- 
 ing the extreme absurdity of thinking, that sick- 
 ness and hail are sometimes a divine punishment, 
 and sometimes a natural effect. 
 
 At length the Pharisees and the Essenes among 
 the Jews admitted the . belief of a hell in their- 
 way : This dogma the Greeks had already disse- 
 minated among the Romans, and the Christians 
 made it a capital article of faith. 
 
 Several fathers of the church did not hold the 
 eternity of hell torments ; they thought it very 
 hard that a poor man should be burning for ever 
 and ever only for stealing a goat. ' Virgil might 
 
 O as 
 
194 HELL. 
 
 as well have held his tongue as to say in his sixth 
 canto in the Eneid ('], 
 
 Sedet aetemumque sedebit infelix Theseus. 
 
 His IPSE DIXIT, that Theseus is seated in s 
 chair, where he must sit world without end, and 
 that this posture is his punishment, is protested 
 against by many ; who farther think the poet to 
 have wronged him greatly, as rather deserving 
 a place" in the Elysian fields, than in Tartarus. 
 
 Not long since an honest well meaning hugue- 
 not minister advanced in his sermons, and even 
 in print, that there would be a day of grace to. 
 the damned; that there must be a proportion be- 
 tween the trespass and the penalty ; and that a 
 momentary fault could not deserve an everlasting 
 punishment. This clement judge was deposed 
 by a body of ministers, of whom one said to 
 him: Brother, I as little believe the. eternity of 
 hell torments as yourself; but let me tell you 
 it is very proper that your servant-maid, your 
 taylor, and even your attorney should believe so. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 (') The wisest of the heathen philosophers, with- 
 out the help of revelation, did believe it agreeable to 
 right reason, that the punishment of the incorrigible 
 should be alwvicr, without any determinate or known 
 end. See Plato in Phsed. This however, we may be 
 certain of, says the ler.rned Dr. Clarke, that the degree 
 or intenseness of the punishment which shall be in- 
 flicted on the impenitent, will be exactly proportionate 
 to their sins, as a recompence of their dement, so that 
 no man shall suffer more than he has deserved. 
 
HISTOKV. 195 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH AND THE CHRONICLES. 
 
 /ilLL (') nations have written their history, as 
 soon as they ever knew what writing was ; the 
 Jews have also written theirs. Before they had 
 kings they Hved under a theocracy, and were re- 
 puted to be governed by God himselF. 
 
 When the Jews clamoured to have a king, 
 like the other neighhouring nations, the prophet 
 
 Samuel 
 
 ( ^ ) Under this article our author advances a very 
 bold assertion, though with great appearance of diffi- 
 dence, viz. that the books of Kings and the Chroni- 
 cles, are not a part of Holy Writ. He is certainly 
 mistaken j they were always reckoned both by Jew5 
 and Christians among the canonical books, and there- 
 fore are of the same weight as the other parts of Scrip- 
 ture, of whose divine authority the church never en- 
 tertained any doubt. As for any contradictions be- 
 tween the books of Kings and Chronicles, it is a bare 
 assertion, unsupported by proof. There may be dif- 
 ficulties in regard to chronology, the solution of which 
 the reader will find in the writings of our learned ex- 
 positors; His arguments are so weak as to- deserve no 
 serious refutation; for surely the divine authority of a 
 history does not suppose it to be a relation of divine 
 actions, otherwjse no historical part of scripture what- 
 ever would be divine; the actions of bad as well 355 
 good princes are recorded in Holy Writ, to the end 
 that we make the former an object of our abhorrence^ 
 the latter of our imitation. It is, therefore, a most 
 insolent conclusion to say, that if the holy Spirit die* 
 tated this history, he did not chuse a very edifying 
 subject. 
 
 Oa 
 
196 HISTORY.' 
 
 Samuel, whose interest it was to exclude a reeral 
 government, declared to them, in the name of 
 God, that it was God himself whom they were 
 rejecting. Thus the beginning of monarchy^ 
 among the Jews was the period of their theo- 
 cracy. 
 
 It may be therefore said without blasphemy,. 
 that the history of the Jewish kings was written 
 like that of other nations ; and that God did not 
 trouble himself to dictate the history of a people 
 whom he no longer governed. 
 
 This opinion, however, is advanced with all 
 possible mistrust and deference. What may be 
 thought a confirmation of it is, that the Paralipo- 
 xnena or Chronicles, very often contradict the 
 book of Kings both in the chronology and the 
 events, as profane histories are known to dis- 
 agree. Farther, if God continued to write the- 
 history of the Jews, we are of course to believe, 
 that he still writes it; the Jews being still his 
 favourite people. They are one day to be con- 
 verted, and, apparently they may as justly look 
 upon the history of their dispersion to be of di- 
 vine composition, as to say that God wrote the 
 history of their kings. 
 
 Another remark likewise offers itself: if God,, 
 after having been their sole king for a very long 
 time, condescended to be their historian, it be- 
 comes us to entertain the most profound respect 
 for all Jews universally; the very meanest 
 Jewish pedlar is infinitely above Cassar and Alex- 
 ander. Shall we not prostrate ourselves before 
 on old cloath's man, who proves to you that his 
 history was written by the deity himself, whilst 
 all the Greek and Roman histories are but the 
 productions of profane pagans ? ' 
 
 ■ If 
 
"idol, idolater, idolatry. 197 
 
 If the style of the history of the book of Kings 
 and Chronicles be divine, it does not necessarily 
 follow" that the actions related in those histories 
 are also divine. David murders Uriah ; Isbo- 
 sheth andMephibosheth are murdered; Absalom 
 murders Ammon ; Joab murders Absalom ; So- 
 lomon murders Adonijah, his brother ; Baza 
 murders Nabab ; Zimri* murders Ela ; Hamri 
 murders Zimri ; Ahab murders Naboth ; Jehu 
 murders Ahab and Joram ; the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem murder Amaziah, Joash^s son ; Selom 
 the son of Jabes murders Zachariah the son of 
 Jeroboam ; Manahaim murders Selom the son 
 of Jabes ; Phaceus the son of Romeli murders 
 Phaceia the son of Manahaim ; Hoshea the scwi 
 of Ela murders Phaceus the son of Romeli ; 
 with a multitude of other murders of ks^ note. 
 Thus it must be owned, if the holy spirit di^ 
 write this history, he has not chosen a very 
 edifying subject. 
 
 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY ('), 
 
 Idol comes from the Greek eJ^or, a figure, 
 eidolos, the representation of a figure, La- 
 TREUEIN, to serve, to revere, to adore. The 
 
 word 
 
 (* ) This article of idols is a strong attack against 
 the Roman Catholic worship of images ; and the au- 
 thor seems to justify Dr. Middleton's treatise upon the 
 Romish ceremonies. He displays his erudition in 
 treating this subject; but surely he is fond of paradox, 
 A' hen he maintains that neither the Greeks nor Ro- 
 
 O 3 mans, 
 
198 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 word adore is originally Latin, and has various 
 meanings, as, to put the hand to the mouth in 
 token ot respect, to bend the body, to kneel, to 
 salute, and more commonly to pay a supreme 
 worship. 
 
 It is proper to observe here, that the Trevoux 
 dictionary begins this article with saying that all 
 the Pagans were idolaters, and that the Indians 
 are still so. First, nobody was called Pagan 
 before the time of Theodosius the younger, 
 ivhen that appellation was given to the inhabi- 
 tants of the country-towns of Italy, " Pagorum 
 ** incolae Pagani," who retained their ancient 
 religion. Secondly, Indostan is entirely Maho- 
 metan, and the Mahometans are implacable ene- 
 .mies to images and idolatry. Thirdly, many 
 people of India, who are of the ancient religion 
 of the Parsis, a certain tribe which admit of no 
 idols, cannot, with any propriety, be termed 
 idolaters. 
 
 WHETHER IDOLATRY WAS EVER THE PROFESSED 
 RELIGION OF ANY NATION. 
 
 it appears that there never was any people on 
 the earth, who took to themselves the name of 
 
 idolaters. 
 
 mans, nor indeed no other nation, were idolaters. 
 The point is not to know what might be the private 
 opinion of a few philosophers, but what was the prac- 
 tice of those nations in their external forms of religious 
 worship. Now it must be running counter to all an- 
 tiquity, to affirm that the honours paid by those peo- 
 ple to the statues and images of their god, were not 
 , rank idolatry. To say that the Roman Catholics do 
 the same is not answering the question : he may re- 
 present those of his own religion (if he can be said to 
 have any) as guilty of idolatry ; but this does not 
 prove that the others were not also idolaters. 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 199 
 
 idolaters. It is rather an abusive word, a term 
 ot detestation ; as the Spaniards lormerly used 
 to call the French Gavachos, which the French 
 returned by calling the Spaniards Mar an as. 
 Had the senate ot Rome, the Areopagus of 
 Athens, the court of the kings of Perfia, been 
 asked, *' Are you idolaters ?" They would hardly 
 have known what the question meant ; at least 
 not one of them would have, answered, *' We 
 " worship idols or images." The word idolater 
 or idolatry do not occur either in Homer, 
 Hesiod, Herodotus, or any gentile author. Ne- 
 ver was there any edict or law, ordering idols to 
 be worshipped, to be accounted as deities, or to 
 be considered as such. 
 
 The Roman and Carthaginian generals, at the 
 making of a treaty, called all their gods to wit- 
 ness ; it is in their presence, say they, that we 
 swear to this peace. Now the statues of all these 
 gods, their number being none ot the smallest, 
 were not in the general's tent ; but they held the 
 gods to be, as it were, present at the aftions of 
 men as witnesses and as judges ; and certainly it 
 was not the image which made the deity. 
 
 In what light did they then look on the statues 
 of their false deities, which stood in the temples ? 
 In the same light, if 1 may be allowed the ex- 
 pression, as we view the images of the objects 
 of our veneration. Their error was not the 
 worshipping a piece of wood or marble, but the 
 worshipping a false deity, represented by the 
 wood and marble. The difference between 
 them and us is not that they had images and we 
 have none ; but that their images represented 
 imaginary beings, and in a false religion ; where- 
 as ours represent real beings, and in a true reli- 
 
 O 4 gion. 
 
200 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 gion. The Greeks had the statue of Hercules ; 
 and we that of St. Christopher ; they had Escu- 
 lapius and his goat, and we St. Roch and his 
 dog ; they had Jupiter with his thunder-bolts, 
 and we St. Anthony of Padua, and St. James 
 of Compostella. 
 
 When the consul Pliny, in the exordium of 
 his Panegyric on Trajan, addresses his petitions 
 to the IMMORTAL GODS, he cannot be thought 
 to mean the images, which were far from being 
 immortal. 
 
 Neither in the later nor the most remote 
 times of paganism, one single fact occurs to 
 conclude that they worshipped idols. Homer 
 mentions only gods dwelling in lofty Olympus. 
 The palladium, though it tell from heaven, was 
 no more than a sacred pledge of Pallas's protec- 
 tion ; it was the goddess herself who was reve- 
 renced in the palladium. 
 
 But the Romans and Greeks kneeled down 
 before statues, put crowns on them, decked 
 them with flowers, burnt incense to them, and 
 carried them in solemn state through public 
 places. These usages we have consecrated in 
 our religion, and yet we are not idolaters. 
 
 In times of drought the women, alter keeping 
 a fast, carried forth the statues of the gods in 
 public, walking barefooted, with their hair loose ; 
 and immediately, according to Petronius, the 
 rain would pour down by pales full, *' statim 
 ** urceatim pluebat." Have we not adopted 
 this rite which, though an abomination among 
 the Gentiles, is doubtless genuine devotion with 
 Catholics ? How common is it among us to carry 
 barefooted the shrines of saints, in order to ob- 
 tain a blessing from heaven by their intercession ? 
 
 A Turk, 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 201 
 
 A Turk, a lettered Chinese, at seeing those ce- 
 remonies, might, from his ignorance, accuse us 
 of placing our confidence in the images which we 
 thus carry ahout in procession ; but a word or 
 two would undeceive him. 
 
 We are surprized at the prodigious number of 
 declamations thundered out in all ages against the 
 idolatry of the Romans and Greeks; and after- 
 wards, our surprize is still greater, at finding 
 that they were not idolaters. 
 
 Some temples were more privileged than 
 others. The great Diana of Ephesus stood in 
 higher fame than a village Diana ; more miracles 
 .were performed in the temple of Esculapius at 
 Epidaurus than in any other oi his temples. 
 More offerings were made to the statue of Ju- 
 piter. the Olympian, than to that of the Paphla- 
 gonian Jupiter : but since it is proper always to 
 contrast the usages of a true religion to those of 
 a (alse worship ; have not some of our altars, 
 for ages past, been more frequented than others ? 
 what are the offerings to our lady des Neiges in 
 comparison of those made to our lady oi Loretto ? 
 It is our business to examine whether this affords 
 a just pretence for charging us with idolatry. 
 
 The original invention was only one Diana, 
 one Apollo, and one Esculapius, not as many 
 Dianas, Apollos, and Esculapiuss, as they had 
 temples and statues. Thus it is evidenced, as 
 far as a point of history can be, that the ancients 
 did not hold a statue to be a deitv ; that the wor- 
 ship could not relate to the statue or idol ; and 
 consequently that the ancients were not idolaters- 
 A rude superstitious populace incapable of re- 
 flection, either to doubt, to deny, or believe, 
 who flocked to the temples, as having nothing 
 
 else 
 
202 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 else to do, and because the little are there on a 
 level with the great, who carried their offerings 
 merely out of custom, who were continually 
 talking of miracles without having ever examined 
 any one, and who were very little above the vic- 
 tims they brought, such a populace, I say, might, 
 at the sight of the great Diana, and the thunder- 
 ing Jupiter, be struck with a religious horror, 
 and, without knowing it, worship the statud it- 
 self. This is no more than what has been the 
 case of our ignorant peasants; and care is accord- 
 ingly taken to give them to understand, that it is 
 the blessed in heaven they are to invoke for their 
 intercession, and not figures of wood and stone, 
 and that their worship is due to God only. 
 
 The Greeks and the Romans increased the 
 number of their deities by apotheoses ; the 
 Greeks deified illustrious conquerors, as Bacchus, 
 Hercules, and Perseus ; Rome raised altars to its 
 emperors. Of a very different kind are our apo- 
 theoses ; if we have saints answerable to their 
 demi-gods and secondary gods, it is without any 
 regard to rank or conquests. We have erected 
 temples to men, merely for their exemplary vir- 
 tues, and most of whom would not have been 
 Jcnown on earth, had they not been placed in 
 heaven. The apotheoses of the ancients w^ere 
 acts of adulation, ours of respect to virtue. But 
 these ancient apotheoses are another convincing 
 proof that the Greeks and Romans cannot pro- 
 perly be called idolaters. It is manifest that they 
 no more held a divine virtue residing in the fta- 
 tues of Augustus and Claudius than in their 
 medals. 
 
 Cicero, in his philosophical works, does not 
 leave so much as the least suspicion, that any 
 
 mistake 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 203 
 
 mistake could be committed with regjard to the 
 statues oi the gods, so as to confound them with 
 the deities themselves. His speakers inveigh 
 with great acrimony against the established reli- 
 gion, but not one of them dreams of charging 
 the Romans with mistaking marble and brass for 
 deities, Lucretius, who never gives any quarter 
 to the superstitious, reproaches no body with 
 this folly; I must, therefore, again say it, this 
 opinion never existed, never was thought of; 
 and never was there any such thing as idolaters. 
 Horace introduces a statue of Priapus, saying : 
 
 Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum, 
 Cum faber incertus scamnum, faceretne Priapum^ 
 Maluit esse Deum. 
 
 What is to be inferred from this passage ? Pria- 
 pus was one of those petty deities which were 
 given up to the sarcasms of the jocular ; and 
 this very joke is as strong a proof as can be, that 
 •the figure of Priapus was not greatly revered, 
 being made a scarecrow. 
 
 Dacier, commentator like, has taken care to 
 observe that Baruch had foretold this business; 
 saying, they shall be whatever the artist pleases. 
 But he might withal have remarked, that the like 
 might be said of all the statues that ever existed. 
 
 A tub may be made out of a block of marble, 
 as well as the statue of Alexander or Jupiter, or 
 something still more respectable. The matter 
 of which were formed the cherubims of the holv 
 of holies, might have equally served for the 
 meanest purposes. A throne, or an altar, lose 
 nothing ot the reverence due to them, because 
 ihe artist might have formed them into a kitchen 
 table, 
 
 Dacier, 
 
>» 
 
 204 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 Dacier, instead of inferring that the Romans 
 worshipped Priapus's image, and that Baruch 
 had predicted it, ought rather to have concluded 
 that the Romans made a jest of it. Look into 
 all the authors who speak of the statues of their 
 gods-, not one shall you find mentioning idolatry ; 
 but quite the contrary. You read in Martial, 
 
 ^' Qui finxit sacros auro vel marmore vultus, 
 Non facit ille Decs,** 
 
 In Ovid, 
 
 " Colitur pro Jove forma Jovis.** 
 
 In Statius, 
 
 " Nulla autem effigies milH commissa matello, 
 Forma Dei mentes habitare ac numina gaudet. 
 
 In Lucan, 
 " Est ne Dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aer," 
 
 To enumerate all the passages in confirmation 
 that images were accounted images would take 
 up a volume. 
 
 The only case which could favour an opinion 
 that images had any thing divine in them, was 
 the oracular images. But certainly the current 
 opinion was, that the gods had chosen some par- 
 ticular altars, and particular statues, where they 
 sometimes condescended to reside, giving audi- 
 ence to men, and answering them. In Homer, 
 and the chorusses of Greek tragedies, we only 
 meet with prayers addressed to Apollo himself, 
 as delivering his oracles on such a mount, in such 
 a temple, or such a city. All antiquity through- 
 >out has left no vestige of supplications made to a 
 statue. 
 
 They 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 205 
 
 They who professed magic, who believed ittobe 
 a science, or who feigned to believe it, pretended 
 to be possessed of the secret of bringing down the 
 gods into statues; but not the great gods, only 
 the secondary, the genii. This Mercurius Tris- 
 megistus used to term making deities, and it 
 is refuted by St. Austin in his City of God. But 
 this very thing evidently shews the images to 
 have had nothing divine in them, as not animated 
 without the art of a magician. And I fancy few 
 magicians were found so dexterous as to animate 
 a statue so as to make it speak. 
 
 In a word, the images of the gods were not 
 gods; it was Jupiter, and not his. image which 
 hurled the thunderbolt : it was not the statue of 
 Neptune which agitated the sea, nor that of 
 Apollo which diffused light. The Greeks and 
 Romans were gentiles, politheists, but by no 
 means idolaters. 
 
 Whether the fersians, the sabeans, the 
 egyptians, thf< tartars, and turks, have 
 
 BEEN IDOLATERS? JEK ^ OF THE ORIGIN OP 
 FIGURES CALLED IDOLS. HISTORY OF THEIR 
 WORSHIP, 
 
 To call those nations, who worshipped the 
 sun and stars idolaters, is wronging them. For a 
 long time neither images nor temples were known 
 among them : if they were mistaken, it was in 
 paying to the heavenly bodies the homage due 
 only to the Creator. Besides, the doctrine of 
 Zoroaster or Zerdust, as preserved in the Sadder, 
 teaches the existence of a Supreme Being, who 
 punisheth and rewardeth. Now this is very far 
 irom idolatry. The Chinese government never 
 admitted idols, constantly adhering to the simple 
 worship of Kingtien, the master, of heaven. Gen- 
 
 giskari 
 
206 IDOL, IDOLATER. IDOLATRY. 
 
 giskan among the Tartars cannot be charged with 
 idolatry, never having had any such thing as an 
 image. The Mussuhnen of Greece, Asia-minor, 
 Syria, Persia, India, and Africa, call the Chris- 
 tians idolaters. Giaours, imagining that the- 
 Christians worship images. Several images which 
 they found at Constantmople in St. Sophia, and 
 in the church of the holy apostles, and others, 
 they broke to pieces, converting the churches 
 into mosques. Appearance, as usual, deceived 
 them, and led them to believe that the dedicating 
 of temples to saints, who had formerly- beea 
 men, the worshipping of their images with genu- 
 flection, and the performing of miracles in those 
 temples, were undeniable proofs ot the most ar- 
 rant idolatry: yet, the farthest from it in the 
 world. The Christians, in reality, worship only 
 one God, and in the blessed themselves revere 
 only the virtue of God acting in his saints. The 
 Iconoclasts and the protestants have brought the 
 same charge of idolatry against the church of 
 Rome, and the same answer has been given 
 them. 
 
 Men having very seldom precise ideas, and 
 still more seldom expressing their ideas in pre- 
 cise words, clear of all ambiguity, the name of 
 idolaters was given to the Gentiles, and espe- 
 cially the Politheists. Immense volumes have 
 been written, according to the multitude of va* 
 rying sentiments, on the origin of worshipping 
 God, or several gods, and under sensible repre- 
 sentations : now this multitude of books and opi- 
 nions only proves the ignorance of the authors. 
 
 We know not who invented any part of our 
 clothing, and yet we would tain know who was 
 the first inventor of idols. What signifies a 
 
 passage 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 20/ 
 
 passage of Sancboniathon, who lived before the 
 Trojan war ? What information does he give 
 us, in saying, that the chaos, the mind, that is, 
 the breath, being enamoured with its principles^ 
 extracted the mud from them ; that he made the 
 air luminous; that the wind Colp and his wife 
 Bali, begat Eon, and he begat Genos ; that 
 Cronos, their descendant, had two eyes behind 
 as before ; that he came to be god, and gave 
 Egypt to his son Jaut ? This is one of the most 
 respectable monuments of antiquity. 
 
 Orpheus, who was prior to Sancboniathon, 
 gives us just as much light in his Theogonia, 
 which Damascius has preserved. He repre- 
 sents the mundane principle in the form of a 
 dragon, with two heads, one of a bull, and the 
 other of a lion, with a face in the middle, which 
 he terms GOD face, and gilded wings to the 
 shoulders. 
 
 Yet these ideas, fantastical as they are, give 
 us an insight into two important truths, one that 
 sensible images and hieroglyphics are derived 
 from the most remote antiquity ; the other that 
 all ancient philosophers acknowledged a primor- 
 dial principle. 
 
 As to poiitheism common sense will tell you, 
 that, at the commencement of mankind, that is, 
 of weak creatures susceptible of reason and 
 folly, subject to every accident, to sickness and 
 death, they soon came to a sense of their weak- 
 ness and dependence : they easily conceived that 
 there was something superior to themselves ; 
 they telt a power in the earth, which produced 
 their food, another in the air which olten de- 
 stroyed them, and another in the consuming fire 
 and the submerging water. What could be 
 
 more 
 
208 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRlr. 
 
 more natural in men absolutely ignorant, than 
 to fancy that there were beings which presided 
 over these elements ? What could be more 
 natural than to revere the invisible power which 
 made the sun and the stars to shine? And 
 on proceeding to form an idea of these superior 
 powers, what was again more natural than to 
 represent them in a sensitive way ? Or I may 
 even say, how could they go about it other- 
 wise ? Judaism, anterior to our religion, and 
 prescribed by God himself, was full of those 
 images, under which the deity is represented. 
 He condescends to speak the language of men 
 in a bush ; he makes his appearance on a moun- 
 tain ; the heavenly spirits sent by him all come 
 in a human shape ; in a word, the sanctuary it- 
 self is filled with cherubims, human bodies, and 
 the wings and heads of beasts. This led Plu- 
 tarch, Tacitus, Appian, and so many others, into 
 the ridiculous mistake of upbraiding the Jews 
 with worshipping an ass's head. Thus God, 
 who had forbidden the painting and carving of 
 any figure, has been pleased nevertheless to ac-= 
 commodate himself to human weakness, which 
 require the senses to be spoken to by images. 
 
 Isaiah, chap. vi. sees the Lord seated on a 
 throne, and his train fill the temple: in chap. i. 
 of Jeremiah, the Lord stretches out his hand, 
 and touches the prophet's mouth. Ezekiel, 
 chap. iii. sees a throne of saphire, and God ap- 
 pears to him like a man seated on that throne." 
 This imagery does not in the least defile the 
 purity of the Jewish religion, which never made 
 use of pictures, statues, and idols as public re- 
 presentations of the deity. 
 
 The 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 2O9 
 
 The lettered Chinese, the Parsis, the ancient 
 Egyptians, had no idols; but Isis and Osiris 
 were soon represented in figures ; Bel at Babylon 
 was as soon exhibited in a huge colossus ; Brama 
 was in the Indian peninsula an hideous kind of 
 monster. The Greeks above all multiplied the 
 names of the deities, and of course the statues 
 and temples ; but ever attributing the supreme 
 power to their Zeus, by the Latins named Ju~ 
 piter, the sovereign of gods and men. The 
 Romans imitated the Greeks ; both always 
 placed their gods in heaven, without knowing 
 what they meant by heaven and their Olympus : 
 these superior beings could not be supposed to 
 reside in the clouds, which are only water. At 
 first seven of them were placed in the seven 
 planets, among which was reckoned the sun ; 
 but afterwards the residence of all the gods was 
 extended to the whole heavenly expanse. 
 
 The Romans had twelve great deities, six 
 male and six female, whom they distinguished 
 by the appellation of ** Dii majorum gentium,'* 
 Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Vulcan, Mars, Mer- 
 cury ; Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Venus, 
 Diana. Pluto was then omitted, and Vesta took 
 his place. 
 
 Next were the gods *' minorum gentium," the 
 indigetes, or heroes, as Bacchus, Hercules, Es- 
 culapius ; the infernal deities, Pluto, Proserpine; 
 the sea gods, as Thetis, Amphitrite, the Nereides 
 and Glaucus; afterwards the Dryades, the Naia- 
 des ; the gods of gardens ; the pastoral deities ; 
 every profession, every action of life, children, 
 maidens, wives, women in childbed, all had 
 their deity: there was even the god Fart; 
 lastly, emperors were deified : not that these 
 
 ■ P emperors. 
 
210 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 emperors, nor the god Fart, nor the goddess 
 Pertunda, nor Priapus, nor Rumilia the goddess 
 of bubbles, nor Stercutius the god of privies, 
 were accounted the lords of heaven and earth. 
 Some of the emperors indeed had temples ; the 
 petty houshold gods went without them, but all 
 had their image, or their idol. 
 
 These were little grotesque figures, set up 
 in a closet by way of ornament ; old women 
 and children were highly delighted with them ; 
 but never were these figures authorized by any 
 public worship; everyone was left to follow his 
 own private superstition. These little idols are 
 still found in the ruins of ancient cities. 
 
 Though we cannot fix the precise time when 
 men began to make idols, they are, however, 
 known to belong to the most remote antiquity, 
 Thara, Abraham's father, used to make them at 
 Ur in Chaldea. Rachael purloined and carried 
 off Laban's idols. There is no going higher. 
 
 But what did the ancient nations think of all 
 these images ? what virtue, what power did they 
 attribute to them? Was it thought that the gods 
 quitted heaven to come down, and hide them- 
 selves in these statues ? or that they imparted to 
 them a portion of the divine spirit, or did not 
 impart any thing at all to them ? a great deal of 
 useless erudition has been thrown away on this 
 point, it being evident that every one's notions 
 of them were proportioned to his reason, his 
 credulity, or his fanaticism. The priests, we 
 may be sure, would not be wanting to annex to 
 their statues all the divinity they possibly could, 
 in order to draw the more offerings. The phi- 
 losophers, it is well known, censured these su- 
 perstitions: the military people made a jest of 
 
 them; 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 21t 
 
 them ; and the commonalty, ever ignorant and 
 silly, knew not what it was doing. This is, in 
 a few words, the history of all the nations to 
 which God has not made himself known. 
 
 The premises are applicable to the worship 
 universally paid in Egypt to an ox, and in seve- 
 ral cities to a dog, a monkey, a cat, and onions. 
 In all appearance they were at first only em- 
 blems. Afterwards a certain ox called Apis, a 
 certain dog named Anubis, were worshipped; 
 still the people went on eating beef and onions ; 
 but what the Egyptian old women thought of 
 sacred onions and oxen, is not cleared up. 
 
 It was not uncommon for idols to speak. On 
 the anniversary of Cybele's festival, the city of 
 Rome commemorated the beautiful distich ut- 
 tered by the statue on it's removal from king 
 Attalus's palace: 
 
 *' Ipsa pati volui, ne sit mora, mitte volentem, 
 Dignus Roma locus, quo Deus omnis eat." 
 
 ** I allowed myself to be carried off; away 
 ** with me quickly; Rome is worthy to be the 
 ** residence of every deity." 
 
 The statue of Fortune had spoke; the Scipios, 
 the Ciceros» the Caesars, indeed believed nothing 
 of the matter; but the old women, to whom 
 Encolpus gave a crown to buy geese and gods, 
 might very well believe it. 
 
 The idols likewise pronounced oracles, the 
 priests concealed within the statues speaking in 
 the name of the deity. 
 
 Amidst so many gods, so many different theo- 
 gonies and separate worships, whence is it, that 
 no such thing as a religious war was ever known 
 
 P 2 among 
 
212 IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 among the people called idolaters ? This tranqui- 
 lity was a good springing from an evil, frora 
 error itself; lor every nation owning several in- 
 ferior gods, peaceably allowed its neighbours to 
 have theirs likewise. Except Cambyses's killing 
 the ox Apis, not one instance is to be found, in 
 all prophane history, of a conqueror offering any 
 insult to the gods of a vanquished nation. The 
 Gentiles had no exclusive religion ; and all the 
 priests minded was to multiply offerings and 
 sacrifices. 
 
 The first offerings were the fruits of the earth. 
 But the priests soon came to want animal food 
 for their table : with their own hands they slew 
 the victims ; and as they made themselves 
 butchers, they became sanguinary. At length 
 they introduced the horrible practice of offering 
 human victims, and especially comely boys and 
 girls, abominations never known among the 
 Chinese, the Parsis, or the Indians; but at 
 Hieropolis in Egypt, Porphyry tells us, it was 
 nothing extraordmary to sacrifice men. 
 
 In Tauris strangers were sacrificed ; but this 
 savage custom being known, the priests of 
 Tauris, it is to be supposed, did not much bu- 
 siness. This execrable superstition prevailed 
 among the most ancient Greeks, the Cypriots, 
 the Phenicians, the Tyrians and the Cartha- 
 ginians. The Romans themselves gave into this 
 religious guilt; and, according to Plutarch, sa- 
 crificed two Greeks and two Gauls, to expiate 
 the incontinency of three vestals. Procopius, 
 who was cotemporary with Theodobert, king of 
 the Francs, says, that the Francs sacrificed men 
 on their entrance into Italy under that prince. 
 These horrid sacrifices were common among the 
 
 Gauls 
 
IDOL, IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 213 
 
 Gauls and Germans. There is no reading 
 history, without being very much displeased 
 with one's own species. 
 
 What if, among the Jews, Jephthah sacrificed 
 his daughter, and Saul was going to slay his son ; 
 what if they, who were devoted to the lord by 
 anathema, could not be redeemed, as beasts 
 were redeemed, but were indispensably put to 
 death; what though Samuel, a Jewish priest, 
 cut to pieces with a consecrated cleaver king 
 Agag, prisoner of war, whom Saul had spared, 
 and sharply reproved Saul for having treated that 
 king according to the laws of nations; what of 
 all this ? God is the sovereign of mankind, and 
 may take away their lives when he will, as he 
 will, and by whom he will; but men are not to 
 put themselves on a footing with the lord of life 
 and death, and usurp the prerogatives of the Su- 
 preme Being. 
 
 Amidst such detestable proceedings, it is some 
 relief to the feeling heart, to know that in almost 
 all those nations called idolatrous, there was the 
 sacred theology and popular error, private wor- 
 ship and public ceremonies, the religion of the 
 wise and that of the vulgar. To those who 
 were initiated in the mysteries, the existence of 
 one only God was preached. Of this a suffi- 
 cient testimony is the hymn attributed to the 
 elder Orpheus, which was sung in the celebrated 
 mysteries of Ceres Eleusina: " Contemplate the 
 divine nature, illume thy mind, govern thy 
 heart, walk in the path of jus'ice, take care 
 that the God of heaven be before thine eyes; 
 there is none but him, he alone is self-exist- 
 ent; all beings derive their existence from 
 him; he upholds them all; never has he 
 
 P 3 *' been 
 
 it 
 it 
 
 iC 
 
 (6« 
 
214 IDOLt IDOLATER, IDOLATRY. 
 
 *' been seen by mortals, and he sees all 
 ** things." 
 
 The following passage of the philosopher 
 Maximus of Madaura, in his letter to. St. Au- 
 gustine, is likewise worth attention, '* What 
 ** man is so dull, so stupid, as to question the 
 " existence of an eternal, a supreme, infinite 
 " deity, who has created nothing like himself, 
 ** and is the common father of all things?" 
 
 A thousand monuments might be produced, 
 that wise men in all times abhorred both idolatry 
 and polytheism. 
 
 Epictetus, that pattern of resignation and 
 patience, so great in so mean a condition, never 
 speaks but of one only God. One of his max- 
 ims is this, *• God has created me, God is 
 " within me, I carry him about every where, 
 ** Shall 1 delile him with obscene thoughts, 
 ** unjust actions, or infamous desires? My duty 
 •* is to thank God for every thing, to praise him 
 ** for every thing; and to thank, praise, and 
 ** serve him continually, whilst I have life,'* 
 All Epictetus's ideas turn on this principle. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, who perhaps was on the 
 throne of the Roman empire not less great than 
 Epictetus in servitude, does indeed often mention 
 gods, in conformity to the current phraseology, 
 or to express intermediate beings, between the 
 Supreme Essence and men; but in how many 
 passages does he shew, that in reality he acknow- 
 ledges only one eternal infinite God ? ** Our 
 ** souls, says he, are an emanation of the Deity ; 
 ** my body, my spirits, proceed from God." 
 
 The Stoics, the Platonics, held one divine 
 and universal nature; the Eoicureans denied it. 
 
 The 
 
JEPHTHAH. 215 
 
 The priests in their mysteries spoke only of one 
 God : where then were the idolaters ? 
 
 Besides, it is one of the great mistakes \n 
 Morery's Dictionary to say, that in the time of 
 Theodosius the Younger, no idolaters remain- 
 ed but in the remote parts of Asia and Africa. 
 There was still, and even down to the seventh 
 century, many Gentile nations in Italy. All 
 Germany north of the Weser were strangers to 
 Christianity in Charlemaign's time; and, long 
 after him, Poland and the whole North continued 
 in what is called idolatry. Half Africa, all the 
 realms beyond the Ganges, Japan, the innumer- 
 able commonalty of China, a hundred Tartarian 
 hords, retain their ancient worship ; whereas in 
 Europe, this religion is to be found only among 
 some Laplanders, Samoiedes, and Tartars. To 
 conclude, in the time which we distin,^uish by 
 the appellation of the middle age, the Mahome- 
 tans were called Pagans; a people who execrate 
 images were branded as idolaters and image- wor- 
 shippers; and it must be frankly owned, that the 
 Turks, seeing our churches crowded with images 
 and statues, are more excusable in calling us 
 idolaters. 
 
 JEPHTHAH, 
 
 OR, 
 
 HUMAN SACRIFICES. 
 
 It is clear from the book of Judges, that Jeph- 
 thah did promise to sacrifice the first person who 
 came out of his house, in order to congratulate 
 him on his victory against the Ammonites: and 
 who should this prove to be but his only daughter ? 
 Hereupon he rent his garments for grief; and 
 
 P 4. after 
 
>L1 
 
 4* 
 
 %. 216 ' JEPiiTHAH. 
 
 after permitting her to go and lament among the 
 hills her misfortune in dying a maid, he actually 
 sacrificed her. The Jewish maidens for a long 
 time commemorated this event, lamenting Jeph- 
 thah's daughter four days in a year. (See 
 Judges, .ch. xi.) 
 
 In whatever time this history was written, 
 whether it be an imitation or the original of the 
 Grecian story of Agamemnon and Iphigenia, be 
 it prior or posterior to some similar Assyrian 
 tale, is what I do not examine; I abide by the 
 text : Jephthah vowed his daughter for a burnt- 
 ofFering, and performed his vow. 
 
 It was expressly enjoined in the Jewish law to 
 sacrifice all who had been devoted to the Lord. 
 No man shall be redeemed, but shall be put to 
 death, without remission: (') the Vulgate has it, 
 ** Non redimetur, sed morte morietur." Lev. 
 chap, xxvii. ver 29. 
 
 In consequence of this law it was, that Samuel 
 hewed king Agag in pieces, though Saul had 
 spared him; and for his improper clemency, 
 Saul was reproved by the Lord, and forfeited his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Here is an evident proof of human sacrifices; 
 no point of history can be more authentically- 
 verified ; certainly a nation cannot be better 
 known than by records, and what it relates of its 
 self. 
 
 JOSEPH. 
 
 (*) Our translation is, " None devoted, which 
 shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed, but shall 
 surely be put to death.'* 
 
JOSEPH. 217 
 
 JOSEPH. 
 
 X H E history of Joseph, considered only as 
 an object of curiosity and literature, is one of 
 the most valuable monuments of antiquity which 
 have reached our times. It appears to have 
 been the model of all the oriental writers; it is 
 more pathetic than Homer's Odyssey, as a for- 
 giving hero is more moving than he that gluts 
 his vengeance. 
 
 We account the Arabs to have been the first 
 authors of those ingenious fictions, which have 
 been adopted in all other languages; but for my 
 part, I meet with no tale among them comparable 
 to that of Joseph: in almost every part it is of 
 admirable beauty; and the conclusion draws 
 forth tears of tenderness. It exhibits a youth in 
 his sixteenth year, of whom his brothers are 
 jealous. He is sold by them to a caravan of 
 Ishmaelite merchants, carried into Egypt, and 
 bought by one of the king's eunuchs. This 
 eunuch had a wife, at which we are not to be 
 startled, for the Kislar-aga of Constantinople, 
 who is an arch-eunuch, the whole of his genital 
 parts being abscinded, has a seraglio: his eyes 
 and hands are left, and nature is still nature in 
 him. The other eunuchs, having been deprived 
 only of the two appendages of the generative 
 organ, often make use of it; and Potiphar, to 
 whom Joseph was sold, might very well be of 
 the latter class of eunuchs. 
 
 Potiphar's wife becomes enamoured with young 
 Joseph, who, faithful to his master as a most 
 gracious benefactor, rejects her solicitations. 
 Such behaviour turns her love into rancour, and 
 she charges Joseph with an attempt to seduce 
 
 her. 
 
2l8 JOSEPH. 
 
 her. This is the history of Hippolltus and 
 Phaedra, of Bellerophon and Stenobaea, of 
 Hebrus and Damasippe, of Tanis and Peribea, 
 of Marsillus and Hipodamia, of Peleus and 
 Demenetta. 
 
 Which is the original of all these histories is 
 not easily known; but the ancient Arabian 
 authors have a passage relating to the transaction 
 between Joseph and Potiphar's wife, which is 
 very ingenious. The author supposes that 
 Poiiphar, hesitating between his wife and Jo- 
 seph, did not look upon his wife's having torn a 
 piece of Joseph's robe, as any weighty proof of 
 the young man's crime. There was at that time, in 
 the wife's chamber, a child in a cradle. Joseph 
 said that she had forcibly taken hold of his robe, 
 and torn it in the child's presence; Potiphar 
 asked the child, who it seems was of a very preg- 
 nant wit for his age. The child said to Potiphar, 
 see whether the robe be torn before or behind ; 
 if before, it shews that Joseph was for laying 
 hands on your wife, and that she stood on her 
 defence; if behind, it is plain your wife run 
 after him. Thus did this child's genius clear up 
 Joseph's innocence. This is the account given 
 in the Alcoran from an ancient Arabian author, 
 without informing us to whom this witty child 
 belonged. If it was a son of dame Potiphar's, 
 Joseph was not the first with whom this woman 
 had desired an intimacy. 
 
 However it be, Joseph, according to the book 
 of Genesis, is clapt up in prison, and happens 
 to be with the king's cup-bearer and butler: 
 both these state prisoners hud a dream the same 
 night, which Joseph explained to them ; he 
 foretold that within three days the cup-bearer 
 
 should 
 
JOSEPH. -219 
 
 should be restored to favour, and the butler 
 hanged, which fell out accordingly. 
 
 Two years after the king of Egypt had a very 
 perplexing dream, on which his cup-bearer ac- 
 quaints him, that there is in prison a Jewish 
 young man who had not his equal for explaining 
 dreams ; he is sent for, and predicts the seven 
 years of plenty and the seven barren years. 
 
 Here we must make a small interruption in the 
 thread of the story, to observe the prodigious 
 antiquity of the interpretation of dreams. Jacob 
 had seen in a dream the mysterious ladder, at the 
 top of which was God himself: in a dream he 
 learned the method of multiplying his flocks, a 
 method which has never succeeded but with 
 him. Joseph himself had been informed by a 
 dream, that he should one day be superior to his 
 brothers. Abimelech, long before, had notice 
 given him in a dream, that Sarah was Abraham's 
 wife. See the article Dream. We shall now 
 return to Joseph. 
 
 On his having explained Pharaoh's dream, he 
 was immediately created prime minister. It is a 
 question whether now a-days any king, even in 
 Asia, would bestow a post of that importance for 
 having explained a dream ; Pharaoh made up a 
 match between Joseph and a daughter of Poti- 
 phar's. This Potiphar is said to have been high 
 priest of Heliopolis, so that it could not be the 
 eunuch his first master ; or if it was, he must 
 certainly have had another title than that of 
 high priest ; and his wife had been a mother 
 more than once. 
 
 In the mean time the famine came on, ac- 
 cording to Joseph's prediction ; and his minister, 
 to rivet himself into the royal favour, so ma- 
 naged 
 
220 LAWS. 
 
 naged matters, that all the people were under a 
 necessity of selling their lands to Pharaoh ; and 
 the whole nation, to procure corn, became slaves 
 to the crown. This may probably be the origin 
 of despotism. It must be owned that never kmg 
 made a better bargain ; but, on the other hand, 
 the people owed little gratitude and applause to 
 the prime minister. 
 
 At length Joseph's father and brothers like- 
 wise came to want corn, for the famine was sore 
 in all the land : as for Joseph's reception of his 
 brethren, his forgiving them, and loading them 
 with kindness, we shall take the liberty to omit 
 those particulars, observing only, that this his- 
 tory has every interesting part ot an epic 'poem ; 
 the sublime, the marvellous, the exposition, con- 
 nection, discovery, and reverse of fortune. I 
 know nothing more strongly marked with orien- 
 tal genius. 
 
 The answer of good Jacob, Joseph's hoary fa- 
 ther, to Pharaoh, ought deeply to impress every 
 one who can read. What may your age be, 
 said the king to him ? A hundred and thirty 
 years, answered the old man ; and in this short 
 pilgrimage, 1 have not seen one happy day. 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 In the time of Vespasian and Titus, when the 
 Romans used to rip up and draw the Jews, a 
 very wealthy Israelite, to avoid that disagreeable 
 treatment, moved off with all the fruits of his 
 usury, carrying with him to Eziongaber all his 
 family, which consisted of his aged wife, a son, 
 and a daughter ; for retinue, he had two eunuchs, 
 
 one 
 
LAWS. 221 
 
 one a cook, the other a kind of gardener and 
 vine-dresser : an honest Essene, who knew the 
 Pentateuch by heart, officiated as his chaplain. 
 All these going aboard a vessel at Eziongaber, 
 crossed the Red Sea, as it is called, though it 
 has nothing of that colour, and entered the 
 gulph of Persia, in quest of the country of 
 Ophir, without knowing where it lay : a dread- 
 ful storm drove this Hebrew family towards 
 India, where the vessel was stranded on one of 
 the Maldivia islands, then desert, but now called 
 Padrabranca. 
 
 The old hunks and his joan were drowned ; 
 but the son and daughter, with the two eunuchs 
 and chaplain, got safe to land. They made shift 
 to save some of the provisions ; and, having 
 built huts in the island, began to be something 
 reconciled to their disaster. The island of Pa- 
 drabranca, you know, is five degrees from the 
 line, and produces the largest cocoa-nuts and the 
 best pine-apples in the whole world : it was not 
 uncomfortable living there at a time when every 
 where else the favoured people were slaughtered 
 as fast as they could be found ; but the good 
 Essene frequently wept at thinking, that they 
 might be the only Jews on earth, and that the 
 seed of Abraham was drawing to an end. 
 
 What signify your tears, said the young Jew : 
 it is in your power to prevent its ending ; marry 
 my sister. Very willingly, answered the chap- 
 lain ; but it is against the law. I am an Essene, 
 and have made a vow against marriage ; and, by 
 the laws, vows are to be observed : come of the 
 Jewish race what will, never will I marry your 
 sister, though she were ten times handsomer than 
 she is. 
 
 My 
 
.22& LAWS'. 
 
 My two eunuchs, answered the Jew, cannot 
 raise seed from her ; so, with your leave, I will 
 do the business, and you shall marry us. 
 
 Let me be ripped up and drawn over and over, 
 said the chaplain, rather than have any hand in 
 making you commit incest : were she your sister 
 only by the lather's side, I would not hesitate so 
 much about it, as not being directly against law; 
 but she is your sister by the mother's side, so 
 that it would be quite abominable. 
 
 I am very well aware that it would be a crime 
 at Jerusalem, where I might have other young 
 women ; but on the island of Padrabanca, where 
 I see only cocoa nuts, ananas, and oysters, I hold 
 it veiy allowable. Thus the Jew married his 
 sister, and, notwithstanding all the Essene's pro- 
 testations, had by her a daughter, who was the 
 sole fruit of a marriage, by one held legal, and 
 by the other abominable. 
 
 Fourteen y^ars alter the mother departed this 
 life ; Well, said the father to the chaplain, have 
 you got over your former prejudices ? Will you 
 marry my daughter ? God forbid ! said the Es- 
 sene. If you will not, I will, said the father; 
 the seed of Abraham shall not come to an end, if 
 I can help it. The Essene, quite frightened 
 at such horrible words, would not live any longer 
 with one who made so light of the law, and fled. 
 The bridegroom called after him, Stop, honest 
 Ananeel, I observe the law of nature, 1 am pre- 
 serving the chosen race, do not leave your 
 friends ; but the Essene, full of the Mosaic law, 
 without so much as looking back, swam over to 
 the nearest island. 
 
 This was Attola, a large island, both populous 
 and thoroughly civilized ; at his landing he was 
 
 made 
 
LAWS. 223 
 
 made a slave. When he had got a little of the 
 Attola tongue, he complained very bitterly ot his 
 being used so inhospitably ; but he was given to 
 understand, that such was their law, and that 
 since the island had narrowly escaped being sur- 
 prized by the inhabitants of Shot Ada, ic had 
 been wisely provided, that all strangers coming 
 to Attola should be made slaves. A law it can- 
 not be, said the Essene, for no such thing is in 
 the Pantateuch : to which he. had for answer, 
 that it was in the couniry-code, and a slave he 
 remained ; but with the good fortune of having 
 an excellent master, who was very rich, and 
 ruled him in a manner which n.mch endeared 
 him to the Essene. 
 
 Some ruffians came one day to rob and kill the 
 master : they asked the slaves whether he was at 
 home and had a great deal of money by him? 
 By all the gods, said the slaves, he has little or 
 no money at all, neither is he at home. But the 
 Essenian said, the law does not allow of lying; 
 and I swear to you that he is at home, and has a 
 great deal' of money ; so the master was robbed 
 and murdered : on this, the slaves had the Essene 
 before the judges for betraying his master. The 
 Essene owned his words, saying, that he would 
 not tell a lye on any account; and he was hanged. 
 
 This story, and many such, were told me in 
 my last journey from the Indies to France. On 
 my arrival, some business calling me to Ver- 
 sailles, here I saw a very fine woman followed 
 by several other fine women : Who is that fine 
 woman, said I to my lawyer, who was come with 
 me ; tor having a process in the parliament of 
 Paris, on account of cloaths made for me in the 
 Indies, 1 had my counsellor always with me ; It 
 
 is 
 
224 LAWS. 
 
 is the king's daughter, said he ; and, besides 
 her beauty, she is of a most excellent temper ; 
 it is a pity that she can never be queen of 
 France. How, said I. if, which God forbid, 
 all her royal relations and the princes of the 
 blood were to die, could not she inherit her fa- 
 ther's kingdom ? No, said the counsellor, the 
 Salic law is expressly against it. And who made 
 that Salic law, said I. That I know nothing of, 
 answered he ; but the tradition is, that an ancient 
 people called the Salians, who could neither read 
 nor write, had a law, by which in the Salic 
 country no female was to inherit an hereditary 
 iief ; and this law has been admitted in a country 
 which is not Salic. Has it so, said I, and I an- 
 nul it : You assure me that, besides this prin- 
 cess's beauty, she is of an excellent temper ; she 
 has therefore an indisputable right to the crown, 
 if unfortunately she should survive all the rest of 
 the royal family ; my mother was heiress to her 
 father, and this princess shall be heiress to hers. 
 The next day my cause came on in one of the 
 courts of parliament, and they all gave it against 
 me : my counsellor told me, that in another 
 court I should have gained it unanimously. 
 Very odd, indeed, said I ; then so many courts 
 so many laws. Yes, said he, there are no less 
 than twenty-five commentaries on the common 
 law at Paris ; that is, the Paris common law has 
 been twenty-five times proved to be ambiguous ; 
 and were there twenty-five courts, there would be 
 twenty-five different bodies of laws. We have, 
 continued he, a province called Normandy, about 
 fifteen leagues from Paris ; and there your cause 
 would have been decided quite otherwise than 
 herCr This made me desirous of seeing Nor- 
 
 mandyj 
 
LAWS 225 
 
 ttiandy, and I went thither with one of my bro- 
 thers. At the first inn we came to, was a young 
 man storming most furiously. I asked him what 
 was the matter? Matter enough answered he ; I 
 have an elder brother. Where is the mighty 
 misfortune of having a brother, said I to him ? 
 my brother is my elder, and yet we live very 
 easy together. But here, Sir, said he, the 
 damned law gives every thing to the elder, and 
 the younger may shift for themselves. If that 
 be the case, said I, well may you be angry; 
 with us, things are equally divided, yet some- 
 times brothers do not love one another the bet- 
 ter for it. 
 
 These little adventures led me to some very 
 profound reflections on the laws, and I found 
 them to be like our garments; at Constantinople 
 it is proper to wear a doliman, and at Paris a 
 coat. If all human laws are by compact, said I, 
 the only point is to make good bargains. The 
 citizens of Deli and Agra say, that they made a 
 very bad agreement with Tamerlane : the citi- 
 zens of London again value themselves for the 
 good bargain they made with King William III. 
 One of that opulent body was saying to me, it 
 is necessity which makes laws, and force causes 
 them to be observed. I asked him whether force 
 did not likewise make laws, and whether William 
 the conqueror had not prescribed to England 
 laws, without any previous convention ? Yes, 
 said he, we were then oxen, and William put a 
 yoke upon us, and goaded us along. Since 
 those times we are become men ; but with our 
 horns still remaining, we are sure to gore any 
 one that will make us plough for him, and not 
 for ourselves. 
 
 Q Full 
 
$26 LAWS. 
 
 Full of these reflections, I was pleased to finct 
 that there is a natural law independant of all 
 human conventions ; that the fruit of my labour 
 should be my property; that it is my duty to 
 honour my parents ; that I have no right to my 
 neighbour's life, nor my neighbour to mine, &c* 
 But when it came into my mind that, from Cor- 
 dolaomer down to Mentzel, colonel of hussars, 
 it has been customary to shew one's loyalty by 
 effusion of human blood, and to pillage one's 
 neighbour by patent, I was touched to the heart. 
 
 I am told that robbers had their laws, and that 
 war had also its laws. On my asking what 
 were those laws of war, I was answered : It is 
 to hang up a brave officer for maintaining, against 
 a royal army, a bad post and without cannon ; 
 it is to hang up a prisoner if one of your men 
 has been hanged; it is to burn and destroy those 
 villages which have not brought in their whole 
 subsistence at the day appointed by the gracious 
 sovereign of the neighbourhood. So that is the 
 spirit of laws, said I. 
 
 By farther information I heard of some very 
 wise laws, condemning a shepherd to the gal- 
 leys for nine years, for giving a little foreigrf 
 salt to sheep. A neighbour of mine has been 
 ruined by an indictment for cutting down two 
 oaks in his own wood, not observing a formality 
 which he had not been able to know any thing 
 of: his wife died of grief in extreme distress, 
 and his son lives, if it may be so called, very 
 wretchedly. I own that these laws are just; 
 though the execution of them is a little hard ; 
 but I cannot bear with those laws which autho- 
 rize a hundred thousand men to go, under the 
 pretence of loyalty, and massacre as many peace- 
 able 
 
LAWS. 227 
 
 able neighbours. The generality of mankind 
 appear to be naturally endued with sense enough 
 to make laws ; but then it is not every one who 
 has virtue sufficient to enact good laws. 
 
 Call together from all the ends of the earth, 
 the husbandmen, a simple quiet class, they will, 
 at once, agree that the surplus of one's corn 
 should be allowed to be sold to our neighbours ; 
 and that a law to the contrary is both absurd and 
 inhuman; that coin, as representing provisions, 
 should be no more adulterated than the products 
 of the earth; that a lather of a family should be 
 master within his own walls; that religion should 
 promote friendship and benevolence among men 
 living in society, and not make them fanatics 
 and persecutors; that the labouring and busy 
 part of the world should not deprive themselves 
 of the fruits of their industry, to bestow them on 
 superstition and sloth : this plain assembly would 
 in an hour make thirty such laws, all beneficial 
 to mankind. 
 
 But should Tamerlane come and subdue In- 
 dia; then you will see nothing but arbitrary laws. 
 One shall squeeze a province to enrich a pub- 
 lican of Tamerlane's ; another shall make it 
 high-treason only for having dropped a free 
 word concerning the mistress of the raja's first 
 valet de chambre ; a third shall take away from 
 the farmer half his harvest, and dispute the re- 
 mainder with him ; and, what is worse than all 
 this, there will be laws, by which a Tartar mes- 
 senger shall come and take away your children 
 in the cradle, making them soldiers or eunuchs 
 according to their conuituiions, and leave the 
 father and mother to' wipe away each other's 
 tears. 
 
 Q 2 Now, 
 
228 CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS. 
 
 Now, whether is it best to be Tamerlane's dog 
 or his subject ? Doubtless, his dog has by much 
 the best of it. 
 
 CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS. 
 
 X HE following minutes were found among 
 the papers of an eminent lawyer, and perhaps 
 deserve a little consideration. 
 
 No ecclesiastical law should ever be in force 
 till it has formally received the express sanction 
 of the government ; by this it was that Athens 
 and Rome never had any religious quarrels. 
 
 Those quarrels appertain only to barbarous 
 nations. 
 
 To permit or prohibit working on holidays, 
 should only be in the magistrates power ; it is 
 not the fit concern of priests to hinder men from 
 cultivating their grounds. 
 
 Every thing relating to marriages should de- 
 pend solely on the magistrate; and let the priests 
 be limited to the august function of the solem« 
 nization. 
 
 Lending at interest to be intirely within the 
 cognizance of the civil law, as by it commercial 
 affairs are regulated. 
 
 All ecclesiastics whatever should, as the state's 
 subjects in all cases, be under the control and 
 animadversion of the government. 
 
 Away with that disgraceful absurdity of paying 
 to a foreign priest the .first year's produce of an 
 estate, given to a priest of our own country. 
 
 No priest should have it in his power to de- 
 prive a member of society of the least privilege, 
 on pretence of his sins ; for a priest being him- 
 
 . self 
 
LIBERTY. 229 
 
 self a sinner, is to pray for sinners : he has no 
 business to try and condemn them. 
 
 Magistrates, farmers, and priests, are alike to 
 contribute to the expences of the state, as alike 
 belonging to the state. 
 
 One weight, one measure, one custom. 
 The punishments of criminals should be of 
 use ; when a man is hanged he is good for no- 
 thing, whereas a man condemned to the public 
 works still benefits his country, and is a living 
 admonition. 
 
 Every law should be clear, uniform, and pre- 
 cise ; explanations are for the most part corrup- 
 tions. 
 
 The only infamy should be vice. 
 Taxes to be proportionate. 
 A law should never clash with custom, for if 
 the custom be good, the law must be faulty. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 A 
 
 Battery of cannon is playing close by 
 your ears ; are you at liberty to hear or not to 
 hear it ? 
 
 B. Unquestionably I cannot but hear it. 
 
 A. Would you have those cannon carry off 
 your head, and your wife's and daughter's, who 
 are walking with you ? 
 
 B. What a question is that ? in my sober 
 senses it is impossible, that I should will any 
 such thing. It cannot be. 
 
 A, Well, you necessarily hear the explosion 
 of those cannon, and you necessarily are against 
 you and your family being cut off" by a cannon 
 shot as you are taking the air ; you have not the 
 
 Q 3 power 
 
230 LIBERTY. 
 
 power not to hear, nor the power of willing to 
 remain here. 
 
 B. Nothing more evident. 
 
 A. Accordingly you have come thirty paces 
 to be out of the cannons way : thus you have 
 had the power of walking that little space with 
 me. 
 
 B. That again is clear. 
 
 A. And it you had been paralytic you could 
 not have avoided being exposed to this battery ; 
 you would not have had the power of being 
 where you are: you would, necessarily, not 
 only have heard the explosion, but received a 
 cannon shot; and thus you would necessarily 
 have been killed. 
 
 B. Very true. 
 
 A. In what then consists your liberty ? if not 
 In the power which your body has made use of 
 to do, what your volition, by an absolute ne- 
 cessity, required. 
 
 B. You put me to a stand. Liberty then is 
 nothing but the power oi doing what I will. 
 
 A. Think of it, and see whether liberty can 
 have any other meaning. 
 
 B. At this rate my greyhound is as free as I 
 am : he has necessarily a will to run at the sight 
 of a hare, and likewise the power of running, if 
 not lame ; so that in nothing am I superior to 
 my dog ; this is levelling me with the beasts. 
 
 A. Such are the wretched sophisms of the 
 wretched sophists who have tutored you. 
 Wretched thing indeed, to be in the same state 
 of liberty as your dog! And are not you like 
 your dog in a thousand things ? in hunger, 
 thirst, waking, sleeping; and your five senses, 
 are they not common to him ? are you for 
 
 smeUing 
 
LIBERTY. 231 
 
 :smelllng otherwise than through the nose ? why 
 then are you for having liberty in a manner dif- 
 ferent from him. 
 
 B. But I have a soul continually reasoning, 
 which my dog knows little of : simple ideas are 
 very nearly all his portion, whereas I have a 
 thousand metaphysical ideas. 
 
 A. Well, you are a thousand times more free 
 than he ; that is, you have a thousand times 
 more power of thinking than he : still you are 
 not tree in a manner different from him. 
 
 B. How ! am I not at liberty to will what I 
 will? 
 
 A. Your meaning ? 
 
 B. I mean what all the world means ; is it not 
 a common saying, Will is free ? 
 
 A. A proverb is no reason : please to explain 
 yourself more clearly. 
 
 B. I mean that I have the liberty of willing as 
 I please. 
 
 A. By your leave, there is no sense in that; 
 don't you perceive that it is ridiculous to say, I 
 will will ; you will necessarily, in consequence 
 of the ideas occurring to you : Would you marry, 
 yes, or no ? 
 
 B. But were I to say, I neither will the one 
 nor the other ? 
 
 A. That would be answering like him who 
 said, some think Cardinal Mazarine dead, others 
 believe him still living, and I believe neither one 
 nor the other. 
 
 B. Well, I have a mind to marry. 
 
 A. Good! That is something of an answer; 
 and why have you a mind to marry ? 
 
 B. Because I am in love with a young gen- 
 tlewoman, who is handsome, of a sweet temper, 
 
 Q 4 ^vell 
 
232 LIBERTY. 
 
 well bred, with a tolerable fortune, sings charm- 
 ingly, and her parents are perhaps of good credit : 
 besides, I flatter myself, that my addresses are 
 very acceptable both to her family and herself. 
 
 A. Why, there is a reason: you see you 
 cannot will without a reason, and I declare you 
 have the liberty of marrying ; that is, you have 
 the power of signing the contract. 
 
 B. How! not will without a reason! What 
 then becomes of another proverb ? *' Sit prora- 
 *• tione voluntas;" my will is my reason. I 
 will because I will. 
 
 A. My dear friend, under favour, that is an 
 absurdity ; there would then be in you an effect 
 without a cause. 
 
 B. Wiiat ! when I am playing at even or odd, 
 is there a reason for my choosing even rather 
 than odd ? 
 
 A. Yes, to be sure. 
 
 B. And pray let us hear that reason ? 
 
 A. Because the idea of odd presented itself to 
 your mind before the contrary notion. It would 
 Idc strange, indeed, that in some cases you will 
 because there is a cause of volition ; and that in 
 some cases you will without any cause. In your 
 willing to be married, you evidently perceive the 
 determming reason ; and in playing at even or 
 odd, you do not perceive it ; and yet one there 
 must me. 
 
 B. But again, am I not then free ? 
 
 A. Your will is not free, but your actions 
 are ; you are free to act when you have the 
 power of acting. 
 
 B. But all the books I have read on the 
 liberty of indifference -■ 
 
 A. Arc 
 
OF THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. 233 
 
 A. Are nonsense: there is no such thing as 
 5iberty ot indifference; (^) it is a word void of 
 sense, and coined by those who were not over- 
 loaded with it. 
 
 LIMITS OF THE HUMAN UNDER- 
 STANDING. 
 
 P 
 
 O O R doctor, these limits are every where. 
 Art thou for knowing how it comes to pass, that 
 thy arm and thy leg obey thy will, and thy liver 
 does not ? Wouldestthou investigate how thought 
 is formed in thy minute understanding, and the 
 child in that woman's womb ? I give thee what 
 time thou wilt. Tell me also what is matter? 
 Thy equals have written ten thousand volumes 
 on this article : some qualities of this substance 
 they have found, and children know them as 
 well as thyself; but what is that substance essen- 
 tially ? and what is that to which thou hast given 
 the appellation of spirit, from a Latm word sig- 
 nifying breath, in the want of a better, because 
 thou hast no idea of it ? 
 
 See this grain of corn which I throw into the 
 ground, and tell me how it rises again to shoot 
 
 forth 
 
 (*) Here our author has followed Mr. Locke, who 
 says, " that liberty belongs not to the will; and that 
 *' it is as insignificant to ask, whether a man's will be 
 *' free, as to ask, whether his sleep be swift, or his 
 " virtue square. For liberty being but a power belongs 
 " onlv to agents, and cannot be an attribute of the 
 *' will, which is also but a power." See this notion 
 refuted by Dr. Clarke in his Demonstration of the 
 Being and Attributes of a God, 
 
«34 LOVE. 
 
 forth a stem with an ear? Inform me how the 
 same ground produces an apple on this tree, and 
 a chesnut in that next to it : I could fill a folio 
 with such questions, to which thy answer ought 
 to be, I know not. 
 
 And yet thou hast taken thy degrees, and 
 wearest a furred gown and cap, and art called 
 master; and there is another fool, who, priding 
 himself upon a petty employment in some paltry 
 town, conceits that he has likewise purchased 
 the privilege of judging, and condemning what 
 he does not understand. 
 
 Montaigne's motto was, ** What do I know?" 
 {Que sai-je?) and thine is, " What do I not 
 *' know ?" (Que ne sai-je pas ?j 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 -tJlMOR omnibus idem. Here we must call in 
 the constitution ; the ground is natural, and em- 
 broidered by imagination. Shall 1 give you an 
 idea of love ? View the sparrows in thy garden ; 
 view thy pidgeons ; behold the bull led to thy 
 heifer ; look on that spirited horse, which two of 
 thy servants are bringing to thy mare, who quietly 
 waits his coming, and turns aside her tail to ad- 
 mit him ; how his eyes glare, how he neighs; 
 observe how he prances ; his erect ears, his con- 
 vulsed mouth, his snorting, his turgid nostrils, 
 his fiery breath issuing from them ; the flutter- 
 ings ol his mane ; the impetuosity with which he 
 rushes on the object that nature has appointed for 
 him: but forbear all jealousy, and consider the 
 advantages of the human species ; in matters of 
 love they make up for those which nature has 
 
 given 
 
LOVE. 235 
 
 given to beasts, strength, beauty, activity, and 
 velocity. 
 
 There are even creatures strangers to fruition. 
 It is a delight ot which shell-fish are deprived; 
 the female ejects millions of eggs on the slime 
 and mud; the male, in passing by fecundates 
 them by his sperm, without troubling himself 
 what female they belong to. 
 
 Most creatures in copulation receive pleasure 
 only from one sense, and that appeme satisHid, 
 sink into insensibility. Thou alone of all ani- 
 mals art acquainted with the warm endeaimenrs 
 of embraces ; thy whole body glows with ecsiatic 
 sensations; thy lips especially enjoy a most sweet 
 delight, without satiety or weariness, and this 
 delight is peculiar to thy species. Lastly, thou 
 canst at all times give thyself to love; wheieas 
 other creatures have only a stated season. Re- 
 flect on these pre-eminences, and thou wilt say 
 with the earl of Rochester, " Love would cause 
 *' the deity to be worshipped in a land of 
 *' atheists." 
 
 As it has been imparted to mankind to improve 
 the several gifts of nature, they iiave made im- 
 provements in love. Cleanliness, or the. care of 
 one's person, rendering the skm softer, increases 
 the pleasure of touch; and attention to health 
 adds a more exquisite sensibility totlie organs of 
 voluptuousness. 
 
 All other sentiments combine with that of love, 
 as metals amalgamate with gold : fneiidslnp and 
 esteem join to support it ; and the talents, both of 
 the body and mind, are additional tics, 
 
 " Nam facit ipsa suis interdum f^mini factis, 
 Morigerisque modis et mundo cor})orj ciiltu, 
 Ut facile insuescat secum vir degere vitam.'* 
 
 Self-love 
 
236 LOVE. 
 
 Self-love especially adds force to the several 
 ties. We are enraptured with our choice, and a 
 crowd of illusions decorate that work, of which 
 the foundation is laid in nature. 
 
 Such is ihy pre-eminence above other animals ; 
 but if thou enjoyest so many pleasures withheld 
 from them ; how many vexations are thy portion 
 of which beasts have no idea ! One dreadiul cir- 
 cumstance to thee is, that, in three-fourths of the 
 earth, nature has infected the delights of love and 
 the source of life with a horrible distemper, to 
 which man alone is subject, and, in him affect- 
 ing only the organs of generation. 
 
 This contagion is not like many other distem- 
 pers, the consequence of excesses; neither was 
 it debauchery which brought it into the world. 
 Phryne, Lais, Flora, and Messalina, knew no- 
 thing of it. It received its birth in islands, 
 where mankind lived in innocence ; and thence 
 it has spread itself into the old world. 
 
 If ever nature could be arraigned of neglect- 
 ing its work, of thwarting its own plan, and 
 counteracting its own views, it is here. Is this 
 the best of the possible worlds ? What ! has 
 Csesai, Anthony, Octavius never had this dis- 
 temper; and was it not possible that it should - 
 not prove the death of Francis I.? No, it is said, 
 things were so ordered for the best; I will be- 
 lieve so, but that's very melancholy for those to 
 whom Rabelais dedicated his book. 
 
 SOCRATIC 
 
SOCRATIC LOVE. 237 
 
 SOCRATIC LOVE; 
 
 AS IT IS CALLED ('J 
 
 JlTIOW could it be, that a vice, which if ge- 
 neral, would extinguish the human species, an 
 
 infamous 
 
 (*) The very ingenious and learned critics, known 
 by the vulgar name of Monthly Reviewers, have 
 passed a most severe censure upon this whole article. 
 " We conceive, say they, it could only come from 
 " the pen of one of the most inconsiderate, dissolute, 
 " and abandoned of mankind. Nothing can be 
 *' more infamous than what is there advanced, 
 " in palliation of the most detestable of all crimes." 
 But nothing can be more false, than that our author 
 attempts to palliate this crime. Does not he set out 
 with affirming it to be destructive of the human race, 
 a debasement and violation of nature, and the highest 
 degree of corruption? Is this a palliation? or is it not 
 rather a representation of that infamous vice in the light 
 it deserves. Whether he be mistaken in tracing its 
 source, we cannot pretend to affirm, not being so 
 well acquainted as those learned critics with the prac- 
 tices of the courts of justice, nor with the arts of those 
 hypocritical monsters, hackneyed in the ways of 
 iniquity. But after all, this is a mere point of specu- 
 lation, not at all tending to immorality. He may be 
 mistaken again, when he says, that the Greeks never 
 authorized this vice, and that the Socratic Love was 
 not. infamous. But these are historical matters, con- 
 cerning which men of very great learning have differed 
 in opinion. Our author, however, thinks the crime 
 so horrid and unnatural, that it could never be autho- 
 rized by any government; so that, instead of looking 
 on this article of Socratic Love with the same horror 
 as the scrupulous Reviewers, we rather apprehend it 
 
 to 
 
238 SOCRATIC LOVE. 
 
 infamou<; crime against nature, should become 
 so natural ? It appears to be the last degree of 
 reflective corruption; and yet it is usually 
 found in those who have not had time to be cor- 
 rupted. It makes its way into novice hearts, 
 who are strangers to ambition, fraud and a thirst 
 after wealth ; it is blind youth, which at the end 
 o^ childhood, by an unaccountable instinct, 
 plunges itself into this enormity. 
 
 The inclination of the two sexes for each 
 other declares itself very early; but after all that 
 has been said of the African woman, and those' 
 of the southern part of Asia, this propensity is 
 much stronger in man than in woman. Agree- 
 ably to the universal law of nature in all crea- 
 tures, it is ever the male who makes the first 
 advances. The young males of our species 
 brought up together, coming to feel that play 
 which nature begins to unfold to them, in the 
 want of the natural object of their instinct, 
 betake themselves to a resemblance of such 
 objects. 
 
 It is nothing uncommon for a boy by the 
 beauty of his complexion, and the mild sparkle 
 of his eyes for two or three years, to have the 
 look of a pretty girl : now the love of such a 
 boy arises from a mistake in nature; the female 
 sex is honoured in our fondness for what par- 
 takes of her beauties, and when such resem- 
 blance 
 
 to be one of the least exceptionable parts of the whole 
 work. But as Mr. Dryden well observes, much of 
 ill nature and a very little judgment, go far in finding 
 the mistakes of writers. 
 
SOCRATIC LOVE. 239 
 
 blance is withered by age, the mistake is at an 
 end. 
 
 citraque juventam 
 ^tatis breve ver et primos carpere flores. 
 
 This mistake in nature is known to be much 
 more common in mild climates than amidst the 
 northern frosts, the blood being there more fervid 
 and the occasion more frequent: accordingly, 
 what seems only a weakness in young Alcibiades, 
 is in a Dutch sailor or a Russian sutler, a loath- 
 some abomination. 
 
 I cannot bear that the Greeks should be charged 
 with having authorized this licentiousness. 
 The legislator Solon is brought in because he has 
 said, 
 
 ** Thou shalt caress a beauteous boy, 
 
 " Whilst no beard his smooth chin deforms." 
 
 But who will say that Solon was a legislator at 
 the time of his making those two ridiculous 
 lines? He was then young, and when the rake 
 was grown virtuous, it cannot be thought that 
 he inserted such an infamy among the laws of 
 his republic: it is like accusing Theodore de 
 Beza of having preached up pederasty in his 
 church, because, in his youth, he had made verses 
 on young Candidus, and says: 
 
 *' Amplector hunc et illam.'* 
 
 Plutarch likewise fs misunderstood, who, 
 among his rants in the dialogue on love, makes 
 one of the speakers say, that women are not 
 
 worthy 
 
240 SOCRATIC LOVE. 
 
 worthy of a genuine love; but another speaker 
 keenly takes the women's part. 
 
 It is as certain, as the knowledge of antiquity 
 can be, that Socratic love was not an infamous 
 passion. It is the word love has occasioned the 
 mistake. The lovers of a youth were exactly 
 what among us are the minions of our princes, 
 or, formerly the pages of honour; young gen- 
 tlemen who had partaken of the education of a 
 child of rank, and accompanied him in his 
 studies or in the field: this was a martial and 
 holy institution, but it was soon abused^ as were 
 the nocturnal feasts and orgies. 
 
 The troop of lovers instituted by Laius, was 
 an invincible corps of young warriors engaged 
 by oath, mutually to lay down their lives for 
 one another; and, perhaps, nevel: had ancient 
 discipline any thmg more grand and useful. 
 
 Sextus Empiricus and others may talk as long 
 as they please of pederasty being recommended 
 by the laws of Persia. Let them quote the text 
 of the law, and even shew the Persian code, yet 
 will I not believe it; I will say it is not true, by 
 reason of its being impossible. I do aver that 
 it is not in human nature to make a law contra- 
 dictory and injurious to nature ; a law which, if 
 literally kept to, would put an end to the human 
 species. The thing is, scandalous customs be- 
 ing connived at, are often mistaken for the laws 
 of a country. Sextus Empiricus, doubting of 
 every thing, might as well doubt of this juris- 
 prudence. If living in our days he had seen two 
 or three young Jesuits fondling some scholars, 
 could he from thence say that this sport was 
 permitted them by the constitutions of Ignatius 
 Loyola ? 
 
 The 
 
SELF-LOVE. 241 
 
 The love of boys was so common at Rome, 
 that no punishment was thought of for a foolery 
 into which every body run headlong. Octavius 
 Augustus, that sensualist, that cowardly mur- 
 derer, dared to banish Ovid, at the same time 
 that he was very well pleased with Virgil's sing- 
 ing the beauty and flights of Alexis, and Ho- 
 races's making little odes for Ligurinus. Still 
 the old Scantinian law against pederasty was in 
 force : the Emperor Philip revived it, and caused 
 the boys, who followed that trade to be driven 
 out of Rome. In a word, I cannot think that 
 ever there was a policed nation, where the laws 
 were contrary to morality. 
 
 SELF-LOVE. 
 
 A 
 
 BEGGAR, about the skirts of Madrid, 
 used to ask alms with great dign.ty : one passing 
 by said to him, Are not you ashamed to follow 
 this scandalous trade, you who are able to work ? 
 Sir, answered the beggar, I ask you for money 
 and not for advice ; then turned his back upon 
 him with all the stateliness of a Castilian. Don 
 was a lofty beggar indeed, his vanity soon took 
 pet. He could ask alms out of self-love ; and 
 from another kind of self-love, would not bear 
 reproof. 
 
 A missionary in India met a facquier loaded 
 with chains, as bare as an ape, lying on his belly, 
 while his countryman, at his request, was whip- 
 ping him for his sins, and at the same time drop- 
 ping him some farthings. What self-denial is 
 this, what abasement, said one of the spectators. 
 
 R Self- 
 
242 LUXURY. 
 
 Self-denial, abasement! answered the facqulerj 
 I would have you to know, that I consent to 
 be flogged in this world, only to give it you 
 home in the other, when you shall be horses and 
 I the rider. 
 
 Thus they who have affirmed self-love to be 
 the basis of all our sentiments and all our actions, 
 are much in the right, in India, Spain, and all 
 the habitable parts of the earth ; and as there is 
 no occasion to demonstrate that men have a face, 
 as little need there is of proving to them that 
 they are actuated by self-love. This self-love 
 is the means of our preservation ; and like the 
 instrument of the perpetuation of the species, it 
 is necessary, it is clear to us, it gives us plea- 
 sure, but still is to be concealed. 
 
 LUXURY. 
 
 Jl or these two thousand years past luxury has 
 been declaimed against, both in verse and prose j 
 and still mankind has always delighted in it. 
 
 "What encomiums have been bestowed on the 
 primitive Romans, when those banditti ravaged 
 their neighbours fields ! when, to increase their 
 poor village, they destroyed the poor villages of 
 the Volsci and Samnites. They were, to be 
 sure, men of a glorious disinterestedness, and 
 elevated virtue ! gold, silver, and jewels they 
 never had stolen, because there were no such 
 things in the towns which they pillaged ; their 
 woods and fens afforded no partridges nor phea- 
 sants ; and their temperance is cried up. 
 
 When having gradually plundered people 
 after people, from the Adriatic to the Euphrates, 
 
 . they 
 
LUXURY. 243 
 
 they had sense enough to sit down in the quiet 
 enjoyment of their rapine for seven or eight 
 hundred years ; when they cultivated every art 
 and lived in every pleasure, and even introduced 
 them among those whom they had conquered ; 
 then they are said to have lost both their prudence 
 and virtue. 
 
 The substance of all these declamations is to 
 prove, that a robber ought never to eat the din- 
 ner he has taken away, nor wear the cloaths or 
 ring which he has stolen. Those things, say 
 the declaimers, to keep themselves honest, they 
 should have thrown into the river. Rather 
 say, gentlemen that they ought not to have rob- 
 bed ; execrate rebbers as much as you please, 
 but do not call them madmen, for quietly enjoy- 
 ing what they have got. Are those English to 
 be blamed, who, after filling their purses at the 
 taking of Pondicherry and the Havanna, made 
 them something lighter amidst the diversions of 
 London, in amends for the hardships they had 
 undergone in Asia and America ? 
 
 Would those declaimers have a man bury the 
 riches which he may have acquired by war or 
 agriculture, by trade and ingenuity? They quote 
 Lacedemon, and why do they not also quote the 
 republic of St. Marino ? What good did Sparfa 
 ever do to Greece ? Did it ever produce a De- 
 mosthenesi a Sophocles,- an Apelles, or a Phi- 
 dias ? whereas the luxury of Athens gave rise to 
 great men of every kind. Sparta had some good 
 commanders, and yet not so many as the other 
 cities. But we will allow so petty a republic 
 as Lacedemon to retain its poverty. Whether 
 we live in scarcity, or in the affluent fruition of 
 whatever makes life pleasant, we shall one day 
 
 R 2 come 
 
244 LUXURY. 
 
 come to our journey's end. The Canadian liveSs^ 
 and lives to old age, as well as the Englishman: 
 who has fitly thousand pounds a year ; but who- 
 will compare the country of the Iroquois ta 
 England ? 
 
 That the republic of Ragusa and the Canton 
 of Zug, make sumptuary laws, is right ; the poor 
 man is not to spend beyond his ability ; and I 
 have read somewhere, 
 
 ** Luxury enriches the ample state, 
 
 Whilst the less prosp'rous sinks beneath its weight. 
 
 >r 
 
 If by luxury you mean excess, excess in every 
 thing is certainly pernicious : in abstinence as 
 in gluttony, in parsimony as in liberality. I do 
 not know how it comes to pass that, in my vil- 
 lages, where the soil is very indifferent, the taxes 
 heavy, the prohibition against the exportation of 
 grain intolerably rigid; yet is there scarce a 
 farmer, who is not well cloathed and fed. But 
 should this farmer follow his rural occupations 
 in his best cloaths, clean linen, and his hair 
 curled and powdered; a greater piece of luxury 
 there could not be, besides the ridiculousness of 
 it : but for a citizen of Paris or London, to go 
 to the play apparelled like this farmer, is a most 
 clownish and indecent piece of stinginess. 
 
 *' Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines, 
 Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum." 
 
 On the invention of Scissors, which certainly 
 does not belong to the most remote antiquity, 
 doubtless severe werie the declamations against 
 the'first who pared their nails, and cropped off 
 part of their hair, which hung down to their 
 
 XlOSCo 
 
MADNESS. 245 
 
 Tiose. To be sure they were called fops and 
 cpendthrifts, laying out their money for an in- 
 strument of vanity, to mar the creator's work. 
 What an enormity, to cut off the horn which 
 God has caused to grow at our fingers ends I it 
 is an insult to the Deity. But much worse was 
 it on the first appearance of shirts and socks : it 
 is still well known, with what heat the old coun- 
 sellors, who had never worn any, exclaimed 
 against the younger, who came into this destruc- 
 tive piece of luxury. 
 
 MADNESS. 
 
 A AM not going about to revive Erasmus's 
 treatise, which in our times would be but a com- 
 mon place-book, and that none of the most en- 
 tertaining. 
 
 By madness is meant that distemper of the or- 
 gans of the brain, which necessarily hinders a 
 man from thinking and acting like others ; if 
 unable to manage his substance, a commission 
 is issued out against him; if incapable of ideas 
 suitable to society, he is excluded ; if he be 
 dangerous, he is shut up ; and, if frantic, he is 
 bound. 
 
 An important observation here is, that this 
 man is not without ideas; he has them, whilst 
 waking, like all other men, and often in his 
 sleep. It may be asked how his soul, being 
 spiritual and immortal, and residing in his brain, 
 to which all the ideas are conveyed by the 
 senses very plain and distinct, yet never forms 
 
 R 3 a right 
 
 X 
 
946 MADNESS. 
 
 a right judgment of them. It sees objects equally 
 as the souls of Aristotle, Plato, Locke, and 
 Newton; it hears the same sounds, it has the 
 same sense of the touch ; how happens it then, 
 that with the same perceptions as the wisest men, 
 it makes a wild incoherent jumble, without being 
 able to help itself? If this simple and eternal 
 substance has the same instruments for acting as 
 the souls of the wisest brains, it should reason 
 like them ; what can hinder it ? If this madman 
 sees red and the sensible man blue ; if when this 
 hears music, the madman hears the braying of 
 an ass ; if when they are at church, the madman 
 thinks himself at the play; if when they hear 
 yes, he hears no, I must of necessity conclude 
 that his soul must think differently from the 
 others. But this madman has the like percep- 
 tions as they ; and there is no apparent reason 
 why his soul, having through the senses received 
 all its tools, cannot make use of them. It is 
 said to be pure, to be, of itself, subject to no 
 infirmity, to be provided with all necessary 
 helps ; and whatever happens in the body, its 
 essence remains unalterable ; yet it is carried in 
 its case to Bedlam. 
 
 This reflection may give rise to an apprehen- 
 sion, that the faculty of thinking, with which 
 man is endued, is liable to be disordered like the 
 other senses. A madman is a patient, whose 
 brain suffers ; as a gouty man is a patient whose 
 feet and hands suffer ; he thought by means of 
 the brain, as he walked with his feet, without 
 knowing any thing of his incomprehensible 
 power to walk, nor of his no less incomprehensible 
 power to think. The brain may have the gout 
 
 as 
 
MADNESS. 247 
 
 as Well as the feet: after all, let us argue ever 
 so long, perhaps it it is taith, alone, which can 
 convince us, that a simple and immaterial sub- 
 stance can be sick (') 
 
 Some doctors will say to the madman. Friend, 
 though thou hast no longer common sense, thy 
 soul is no less pure, spiritual, and immortal than 
 ours; but our soul is in good quarters, and thine 
 otherwise. The windows of its apartment are 
 stopped up; and it is stifled for want of air. The 
 madman, in his calm intervals, would give them 
 this answer : This is always your way, you are 
 begging the question ; my windows are as much 
 open as yours, I see the same objects and hear 
 the same words : so that my soul must necessa- 
 rily either make a bad use of its senses, or it- 
 self be but a vitiated sense, a depraved quality. 
 In a word, either my soul is naturally mad, or I 
 have no soul. 
 
 One of the doctors will answer, Brother, God 
 may perhaps have created mad as well as wise 
 souls. The madman will reply. To believe 
 
 what 
 
 (*) Our author is all of a sudden a great stickler for 
 faith ; but we are afraid it proceeds from his ignorance 
 in philosophy. The soul has its perceptions, it is true, 
 by means of the senses. But these perceptions may 
 be impeded by bodily indisposition, or by an irregular 
 construction of the internal or external organs. In 
 that case it does not see the objects in the same man- 
 ner as the soul of Plato and Aristotle; that is, it does 
 not receive the same perceptions; and therefore it may 
 be said to be sick and disordered as to the exercise of 
 its faculties. See the article Soul, where the reader 
 will find the proofs of its being an immaterial sub- 
 stance. 
 
 R4 
 
248 MATTER. 
 
 what you say, I must be madder than I am. For 
 God's sake, you who are so very knowing, tell 
 me wherelore is it that 1 am mad ? 
 
 If the doctors have any sense remaining, their 
 answer will be: We know not. Why a brain 
 has incoherent ideas is above their comprehen- 
 sion; and they as little comprehend why, in ano- 
 ther brain, the ideas are regular and connected. 
 They will fancy themselves wise, and they are 
 no less mad than he. 
 
 Wi 
 
 MATTER (») 
 
 I SE men on being asked what the soul is, 
 answer, they are entirely ignorant ol: it; and if 
 asked what matter is, they give the like answer. 
 
 Professors 
 
 (*) M. Voltaire pretends to give under this article 
 the opinions of the ancient philosophers in regard to 
 matter, which he does not however attempt to refute. 
 It is sufficient for him to know by faith that God drew 
 matter out of nothing. He therefore supposes that 
 the non-eternity of matter, or the creation of the 
 world in time, is not to be demonstrated strictly by 
 bare reasoning ; but the proof of it can be taken only 
 from revelation. And herein perhaps he is right. 
 But he is grossly mistaken in several other points, as 
 that, according to the light of reason only, motion 
 must be essential to matter, and matter itself neces- 
 sarily existing. Were motion essential to matter, it 
 would imply a contradiction in terms to suppose mat- 
 ter at rest, which is highly absurd. Then that mat- 
 ter is not necessarily self-existing, evidently appears 
 from the doctrine of a vacuum. It has been demon- 
 strated that all space was not filled with matter ; con- 
 sequently there must be a vacuum. If so, it is 
 
 evidently 
 
MATTER. 249 
 
 Professors indeed, and especially schoolmen, are 
 perfectly versed in those things; and when they 
 say as they have been taught, that matter is ex- 
 tended and divisible, they fancy that is all ; but 
 when desired to tell what this extended thing is, 
 then they are hard put to it. It is composed of 
 parts, say they. And these parts, of what are 
 they composed? are the elements of those parts 
 divisible ? Then they are struck dumb or talk 
 without end, which is equally suspicious. This 
 almost unknown being called matter, is it eternal ? 
 So all antiquity believed. Has it, of itself, an 
 active force ? This is the opinion of several phi- 
 losophers. Have they who deny it, any supe- 
 rior reason for their opinion ? You do not con- 
 ceive that matter can, intrinsically, have any pro- 
 perty; but how can you affirm that it has not 
 intrinsically such properties as are necessary 
 to it ? You know nothing of its nature, and yet 
 deny it to have modes, which reside in its na- 
 ture: for, after all, as matter exists, it must 
 have a form and figure ; and being necessarily 
 figured, is it impossible that there are other modes 
 annexed to its configuration ? Matter exists, this 
 
 you 
 
 evidently more than possible for matter not to be ; there- 
 iFore it is not a necessary being. And some may an- 
 swer, that matter may be necessary, though not neces- 
 sary to be every where : but this is infinitely ab urd ; 
 for if it be no impossibility for matter to be absent 
 from one place, it is no absolute impossibility, in the 
 nature of the thing, that matter should be absent from 
 any other place, or from every place. See Dr. Clarke 
 on the Being and Attributes of God, and Wolla- 
 ston's Religion of Nature Delineated. 
 
2^0 MATTER. 
 
 you know ; but you know it no farther than by 
 your sensations. Alas! what avail all subtilties 
 and sophisms, since reasoning has been in vogue ? 
 Geometry has taught us many truths, and meta- 
 physics very few. We weigh, we measure, we 
 analyse, we decompound matter ; but on offering 
 to go a step beyond these rude operations, we 
 find ourselves bewildered, and an abyss opens 
 before us. 
 
 Forgive, I entreat you, the mistake of the 
 whole universe, in believing matter self-existent. 
 How could they do otherwise ? how could they 
 conceive that, what is without succession has not 
 always been ? were the existence of matter not 
 necessary, why exists it ? and if it was to exist, 
 why should it not always have existed? never 
 was axiom more universally received than this : 
 nothing produces nothing. The contrary indeed 
 is incomprehensible : all nations have held their 
 chaos anterior to the divine disposition of the 
 world. The eternity of matter never was known 
 to do any hurt to the worship of the Deity. 
 fKeligion never took offence at an eternal God's 
 being owned as the master of an eternal matter ; 
 it is the happiness of our times to know by faith, 
 that God drew matter from nothing ; an article, 
 which no nation had been informed of : the very 
 Jews know nothing of it. The first verse of 
 Genesis says, that the gods Eloi'm, and not Eloi, 
 made heaven and earth ; it does not say that hea- 
 ven and earth were created out of nothing. 
 
 Plulo, who came at the only time when the 
 Jews had any erudition, says, in his chapter of 
 the cieation, " God being naturally good, did 
 " not envy substance or matter, which of itself 
 *' had nothing good, which naturally is nothing 
 
 <• but 
 
MATTER. 2$l 
 
 ** but inertness, confusion, and disorder ; but 
 •* from bad as it was, he condescended to make 
 ** it good." 
 
 The opinion of the chaos being arranged by 
 a deity is to be met with in all the ancient theo- 
 gonies. Hesiod, in saying, *' the chaos was 
 •* first in existence," delivered the thoughts of 
 the whole east ; and Ovid declared the sentiments 
 of the Roman empire in the following verse : 
 
 " Sic ubi dispositam quisquis fiuit ille deorum 
 Congeriem secuit." 
 
 Matter therefore was looked on in the hands of 
 God as clay under the potter's wheel ; if such 
 faint images may be used to express the divine 
 power. Matter being eternal should have eternal 
 properties, as configuration, the inert power, 
 motion, and divisibility. But this divisibility 
 is no more than the consequence of motion, as 
 without motion there can be no division, separa- 
 tion, nor arrangement ; therefore motion was 
 looked on as essential to matter. The chaos had 
 been a confused motion ; and the arrangement 
 of the universe was a regular motion, impressed 
 on all bodies by the Sovereign of the world. 
 But how should matter of itself have motion ; 
 as, according to all the ancients, it has extension 
 and impenetrability ? 
 
 It cannot, however, be conceived without ex- 
 tension, and it may without motion. To this 
 the answer was, It is impossible but matter must 
 be permeable ; and if permeable, something must 
 be continally passing into its pores; where is the 
 use of passages, if nothing passes through them ? 
 
 There would be no end of replying : the sys- 
 tem of the eternity of matter has, like all other 
 
 systems, 
 
2^2 MATTER. 
 
 systems, very great difficulties. That of matter 
 formed out of nothing is not less incomprehen- 
 sible. It must be admitted, without flattering 
 Ourselves to account f t it ; philosophy does not 
 account for every thing. How many incompre- 
 hensible things are admitted, even in geometry 
 itself! can you conceive two lines ever ap- 
 proaching to each other, and never meeting P 
 
 Geometricians, indeed, will tell us, the pro- 
 perties o\ the asymptotes are demonstrated to 
 you, so that you cannot but admit them ; the 
 creation is not, wherefore then do you admit it ? 
 what difficulty do you find to believe, with all 
 antiquity, the eternity of matter? On the other 
 hand, the divine pushes you, and says, that in 
 believing the eternity of matter, you make two 
 principles, God and matter, and fall into the 
 error of Zoroaster and Manes. 
 
 The Geometricians shall go without an answer, 
 for thev pay no regard to any thing but their 
 lines, their surfaces, and their solids ; but to the 
 divine it may be said, how am I a manichee ? 
 There is an heap of stones which no architect has 
 made, but with them he has built a vast edifice. 
 Here I do not admit of two architects ; only 
 the rough stones have submitted to the operations 
 of power and genius. 
 
 Happily, whichever system be espoused, mo- 
 rality is hurt by neither; for what signifies it, 
 whether matter be made or only arranged ? God 
 isequally our absolute master. Whether the chaos 
 was only put in order, or whether it was created 
 of nothing, still it belioves us to be virtuous : 
 scarce any of these metaphysical questions have 
 a relation to the conduct of lite; disputes are 
 like table-talk, every one forgets after dinner 
 
 what 
 
MESSIAH. 253 
 
 what he has said, and goes away where his inte- 
 rest and inclination lead him. 
 
 MESSIAH. 
 
 M] 
 
 ESSIAH or Meshiah in Hebrew, Christos 
 or Celomenos in Greek, Unctus in Latin, sig- 
 nifies anointed. 
 
 We see in the Old Testament that the name 
 of Messiah was often given to idolatrous, or in- 
 fidel princes. God is said to have sent a pro- 
 phet to anoint Jehu king of Israel ; he signified 
 the sacred unction to Hazael kinp- of Damascus 
 and Syria, those two princes being the Messiahs 
 of the most high to punish the house of Ahab. 
 
 In the 45th of Isaiah, the name of Messiah is 
 expressly given to Cyrus. •' Thus hath the 
 " Lord said to his anointed (his Messiah) whose 
 " right hand I have holden to subdue nations 
 *• before him." 
 
 Ezekiel, in the twenty-eighth chapter of his 
 Revelations, gives the appellation ot Messiah to 
 the king of Tyrus, whom he also calls Cheru- 
 bin. Son of man, says the eternal to the pro- 
 phet, lift up thy voice and utter a lamentation 
 concerning the king of Tyrus ; and say unto 
 him, thus saith the Lord, the eternal, tliou wast 
 the seal of the likeness of God, full of Hvisdom, 
 and perfect in beauty : thou wast the Lord's 
 garden of Eden ; or, according to other versions, 
 Thou wast the Lord's whole delight. Thy gar- 
 ments were of sardonix, topaz, jasper, chryso- 
 lite, onyx, beryl, sapphire, carbuncle, emerald, 
 and gold. What thy tabrets and thy flutes 
 could do was within thee; they were all ready 
 
 on 
 
254 MESSIAH. 
 
 on the day thou wast created ; thou hast a che- 
 rubim, a Messiah. 
 
 This title of Messiah, or Christ, was given 
 to the kings, prophets, and high-priests among 
 the Hebrews. The Lord and his Messiah are 
 witness, i Kings, chap. xii. ver. 3. that is, the 
 Lord and the king whom he hath set up ; and 
 elsewhere, touch not mine anointed, and do my 
 prophets no harm. David, who was divinely 
 inspired, in more than one place gives the title 
 of Messiah to Saul his rejected father-in-law, 
 who persecuted him. God forbid, says he fre- 
 quently, that I should lay my hand on the Lord's 
 anointed, the Messiah of God. 
 
 As the name of Messiah, or anointed of the 
 Eternal, has been given to idolatrous kings and 
 reprobate persons, very often has it been used 
 to indicate the true anointed of the Lord , the 
 Messiah, by way of excellence, the Christ, the 
 Son of God ; lastly, God himself. 
 
 If all the oracles usually applied to the Mes- 
 siah, were to be compared, it may give rise to 
 some seeming difficulties, and which the Jews 
 have made use of to justify their hardness of 
 belief and obstinacy, did it admit of an apology ? 
 Several eminent divines allow, that the Jews, 
 groaning undqr an oppressive slavery, and hav- 
 ing so many repeated promises from the Eternal, 
 might well long for the coming of a Messiah, 
 who was to deliver them and subdue their ene- 
 mies ; and that they are in some measure ex- 
 cusable for having not immediately perceived 
 Jesus to be this deliverer and conqueror. 
 
 it was agreeable to the plan of eternal wisdom, 
 that the spiritual ideas of the real Messiah should 
 be unknown to the blind multitude; and so far 
 
 were 
 
MESSIAH. 255 
 
 were they unknown, that the Jewish doctors 
 have denied that those passages which we pro- 
 duce, are to be understood of the Messiah. 
 Many affirm that the Messiah is already come 
 in the person of Hezekiah; and this was the 
 famous Hillel's opinion. Others, and these are 
 many, say, that the belief of the coming of a 
 Messiah, so far from being a fundamental article 
 of faith, was only a comtortable hope, no such 
 thing being mentioned in the Decalogue, or ia 
 Leviticus. 
 
 Several Rabbins tell you, that they do not in 
 the least question the Messiah's being come at 
 the time decreed ; that he is not however grow- 
 ing old, but remains in the world concealed, and 
 waits till Israel shall have duly celebrated the 
 Sabbath, to reveal himself. 
 
 The famous Rabbi, Solomon Jarchy or Ras- 
 chy, who lived in the beginning of the twelfth 
 century, says, in his Talmudics, that the ancient 
 Hebrews believed the Messiah to have been bora 
 on the very day of the final destruction of Jeru- 
 salem by the Romans. This answers to the 
 common saying, of sending for the doctor when 
 a man is dead. 
 
 The Rabbi Kimchy, who also lived in the 
 twelfth century, preached that the Messiah, 
 whose coming he imagined to be at hand, would 
 drive the Christians out of Judea, which was 
 then in their possession. The Christians, indeed, 
 were dispossessed of the Holy Land; but this 
 was done by Saladin ; and had that conqueror 
 taken the Jews under his protection, it is very 
 probable that, in their enthusiasm, they would 
 have made him their Messiah, 
 
 The 
 
256 MESSIAH; 
 
 The sacred authors, and our Lord Jesus him-* 
 self, often compare the Messiah's reign, and the 
 eternal beatitude, to a wedding and banquet ; 
 but these parables have been strangely wrested 
 by the Talmudists. According to them, the 
 Messiah will gather together all his people in 
 the land of Canaan, and give them an entertain- 
 ment, where the wine will be that which Adam 
 hlmselt made in the earthly Paradise, and which 
 he keeps in vast cellars, dug by angels in the 
 center of the earth. 
 
 The first course will be the famous fish called 
 the great Leviathan, which at once swallows 
 a fish, less than itself; yet it is three hundred 
 leagues in length ; and the whole mass of waters 
 is supported on this Leviathan. God at first 
 created a male and a female ; but, lest they might 
 overturn the earth, or crowd the universe with 
 their offspring, he killed the female and salted it 
 down for the Messiah's banquet. 
 
 The Rabbins add, that there wnll likewise be 
 killed the bull called Behemoth, of such a mon- 
 strous size, that every day it eats the herbage of a 
 thousand mountains. This bull's female was 
 slain at the beginning ot the world, to prevent 
 the multiplication ot such prodigious species, 
 which must have been extremely detrimental 
 to other creatures ; but they say, that the Eter- 
 nal did not salt it, cow's flesh not being so good 
 salted as that of the female Leviathan. So 
 firmly do the Jews believe all these rabbinical 
 chimeras, that it is common among them to 
 swear by their share of the Behemoth. 
 
 With such coarse ideas concerning the com- 
 ing ot the Messiah and his reign, is it to be won- 
 dered at, that the Jews, both ancient and mo- 
 dern. 
 
(C 
 
 MESSIAH. 257 
 
 dern, and several even of the first Christians^ 
 unhappily prepossessed with all these reveries, 
 could not raise their conceptions to the idea of 
 the divine nature of the Lord's anointed, or per- 
 ceive God in the Messiah? See the sentiments 
 of the Jews concerning this, in a work, intitled, 
 Judasi Lusitani questionesad Christianos, Quest. 
 1,2, 4, 23. " To acknowledge a man God, 
 say they, is imposing on one's self, it is form- 
 ing a monster, a centaur, the strange com- 
 pound of two natures incompatible with each 
 other," Adding, that the prophets never 
 taught the Messiah's being Man-God ; that they 
 expressly distinguish between God and David ; 
 that they plainly declare the former to be mas- 
 ter, and the latter servant, &c. 
 
 It is sufficiently known that the Jews ser- 
 vilely adhered to the letter of the scriptures* 
 never like us, penetrating into the spirit. 
 
 When the Saviour appeared, the prejudiced 
 Jews declared against him. And Jesus Christ 
 himself, that their blindness might not be too 
 much irritated, seems extremely reserved in the 
 article of his divinity, meaning, says St Chry- 
 sostom, insensibly to accustom his hearers to 
 believe a mystery so very much above bare rea- 
 son: his assuming the divine prerogative of par- 
 doning sins, shocked all the bye-standers; his 
 most manifest miracles convinced not even those 
 for whose relief they were operated, that he was 
 God. When with a modest circumlocution, he 
 owned himself the Son of God betore the high 
 priest's judgment seat ; the high priest, filled 
 with indignation, rent his cloaths, and cried 
 out Blasphemy! Before the mission of the Holy 
 Ghost, the apostles themselves had not the least 
 
 S apprehension 
 
258 MESSIAH. 
 
 apprehension of their master's divinity; he asks 
 them what the people think of him ? and their 
 answer is, that some took him for EHas, others 
 for Jeremiah, or some other prophet ; and it 
 was by a particular revelation that St. Peter knew 
 Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
 
 The Jews being irreconcileably scandalized 
 at the divinity of Jesus, have left no stone un- 
 turned to explode it; perverting the sense of 
 their own oracles, or not applying them to the 
 Messiah. They affirm that the name of God, 
 Eloi, is not peculiar to the Deity; and that it 
 is by sacred authors given to judges, to ma- 
 gistrates, and in general to all persons in autho- 
 rity: they do indeed quote a great number of 
 passages, which countenance this observation, 
 but without in the least invalidating those strong 
 and clear terms of the ancient oracles, which 
 manifestly relate to the Messiah. 
 
 Lastly, say they, if the Saviour, and after 
 him, , the evangelists, the apostles, and primitive 
 Christians, did call Jesus Son of God ; this 
 august term in the gospel-times imported no 
 more than the contrary to the sons of Belial, 
 i. e. a good man, a servant of God, in opposi- 
 tion to a wicked man, or to one who does not 
 fear God. 
 
 The Jev/s, besides denying Christ his quality 
 of Messiah, and his divinity, have omitted no- 
 thing to render him contemptible, exposing his 
 birth, life, and death, with all the ridicule, vi- 
 rulence, and contumely, which their guilty 
 rancour could suggest. 
 
 Of all the works which Jewish blindness has 
 produced, none in extravagance and impiety ex- 
 ceed the ancient book, intitied, Sepher Toldos 
 
 Jeschutj 
 
MESSIAH. 259 
 
 Jeschut, which has been rescued from the 
 worms by M. Vagenseil, in vol. ii. of his 
 work, called, Tela Ignea. 
 
 This Sepher Toldos Jeschut has a most shock- 
 ing history of the life of our Saviour, forged 
 with the utmost falsity and malice: for instance, 
 they have dared to write, that one Panther or 
 Pandera, who dwelt at Bethlehem, seduced a 
 young woman married to Jochaman ; and the 
 fruit of this foul commerce was a child, whom 
 they named Jesus or Jesu. The father being 
 obliged to fly the place, withdrew to Babylon. 
 As for young Jesus, he was sent to school; but, 
 adds the author, he had the insolence to raise 
 his head and uncover himself before the priests, 
 contrary to the usage, which was to appear in 
 their presence Vi^ith the head hanging down and 
 the face covered ; a petulance for which he re- 
 ceived a smart check : this occasioning an en- 
 quiry into his birth, it was consequently found 
 to be impure, and he became exposed to public 
 ignominy. 
 
 That detestable book, Sepher Toldos Jeschut, 
 was known so early as the second century; Cel- 
 sus cites it with exultation, and Origen in his 
 ninth chapter confutes it. 
 
 There is another book which likewise bears 
 the title of Toledos Jesu, published in 1705 by 
 M. Huldric, which is more consonant with the 
 evangelical history of our Saviour's birth, but 
 swarms with the grossest anachronisms and 
 other errors. It makes Christ to have been 
 born and have died under Herod the Great; 
 and affirms, that the complaint of Panther's 
 adultery with Mary the mother of Jesus, was 
 brought before that prince. 
 
 S 2 Th<5 
 
26o MESSIAH. 
 
 The author, who calls himself Jonathan, and 
 it his word may be taken, was cotemporary with 
 Christ, and lived at Jerusalem, affirms that 
 Herod, relatively to Jesus Christ, consulted the 
 senators of a city in the land of Cesarea; but 
 such an absurd author, with all his contradic- 
 tions, we shall leave to himself. 
 
 These calumnies, however, serve to foment 
 the implacable hatred of the Jews against the 
 Christians and the gospel ; so that they have 
 stucic at nothing to falsify the chronology of the 
 Old Testament, and to spread doubts and diffi- 
 culties about the time of our Saviour's coming. 
 Ahmed-ben Cassum-al Anacousy, a Moor 
 of Grenada, who lived towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century, quotes an ancient Arabic 
 manuscript, found in a cave near Grenada, to- 
 gether with sixteen sheets of lead, on which 
 some tales in Arabic characters were engraved. 
 Don Pedro y Quinones, archbishop of Grenada, 
 has certified this fact. These famous Grena- 
 dian sheets have been since carried to Rome, 
 where, after an examination of several years, 
 they were at last condemned as apocryphal under 
 the Pontificate of Alexander VII. Their con- 
 tents are only some fabulous tales concerning 
 Mary and her son. 
 
 The name of Messiah, joined to the epithet 
 of false, is likewise given to those impostors, 
 who, at several times, have made it their busi- 
 ness^ to deceive the Jewish nation. Some of 
 these false Messiahs set up even before the com- 
 ing of the true anointed of God. The wise 
 Gamaliel, Acts chap. v. ver. 34, &c. mentions 
 one named Theudas, whose history is to be 
 found in Josephus's Antiquities, b. 20. chap. 2. 
 
 He 
 
MESSIAH. 
 
 261 
 
 He boasted that he could pass the Jordan dry 
 footed, and was joined by considerable numbers; 
 "but the Romans, coming to an action with his 
 raw men, soon dispersed them; and taking the 
 chief prisoner, set up his head in Jerusalem. 
 
 Gamaliel further speaks of Judas the Galilean, 
 doubtless the same whom Josephus mentions in 
 the twelfth chapter of the second book ot his 
 Jewish wars. He says that this false prophet had 
 got together near 30,000 men; but the Jewish 
 historian is noted for hyperboles. 
 
 So early as the apostolic times, Simon, sur- 
 named the Magician, made his appearance; and 
 to such a degree had he seduced the people ot 
 Samaria, that they accounted him the power of 
 God; Acts chap. viii. ver. 9. 
 
 In the year 178 and 179 of the Christian aera, 
 Adrian being then emperor, the false Messiah, 
 Barchochebas, asserted his pretensions at the 
 head of an army. Julius Severus, being sent 
 against him, hemmed in the insurgents at the 
 city of Either, which after an obstinate siege he 
 carried; and Barchochebas being taken, was put 
 to death. Adrian, as the best expedient for pre- 
 venting the continual revolts of the Jews, issued 
 an edict against their going to Jerusalem ; and 
 even guards were posted at the city gates to keep 
 them out. 
 
 Socrates, an ecclesiastic historian, book 2. 
 ch. 38. relates, that in the year 434, a false 
 Messiah started up in the island of Candia, under 
 the name of Moses, and as the ancient deliverer 
 of the Hebrews raised from the dead to effect a 
 second deliverance for them. 
 
 The next century, in 530, saw in Palestine ^ 
 false Messiah, named Julian; he recommended 
 
 S ^ himself 
 
262 MESSIAH. 
 
 himself to the people as a great conqueror, who 
 at the head of his nation should destroy all Chris- 
 tians whatever; and the Jews were so far se- 
 duced by his promises, that they ran to arms, 
 and massacred great numbers of Christians. 
 The emperor Justinian's forces engaging him, 
 the false Christ was taken and executed. 
 
 In the beginning of the eighth century, 
 Serenus, a Spanish Jew, stood for the Messiah- 
 ship, preached and gained followers; but the 
 upshot was, that both followers and leader came 
 to a miserable end. 
 
 The twelfth century produced several false 
 Messiahs, particularly one in France under 
 Lewis the Younger ; but both he and his adher- 
 ents were hanged, without so much as the names 
 of master or disciples being known. 
 
 The thirteenth century was still more fertile in 
 false Messiahs; of these the more remarkable 
 were seven or eight who appeared in Arabia, in 
 Persia, in Spain, and Moravia : one of them who 
 stiled himself David el Re, is reckoned to have 
 been a very great magician ; his artifices so far 
 succeeded with the Jews, that he saw himself at 
 the head of a considerable party ; but this fair 
 prospect terminated in his being murdered. 
 
 James Zieglerne, a Moravian, who lived in 
 the middle of the 16th century, promulgated the 
 approach of the Messiah's manifestation, assuring 
 the people that this Messiah had been born four- 
 teen years before, and that he himself had seen 
 him at Strasburgh ; and carefully kept a sword 
 and a scepter, to put into his hands when he 
 should be of age to teach. 
 
 In the year 1624 another Zieglerne confirmed 
 the former prediction. 
 
 In 
 
MESSIAH. 263 
 
 In the year 1666 Zabathei Sevi, a native of 
 Aleppo, gave himself out to be the Messiah, 
 foretold by the Zieglernes. He began by 
 preaching in the highways and fields, and while 
 his disciples admired him, the Turks laughed at 
 him. It appears that at first his preaching had 
 no very extraordinary success, for the chiefs of 
 the Smyrna synagogue went so far as to pro- 
 nounce sentence ot death against him; but his 
 punishment was mitigated to exile. 
 
 He contracted three marriages without con- 
 summating any, saying it was beneath him. He 
 took a partner named Nathan-Levi, who was to 
 act the part of Elias, as the Messiah's harbinger. 
 They repaired to Jerusalem, and Nathan there 
 preached up Zabathei-Sevi as the deliverer of 
 the nations. The Jewish populace declared for 
 him, whilst they who had any thing to lose ana- 
 thematized him. 
 
 Sevi, to shun the storm, withdrew to Con- 
 stantinople, and trom thence to Smyrna: Nathan 
 Levi deputed to him four ambassadors, who, 
 besides acknowledging his dignity, did him hom- 
 age publicly as Messiah; this embassy dazzled 
 the commonalty and even some doctors, who 
 declared Zabathei-Sevi, Messiah, and king of the 
 Hebrews ; but the Smyrna synagogue condemned 
 their king to be impaled. 
 
 Zabathei put himself under the cadi of Smyr- 
 na's protection, and soon had on his side the 
 whole Jewish people; he even had two thrones 
 set up, one for himself and the other for his 
 favourite spouse, assuming the title of king of 
 kings : his brother Sevi he created king of Judah ; 
 and to the Jews themselves he gave the most 
 positive assurances, that the Ottoman empire 
 
 S 4 should 
 
264 METAMORPHOSIS. 
 
 should soon be their own ; in the height of his 
 insolence, he had the emperor's name struck out 
 of the Jewish Liturgy, and his own substituted 
 in its stead. 
 
 He was confined in the castle of the Darda- 
 nelles, and the Jews gave out that his life was 
 spared, only because the Turks very well knew 
 him to be immortal. The governor of the Darda- 
 nelles made a great fortune by the presents 
 which the Jews poured on him for leave to visit 
 their king, their Messiah, who in his fetters 
 maintained his dignity, and even the ceremony 
 of kissing his feet. 
 
 The Sultan, however, who then kept his 
 court at Adrianople, was for putting an end to 
 this farce; and sending for Sevi told him, that 
 if he was the Messiah, he must be invulnerable. 
 This Sevi allowed ; but on the grand seignior's 
 ordering him to be placed as a mark for his icog- 
 Jans or pages to discharge their arrows at, the 
 Messiah owned that he was not invulnerable, 
 and protested that God sent him only to bear 
 testimony to the holy Mahometan religion. 
 After undergoing a severe flagellation by the 
 ministers of the law, he turned Mahometan, 
 and lived and died despised both by Jews and 
 Mussulmen. This adventure has brought the 
 profession of a false Messiah into such disrepute, 
 that since Sevi nobody has taken it up. 
 
 METAMORPHOSIS, 
 
 Metempsychosis. 
 
 XS it not very natural that all the various meta- 
 morphoses with which the earth may be said to 
 
 be 
 
METAMORPHOSIS. 265 
 
 be covered, should have led the orientals, whose 
 imagination is so luxuriant, to imagine that our 
 souls passed from one body to another? An 
 almost imperceptible point grows to be a worm, 
 and this worm becomes a butterfly ; an acorn 
 changes to an oak, an egg to a bird; water be- 
 comes clouds and thunder; wood is turned into 
 fire and ashes: in a word, all nature is more or 
 less a metamorphosis. Souls being accounted 
 tenuous forms, were soon concluded to partake 
 of that property, which was sensibly seen in 
 more dense and heavy bodies. The metempsy- 
 chosis is perhaps the most ancient doctrine in 
 the known world, and still prevails in a great 
 part of India and China. 
 
 It is likewise very natural that those ancient 
 fables, collected and embellished by Ovid in his 
 admirable work, took rise from the several meta- 
 morphoses with which our eyes are conversant. 
 The very Jews have not been without their me- 
 tamorphoses. If Niobe was changed into m.arble, 
 Hedith, Lot's wife, was turned into salt. As 
 JEuridice was detained in hell for looking back, 
 a like indiscretion cost Lot's wife her human 
 nature. The country town in Phrygia where 
 lived the hospitable Baucis and Philemon, is 
 changed into a lake; the same submersion has 
 befallen Sodom. Arius's daughters turned water 
 into oil; the Scripture mentions a change some- 
 thing similar, but more sacred and real. Cadmus 
 was turned into a serpent, and the like was seen 
 in Aaron's rod. 
 
 The pagan deities very often assumed a human 
 disguise; and when angels appeared to the Jews, 
 it was always as men ; with Abraham they partook 
 of a repast. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Co- 
 rinthians, 
 
266 MIRACLE. 
 
 rinthians, says, that the messenger of Satan 
 cuffed him: AyysXo; 'Extjc.vx pes xoAa(pi^5i* 
 
 A 
 
 MIRACLE (') 
 
 Miracle, in the energetic sense of the word, 
 means something wonderful ; and thus every 
 thing is a miracle. The order of nature, the 
 rotation of a hundred millions of globes round a 
 
 million 
 
 « — — - . ■ ' ■' 
 
 (*) As our author does not absolutely deny the 
 possibility of miracles, but acknowledges those which 
 have been operated in favour of our holy religion by 
 Christ and his apostles, he cannot be charged on that 
 account with infidehty. But viewing the matter in a 
 philosophic light, and abstracted from faith, he starts 
 several doubts, which had he dealt with candour, he 
 ought to have solved. He seems to have borrowed 
 great part of this article from the Essay oa Miracles, 
 written by the learned historian Mr. Hume, whom he 
 imitates in his cant language of resting our holy reh- 
 gion on faith, and not on reason ; a test which he 
 says it is by no means fitted to endure. 
 
 It has been the practice of modern deists to deny 
 the possibility of miracles in general: observing that 
 the frame and order of the world is preserved ac- 
 cording to fixed laws or rules in an uniform manner, 
 they weakly conclude, that there are in matter cer- 
 tain necessary laws or powers, the result of which 
 they call the course of nature; this they think impos- 
 sible to be changed, and consequently that there can 
 be no miracle. But if they would consider things 
 duly, they would find tiiat lifeless matter is utterly 
 incapable of obeying any laws, or of being endued 
 with any powers ; and therefore what they call the 
 course of nature can be nothing more than the ar- 
 bitrary will and pleasure of God, acting continually 
 upon matter, according to certain rules of uniformity 
 
 and 
 
MIRACLE. I^J 
 
 million of suns, the activity of light, the life of 
 animals, are perpetual miracles. 
 
 According to the received notion, however, a 
 miracle is a violation ot the divine and eternal 
 
 laws, 
 
 and proportion. Hence it follows, that it is altoge- 
 ther as easy to alter the course of nature, as to pre- 
 serve it. Thpse effects which are produced in the 
 world regularly and constantly, and which we call 
 the works of nature, prove the constant providence of 
 the Deity: those which upon any extraordinary occa- 
 sion are produced in such a manner, as it is manifest 
 they could neither have been done by any power or 
 art of man, nor by what we call chance; these unde- 
 niably prove to us the immediate interposition of the 
 Deity, in order to signify his pleasure on that parti- 
 cular occasion. The true definition therefore of a 
 miracle, as the learned Dr. Clarke observes, is " a 
 " work effected in a manner different from the com- 
 " mon method of Providence, by the interposition of 
 " the Deity, for the proof of some particular doc- 
 *' trine, or in attestation to the authority of some par- 
 " ticular person." In this sense the miracles which 
 the disciples of Christ saw him perform, were a com. 
 plete demonstration to them, that he had truly a divine 
 commission, as it was certain that God would not 
 himself interpose in the usual order of nature, to lead 
 men into a necessary and invincible error. These 
 miracles were worked to attest a doctrine, that tends 
 in the highest degree to promote the honour of God, 
 and the general reformation of mankind. This is an 
 answer to all the queries of the philosophers in the 
 following article, and is a suiHcient reason for the 
 miracles recorded in the Scriptures, in support of the 
 true religion. With regard to such as are said to have 
 been performed since the establishment of Christiani- 
 ty, that is another question, which we leave to the 
 antagonists of the late Dr. Middleton to settle. 
 
$68 MIRACLE. 
 
 laws. An eclipse of the sun and moon, a dead 
 man walking two leagues with his head in his 
 hands, are what we call a miracle. 
 
 Several naturalists affirm that, in this sense, there 
 are no miracles ; and their arguments are these : 
 
 A miracle is a hreach of the mathematical, di- 
 vine, immutable, eternal laws ; now this defini- 
 tion alone makes a miracle a contradiction in 
 terms. A law cannot be both immutable and 
 broken ; but it is answered, Cannot a law of 
 God's making be suspended by its author? They 
 boldly answer no ; and it cannot be that the in- 
 finitely wise Being should have made laws, and 
 afterwards break them. If, say they, he made 
 any alteration in his machine, it would be to make 
 it go the better: now it is clear,thatGod has framed 
 this immense machine as good as it possibly 
 could be ; if he saw that any imperfection 
 would hereafter be occasioned by the nature of 
 the materials, he at first provided against any 
 such future defect, so that there would be no 
 cause for any after-change. 
 
 Besides, God can do nothing without reason ; 
 now what reason should induce him to disfigure 
 his own work for any time ? 
 
 It is for man's sake, say their opponents. It is 
 to be hoped then, answer they, that it is for the 
 sake of all men, it being impossible to conceive 
 that the divine nature shouid work for some par- 
 ticular men, and not for all mankind : and even 
 all mankmd is but a very little thing; less than 
 an ant's nest in comparison of all the beings 
 which fill the immensity of space. Now what 
 can be more low and absurd, than to imagine 
 that the infinite Being will, for the sake of three 
 or four hundred ants on that little clod of mud^ 
 
 suspend 
 
MIRACLE. 269 
 
 suspend or alter the eternal play of those im- 
 mense springs on which depends the motion of 
 the universe. 
 
 But supposing that God had been pleased to 
 distinguish a small number of men by particular 
 favours, must he therefore alter what he has set- 
 tled for all times and all places ? He certainly 
 can favour his creatures without any such incon- 
 stancy and change ; his favours are comprised 
 in his very laws ; every thing has been wisely 
 contrived and arranged for their good ; and they 
 all irrevocably obey the force which he has ori- 
 ginally implanted in nature. 
 
 Wherefore is God to work a miracle ? to ac- 
 complish a design he has for some living beings I 
 that IS making God to say, I have not been able, 
 by the fabric of the universe, by my divine de- 
 crees, by my eternal laws, to compass such a 
 design : I see I must make an alteration in my 
 eternal ideas, my immutable laws, as what I in- 
 tended cannot be executed by those means. 
 This would be an acknowledgment of weakness, 
 not a declaration of power ; it would be the most 
 inconceivable contradiction. So that to suppose 
 God works any miracles is, if men can insult 
 God, a downright insult to him ; it is no less t'laa 
 saying to him, You are a weak and inconsistent Be- 
 ing. Therefore to believe miracles is an absurdity; 
 it is, in some measure, scandalizing the Deity. 
 
 A farther reply to these philosophers is, Your 
 crying up the immutability of the Supreme Be- 
 ing, the eternity of his laws, with the regularity 
 of his infinite worlds, signifies nothing ; our 
 small heap of dirt has been covered with mi- 
 racles; in history prodigies are as frequent as 
 natural events. The daughters of the high- 
 
 pnest 
 
/ 
 
 fJO MIRACLE. 
 
 priest Anius changed whatever they would int© 
 wine or oil ; Athalida, daughter to Mercury, 
 rose from the dead several times ; Esculapius 
 restored Hypolitus ; Hercules delivered Alcestes 
 from death ; Theros returned upon earth after 
 staying a fortnight in the infernal regions ; Ro- 
 mulus and Remus were the issue of a god and 
 a vestal ; the Palladium dropped from Heaven 
 into the city of Troy; Berenice's tresses be- 
 came a constellation ; Baucis and Philemon's 
 hut was changed to a stately temple ; Orpheus's 
 head uttered oracles after his death ; the walls 
 of Thebes were formed before numbers of 
 Greeks, by stones moving of themselves to the 
 sound of a flute ; innumerable cures were per- 
 formed in Esculapius's temple ; and we have 
 still monuments with the names of ocular wit- 
 nesses to his miracles. 
 
 Name me one nation where incredible prodigies 
 have not been performed, especially in times 
 when reading and writing were little known. 
 
 All the answer unbelieving philosophers give 
 to these objections is a sneer and a shrug ; but 
 those who profess Christianity say, We make 
 no doubt of the miracles wrought within our 
 holy religion ; yet it is by faith we believe them, 
 and not by reason ; as for the latter we turn a 
 deaf ear to it; for we know, that when faith 
 speaks, reason is to be mute : the miracles of 
 Jesus Christ and his apostles we are fully and 
 firmly persuaded of ; but allow us to doubt a 
 little of several others ; indulge us, for instance, 
 in suspending our judgment concerning what is 
 related by a weak man ('), who yet has been 
 
 surnamed 
 
 (*) Gregory the Great, 
 
MIRACLE. 271 
 
 surnamed the Great. He afErms that a little 
 monk got such a custom of working miracles', 
 that, at length, the prior forbad him to exercise 
 his supernatural talent. The monk conformed 
 to the order, but one day seeing a bricklayer 
 falling from the roof of a house, he hesitated 
 between monastical obedience • and charity in 
 saving a poor man's life, and only ordering him 
 to remain in the air till he got orders, he ran to 
 acquaint the prior with the case. The prior 
 gave him absolution for the sin of beginning a 
 miracle without leave, and allowed him to go 
 through with it, but never to do the like again. 
 It is granted to philosophers that this story may 
 be a little mistrusted. 
 
 But it is again said to them, How will you 
 dare to deny that St. Gervase and St. Protais 
 appeared in a dream to St. Ambrose, and inform- 
 ed him of the place where their reliques lay ; 
 that St. Ambrose had them taken up ; and that 
 a blind man was cured by them ? St. Austin was 
 then at Milan, and it is he who relates this mi- 
 racle in Book xxii, of his City of God, and thaf 
 it was performed " immenso populo teste." 
 Here is a miracle with every circumstance of 
 proof. Philosophers, however, say, that they 
 believe nothing at all of Gervase and Protais 
 appearing ; that to know where the remains of 
 their carcases lie, is a thing of no concern to 
 mankind ; and that they give no more credit 
 to that blind man than to Vespasian ; that it is 
 an useless miracle ; that God does nothing use- 
 less ; and in a word, they abide immoveable by 
 their principles. My regard for St. GervaSe 
 and St. Protais will not allow me to side with 
 those philosophers ; I only give an account of 
 
 their 
 
272 MIRACLE. 
 
 their incredulity. They are vastly fond of 2 
 passage of Lucian in the death of Peregrinus, 
 •' a dexterous juggler turning Christian is sure of 
 " making his fortune ;'* but Lucian is a profane 
 author, and, of course, should be of no weight 
 among us. 
 
 These philosophers cannot bring themselves 
 to believe the miracles of the second century, 
 though eye-witnesses have in writing declared, 
 that the bishop of Smyrna, St. Policarpe, hav- 
 ing, pursuant to the sentence passed on him, 
 been thrown into a blazing fire, they heard a 
 voice from heaven calling out, " Chear up, Po- 
 *' licarpe, be strong in the Lord, and shew 
 " thyself a man;" at which the flames of the 
 pile drawing back from his body, formed a fiery 
 canopy over his head, and out of the pile flew 
 a dove : at last they were obliged to cut off^the 
 good bishop's head. To what purpose was this 
 miracle ? say unbelievers ; how came it that the 
 flames deviated from their nature, and the ex- 
 ecutioner's ax had the natural effect ? how is it 
 that so many martyrs, after coming safe and 
 sound out of boiling oil, have fallen under the 
 edge of the sword ? 
 
 The usual answer is, that such was God's 
 will ; but the philosophers will believe no such 
 thing, unless they had seen it with their own eyes. 
 
 They who improve their reasonings by study, 
 will tell you that the fathers of the church have 
 themselves often owned that miracles were ceased 
 in their time. St. Chrysostom says expressly, 
 *' The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were 
 ** given even to the unworthy, because the 
 *' chujrch then stood in need of miracles ; but at 
 
 ** present 
 
MIRACLE. 273 
 
 ** present they are not so much as given to the 
 *» worthy, the church no longer standing in need 
 " of them." Afterwards he acknowledges that 
 there was nobody then who raised the dead, of 
 so much as cured the sick. 
 
 St. Austin himself, as if he had forgot the mi- 
 racle of Gervase and Protais, says in his City of 
 God, ** Why are those miracles, which were 
 •* performed some time ago, at present ceased ?" 
 and he gives the same reason, *' Cur, inquiunt, 
 ** nunc ilia miracula quae praedicatis facta esse, 
 ** non fiunt ? Possem quidem dicere, necessaria 
 " prius fuisse, quam crederet mundus, ad hoc ut 
 " crederet mundus." 
 
 It is objected to the philosophers, that St. Au- 
 stin, notwithstanding this avowal, speaks of an 
 old cobler at Hippo, who having lost his cloak, 
 went to pray for relief at the chapel of the Twenty 
 Martyrs, and in his return home found a fish, in 
 the body of which was discovered a gold ring ; 
 the cook who dressed it giving it to the cobler, 
 said, There is a present for you from the Twenty 
 Martyrs. 
 
 To this the philosophers answer, that in that 
 story there is nothing contrary to the laws of na- 
 ture ; that a fish may very naturally have swal- 
 lowed a gold ring ; and that there is no miracle 
 in the cook's giving that ring to the cobler. 
 
 If the philosophers are put in mind that, ac- 
 cording to St. Jerom, in his Life of the hermit 
 Paul, this devout person had several conver- 
 sations with satyrs and fauns ; that a raven for 
 thirty years together daily brought him half a 
 loaf for his dinner; and a whole loaf the day 
 St. Anthony paid him a visit ; they may still 
 reply that nothing of all this is absolutely con- 
 
 T trary 
 
274 MIRACLE. 
 
 trary to nature ; that satyrs and fauns may hare 
 existed ; and that, after all, if this story be a 
 puerility, that does not in the least affect the 
 real miracles of our Saviour and his apostles. 
 Several good Christians have rejected the story of 
 St. Simin Stilites, written by Theodoret : manv 
 miracles accounted authentic in the Greek church 
 have been questioned by Latin writers ; so in 
 return, Latin miracles have been suspected by 
 the Greeks ; in process of time came the Protes- 
 tants, who have made very free with the miracles 
 of both churches. 
 
 A learned Jesuit f') who preached a longtime 
 in the Indies, complains, that neither his brethren 
 nor he could ever perform one single miracle. 
 Xavier, in several letters, laments his not having 
 the gift of tongues : he says that he is but as a 
 dumb image among the Japanese ; yet, accord- 
 ing to the narrative of the Jesuits, he restored 
 eight dead persons to life, and that is a great 
 many ; but it must withal be considered, that 
 the scene of those restorations was six thou- 
 sand leagues off. Some persons ot later times 
 make the suppression of the Jesuits in France a 
 much greater miracle than all those of Xavier 
 and' Ignatius put together. Be that as it may, 
 all Christians hold the miracles of Jesus Christ 
 and his apostles to be indisputably true and real, 
 but allow that some miracles of our modern 
 times, and which are without any certain authen- 
 ticity, may very well be doubted of. 
 
 It were to be wished, that for the legal veri- 
 fication of a miracle, it should be performed be- 
 fore 
 
 (*) Ospinian, p. 230. 
 
MOSES* 2^a; 
 
 fore the Academy of Sciences at Paris, or the 
 Royal Society, and the College of Physicians 
 at London, with a detachment of the guards to 
 keep off the people, whose tumultuous indis- 
 cretion might hinder the performance of the 
 miracle. 
 
 A philosopher was one day asked what he^ 
 would say if the sun should stand still, that is, 
 if the motion of the earth round that body ceased ; 
 if all the dead arose ; and if all the mountains 
 went and threw themselves into the sea ; and all 
 this to prove some important truth, we will sup- 
 pose versatile grace. What 1 should say, an- 
 swered the philosopher, I would turn Mani- 
 chee, and say, that there is a principle which 
 undoes what the other has done, 
 
 MOSES. 
 
 XT (') has been the groundless opinion of many 
 learned men that the Pentateuch cannot have 
 
 been 
 
 (* ) So fond is our author of paradox, that in the fol- 
 lowing article he supposes Moses not to have been the 
 author of the Pentateuch, or the five books commonly 
 attributed to that legislator, viz. Genesis, Exodus, Levi- 
 ticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is true, as he 
 acknowledges those books to have been written by an 
 inspired writer, it is not essential to religion, whetter 
 Moses was the author of them or not. But for the 
 sake of historical truth, we shall give a few remarks on 
 this subject. The Pentateuch was called the law by 
 way of excellence, because the principal part of it con- 
 tained the law which Moses had received from God on 
 Mount Sinai. Now it can hardly be q^iestionedi>ut this 
 
 T 2 legi<;lator 
 
^jS MOSES* 
 
 been written by Moses. They say that, acdord- 
 ing to the scripture itself, the first known copy 
 
 was 
 
 gislator was the author of the Pentateuch, if we at- 
 tentively consider the 24th chapter of Exodus and the 
 31st of Deuteronomy. In the former, it is expressly 
 said, " And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord;" 
 in the latter, " And Moses wrote this law, and deliver- 
 " ed it unto the priests the sons of Levi:'* Again, " And 
 '' it came to pass when Moses had made an end of 
 *' writing the words of this law in a book until they 
 " were finished." Besides, all antiquity, both sacred 
 and profane, acknowledges Moses to have been the 
 legislator of the Jews. That whole nation has always 
 carefully preserved his books, and looked upon them 
 as containing their law. When the tribes were di- 
 vided into two kingdoms, both of them preserved the 
 same respect for those books as being written by 
 Moses. Prophane authors have spoken of those books, 
 as penned by the same legislator. In short, it is as cer- 
 tain that the books which go by the name of Moses 
 are his own, as that those ascribed to Thucydides and 
 Livy, &c. appertain to those whose names they bear. 
 It is possible there may ^^ave been some additions and 
 alterations made in them; but the body of the history 
 and the laws could not be altered. Thus the death 
 of Moses is clearly mentioned in the last chapter of 
 Deuteronomy: whence it is probable, that either 
 Joshua or Esdras added the eight last verses of that 
 book; though Josephus pretends that Moses, finding 
 his dissolution approaching, wrote those lines himself, 
 in order to certify his death at the end of his books, 
 lest the Jews, from too great a regard to his memory, 
 should deny his death, and give out that he had been 
 translated into Heaven. Notwithstanding this evi- 
 dence of Moses's being the author of the Pentateuch, 
 some late writers, as Pere bimon and Le Clerc, have 
 
 espoused 
 
MOSES. 277 
 
 was found in the time of king Josias, and that 
 this only copy was brought to the king by Sa- 
 phan the scribe. Now the interval from Moses 
 to this circumstance of Saphan the scribe, accord- 
 ing to the Hebrew computation, makes a space 
 of 1167 years; for God appeared to Moses in 
 the burning bush in the year of the world 2213, 
 and Saphan the scribe made public the book of 
 the law in the year of the world 3380. This 
 book, which had been found under Josias, was 
 unknown till the return from the captivity of 
 Babylon ; and Esdras is said, by divine inspi- 
 ration, to have brought to light all the sacred 
 writings. 
 
 But whether Esdras or any other was the com- 
 piler of this book, is absolutely a matter of in- 
 difference, admitting its being inspired. The 
 Pentateuch does not say that Moses was the au- 
 thor of it ; so that it might, without profaneness, 
 be attributed to any other sacred penman, if the 
 church had not positively decided, that this book 
 was written by Moses. 
 
 Some adversaries add, that no prophet has 
 quoted any of the books of the Pentateuch ; that 
 not the least mention is made of it in the Psalms ; 
 in the books attributed to Solomon ; nor in Je- 
 remiah, nor in Isaiah; nor, in a word, in 
 any canonical book of the Jews. Then the 
 
 words 
 
 espoused the contrary opinion of Hobbes and Spinosa, 
 which seems also to be adopted by M. Voltaire. The 
 difficulties started by those writers may appear plau- 
 sible at first sight, but are fully refuted by M. du Pin, 
 in his prell ninary dissertation to the Bible, to which 
 we refer the reader. 
 
278 MOSES. 
 
 words answering to those of Genesis, Exodus, 
 Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, are not to 
 be found in any other book received as authentic 
 by that nation. 
 
 Others more sanguine have put the following 
 questions : 
 
 1, In what language could Moses have writ- 
 ten in a wilderness? It could be only in the 
 Egyptian, for, from this very book it is clear, 
 that Moses and his whole people were born in 
 iEgypt, and very probably acquainted with no 
 other language. The Egyptians were yet strangers 
 to the use of the papyrus ; they had their hierogly- 
 phics cut in marble and wood ; the very tables 
 of the commandments are said to have been en- 
 graved on stone; so that here were five volumes 
 to be engraved on polished stones; a work of 
 prodigious time and labour! 
 
 2. Is it probable that in a wilderness, where 
 'the Jewish people had neither shoemaker nor 
 iaylor, and where the God of the universe was 
 obliged to work a continual miracle to preserve 
 their old cloaths and shoes, they should have 
 -among them persons of such skill as to engrave 
 the five books of the Pentateuch on marble or 
 wood ? It will be said that workmen were found 
 among them who could make a golden calf in 
 one night, and afterwards reduce the gold to 
 dust ; (an operation beyond the skill of common 
 chemistry, an art not yet invented) who could 
 build the tabernacle, adorn it with thirty-four 
 brass pillars, with silver chapiters; who wove 
 and embroidered linen veils with hyacinth, pur- 
 ple, and scarlet: but this very thing strengthens 
 4he adversaries opinion, and they rejoin that it is 
 not in nature that such curious works should have 
 
 been 
 
MOSES. 279 
 
 been made in a desert, and under the want of 
 every thing ; that shoes and coats would have 
 been the things to have begun with; that people 
 wanting necessaries scarce think of luxury ; and 
 that to say they had founders, engravers, carvers, 
 dyers, embroiderers, when they had not so much 
 as cloaths, sandals, nor bread, is gross and pal- 
 pable contradiction. 
 
 3. If Moses had written the first chapter. of 
 Genesis, would the reading of that chapter have 
 been forbidden to all young people ? would the 
 legislator be treated with such disregard ?. had 
 it been Moses who said that God punishes the 
 iniquities of the fathers to the fourth genera- 
 tion, would Ezekiel have presumed to say the 
 contrary ? 
 
 4. Had < Moses written Leviticus, could he 
 lave contradicted himself in Deuteronomy? 
 Leviticus forbids the marrying a brother's wife, 
 Deuteronomy enjoins it. 
 
 5. Would Moses have spoken of towns which 
 were not known jn his time? Would he have 
 said that towns which, relatively to him lay east 
 of Jordan, were west of that river ? 
 
 6. Would he have assigned to the Levites 
 forty-eight towns in a country which never had 
 ten ; and in a wilderness where he had never so 
 much as a house during all his wanderings ? 
 
 7. Would he have laid down rules for the 
 Jewish kings, whilst that people not only had 
 no kings, but abhorred them, and there was no 
 probability that they would ever have any i^ 
 How ! would Moses have given precepts for 
 the conduct of kings, who did not come till 
 about five hundred years after him, and say no- 
 thing concerning the judges and high priests, his 
 
 X 4 .,i immediate 
 
aSo MOSES. 
 
 immediate successors ? Does not this reflection 
 incline one to believe, that the Pentateuch was 
 written in the time of the Kings ; and that the 
 ceremonies instituted by Moses were only tra- 
 ditional. 
 
 8. Is it possible that he should say to the Jews, 
 ye were six hundred thousand men when I 
 brought you out of the land of Egypt undef^the 
 protection of your God? Would not the Jews 
 have answered ? Then you must have been a 
 faint-hearted creature not to have led us against 
 Pharoah ; he had not an army of two hundred 
 thousand men to oppose us. Egypt never 
 had so many men on foot ; we should easily have 
 defeated him, and made ourselves master of his 
 country. How ! the God, who speaks to you, 
 has, to please us, killed all the first-born in 
 Egypt ; and if that country contained three hun- 
 dred thousand families, there's three hundred 
 thousand men carried off in one night to revenge 
 us ; and you have not seconded your God. You 
 have not given us that fruitful country which 
 was likewise defenceless. You made us come; 
 out of Egypt like thieves and poltroons, that we 
 might perish in wildernesses among rocks and 
 precipices: you might at least have led us by 
 the direct way into that land of Canaan, to 
 which we have no right ('), and which you pro- 
 mised us, but have not yet brought us thither. 
 
 It was natural that from the land of Goshen, 
 we should have taken the way towards Tyre and 
 
 Sidon 
 
 (*) Mr. Bachiene, geographer to the prince of 
 Orange, has, in his Sacred Geography, proved the 
 Israelites right to the land of Canaan, 
 
MOSES.' 281 
 
 Sldon along the Mediterranean; but you have 
 made us traverse almost the isthmus of Suez, 
 have brought us again into Egypt as far as be- 
 yond Memphis, and behold we are now at Bel- 
 Sephon on the Red Sea, with the land of Ca- 
 naan behind us, after a march of fourscore 
 leagues in that very country which we were for. 
 shunning; and, after all, in imminent danger of 
 perishing either by the sea or Pharoah's army. 
 
 Had your intention been to deliver us up to 
 our enemies, what other measures could you 
 have taken ? God, you say, has saved us by a 
 miracle, the sea opened to let us pass through; 
 but, after such kindness, should you have 
 brought us to die with hunger and weariness, 
 in the horrible deserts of Ethan, Kadesh-Barnea, 
 Mara, Elim, Oreb, and Sinai ? All our fathers 
 perished in those dreadful wildernesses, and after 
 forty such calamitous years, you come and tell 
 us, that God took particular care of our fathers. 
 
 This is what those murmuring Jews, those per- 
 verse children of vagabond fathers, who died in 
 the deserts, might have said to Moses, had he 
 read Exodus and Genesis to them: and what 
 ought they not to have said, and even to have 
 done, on accoiint of the golden calf? How! 
 you dare tell us that your brother made a golden 
 calf for our fathers, whilst you was with God 
 on the mount ; you who sometimes say, that 
 you spoke to God face to face, and sometimes 
 that you could only see his hinder parts. Well, 
 but'you was with God, and your brother cast a 
 golden calf in one day, and set it up tor us to 
 worship ; but instead of punishing your worth- 
 less brother, you make him our high-priest, and 
 order your Levites to slay three-and twenty thou- 
 sand 
 
282 PETER. 
 
 sand of your people. Would our fathers have 
 tamely sufTered this ? Would they have let them- 
 selves been knocked down by sanguinary priests, 
 like so many victims. You farther tell us, as if 
 this butchery was not sufficient, that another 
 time you ordered twenty-four thousand of your 
 poor followers to be massacred, because one of 
 them had lain with a Midianite, and you your- 
 self married a Midianite ; and after this you add, 
 that you are the meekest of all men. A few 
 more such meek procedures would have made 
 an end of mankind. 
 
 No, had you been capable of such cruelty, 
 had you been able to carry it into execution, you 
 would have been the most barbarous of men ; 
 it would have been so enormous a guilt, that no 
 punishment could have been equal to it. 
 
 These are pretty nearly the objections made 
 by the learned to those who hold Moses to have 
 been the author of the Pentateuch. But these 
 rejoin, that the ways of God are not like those 
 of men ; that God, by a wisdom unknown to 
 us, has tried and alternately protected and forsa- 
 ken his people ; that the Jews themselves, for 
 above two thousand years, have universally be- 
 lieved Moses to be the author of those books; 
 that the church, which has succeeded to the sy- 
 nagogue, and is endued with the like infallibi- 
 lity, has decided this point of controversy ; and 
 that the learned should keep silence, when the 
 church speaks. 
 
 PETER. 
 
 IN Italian Piero, or Pietro; in Spanish 
 
 Pedro, in Latin Petrus, in Greek Petros, in 
 
 Hebrew Cepha. 
 
 How 
 
FETER. 283 
 
 How comes it that Peter's successors have had 
 so much power in the west and none in the east ? 
 This is asking why the bishop of Wurtzburg 
 and Sahzburghave in troublesome times assumed 
 royal prerogatives, whilst the Greek bishops 
 have remained subjects. Time, opportunity, 
 and the ambition of some, and the weakness of 
 others, do every thing in this world, and ever 
 will. 
 
 To these troubles was added opinion, and opi- 
 nion rules men ; not that they in reality have a 
 very determinate opinion, but they are as tenaci- 
 ous of words. 
 
 It is related in the Gospel, that Jesus said to 
 Peter, " I will give thee the keys of the king- 
 •* dom of heaven." The sticklers for the bishop 
 of Rome maintained, about the eleventh century, 
 that he who gives the greater gives the less ; that 
 the heavens encompassed the earth ; and that Pe- 
 ter, having the keys of the containing, had also 
 the keys of the contents. If by the heavens we 
 mean all the stars and all the planets, then the 
 keys given to Simon Bar-jona, surnamed Peter, 
 were a passe-par-tout. If by the heavens are 
 meant the clouds, the atmosphere, the ether, the 
 space in which the planets roll, there are few 
 lock-smiths, says Meursius, who can make a key 
 to such doors. 
 
 In Palestine, keys were a wooden peg fastened 
 •with a leathern thong. Jesus says to Bar-jona, 
 " What thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound 
 ** in heaven." From this the Pope's theologians 
 have inferred, that the Popes are invested with a 
 power of binding and loosening subjects from the 
 oath of allegiance to their kings, and of dispos- 
 ing of all kingdoms at their pleasure : a notable 
 
 inference 
 
s84 peter; 
 
 inference indeed ! The commons at a general as- 
 sembly oi the states of France in 1302, in their 
 petition to the king, say, *' that Boniface VIII. 
 *' was a scoundrel," beheving that God bound 
 and imprisoned in heaven all whom Boniface 
 bound on earth. A famous German Lutheran (I 
 think it was Melancthonjcould hardly believe that 
 Jesus should have said to Simon Barjona, Cepha 
 or Cephas, *' Thou art Peter, and on this rock 
 " will I build my church." He could not con- 
 ceive that God had made use of such a play ol 
 words, so very extraordinary a pun, and that the 
 Pope's power was founded on a quibble. 
 
 Peter has been thought the first bishop of 
 Rome; but it is sufficiently known that then, 
 and for a long time after, there was no particu- 
 lar see. It was not till towards the end of the 
 second century, that the Christians were 
 moulded into a regular body. 
 
 It IS possible that St. Peter went to Rome ; it 
 is even possible that he was crucified with his 
 head downwards, though that was not customary ; 
 but ot all this we have no proof. A letter, 
 bearing his name, is still extant, in which he says 
 that he is at Babylon, Judicious canonists will 
 have this Babylon to mean Rome; so that had he 
 dated his letter from Rome, it might have been 
 inferred that the letter had been written from Ba- 
 bylon : such inferences are of a long standing ; 
 and thus it is that the world has been governed. 
 
 A very pious man, who had been exorbitantly 
 imposed on at Rome in relation to the purchase 
 of a benefice, a practice which is called simony, 
 being asked whether he thought Simon Peter had 
 ever been in that country, answered, I see no 
 
 marks 
 
PETER. 285 
 
 marks of Peter's having been there, but I am 
 very certain Simon was. 
 
 As to Peter's person, Paul is not the only one 
 who has taken offence at his behaviour : both he 
 and his successors have often been withstood to 
 their face. St. Paul keenly reproached him for 
 eating prohibited meats, as pork, puddings, hare, 
 eels, &c. Peter, in justification of himself, al- 
 ledged, that about the sixth hour, he had seen the 
 heavens opened, and a large table-cloth full of 
 eels, beasts, and birds descending from the four 
 quarters of the heavens ; and that the voice of an 
 angel called out, '* Kill and eat." Probably, 
 says Wolaston, it was the same voice, which has 
 called out to so many Popes, " Kill every body, 
 " and eat up the people's substance." 
 
 Casaubon could not approve of Peter's beha- 
 viour to Ananias and his wife ('), who were a 
 good sort of people : What right, says he, had a 
 Jew, a slave under the Romans, to order or al- 
 low all who believed in Jesus to sell their sub- 
 stance, and lay the produce at his feet. Were 
 an Anabaptist preacher at London to order his 
 brethren to bring him all their money, would he 
 
 not 
 
 (*) The punishment of Ananias and Sapphira might 
 appear very severe for a fault, which does not seem 
 at first sight to be considerable ; but the offence was 
 grievous, since they made so slight of lying to the 
 holy Ghost. For it is thought by some eminent writ- 
 ers, that they had taken an oath not to reserve any 
 thing to themselves; but to devote their estates to 
 the common use of the faithful. Their crime there- 
 fore was a kind of perjury and sacrilege; and it was 
 severely punished, because it was requisite in the 
 beginning to give sanction to the lawsot Christianity. 
 
t86 PET£R. 
 
 not be taken up as a mover of sedition, a rob- 
 ber, and as such sent to Tyburn ? Was it not a 
 horrid thing to strike Ananias dead, only because 
 out of the money for which he had sold his es- 
 tate, he secretly reserved a few pounds against a 
 rainy day, bringing the far greater part to Peter. 
 Scarce was the breath out of Ananias's body, 
 when in comes his wife. Peter, instead of kindly 
 informing her that he had just killed her husband 
 for keeping a few pence, and telling her to take 
 care of what she had, allures her into the snare. 
 He asks her whether her husband had brought in 
 all his money for the saints ; the poor woman an- 
 swers, yes, and instantly drops down dead* 
 Something hard this ! 
 
 Corringius asks why Peter, who thus demo- 
 lishes those who brought him alms, did not ra- 
 ther go and kill all the doctors who had a hand 
 in putting Jesus to death, and had caused himself 
 to be scourged several times. Fie, Peter, to kill 
 two Christians who had brought you a good purs€ 
 of money ; and they who crucified your God, 
 you allow to live ! 
 
 It is to be supposed that Corringius, when he 
 put forth these bold questions, was not in a coun- 
 try subject to the inquisition. Erasmus has con- 
 cerning Peter a pretty singular remark, that the 
 head of the Christian religion began his apostle- 
 ship by denying Jesus Christ ; and the high 
 priest of Judaism began his ministry by making 
 a golden calf, and worshipping it. 
 
 However it be, Peter is transmitted to us as 
 poor, and humbly instructing the poor ; he is 
 like those founders of orders who lived in indi- 
 gence, but whose successors are become great 
 
 men. 
 
 The 
 
PETER. 287 
 
 The Pope, St. Peter's successor, has both won 
 and lost : however, he has still remaining, in 
 the several parts -of the world, besides his imme- 
 diate subjects, about fifty millions of people, 
 who in many articles acknowledge his laws. 
 
 To have a master three or four hundred leagues 
 from one's home ; to forbear thinking till that 
 man shall have seemed to think ; not to dare to 
 try definitively a process between our fellow-citi- 
 zens, but by commissioners of this foreigner's 
 nomination; to transgress the laws of one's 
 country, by which a person is restrained from 
 marrying his niece, and yet to render this a legi- 
 timate marriage, by giving a still more conside- 
 rable sum to that foreign master ; not to dare 
 take possession of any fields or vineyards con- 
 ferred by one's own sovereign, without paying 
 a large sum to this foreign master; not to dare 
 plough one's grounds on a day appointed by a 
 foreigner for commemorating an unknown per- 
 son, whom he has placed in heaven by his own 
 private authority ; these are the advantages of 
 acknowledging a Pope ; these are the liberties 
 of the Gallican church. 
 
 Other nations there are who carry submission 
 still farther. We have in our times seen a sove- 
 reign ask the Pope leave to bring to a trial, in his 
 royal court »f justice, some monks accused of 
 regicide, fail in his solicitations for leave, and 
 not dare to try those wretches. 
 
 Is is well known that, formerly ^ the Pope's 
 power was still of greater extent. They were 
 much superior to the gods of antiquity ; for those 
 deities were only imagined to dispose of empires, 
 but the popes disposed of them in reality. 
 
 Sturbinus 
 
288 PETER*. 
 
 Sturbinus says, that they who doubt of the 
 Pope's divinity and infallibiliy are excusable, 
 when it is considered that St. Peter's see has 
 been prophaned by forty schisms, and twenty- 
 seven ot them have been attended with murders, 
 massacres, and wars. 
 
 That Stephen VII. a priest's son had his pre- 
 decessor, Formosus, dug up, and the corpse's 
 head cut off. 
 
 That Sergius III. was convicted of assassina- 
 tions, and had a son by Marozia, who inherited 
 the papacy. 
 
 That John X. Theodoras's gallant, was strang- 
 led in his bed. 
 
 That John XI. son of Sergius III. was known 
 only for his scandalous intemperance. 
 
 That John Xll.was murdered at his strumpet's 
 house. 
 
 That Benedict IX. bought the pontificate, and 
 sold it again. 
 
 That Gregory VII. was the author of civil 
 wars, which were continually prosecuted by his 
 successors for the space of five hundred years. 
 
 That lastly, among so many debauched, am- 
 bitious, and sanguinary Popes, there has been 
 an Alexander VI. whose name always excites 
 no less horror and detestation than those of Nero 
 and Caligula. 
 
 This, it is said, proves the divinity of their 
 character, that it should have subsisted amidst so 
 many crimes ; but had the behaviour of the ca- 
 lifs been Hill more flagitious and execrable, they 
 would then have been still more divine. This 
 is Dermius's argument; but the Jesuits have an- 
 swered him. 
 
 PREJUDICES. 
 
PrcJi 
 
 PREJUDICES. iSg 
 
 PREJUDICES. 
 
 judlce is an opinion void of judgment : 
 thus every where many opinions are instilled into 
 children before they are able to judge. 
 
 There are universal and necessary prejudices, 
 and such are essential to virtue. In every coun- 
 try, children are taught to believe in a God, who 
 punishes and rewards ; to respect and to love 
 their father and mother ; to hold theft a crime ; 
 a selfish lye a vice, before they can so much as 
 guess what vice or virtue is. 
 
 Thus there are very good prejudices, and 
 these are such as on being brought to the test, 
 judgment ratifies. 
 
 Sentiment is not mere prejudice; it is much 
 stronger. It is not because the mother has been 
 told that she must love her son, that she loves 
 him ; she, happily, cannot help her fondness for 
 him. It is not from prejudice that a man runs to 
 assist an unknown child, whom a beast is near 
 devouring, or who is in any other danger. 
 
 But it is from mere prejudice that you respect 
 a man dressed in a particular manner, and grave 
 in his carriage and discourse. Your parents have 
 told you to bow to such a man ; thus you come 
 to respect him, before you know whether he de- 
 serves your respect. Being grown up, and your 
 knowledge enlarged, you begin to see that this 
 man is a hypocrite, eaten up with pride, selfish- 
 ness, and craft ; hereupon you despise what you 
 venerated, and prejudice is superseded by judg* 
 ment. You have, from prejudice, believed the 
 fables with which you was amused in your child- 
 hood; you were told that the Titans waged war 
 
 U against 
 
gpO PREJUDICES. 
 
 against the Gods ; and that Venus was in love 
 with Adonis. These iables at twelve years of 
 age go down with you as realities ; but, at twenty, 
 you perceive them to be only ingenious alle- 
 gories. 
 
 Let us briefly, for order sake, examine the 
 different sorts ot prejudices; we may perhaps 
 find ourselves like those who perceived that at the 
 time of the Mississippi, they had been calculat- 
 ing imaginary riches. 
 
 PREJUDICES OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Is it not very odd that our eyes always deceive 
 us, even when we see very well ; whereas we 
 are never deceived by our ears ? If a sound ear 
 hears these words, You are handsome, I love 
 you ; it is very certain that the person speaking 
 did not say, I hate you, you are ugly : but the 
 apparent smoothness of a looking-glass is a de- 
 ception ; a microscope shews the surface to be 
 in reality very rugged. The sun seems to be^ 
 about two feet in diameter; whereas it is de- 
 monstrated to be a million of times larger than 
 the earth. 
 
 God apparently has put truth in your ears, 
 and error in your eyes : but study optics, and 
 you will find that God has not imposed on you; 
 and that it is impossible, in the present state of 
 things, objects should appear otherwise than you 
 see them. 
 
 PHYSICAL PREJUDICES. 
 
 That the sun rises and sets, and the earth is 
 immoveable, are prejudices naturadly imbibed : 
 but that lobsters are good for the blood, because 
 in boiling they turn red ; that eels cure the 
 
 palsy, 
 
PREJUDICES, 291 
 
 palsy, because of their frisking ; that the moon 
 has an influence on diseases, because a stronger 
 symptom of a fever was observed in a patient in 
 the wane of the moon : these notions, with a 
 thousand others, were entertained by the empy- 
 rics of old, who judged without reasoning, and 
 led others into their mistakes. 
 
 HISTORICAL PREJUDICES. 
 
 Most Stories have been credited without ex- 
 amination, and such belief is a prejudice. Fa- 
 bius Pictor relates, that several ages before him, 
 a vestal virgin of the city of Alba, going with 
 her pitcher to draw water, was ravished and 
 brought into the world Romulus and Remus ; 
 and that these twins were suckled by a she- wolf, 
 &c. This fable the Roman people greedily 
 swallowed without examining whether, at that 
 time, vestal virgins were known in Latium ; 
 whether it was likely that a king's daughter 
 should go out of her convent with a pitcher in 
 her hand ; and whether it was agreeable to 
 nature, that a fhe-wolf, so far from eating two 
 infants, should suckle them. The prejudice 
 took root. 
 
 A monk wrote that Clovis, being in great 
 danger at the battle of Tolbiac, made a vow, if 
 he escaped safe, to turn Christian ; but is it na- 
 tural in such an exigency to apply to a foreign 
 deity ? Is it not in extremities, that our native 
 religion acts with the greatest force ? What 
 Christian in a battle against the Turks would not 
 call on the Blessed Virgin, rather than on Maho- 
 met ? It is added, that a dove brought a phial in its 
 bill for anointing Clovis; and that an angel brought 
 the oriflamme or banner to be carried betore 
 
 U 2 him. 
 
1292 PREJUDICES. 
 
 him. All such little tales, prejudice readilj 
 credited ; but they who are acquainted with hu- 
 man nature very well know, that both the usur- 
 per Clovis and the usurper Rollo, or Rolf, 
 turned Christians, that they might more safely 
 rule over Christians, as the Turks, on their be- 
 coming masters of the empire of Constantino- 
 ple, turned Mussulmen, to ingratiate themselves 
 with the Mussulmen. 
 
 RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. 
 
 If your nurse has told you that Ceres presides 
 over grain; or that Visnou and Xaca have seve- 
 ral times become men ;. or that Sanmoncodom 
 came upon earth, and cut down a forest; or 
 that Odin expects you in his hall towards Jut- 
 land; or that Mahomet, or some other, has 
 made a journey into heaven; lastly, if your go- 
 vernor afterwards inculcates into your brain the 
 traces made in it by your nurse, you will never 
 get rid of them during your life. Should your 
 judgment attempt to efface these prejudices, your 
 acquaintance, and especially your, female ac- 
 quaintance, will charge you with impiety, and 
 terrify you ; then your dervise, lest his income 
 may suffer some curtailment, will accuse you to 
 the cadi; the cadi will do his best to have you 
 im.paled, for he would have all under him block- 
 heads, thinking that blockheads make tamer sub- 
 jects than others ; and thus things will go on till 
 your acquaintance, the dervise, and the cadi 
 shall begin to perceive that folly does no good, 
 and that persecution is abominable. 
 
 RELIGIONo 
 

 RELIGION. 293 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 QUESTION I. 
 
 ±JR. Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, author 
 of one of the most learned pieces that ever 
 appeared, in vol. i. p. 8. expresses himself to 
 this purpose : *• A religion, or society, not 
 founded on the belief of a future state, ought 
 to be supported by an extraordinary provi- 
 dence: the Jewish religion was not founded 
 *' on the belief of a future state; therefore it 
 ** must have been supported by an extraordinary 
 *' providence." 
 
 Several divines have declared against him, and, 
 disputant like, have retorted his argument on 
 himself. 
 
 ** A religion not founded on the doctrine of 
 *^ the soul's immortality, and eternal rewards, 
 must be false. Now Judaism had no such te- 
 nets ; therefore Judaism, so far from being 
 supported by providence, was, according to 
 your principles, a false and savage religion, 
 which denied any such thing as providence.'* 
 Others of the bishop's adversaries maintained 
 that the immortality of the soul was known among 
 the Jews, even in Moses's time ; but he very evi- 
 dently proved against them, that neither in the 
 Decalogue, nor Leviticus, nor Deuteronomy, is 
 one single word said of this belief; and that it is 
 ridiculous to go about wresting and corrupting a 
 few passages of the other books, in support of a 
 truth about which their book of laws is silent. 
 
 The bishop, though he composed four volumes 
 to demonstrate that the Jewish law proposed nei- 
 
 U 3 ther 
 
 (( 
 
 <( 
 
«f 
 
 294 RELIGION. 
 
 ther punishments nor rewards after death, has 
 not been able to give his adversaries any very 
 satisfactory answer. They urged, *' either Moses 
 ♦' was acquainted with this doctrine, and then he 
 deceived the Jews in not making it public : or 
 he was ignorant of it ; and if so, he was inca- 
 pable oi founding a good religion. Indeed, 
 had the religion been good, why was it abo- 
 lished? A true religion should suit all times 
 '* and places; it should be like the light of the 
 ■* sun, which shines in all lands and throughout 
 ** all generations." 
 
 This prelate, with all his erudition and saga- 
 city, has been hard put to it in making his way 
 through all these difficulties; but what system is 
 without difficulties ? 
 
 QUESTION II. 
 
 Another learned person, a much greater philo* 
 sopher, and one of the most profound metaphy- 
 sicians of the times, produces strong reasons to 
 prove, that the first religion was Polytheism ; 
 and that, before improved reason came to see 
 there could be only one Supreme Being, men 
 began with believing several gods. 
 
 I, on the contrary, presume to believe that 
 they began with worshipping only one God, and 
 that, afterwards, human weakness adopted se- 
 veral others ; and I conceive the thing to be thus. 
 
 It is not to be doubted but villages and country 
 towns were prior to large cities; and that men 
 were divided into small republics before they 
 were united in large empires. It is very natu- 
 ral, that a town, terrified at the thunder; dis- 
 tressed 
 
RELIGION. 295 
 
 tressed by the ruin of its harvest ; insulted by a 
 neighbouring town ; daily feeling its weakness, 
 and every where perceiving an invisible power, 
 soon came to say, There is some being above us, 
 which does us good and hurt. 
 
 It seems to me impossible that they should have 
 said: there are two powers; for wherefore seve- 
 ral ? In every thing we begin with the simple, 
 then proceed to the compound, and often an im- 
 provement of knowledge brings us back again to 
 the simple : this is the process of the human 
 mind. 
 
 Which being was first worshipped ? was it the 
 sun, was it the moon ? I can hardly believe it. 
 Only let us take a view of children, they are 
 pretty nearly on a footing with ignorant men. 
 The beauty and benefit of that luminous body 
 which animates nature, make no impression on 
 them ; as insensible are they of the conveniences 
 we derive from the moon, or of the regular va- 
 riations of its course ; they do not so much as 
 think of these things; they are accustomed to 
 them. What men do not fear, they never wor- 
 ship. Children look up to the sky with as much 
 indifference as on the ground ; but, at a tempest, 
 the poor creatures tremble and run and hide 
 themselves. 1 am inclined to think it was so 
 with primitive men. They who first observed 
 the course of the heavenly bodies, and brought 
 them to be objects of admiration and worship, 
 must necessarily have had a tincture of philoso- 
 phy; the error was too exalted for rude illiterate 
 husbandmen. 
 
 Thus the cry of a village would have been no 
 more than this : There is a power which thun- 
 
 U 4 ders, 
 
296 RELIGION. 
 
 ders, which sends down hail on us, which causes 
 our children to die, let us, by all means, ap- 
 
 f)ease it; but which way? Why, we see, that 
 ittle presents will sooth angry people, let us try 
 what little presents will do with this power. He 
 must also to be sure have a name or title ; and 
 that, whichnaturally presents itself first, is chief, 
 master, lord : thus is this power called my Lord. 
 Hence it probably was, that the first Egyptians 
 called their god Knef; the Syrians, Adoni; the 
 neighbouring nations Baal or Bel, or Melch or 
 Moloc ; the Scythians Papci all words signify- 
 ing Lord, Master. 
 
 In like manner almost all America was found 
 to be divided into multitudes of little colonies, 
 all with their patron deity. The Mexicans and 
 Peruvians themselves, who were large nations, 
 had but one only God; the former worshipping 
 Mango Kapack, the other the God of war, 
 whom they called Vilipusti, as the Hebrews had 
 stiled their lord, Sabaoth. 
 
 It is not from any superiority or exercise of 
 reason, that all nations began with worshipping 
 only one Deity; for had they been philosophers, 
 they would have the universal God of nature and 
 not the god of a village ; they would have exa- 
 mined the infinite testimonies acknowledged of 
 a creating and preserving being; but they exa- 
 mined nothing; they only perceived, and such 
 is the progress of our weak understanding. Every 
 town perceived its weakness and want of a power- 
 ful protector. This tutelary and terrible being 
 they fancied to reside in a neighbouring forest, 
 or mountain, or in a cloud. They fancied only 
 one such power, because in war the town had 
 but one chief; this being they imagined to be 
 
 corporeal. 
 
(( 
 
 (C 
 
 (t 
 
 RELIGION. 297 
 
 corporeal, it being impossible tbey could have 
 any other idea. They could not but believe 
 that the neighbouring town had also its god. 
 Accordingly Jephthah says to the inhabitants of 
 Moab: *' You lawfully possess what your god 
 
 Chamos has made you conquer; and you 
 
 ought to let us quietly enjoy what our god has 
 
 given us by his victories (')." 
 
 This speech from one foreigner to another is 
 very remarkable. The Jews and Moabites had 
 ousted the natives, with no other right than force ; 
 and one says to the other, Thy god has sup- 
 ported thee in thy usurpation, allow my god 
 likewise to support me in mine. 
 
 Jeremiah and Amos both ask, ** Wherefore 
 ** has the god Moloch seized on the country of 
 ** Gad(^)?" These passages shew that anti- 
 quity attributed a guardian god to every country, 
 and traces of this theology are likewise to be met 
 with in Homer. 
 
 It is very natural that, from the heat of fancy 
 and a vague increase of knowledge, men soon 
 multiplied their gods, and assigned guardians to 
 the elements, seas, forests, springs, and fields. 
 The more they surveyed the heavenly bodies, 
 the greater must their astonishment have been. 
 Well might they who worshipped the deity of a 
 brook, pay their adorations to the sun : and, 
 the first step being taken, the earth was soon co- 
 vered 
 
 (*) The sense in our version is very different. 
 Judges xi. 24. 
 
 (^) Here the difference is still greater. Jer. xi. i. 
 .Amos says nothing like it. 
 
298 RELIGION. 
 
 vered with deities; so that at length cats and 
 onions came to be worshipped. 
 
 However, time must necessarily improve rea- 
 son: accordingly it produced some philosophers, 
 who saw that neither onions nor cats, nor even 
 the heavenly bodies, had any share in the disposi- 
 tion of nature. All those philosophers, Baby- 
 lonians, Persians, Egyptians, Scythians, Greeks, 
 and Romans, acknowledged only one Supreme 
 God, rewarding and punishing. 
 
 This they did not immediately make known to 
 people, for a word against onions and cats spoken 
 before old women and priests, would have cost 
 a man his life; those good people would have 
 stoned him. He who should have ridiculed some 
 Egyptians for eating their gods, would have been 
 eaten himself, since Juvenal relates as fact, that 
 in a controversial dispute, an Egyptian was killed 
 and eaten quite raw. 
 
 Well! what was to be done? Orpheus and 
 others institute mysteries, which the initiated 
 swear by execrable oaths never to reveal ; and 
 of these mysteries the principal is, the worship of 
 one only God. This great truth spreads over 
 half the earth ; the number of the initiated swells 
 immensely; the ancient religion indeed still sub- 
 sists, but not being contrary to the tenet of God's 
 unity, it is connived at. The Romans had their 
 Deus Optimus Maximus : the Greeks their 
 Zeus, their Supreme God. All the other deities 
 are only intermediate beings ; heroes and empe- 
 rors were classed among the gods, which meant 
 no more than the blessed, for it is not to be sup- 
 posed, that Cltiudius, Octavius, Tiberius, and 
 Caligula, were accounted the creators of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 In 
 
RELIGION. 299 
 
 In a word, it seems demonstrated that, in Au- 
 gustus's time, all who had any religion acknow- 
 ledged one supreme eternal God, with several 
 classes of secondary deities ; the worshipping of 
 whom has since been called idolatry. 
 
 The Jewish laws never countenanced idolatry; 
 for though they admitted Malachim, Angels, and 
 inferior orders of coelestial beings; their law ap- 
 pointed no manner of worship for these secon- 
 dary deities. Indeed they adored angels, that is, 
 when they saw any, they prostrated themselves 
 before them; but as this was a very uncommon 
 case, no ceremonial, or legal worship, had been 
 instituted for them ; neither was any homage 
 paid even to the cherubim of the ark. It is ma- 
 nifest that the Jews worshipped openly one single 
 God, even as the innumerable crowds of the 
 initiated worshipped him privately in their mys- 
 teries. 
 
 QUESTION III. 
 
 At this time, when the worship of one Supreme 
 God universally prevailed in Asia, in Europe, 
 and Africa, among all who made a due use of 
 their reason, it was that the Christian religion re- 
 ceived its birth. 
 
 Platonism greatly promoted the understanding 
 of its dogmas. The Logos, which in Plato sig- 
 nifies the wisdom, the reason of the Supreme Be- 
 ing, with us was made the word, and the second 
 person of the Deity. Thus religion was wrapped 
 up in metaphysics, to human reason unfathom- 
 able. 
 
 How Mary was afterwards declared mother of 
 God ; how the consubstantiality ot the Father and 
 ihe word were established, together with the pro- 
 cession 
 
300 RELIGION^ 
 
 cession of the Pneuma, the divine organ of the 
 divine Logos ; two natures and two wills result- 
 ing from the Hypostasis ; and lastly, the superior 
 manducation, in which both soul and body are 
 fed with the members of the incarnate God, wor- 
 shipped and eaten in the form ot bread, present 
 to the sight, felt by the taste, and yet annihilated : 
 these things we shall not repeat here. All mys- 
 teries have ever been sublime. 
 
 So early as the second century, the expulsion 
 ofdevilswasperformed, by pronouncing the name 
 of Jesus; whereas before, the name of Jehovah, 
 or Yhaho, was made use of in such miracles: 
 for St. Matthew relates that Jesus's enemies hav- 
 ing spread abroad, that it was by the name of the 
 prince of the devils that he cast out the devils, he 
 made them this answer : •' If I cast out devils 
 ** by Beelzebub, by whom do your children 
 ** cast them out ?" 
 
 At what time the Jews acknowledged Beelze- 
 bub, a foreign deity, to be prince of the devils 
 is not known ; but we know, and learn it from 
 J isephus, that at Jerusalem there were exorcists, 
 whose immediate province it was to dislodge the 
 devils from the 'bodies of the possessed, that is 
 men labouring under uncommon distempers, 
 winch, in those times, a great part of the world 
 attributed to malignant genii. 
 
 'riiiis the demoniacs were relieved by the true 
 pionumiaiion of the woid Jehovah; now lost, 
 tt)gei her with other ceremonies at present buried 
 in oblivion. 
 
 Kxoicisms by Jehovah, or other of God's 
 names, continued to be practised even in the 
 early ages oi the church. Oiigen against Celsus, 
 N°. 262, says, " If when invoking God or 
 
 ** swearing 
 
<( 
 
 
 RELIGION. 301 
 
 «* swearing by him, he is termed the God of 
 « Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, certain things 
 will be done by those names, such being their 
 nature and force, that devils are subject to 
 those who utter them ; whereas if called by 
 " any other appellation, as god of the tumultu- 
 «* ous sea, or the destroyer, no effect follows. 
 ** The word Israel translated into Greek will do 
 nothing ; but on pronouncing it in Hebrew, 
 along with the other requisite words, the ma- 
 " gical operation will take place." 
 
 The same Origen, N°. 19, has these remark- 
 able words : ** There are names of a natural 
 •* virtue, as those used by the wise men in Egypt, 
 «* the Magi in Persia, and the Brachmans in 
 ** India. Magic, as it is called, is no vain and chi- 
 •* merical art, as the Stoics and Epicureans pre- 
 ** tend ; neither were the names of Sabaoth or 
 " Adonai made for created beings, but appertain 
 •' to a mysterious theology concerning the Crea- 
 «» tor; hence comes the virtue of these names, 
 «' when placed in order, and pronounced accord- 
 «* ing to the rules, &:c." 
 
 Origen, in speaking thus, only relates what 
 was universally held, and does not deliver his 
 own private opinion. All the religions then 
 known admitted a kind of magic, and with two 
 distinctions, the celestial and infernal magic, ne- 
 cromancy and theurgy ; every nation had its pro- 
 digies, divinations, and oracles. The Persians 
 did not deny the Egyptian miracles, nor the 
 Egyptians offer to discredit the Persian. God 
 was pleased to wink at the first Christians es- 
 pousing the Sybilline oracles, and some other 
 unconsequemial errors, as not corrupting the es- 
 sentials of religion. 
 
 Another 
 
202 RELIGION. 
 
 Another very remarkable circumstance is, that 
 the christians oF the two first centuries abhorred 
 temples, altars, and images. This Origen owns, 
 N°. 374, but on the church's being modelled 
 into a settled form, its discipline and every thing 
 else became altered. 
 
 QUESTION IV. 
 
 When once a religion comes to be established 
 by law, the magistrates are very vigilant in sup- 
 pressing most ot the things which used to be 
 done by the professors of that religion before it 
 was publicly received. The founders held their 
 private meetings, though forbidden under penal- 
 ties ; now none but public assemblies held under 
 the eye of the law are permitted, and all clandes- 
 tine associations made punishable. The old 
 maxim was, It is better to obey God than man ; 
 now the opposite maxim comes into vogue. To 
 obey God is to conform to the laws of the land. 
 All places rung with obsessions and possessions, 
 the devil was let loose upon earth ; now the devil 
 does not stir out of his den. Prodigies and pre- 
 dictions were necessary then ; now a stop is put 
 to them, and they are exploded : he who should 
 openly take upon him to foretel any public cala- 
 mity, would soon be shewn the way to Bedlam. 
 The founders took money underhand from the 
 believers ; whereas a man collecting money to 
 dispose of it as he pleases, without any legal 
 warrant, would betaken to task. Thus the whole 
 of the scaffolding used in the construction of the 
 building, is taken away. 
 
 QUESTION V. 
 
 Next to our holy religion, to be sure the only 
 good religion, which would be the least bad? 
 
 Would 
 
RELIGION. 305..? 
 
 Would It not be the most simple ? Would it 
 not be that which taught a great deal of morality 
 and few doctrines ? that which tended to make 
 men virtuous without making them fools? that 
 which did not impose the belief of things impos- 
 sible, contradictory, injurious to the Deity, and 
 pernicious to mankind ; and which did not take 
 on itself to threaten with eternal punishments all 
 who had common sense ? Would it not be that 
 which did not support its articles by executioners, 
 and deluge the earth with blood for unintelligible 
 sophisms ? that in which a quibble, a pun, and two 
 or three supposititious maps, would not suffice 
 to make a priest a sovereign and a God, though 
 noted for the most profligate morals and execra- 
 ble practices ? that which did not make kings 
 subject to this priest ? Would it not be that 
 which taught only the adoration of one GodN, 
 justice, forbearance, and humanity ? 
 
 QUESTION VI, 
 
 The religion of the Gentiles is said to be ab- 
 surd in several points, contradictory, and perni- 
 cious^ But have not its evils and follies been 
 greatly exaggerated ? Jupiter's carrying on his 
 amours in the shape of a swan, a bull, with other 
 such doings of the Pagan deities, is certainly the 
 height of ridicule; but let any one, throughout 
 all antiquity, shew me a temple dedicated to 
 Leda lying with a swan or a bull. Did Athens 
 or Rome ever hear a sermon to encourage girls 
 to copulate with the swans in their court-yards ? 
 Did the collection of fables so beautifully embel- 
 lished by Ovid, constitute their religion ? are 
 they not like our Golden Legend, or l-lower of 
 the Saints ? Should some Bramin or Dervise ob- 
 ject 
 
304 RELIGION. 
 
 ject to us the story of St. Mary the Egyptian, who 
 not having wherewith to pay the sailors who had 
 brought her into Egypt, voluntarily granted to 
 each of them, in lieu of money, what is called 
 favours, we should immediately say to the Bra- 
 min, You are mistaken, father, the Golden Le- 
 gend is not our religion. 
 
 We taunt the ancients with their prodigies 
 and oracles ; but could they return on earth, and 
 were the miracles of our lady of Loretto, and 
 those of our lady of Ephesus, to be numbered, in 
 whose favour would the balance of the account 
 be? 
 
 Human sacrifices have been introduced almost 
 among all nations, but very rarely werethey prac- 
 tised. Jephtha's daughter and king Agag are the 
 only two we meet with among the Jews, for 
 Isaac and Jonathan were not sacrificed. The 
 Grecian story of Iphigenia is not thoroughly ve- 
 rified : human sacrifices are very rarely heard of 
 among the ancient Romans; in a word, very 
 little blood has the Pagan religion shed, and ours 
 has made the earth an aceldama. Ours, to be 
 sure, is the only good, the only true religion ; 
 but by our abuse of it, we have done so much 
 mischief, that when we speak of other religions, 
 it should be with temper and modesty. 
 
 QUESTION VII. 
 
 If a man would recommend his religion to 
 strangers or his countrymen, should he not go 
 about it with the most winning composure, the 
 most insinuating mildness? If he sets out with 
 saying that what he declares is demonstrably true, 
 he will meet with strong opposition ; and if he 
 takes upon him to tell them that they reject his 
 doctrine, only because it condemns their passions ; 
 
 i that 
 
RESURRECTION. 305 
 
 that their heart has corrupted their mind ; that 
 they have only a false and presumptuous reason, 
 he excites their contempt and resentment, and 
 overthrows what he was for building up. 
 
 If the religion which he preaches be true, will 
 passion and insolence add to its truth? Do you 
 storm and rage when you say that men should be 
 mild, patient, benevolent, just, exact in the dis- 
 charge of all the duties of society ? No ; here 
 every body is of your mind; why then such 
 virulent language to your brother when you are 
 preaching to him metaphysical mysteries ? It is 
 because his good sense irritates your self-love. 
 You proudly require that your brother should 
 submit his understanding to yours; and pride 
 disappointed blazes into rage ; from hence, and 
 hence only, arises your passion. A man who 
 receives ever so many musket-shot in a battle, 
 is never seen to express any anger; but a doc- 
 tor, at the denial of assent, kindles into im- 
 placable fury. 
 
 RESURRECTION (') 
 
 JL HE Egyptians are said to have built their 
 superb pyramids only for tombs, where their 
 
 bodies 
 
 (*) The doctrine of the resurrection is one of the 
 fundamental points of our holy religion. M. Voltaire 
 does not attempt to weaken our belief of it, but to 
 shew his learning by enumerating the opinions of the 
 Heathens, as well as of the primitive Christians rela- 
 tive to that article. We shall only observe that his ex- 
 plication of the famous passage of Job, ch. xix. ver. 
 25, is taken from the very learned bishop of Glouces- 
 
 X ter. 
 
306 RESURRECTION. 
 
 bodies being embalmed outwardly and inwardly, 
 lay till, at the expiration of a thousand years, 
 their souls returned into them. But if their 
 bodies were to come to life again, as it was their 
 first operation, why did the embalmers pierce 
 the scull with a hook, and draw the brain out ? 
 To think of a man's coming to lite again without 
 brains, inclines one to apprehend that the Egyp- 
 tians had little or none when living ; but it must 
 be considered, that most of the ancients believed 
 the soul to reside in the breast. And why in 
 the breast sooner than any other part ? because 
 it is well known that under all our sensations, 
 if any thing violent, we feel a dilatation or con- 
 traction about the region of the heart ; and this 
 produced the opinion, that there was the soul's 
 residence. This soul was something aerial, a 
 light figure roving about where it could, till it 
 had joined its body again. 
 
 The belief of the resurrection is much more 
 ancient than the historical times. Athaladas, 
 Mercury's son, could die and come to life again 
 at pleasure ; Esculapius restored Hyppolitus to 
 life ; Hercules conferred the like kindness on 
 Alcestes ; and Pelops, who had been cut into 
 pieces by his father, the gods made whole again : 
 Plato relates that Heres returned to life only for 
 a fortnight. 
 
 It 
 
 ter, who in his Divine Legation, book vi. sect. 2. 
 p. 543, has given us a beautiful account of this whole 
 book, and cleared up all the difficukies in it; but par- 
 ticularly makes it appear, that the words in question 
 can relate only to a temporal deliverance. 
 
RESURRECTION. 307 
 
 It was not till a very long time after Plato, that 
 the Pharisees among the Jews adopted the tenet 
 ©f the resurrection. 
 
 The Acts of the Apostles mention a very sin- 
 gular transaction, and well worthy of notice. 
 St. James and several of his companions advised 
 St. Paul, though so thorough a Christian, to go 
 into the temple of Jerusalem, and observe all the 
 ceremonies of the ancient law, to the end all 
 may know, say they, that every thing which is 
 said of you is false, and that you still continue 
 to observe Moses's law. 
 
 St. Paul accordingly went into the temple for 
 seven days; but being known on the seventh, he 
 was accused of having brought strangers into it, 
 with a view of prophaning it. 
 
 Now Paul perceiving that some of the crowd 
 were Sadducees and others Pharisees, he cried 
 out in the council, " Brethren I am a Pharisee, 
 ** the son of a Pharisee; it is for the hope of ano- 
 ** ther life, and the resurrection of the dead, 
 ** that I am in danger of being condemned," 
 Acts xxiii. ver. 6. In all this affair not a word 
 had been said about the resurrection of the dead ; 
 but Paul's drift in mentioning it was to raise a 
 quarrel between the Pharisees and Sadducees. 
 Ver. 7. " And Paul having said, there arose 
 a dissention between the Pharisees and Sad- 
 ducees, and the multitude was divided." 
 Ver. 8. " For the Sadducees say, there is no 
 resurrection, neither angel nor spirit ; but the 
 Pharisees confess both, &c." 
 It has been affirmed that Job, who doubtless 
 is of great antiquity, was acquainted with the 
 doctrine of the resurrection; and, in proof of 
 it, the following words are quoted : '* I know 
 
 X 2 •* that 
 
<( 
 
 3o8 RESURRECTION. 
 
 that my redeemer liveth, and that one day his 
 *' redemption will rise on me, or that 1 shall 
 *' rise again from the dust ; that my skin will 
 ** return ; and that 1 shall again see God in my 
 " flesh." 
 
 But several commentators understand no more 
 by these words, than that Job hopes he shall soon 
 get over his distemper, and shall not always be 
 lying in the ground as he then was : the sequel 
 sufficiently proves the truth of this explanation ; 
 for the moment he cries out to his false and 
 harsh friends. " Why then say you, Let us 
 *' persecute him, or because you shall say, Be- 
 " cause we have persecuted him" ('). Does not 
 this evidently mean, you will repent of hav- 
 ing insulted me, when you shall see me again 
 in my former state of health and opulence ? A 
 sick person says, I shall recover, not I shall 
 rise from the dead : to give forced meanings to 
 clear passages, is the sure way never to under- 
 stand one another. 
 
 According to St. Jerome, the sect of the Pha- 
 risees began but a very little time before Jesus 
 Christ. Rabbi Hillel is accounted its founder, 
 and he was cotemporary with Gamaliel, St. Paul's 
 master. 
 
 Many of these Pharisees believed that it was 
 only the Jews who were to rise again ; and that 
 as to the rest of mankind, they were not worth 
 while. Others affirmed that the resurrection 
 would be only in Palestine, and that bodies bu- 
 ried in other parts would be secretly conveyed 
 to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, there to be 
 
 united 
 
 (0 See our translation, chap. xix. ver, 2^ and 28, 
 
(C 
 
 (( 
 
 RESURRECtlON. 309 
 
 uriited to their soul. St. Paul tells the inhabi- 
 tants of Thessalonica, " That the second com- 
 ing of Jesus Christ is for them and for him ; 
 and that they shall be witnesses of it." 
 Ver. 16. ** For on the signal being given by 
 the archangel and the trumpet of God, the 
 *' Lord himself shall descend from heaven, and 
 " they who shall have died in Jesus Christ shall 
 *' rise first." 
 
 Ver. 17. " Then we who are alive, and who 
 shall have remained till then, shall be caught 
 up with them in the clouds, to go and meet 
 the Lord in the air ; and thus we shall live 
 for ever with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians, 
 chap. iv. 
 
 Does not this important passage evidently 
 prove, that the first Christians made themselves 
 sure that they should see the end of the world ; 
 and St. Luke actually foretels it, as what should 
 happen in his life-time ? 
 
 St. Austin thinks that children, and even still- 
 born infants, shall rise at the age of maturity, 
 Origen, Jerome, Athanasius, Basil, did not be- 
 lieve that women were to rise again with the 
 distinctions of sex. 
 
 In a word, there have ever been disputes 
 about what we were, what we are, and what 
 we shall be. 
 
 (I 
 
 X 2 SOLOMON 
 
310 SOLOMON. 
 
 SOLOMON (0. 
 
 i^URELY Solomon could not be so rich as 
 he is said ? 
 
 The book of Chronicles tells us that Melk 
 David his father left him one hundred thousand 
 talents of gold (*) and one thousand talents of 
 
 silver; 
 
 ( * ) This whole article is liable to great exceptions, 
 and betrays a spirit of licentiousness in the author. 
 He takes upon himself to strike what books he pleases 
 out of the canon of the scriptures, because they do 
 not suit his fancy, or be-cause he meets with a few 
 difficulties, which are easily solved. We are sorry to 
 own that he shews himself in this article to have join- 
 ed that class of Deists, whom Dr. Clarke mentions as 
 not capable of being argued with. These are they 
 who endeavour to turn the most sacred things into ri- 
 dicule ; and shew as great a disregard to common de- 
 cency as to religion. They pretend to expose their 
 abuses and corruption of religion : but the profane 
 and lewd images with which they affect to dress up 
 their discourse, demonstrate that they do not intend 
 to deride any vice or folly, but rather to foment the 
 vicious inclinations of others. By turning every thing 
 alike into ridicule, they plainly declare that they have 
 no regard for virtue or religion. Such men are not 
 to be argued with, till they learn to use arguments in- 
 stead of drollery. For banter is not capable of being 
 answered by reason, not because it has any strength 
 in it; but because it runs out of all the bounds of 
 reason and good sense, by extravagantly joining toge- 
 ther such images as have not in themselves any man- 
 ner 
 
 (^) A talent of gold is generally estimated about 
 5075I. sterling. 
 
SOLOMON. 311 
 
 silver ; so enormous a sum, that It is quite in- 
 credible. There is not so much cash in all the 
 
 nations 
 
 ner of similitude or connection ; thus all things are 
 alike easy to be rendered ridiculous, by being repre- 
 sented only in an absurd dress. 
 
 This is what our author has unhappily done in regard 
 to the Song of Solomon. Whether this book, as well 
 as those of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, were written by 
 that prince, is not at all material to our religion ; but 
 it is certain that they belong to the canonical books, 
 and their authority is the same as that of the other 
 parts of the scripture, of which there never was any 
 doubt in the church. 
 
 The Song of Songs is generally believed to have 
 been written by king Solomon. It contains an epi- 
 thalamium, in which the lover and his spouse are repre- 
 sented speaking their parts. King Solomon is named 
 several times in the body of the work ; so that there 
 can be no doubt of its being written in his time. In 
 regard to the impropriety which some imagine of in- 
 serting a book of this kind among those of holy writ, 
 it must be observed, that there is a double meaning 
 V;^ be understood ; the historical and the mystical. Inthe 
 historical sense, it is a song for the nuptials of Solomon, 
 and the daughter of the king of Egypt, who is called 
 Shulamite. According to the mystical sense, of which 
 the historical is only the foundation, it denotes the 
 union between Christ and his church, which in the 
 scripture is compared to that between man and wife. 
 Such is the mystery represented by the nuptials of 
 Solomon. But we are afraid our author is too car- 
 nally minded, to attend to the mystical sense of this or 
 any other part of scripture. 
 
 Our author's objections against the books of Pro- 
 verbs and Ecclesiastes are puerile, and scarce deserv- 
 ing of notice. But it is very droll to see him display- 
 
 X 4 ing 
 
312 SOLOMON. 
 
 nations of the whole world ; and it is not easy 
 to conceive that David amassed such treasures 
 in so small a country as Palestine (^). 
 
 ing his erudition on the French translation of the 3 ist 
 verse in the 23d chapter of Proverbs : *' Ne regard ez 
 " point le vin quand il paroit clair, et que sa couleur 
 " brille dans le verre:" because verre signifies glass, 
 which is a recent invention. But it is highly proba- 
 ble the French translators meant no more than a cup, 
 as the original implies, and as it is rendered in the 
 English version ; " when it giveth his colour in the 
 ** cup." The book of Ecclesiastes was certainly 
 written by Solomon, since it is mentioned to be the 
 work of the son of David, king of Jerusalem, who 
 excelled in wisdom and magnificence. It is a dis- 
 course made to a congregation, upon the vanity and 
 emptiness of all worldly things. That the passages 
 which our author finds fault with, are to be consider- 
 ed as objections which Solomon makes to himself, 
 appears from the whole tenour of the book, and can- 
 not bear any other construction. But does not Solo- 
 mon clearly explain his meaning in other passages ? as 
 in this, " Rejoice, oh ! young man, in thy youth, and 
 ** let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, 
 " and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight 
 " of thine eyes ; but know, that for all these things 
 *' God will bring thee into judgment." Does this 
 breathe the air of libertinism .f* We sincerely wish our 
 author had never been more licentious than Solomon 
 shews himself in this book; the public then would 
 never have had so much reason to complain of some of 
 his writings. 
 
 In regard to the objections our author starts at the 
 entrance of this article against the opulence of Solo- 
 mon, they only discover his ignorance of the Jewish 
 history. The scripture says, (i Chron. xxix. 4.) 
 *' That David left behind him for the building of the 
 
 " temple, 
 
 (3) See Gentleman's Magazine for November or 
 December, 1764. 
 
SOLOMON. 313 
 
 Solomon, according to the first book of Chro- 
 nicles, had forty thousand stables for his chariot- 
 horses. 
 
 
 temple, three thousand talents of gold, of the gold 
 of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined 
 ** silver." Now Dean Prideaux observes (Connect, 
 book I.) two things concerning this immense quan- 
 tity of gold : first, that it was the gold of Ophir ; from 
 whence he concludes that David must have establish- 
 ed a navigation to that place in his time, by the as- 
 sistance of Hiram's expert sailors, without which it 
 cannot be conceived how he could have amassed so 
 vast a treasure. Thus Solomon did but improve what 
 his father had begun in regard to the encouragement 
 of commerce. Secondly, this sum, as he says, is so 
 prodigious, as gives reason to think, that the talents 
 were another sort of talents, of a far less value than 
 the Mosaic talents. For what is said to be given by 
 David, and contributed by his princes, towards the 
 building of the temple at Jerusalem, if valued by the 
 Mosaic talents, exceeded the value of eight hundred 
 millions of our money, which was enough to have 
 built all that temple of solid silver. 
 
 Solomon was a far more powerful prince than many 
 people imagine : his dominions were not confined to 
 the little country of Palestine, as M. Voltaire is pleas- 
 ed to call it; they reached from the river Euphrates, or 
 even beyond it, to the Nile, or borders of Egypt; and 
 all the kin2;s of those countries were tributaries to him 
 (i Kings iv. 24.) What standing army he kept, the 
 scripture does not mention ; yet, besides his fourteen 
 hundred chariots and horses, the text savs he had 
 twelve thousand horsemen, which some take to have 
 been rather saddle horses ; and others, his life-guards. 
 In regard to the forty thousand stalls of horses for his cha- 
 riots, mentioned in the first book of Kings, chap. iv. this 
 passage we must own has created some difficulty, es- 
 pecially 
 
314 SOLOMON. 
 
 horses. Each stable containing ten horses, 
 makes four hundred thousand, which, with his 
 
 twelve 
 
 pecially as in the second book of Chron. chap, ix.it is 
 said, he had only, four thousand stalls. But we must 
 observe that M. Voltaire very unfairly magnifies the 
 number of horses in the first passage, by making use 
 of the word ecurie^ stable; whereas in the original it 
 signifies on\y Jirasejie^ a crib^ that is a division of the 
 stable,so many cribs to each stable. Hence Biixtorff sup- 
 poses that the book of Kings means the horses, that of 
 Chronicles the stables, viz. that there were forty thou- 
 sand horses in four thousand stables. Recourse must 
 be therefore had to an hyspallage ; he had forty thousand 
 stables^ \\z. forty thousand horses in his stalls ; and the 
 latter were four thousand, according to the book of 
 Chronicles. Some interpreters think that the number 
 in the book oi Chronicles has been corrupted ; but 
 this is said without any authority ; therefore the plain 
 and easiest way of solving the whole difficulty is, that 
 in the book of Kings the word Jir^sejiium^ or stable^ 
 is taken in its proper sense for a crib, or division of 
 the stable ; in the book of Chronicles, it is a synec- 
 doche, and signifies a stable containing ten divisions, 
 or cribs for ten horses : that is, there were four thou- 
 sand f^«/7/« major a, qua forty thousand minora confide- 
 bant. And th.s difference of signification is pointed 
 out by the very words in the original, as may be seen 
 in Pool's Synopsis Criticorum. 
 
 Be that as it may, Solomon was the first who intro- 
 duced the use of chariots and horses in Israel, at least 
 to aiiy degree of magnificence. Yor it is certain that 
 the multiplying of chariots and horses was expressly 
 forbidden by the Mosaic law. These he sent for out 
 of Egypt, not only for his own use, but for that of se- 
 veral neighbouring kings, whom he obliged to pay him 
 six hundred shekels for every chariot and four horses, 
 
 and 
 
SOLOMON. 315 
 
 twelve thousand saddle horses, amount to four 
 hundred and twelve thousand good war horses ; 
 
 a great 
 
 and one hundred and fifty for every single horse. 
 He had likewise abundance of yarn, linen, and other 
 commodities brought to him out of Egypt, which he 
 sold to his subjects and merchants at a certain price, 
 (i Kings X.); all this produced an immense revenue. 
 He did not keep all his horses and chariots at Jerusa- 
 lem, but disposed them in several of his strong cities, 
 reserving only a convenient number about his person, 
 either for guards or grandeur (ibid.) but not quite so 
 many as four hundred and twelve thousand, as our 
 facetious author pretends, to escort his concubines in 
 taking the fresh air along the lake of Genesareth, or 
 that of Sodom. 
 
 In order to supply his vast expences, Solomon built 
 a navy at Ezion-geber, a sea-port near Eloth, in the 
 land of Edom upon the Red Sea, and put it under the 
 care of some Syrian mariners, to whom many of iiis 
 own people were joined. The fleet sailed to Ophir, 
 and in about three years brought him back an im- 
 mense weight of gold and silver,' besides several kinds 
 of precious stones, spices, ebony, and other curious 
 woods, ivory, peacocks, monkeys, and other rarities 
 (i Kings ix.) The gold itself amounted to four hun- 
 dred and fifty talents yearly, besides the profit he made 
 of all the other commodities. Ophir not only afforded 
 the greatest quantity of gold,but exceeded all other gold 
 in fineness and value ( i Kings x.) Various are the opi- 
 nions of the learned in regard to the situation of Ophir ; 
 but the most probable conjecture places it in some of 
 those remote rich countries of India beyond the Gan- 
 ges, and perhaps as far as China or Japan. The latter 
 still abounds with the finest gold, and with several other 
 commodities imported by Solomon's fleet ; and by its 
 distance best answers to the length of the voyage. 
 
 Thus 
 
/ 
 
 gi6 SOLOMON. 
 
 a great many for a Jewish melk who never was 
 engaged in a war. Never was the like magni- 
 ficence seen in a country breeding only asses, 
 and at present without any other beast for the 
 saddle. But probably times are altered ; indeed 
 so wise a prince having a thousand concubines, 
 might very well have four hundred and twelve 
 thousand horses, were it only to give his seraglio 
 an airing along Genesareth lake, or that of So- 
 dom, or toward Cedron brook, one of the most 
 delicious spots on earth, except that this brook 
 is dry nine months of the year, and the ground 
 a little stoney. 
 
 But is this same wise Solomon really author 
 of the works fathered on him? is it likely, for 
 instance, that the Jewish eclogue called the 
 Song of Songs is of his writing ? 
 
 A monarch who had a thousand mistresses, 
 may have said to one of these charmers. Kiss me 
 with the kisses of thy mouth, for thy breasts are 
 better than wine. A king and a shepherd amidst 
 such amorous indearments may very naturally 
 talk alike: but it is something odd, that it is the 
 girl who is made to talk thus wantonly about 
 kisses and her sweetheart's breasts. 
 
 I likewise will not deny but a courtly prince 
 may make his mistress say. My husband is like 
 a cluster of myrrh, he shall lye all night betwixt 
 my breasts. A cluster of myrrh is to me some- 
 thing obscure ; but 1 very well understand the 
 charmer's meaning, when she bids her beloved 
 
 lay 
 
 Thus by encouraging navigation and commerce, Solo- 
 mon became the richest prince of his time, and his 
 kingdom the most flourishing in the world. 
 
SOLOMON. ^ly 
 
 his left hand over her neck, and embrace her 
 with his right. 
 
 There are some expressions in which the au- 
 thor's elucidation is wanted, as when he says. 
 Your navel is like a goblet in which there is 
 always something to drink; your belly is like a 
 bushel of wheat ; your breasts are like two young 
 roes; your nose is as the tower of Lebanon. 
 
 This I own is not the stile of Virgil's Ec- 
 logues; but all have not a like stile, and a Jew 
 is not obliged to write like Virgil. 
 
 I suppose it may likewise be another beautiful 
 strain of eastern eloquence to say, Our sister is 
 yet little; she has no breasts; what shall we do 
 lor our sister? If she be a wall, let us build on 
 her ; if a door, let us shut her. 
 
 We will allow that such words might have es- 
 caped Solomon, though the wisest ot men, in a 
 merry mood. This composition is said to be an 
 epithalamium on his marriage with Pharaoh's 
 daughter : but is it natural that Pharaoh's son-in- 
 law should leave his beloved in the night, to go 
 and saunter in his walnut-yard; and that the 
 queen should run after him bare-footed ? that the 
 city watch should beat her, and take her gown 
 from her ? 
 
 Could a king's daughter have said, lam brown, 
 yet am I beautiful like Solomon's furs ('). Such 
 expressions might be overlooked in a home-spun 
 swain; though, after all, there can be little affi- 
 nity 
 
 (0 The Geneva and Dutch translations say, Cur- 
 tains : Beza has it, Similis sum inhabitantibus aulaea 
 Schelomonis. The author seems disingenuous in 
 most of his quotations. 
 
3i8 SOLOMON. 
 
 nity between furs and a girl's beauty. Wells 
 but Solomon's furs might be exceedingly ad- 
 mired in their time; and for a low-lived Jew in 
 a lay to his sweetheart, to tell her in his Jewish 
 gibberish, that never any Jewish king had such 
 fine furred gowns as her dear self, was not at all 
 out of character; but Solomon must have been 
 strangely infatuated with his furs (o compare 
 them to his mistress. Were a king in our times 
 to write such an epithalamium on his marriage 
 with a neighbouring monarch's daughter, he 
 would forfeit ail title to the laurel. 
 
 Several Rabbis have advanced that this lus- 
 cious eclogue not only is not Solomon's, but is 
 not so much as authentic. Theodore de Mop- 
 sueste was of the same opinion ; and the cele- 
 brated Grotius calls the Song of Songs a libidinous 
 work, Jlagitiosus ; yet is it received as canoni- 
 cal, and reputed to be throughout an allegory of 
 Christ's and his church's espousals. The alle- 
 gory must be owned a little forced; and what 
 the church could mean by its little sister having 
 no hubbies, and that if a wall, she must be built 
 on, is impenetrably obscure (^). 
 
 Ecclesiastes is of a more serious turn, but no 
 more Solomon's than the Song of Songs. The 
 author is commonly thought to be Jesus the son 
 of Sirach, whilst others attribute it to Philo of 
 Biblos; but whoever he was, the Pentateuch 
 seems not to have been known in his time, else 
 
 he 
 
 (*) The Rabbis I think compare the book of Pro- 
 verbs to the outward court of the temple, Ecclesi- 
 astes to the inward court, and the Song of Songs to 
 the sanctuary. 
 
SOLOMON. 319 
 
 he would not have said that, at the time of the 
 deluge Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, or 
 have spoken of Joseph the patriarch as a king of 
 Egypt. 
 
 The Proverbs have been attributed to Isaiah, 
 Elziah, Sobna, Eliakim, Joake, and many 
 others; but to whomsoever we owe this collec- 
 tion of eastern sentences, we mav be sure it does 
 not come from a royal hand. Would a king 
 have said, The wrath of a king is as the roaring 
 of a lion ? This is the language of a subject or 
 slave, who trembles at a frown from his master. 
 Would Solomon have harped so much on a 
 whorish woman ? would he have said, Look not 
 on wine when it appears bright in the glass, and 
 its colour shines ? 
 
 I very much question whether drinking- 
 glasses were made in Solomon's time; the in- 
 vention is but modern : the ancients drank out 
 of wooden or metal cups ; and this single passage 
 betrays that book to be the work of some Alex- 
 andrme Jew, and written long since Alexander. 
 We now come to Ecclesiastes, which Grotius 
 affirms to have been written in the time of Zoro- 
 babel. This author's freedom is known to every 
 body ; he says, '* That men are in nothing bet- 
 " ter than beasts ; that it is belter never to have 
 been born than to exist; that there is no other 
 life; that the only good is to eat and drink, 
 and be merry with the woman one loves." 
 Solomon perhaps might have talked in this 
 manner to some ot his women, and some con- 
 strue these sayings as objections which he makes 
 to himself; but besides the libertinism of which 
 they strongly savour, they have nothing of the 
 appearance of objections ; and to make an author 
 
 \ mean 
 
 
320 SENSATION. 
 
 mean the contrary of what he says, is an insulJ 
 on the world. 
 
 However, several of the fathers tell us, that 
 Solomon repented, and imposed on himself a 
 severe penance: now this should silence all 
 animadversions on his conduct. 
 
 But though these books were written by a 
 Jew, what is that to us ? The Christian religion 
 is indeed founded on Judaism, but not on all the 
 Jewish books. Why should the Song of Songs 
 be held more sacred among us than the fables of 
 the Talmud ? The answer is, because we have 
 included it in the Hebrew canon. And what is 
 this same canon? It is a collection of authentic 
 works. Well, and must a work of course be 
 divine, for being authentic? For instance, a 
 history of the kings of Juda and of Sichem, what 
 is it but a history ? A strange prepossession, 
 indeed ! We despise and abhor the Jews ; and 
 yet we insist, that all such of their writings 
 which we have collected, bear the sacred stamp 
 of divinity. Never was such a contradiction 
 heard of! 
 
 SENSATION. 
 
 iw/YSTERS, we are told, have two senses, 
 moles four, and other animals, like men, have 
 -five. Some are for admitting a sixth, but it is 
 evident that the voluptuous sensation, which is 
 what they mean, comes within the touch; and 
 that five senses make up our whole portion. 
 We cannot conceive or desire any thing beyond. 
 The inhabitants ot other globes may have sen ♦ 
 ses which we know nothing of: the number of 
 
 the 
 
SENSATION- 321 
 
 the senses may gradually increase from globe to 
 globe; and the being endued with innumerable 
 senses and all perfect, may be the apex or period 
 of all beings. 
 
 But we with our five organs, what power 
 have we over them ? It is always involuntarily 
 that we feel, and never from our own inclina* 
 tion; in the presence of the object it is impossi- 
 ble not to have the sensation appointed by our 
 nature. The sensation, though in us, does not 
 at all depend on us; we receive it, and in what 
 manner? Is there any affinity between the vi- 
 brations of the air, the words of a song, and the 
 impression which these words make on my 
 brain ? 
 
 Thought seems to us something strange; but 
 sensation is no less wonderful ; a divine power 
 equally shews itself in the sensation of the 
 meanest insect, as in a Newton's brain. Yet at 
 seeing thousands of little animals destroyed, you 
 are not in the least concerned what becomes of 
 their sensitive faculty, though this faculty be the 
 work of the Being of beings. You look on them 
 as machines in nature, born to perish and make 
 room for others. 
 
 Wherefore and how should their sensations 
 subsist, when they no longer exist ? What need 
 is there for the author of every thing that has 
 being, to preserve properties of which the sub- 
 ject is extinct? It may as well be said, that the 
 power of the Sensitive Plant, to draw in its leaves 
 towards its twigs, subsists when the plant is 
 withered. Here undoubtedly it will be asked, 
 how it is that the sensation of animals perishing 
 with them, man's faculty survives him? That is 
 a question beyond the verge of my knowledge; 
 
 Y all 
 
322 SENSATION. 
 
 all I can say to it is, the eternal Author both of 
 sensation and thought, alone knows how he im- 
 parts it, and how he preserves it. 
 
 It was the current opinion of all antiquity, 
 that nothing is in our understanding, which was 
 not before in our senses. Descartes, in his Phi- 
 losophical Romances, advanced that we had 
 metaphysical ideas before we so much as knew 
 our nurse's breasts. A college of divines con- 
 demned this dogma, not because it was an error, 
 but a novelty: afterwards it adopted this very 
 error, because it had been overthrown by Locke, 
 an English philosopher; and an Englishman, to 
 be sure, must be in the wrong. After such 
 shifts 6f opinion, it has again proscribed that 
 ancient truth, that the senses are the inlets to 
 the understanding. It seems to have acted like 
 governments loaded with debts, sometimes 
 giving a currency to certain notes, and after- 
 wards suppressing them. But this college's 
 notes have quite lost their currency for some 
 time past. 
 
 In spight of all the colleges of the world, phi- 
 losophers will still see that our first knowledge 
 we receive from our sensations; and that our 
 memory is no more than a continued sensation : 
 a man born without any of his five senses would, 
 could he live, be totally void of any ideas. It is 
 owing to the senses that we even have our me- 
 taphysical notions : for how should a circle or a 
 triangle be measured, without having seen or 
 felt a triangle? How can we form an idea, im- 
 perfect as it is, of infinitude, but by enlarging 
 boundaries ? and how can we throw down boun- 
 daries, without having seen or felt them? 
 
 An eminent philosopher (Traite des Sensa- 
 tions, 
 
SENSATION. 323 
 
 tlons, torn. ii. p. 128) says, Sensation includes 
 all our faculties. 
 
 What must be inferred from all this? That 
 I leave lo reflective readers f 'j. 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 (*) Mr. Voltaire docs not tell us what inferences 
 we are to draw from the foregoing doctrine of sensa- 
 tions; but we must confess, the whole article contains 
 the' substance of the Lucretian arguments against the 
 immateriality of human souls, which is this; that, 
 since the five senses are the only means we have of 
 perception, and these depend upon the corporeal 
 organs, the soul without the body is incapable of per- 
 ception, and therefore is nothing. In answer to 
 which we must observe, first, that though the senses 
 or perceptions depend on the corporeal organs, as to 
 their present exercise, yet in their nature they are 
 really distinct powers, and cannot arise from any of 
 the known properties or qualities of matter, as the 
 learned Dr. Clarke hath fully demonstrated. Se- 
 condly, our five senses cannot be said to be the only 
 possible ways of perception, by an absolute necessity 
 in the nature of the thing: these are purely arbitrary; 
 and the same power that gave us these, may have 
 given others to other beings: if they be purely arbi- 
 trary, the want of them does not imply a total want of 
 perception; but the same soul which in the present 
 state has the powers of reflection, reason, and judg- 
 ment, which are faculties intirely different from sense, 
 may as easily in another state have different ways of 
 perception. To say that the senses are necessarily 
 the only ways of perception, is a mere prejudice 
 arising from custom; for supposing men had never 
 known the use of sight, would not they have the 
 same reason to conclude, there were but four possible 
 ways of perception, and that sight is an impossible, 
 imaginary power, as they now p.esume the faculties 
 
 Y 2 of 
 
324 SOUL. 
 
 SOUL (') 
 
 It would be a fine thing to see one's soul. 
 Know thyself, is an excellent precept, which 
 God alone can practise. Who but he can know 
 his essence ? 
 
 We 
 
 of immaterial beings to be so? Men from their own 
 mere negative ignorance, should never dispute against 
 the possibility of things. See Dr. Clarke on the Be- 
 ing and Attributes of God. 
 
 (*) This article abounds with metaphysical ques- 
 tions concerning the immortality of the soul, which 
 our author says can be only made known to us by 
 faith. We apprehend he is much mistaken, and 
 shall therefore give the reader the proofs of the im- 
 mortality of the soul, or of a future state of rewards 
 and punishments. This we have attempted the ra- 
 ther, as throughout his whole work he seems inclined 
 to discredit this doctrine, the basis of all natural as 
 well as of revealed religion. With regard to the no- 
 tions of schoolmen, mentioned by M. Voltaire, they 
 are a matter of no consequence, as they do not affect 
 'the doctrine itself, but are only designed to amuse 
 an idle curiosity. 
 
 I. In this present world the natural order of things 
 is so perverted, that vice often flourishes in great 
 prosperity, and virtue falls under the heaviest calami* 
 ties ; whence we conclude, there must be a future 
 state of rewards and punishments. For if there be a 
 God, he is infinitely just and good ; and it must needs 
 be his will, that all rational creatures shall imitate his 
 moral perfections ; he cannot therefore but be pleased 
 with such as obey his will, and displeased with those 
 who disobey it; thence it follows, that in vindication 
 of the honour of his government, he must signify his 
 approbation or displeasure some time or other, by 
 
 making 
 
SOUL. 325 
 
 We call soul, that which animates ; and so 
 contracted is our understanding, that we know 
 
 little 
 
 makino; finally a suitable difference between those who 
 obey him, and those who act otherwise ; consequent- 
 ly there must be a state of rewards and punishments 
 after this life, wherein all the present difficulties of 
 providence fhall be cleared up by an exact admini- 
 stration of justice. To say, that virtue is sufficient to 
 its own happiness, is talking idly with the Stoics ; 
 since in the present state of things, virtue is not itself 
 the chief good, but only the means to obtain it ; and 
 he who dies for the sake of virtue, is not really more 
 happy, abstracted from a regard to futurity, than he 
 who dies for any fond opinion or humour. 
 
 II. Considering the nature and operations of the 
 soul itself, none of the known qualities of matter can 
 in any possible variation, division, or composition, 
 produce sense and thought. The powers of the soul 
 are the most remote from the known properties of 
 matter. It is absurd to suppose the soul made up of 
 innumerable consciousnesses, as matter of innumera- 
 ble parts ; therefore the seat of thought must be a 
 simple substance, such as cannot be divided into 
 pieces like matter; consequently, the soul is not lia- 
 ble to be dissolved along with the body ; therefore it 
 will naturally be immortal. 
 
 ■ III. A third argument in favour of a future state, 
 is drawn from men's natural desire of immortahty. 
 For it is not at all probable, that God should have giv- 
 en men appetites, which were never to be satisfied ; 
 desires, that had no objects to answer them; and 
 unavoidable apprehensions of what was never to hap- 
 pen. 
 
 IV. A fourth argument is drawn from men's con- 
 science, or judgment of their own conduct. Virtu- 
 ous actions are attended with self-applause and expec- 
 
 Y 3 tation 
 
326 SOUL. 
 
 little more of it. Three-fourths of our species 
 do not go that length, and little concern them- 
 selves about the thinking being; the other fourth 
 is seeking, but nobody has found, nor ever will 
 find. 
 
 Thou poor pedant seefl a vegetating plant, 
 and thou sayeft Vegetation, or even Vegetative 
 soul. Thou observest bodies have and give 
 motion, and this with thee is strength. Thy 
 hound's aptness in learning to hunt under thy 
 inftruction, thou callest instinct, sensitive soul; 
 and as thou hast combined ideas, that thou 
 termest spirit. But 
 
 tation of rewards; crimes, on the other hand, are 
 followed by remorse, and dread of punishment. 
 Hence it is not therefore at all Hkely, that the Deity 
 should have so framed the mind of man, as necessa- 
 rily to pass upon itself a judgment, which shall never 
 be verified ; and stand perpetually convicted by a sen- 
 tence, which shall never be confirmed. 
 
 V. A fifth and last argument is drawn from man's 
 being by nature an accountable creature, and capable 
 of being judged. Every moral action a person per- 
 forms proceeds either from some good, or bad mo- 
 tive ; is either conformable or contrary to right reason, 
 and worthy of praise, or dispraise. Therefore it is 
 highly reasonable to suppose, that since all the moral 
 difference of our actions consists in the right use or 
 abuse of those faculties, which we have received from 
 a superior being, there will at some time or other be 
 an inquiry made into the grounds of our several ac- 
 tions, whether they have been agreeable or disagreea- 
 ble to the rule that was given us, and a suitable judg- 
 ment be passed upon them. See further concerning 
 this subject. Dr. Clarke on the Being and Attributes 
 of God, and Woolaston*s Religion of Nature deline- 
 ated. 
 
SOUL. 327 
 
 But pray what do you mean by these words, 
 This flower vegetates ? But is there a real being 
 named Vegetation ? One body impels another, 
 but is there in it a distinct being called Strength ? 
 This hound brings thee a partridge ; but is there 
 a being called Instinct ? Wouldest thou not laugh 
 at a philosopher, had he even been Alexander's 
 preceptor, who fliould tell thee, All animals 
 live ; therefore there is in them a being, a sub- 
 stantial form, which is life? 
 
 Could a tulip speak, and fhould it say to thee. 
 We are evidently two beings united, wouldest 
 thou not contemptuoufly turn thy back on the 
 tulip ? 
 
 Let us firft see what thou knowest, and of 
 what thou art certain : that thou walkest with 
 thy feet ; that thou digestest by thy stomach ; 
 that thou feelest all over thy body ; and that 
 thou thinkest by thy head. Let us see if thy 
 reason alone could give thee so much insight, 
 as to conclude, without any supernatural help, 
 that thou hast a soul ? , 
 
 The first philosophers, both Chaldeans and 
 Egyptians, said, There must be something in us 
 that produces our thoughts. This something 
 must be very subtile; it is a breath ; it is fire; 
 it is aether ; it is a quinteflence ; it is a light form ; 
 it is an entelechia ; it is a number ; it is a har- 
 mony. According to the divine Plato, it is a 
 compound of the same and of the other; and 
 Epicurus from Democritus has said, that it is 
 thinking atoms in us: but, friend, how does an 
 atom thmk ? Own your ignorance here. 
 
 The opinion which, unquestionably we should 
 embrace, is that the soul is an immaterial be- 
 ing ; but as certainly you do not conceive what 
 
 Y 4 this 
 
328 SOUL. 
 
 this immaterial being is. No, answer the learn, 
 ed : but we know that its nature is to think. 
 And how cortie you to know that ? We know 
 it, because it does think. O doctors! O school- 
 men ! I am very much afraid that you are as ig- 
 norant as Epicurus. The nature of a stone is 
 to fall, because it falls ; but I ask you what 
 makes it fall ? 
 
 We know, continue they, that a stone has no 
 soul. Granted, 1 believe it as well as you. 
 We know that a negative and an affirmative are 
 not divisible, are not parts of matter; I am of 
 your opinion. But matter, otherwise unknown 
 to us, has qualities that are not divisible, as gra- 
 vitation towards a center given it by God. Now 
 this gravitation has no parts, is not divisible. 
 The motory force of bodies is not a being com- 
 posed of parts ; neither can it be said that the 
 vegetation of all organized bodies, their life, 
 their instinct, are diftinct, or divisible beings. 
 Ydu can no more cut in two the vegetation ol a 
 rose, the life of a horse, the instinct of a dog, 
 than you can cut in two a sensation, a negation, 
 or an affirmation. Thus your fine argument, tak- 
 en from the indivisibility of thought, proves 
 nothing at all. 
 
 What then do you call your soul ? what idea 
 have you of it ? All you can of yourself, with- 
 out a revelation, allow to be in yourself, is a 
 power unknown to you of feeling and thinking. 
 
 Now, honestly tell me, is this power of feel- 
 ing and thinking, the same as that by which you 
 digest and walk ? You tell me it is not : for jt 
 would be in vain for your understanding to say 
 to your ftomach, digest ; it would do no such 
 thing if it be out of order; and to as little effect 
 
 would 
 
SOUL. 319 
 
 would your immaterial being command your feet 
 to walk; they will not budge, if the gout be in 
 them. 
 
 The Greeks were well aware that thought of- 
 ten had no concern with the play of our organs ; 
 instead of those organs, they substituted a sen- 
 sitive soul, and for the thoughts, a more fine and 
 more subtile soul, a nous. 
 
 But let us come to this soul of thought, which 
 on a thousand occasions has the superintendency 
 over the sensitive soul. The thinking soul or- 
 ders its hands to take, and they take ; but it ne- 
 ver tells its heart to beat, its blood to flow, or 
 its chyle to form itself; all this is done without 
 it. Thus are two souls full of business, and ve- 
 ry little mistresses in their own home. 
 
 Now certainly that first sensitive soul does not 
 exist ; it is nothing but the motion of your or- 
 gans. Observe this, O man ! that thy weak 
 reason affords thee no more proof that the other 
 soul exists. It is only by faith that thou canst 
 know it. Thou art born; thou livest; thou 
 actest ; thou thinkest; thou sleepest and wak- 
 est without knowing how. God has given 
 thee the faculty of thinking, as he hns given 
 thee all thy other appurtenances ; and had he 
 not come at the time appointed by his provi- 
 dence to inform thee, that thou hast an immate- 
 rial and immortal soul, thou wouldest have been 
 without any proof of it. 
 
 Let us now take a view of the fine systems 
 which philosophy has struck out concerning the 
 souls. 
 
 One says that the soul of man is part of the 
 substance of God himself; another, that it is 
 part of the great all ; a third, that it has been 
 
 created 
 
33© ^ SOUL. 
 
 created from all eternity ; a fourth, tliat it is 
 made and not created : others affirm, that God 
 makes them as they are wanted ; and that they 
 come at the instant of copulation : one cries 
 they are lodged in the seminal animalcules : not 
 at all, says another, they take up their residence 
 in the Falopian tubes. One coming in at the 
 heat of the dispute, bawls. You are all out, the 
 soul stays six weeks till the fcetus be formed, 
 and then possesses itself of the pineal gland ; but 
 if germ prove addle, it goes away to whence it 
 came, till a better opportunity. The last opini- 
 on makes its abode to be in the callous body. 
 This is the situation assigned to it by La Peironie. 
 Indeed none under the king of France's first sur- 
 geon could provide such an apartment for the 
 soul. However, the surgeon has got into bet- 
 ter vogue than his callous body. 
 
 St. Thomas, in his 75th question, &c. says, 
 that the soul is a form Subsistens per se ; that 
 it is all in all; that it's eflence differs from it's 
 power; that there are three vegetative souls, the 
 nutritive, the augmentative, and the generative; 
 that the memory of spiritual things is spiritual, 
 and the memory of corporeal things is corporeal ; 
 that the rational soul is an immaterial form as to 
 the operations ; and material in efTence. St. 
 Thomas has written two thousand pages all of 
 this force and perspicuity. No wonder that 
 schools style him the angelic doctor I 
 
 As many systems have been invented on the 
 manner of this soul's perceptions, when it shall 
 have quitted this body by which it perceived, 
 how iL will hear without ears, smell without a 
 nose, and feel without hands ; what body it 
 will afterwards re-assume, whether that which 
 
 it 
 
SOUL. 331 
 
 it had at the age of two years, or of fourscore? 
 how the Me, the identity of the* same person, 
 will subsist? how the soul of a man, who was 
 seized with ideotism at the age of fifteen, and 
 died in that state at seventy, will recover the 
 train of ideas which it had at its age of puberty ? 
 by what dexterity, a soul, one of whose legs 
 was cut off in Europe, and which lost an arm 
 in America, will find this leg and arm again, 
 after their several mutations into esculent herbs, 
 and the blood of some other animal ? There 
 would be no end of enumerating all the extra- 
 vagancies which this poor human soul has 
 broached concerning it's sell. 
 
 We live UDon this earth in the same manner 
 as the man with the iron mask spent his days in 
 prison, without knowing his original, or the 
 reason of his being confined, which excited a 
 general curiosity. 
 
 If any man has discovered a ray of light in 
 this region of darkness, perhaps it is Malle- 
 branche, notwithstanding the general prejudices 
 against his system. It does not differ greatly 
 from that of the Stoics ; and who knows but 
 these two opinions, properly rectified, come 
 nearest the truth ? There is, 1 think, something 
 very sublime in that ancient notion: ** We exist 
 *' in God; our thought, our sentiments, are de- 
 *' rived from the Supreme Being." 
 
 A most remarkable circumstance is, that in 
 the laws of God's people, not a word is said 
 of the soul's spirituality and immortality, nothing 
 in the Decalogue, nothing in Leviticus, nor in 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 It is very certain, it is manifest, that Moses 
 no where proposes to the Jews rewards and 
 
 punishments 
 
332 SOUL. 
 
 punishments in another state ; that he never 
 mentions to them the immortality ot their souls; 
 that he never encourages them with the hopes of 
 heaven, nor does he threaten them with hell ; 
 his promises and menaces are all temporal. 
 
 Before his death, he tells them in Deuterono- 
 my : 
 
 ** If, after having children and grand chil- 
 •' dren, you deal falsely, you shall be cut off 
 ** from the land, and be made little among the 
 " nations. 
 
 *' I am a jealous God, punishing the iniquity 
 •* of the fathers to the third and fourth gene- 
 •* ration. 
 
 Honour thy father and mother, that thy life 
 may be long. 
 " You shall never want food. 
 
 If you follow after strange gods, you shall 
 
 " be destroyed 
 
 If you obey the Lord, you shall have rain 
 in spring and autumn ; corn, oil, wine, and 
 fodder for your beasts, that you may eat and 
 «* be satisfied. 
 
 Put these words into your hearts, about 
 your hands, between your eyes ; write them 
 on your doors, that your days may be mul- 
 tiplied; 
 
 " Do as I order you, without adding or taking 
 away any thing. 
 
 If a prophet arise among you, foretelling 
 strange things, and his prophecy is true, and 
 what he says comes to pass ; should he say to 
 you, Come, let us follow strange gods, ye 
 shall immediately kill him ; and all the peo- 
 pie smite him after you. 
 
 « When 
 
 *i 
 
 b. 
 it 
 
 •( 
 
 (t 
 
 C( 
 
 it 
 u 
 
 *i 
 
 «( 
 n 
 (( 
 (i 
 It 
 

 <i 
 (( 
 
 SOUL. 333 
 
 *' When the Lord shall have delivered the 
 " nations into your hands, put them all to the 
 " sword, without sparing one single man ; thou 
 *' shall not pity any one. 
 
 ** Eat no unclean birds, as the eagle, and the 
 " ossifrage, and the ospray, &c. 
 
 *' Eat no creatures which chew the cud and 
 
 are not cloven footed, as the camel, the. hare, 
 
 and the cony. 
 
 " Whilst you observe all those ordinances 
 
 you shall be blessed in your houses and in 
 
 your fields ; the fruits of your body, of your 
 *' land, of your cattle shall be blessed. 
 
 *' If you fail to observe all these ordinances 
 ** and ceremonies, cursed shall ye be in your 
 ** houses and. in your fields. 
 
 " Famine and poverty shall come on you; 
 
 you shall die, distressed by cold, want, and 
 
 sickness; you shall have the itch, the scab; 
 
 you shall have ulcers in your knees, and in 
 
 your legs. 
 
 " The strangers shall lend to you on usury— 
 
 because ye have not served the Lord. 
 
 " And ye shall eat the fruit of your bodies, 
 " and the flesh of your sons and of your daugh- 
 ** ters." 
 
 Do not all these promises and threatnlngs re- 
 late intirely to things of time and this world ? 
 is there a single word in them concerning the 
 soul's immortality, and a future life ? 
 
 Several celebrated commentators have thought, 
 that those two capital doctrines were very well 
 known to Moses, and in proot of it produce Ja- 
 cob's words, who apprehending that his son had 
 been devoured by wild beasts, says In his grief, 
 I shall go down with my son to the grave, in in- 
 
 
334 SOUL. 
 
 fernum^ into hell ; that is to say, as my son is 
 dead, let me die. 
 
 They farther prove It by passages from Isaiah 
 and Ezekiel ; but the Hebrews, to whom Moses 
 was speaking, knew nothing of those two pro- 
 phets, as not living till some ages after. 
 
 To dispute about Moses's private sentiments is 
 wasting words to no purpose. The certain tact 
 is, that in his public laws he had never so much 
 as once made mention of a life to come, limiting 
 all punishments and all rewards to the present 
 state. If he was acquainted with a future life, 
 why did he not expresly set forth such an im- 
 portant tenet? and if he was a stranger to it, what 
 was the scope of his mission? 
 
 This is a question advanced by several great 
 men : and in answer to it they say, that Moses's 
 Lord, who is the lord ot all men, reserved to 
 himself the prerogative of explaining to the 
 Jews in his own time, a doctrine which they 
 were not in a condition to understand, when in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 Had Moses taught the doctrine of the Immor- 
 tality of the soul, a great school among the Jews 
 would not always have opposed it. Nay, that 
 great school, the Sudducees, would not have 
 been allowed of in the state, much less would 
 they have held the chief employments ; and still 
 much less would high-priests have been taken 
 from such a body. 
 
 It appears that the Jews were not divided into 
 three sects, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the 
 Essenes, till after the foundation of Alexandria. 
 Josephus the historian, who was a Pharisee, say» 
 in book XIII. of his antiquities, that the Phari- 
 sees believed the metempsichosis. The Saddu- 
 cees 
 
SOUL. 335 
 
 cces held that the soul perished with the body. 
 The opinion ot the Essenes was, that souls were 
 immortal and came down into bodies from the 
 upper regions of the air in an aerial form ; that 
 their return thither is by a rapid attraction ; and, 
 after death, those which belonged to good per- 
 sons have mansions assigned them beyond the 
 ocean, in a country where there is neither heat 
 nor cold, wind nor rain, whilst the souls of the 
 wicked go to a quite contrary climate; such was 
 the theology of the Jews. 
 
 He who alone was to set mankind ri^ht came 
 and overthrew these three sects, but without 
 him we never should have been able to know 
 any thing of the soul : tor philosopheis never 
 had any determinate idea of it; and Moses, the 
 only true legislator of the world before our di- 
 vine teacher; Moses, who spoke to God face 
 to face, and who saw only his hinder parts, has 
 left mankind in their natural ignorance of this 
 momentous article : so that it is but seventeen 
 hundred years since there has been any cer- 
 tainty of the existence and immortality of the 
 soul. 
 
 Cicero had only surmises ; his grand-son and 
 grand-daughter might have learned farther from 
 the first Galileans who came to Pvome. 
 
 But before, and since that time, in all the 
 parts of the earth, where the apostles had not 
 preached the gospel, every one might say to his 
 soul. Who art thou ? whence comest thou ? 
 what art thou doing ? whither art thou going ? 
 Thou art, 1 know not what ; thou thinkest and 
 perceivest; and wert thou to perceive and think 
 a hundred thousand millions of years, never 
 wouldest thou, by thine own faculties, without 
 
 the 
 
336 SUPERSTITION. 
 
 the assistance of God, know a jot more than 
 thou knowest now. 
 
 Know man, that God has given thee under- 
 standing to guide thy behaviour, and not to pe- 
 netrate into the essence of the things which he 
 has created. 
 
 SUPERSTITION {'), 
 
 Wi 
 
 Hatever goes beyond the adoration of one 
 Supreme Being, and a submission of the heart to 
 his eternal orders, is generally superstition ; and 
 a most dangerous superstition is the annexing 
 of the pardon of crimes to certain ceremonies. 
 
 *' Et nigras mactant pecudes et manibus divis 
 
 " Inferias mittunt. 
 
 " O faciles nimium qui tristia crimina caedis 
 
 " Flaminea toUi posse putatis aqua'* 
 
 You imagine that God will forget your having 
 killed a man, only for your washing yourself in 
 a river, sacrificing a black sheep, and some words 
 
 being 
 
 (') The doctrine contained in this article may 
 come very well from the mouth of Cicero, Seneca, 
 or Plutarch ; but if it intends to suppress all external 
 ceremonies of religion, it is not suitable to a believer 
 of Christianity. We are taught that every particular 
 or national church hath authority to decree and appoint 
 ceremonies or religious rites, without being charged 
 with superstition. And we believe that baptism and 
 the Lord's- Prayer, which constitute a part of our ex- 
 ternal worship, were ordained by Christ, and conse- 
 quently a divine institution. Superstition properly 
 consists in the practice of i;uch ceremonies as are re- 
 pugnant to reason, or the word of God. 
 
SUPERSTITION. 337 
 
 being said over you. Of course then a second 
 murder will be forgiven you at the same easy 
 rate, and so a third ; and a hundred murders 
 will only cost you a hundred black sheep, and a 
 hundred ablutions! Poor mortals! away with 
 such conceits; the best way is, commit no mur- 
 der, and so save your black sheep. 
 
 How scandalous is it to imagine that a priest of 
 Isis and Cybele can reconcile you to the deity, 
 by playing on cymbals and castanets ! And what 
 is this priest of Cybele, this vagrant gelding, 
 who lives by your weakness, that he shall set up 
 to be as a mediator between heaven and you ? Has 
 he any commission from God ? He takes money 
 from you only for muttering some strange words; 
 and you can think that the Being of 3eings rati- 
 fies what this hypocrite says. 
 
 Some superstitions are innocent; you dance 
 on Diana or Pomona's festivals, or those of any 
 of the secondary gods in your calendar: be it so ; 
 dancing is pleasant, healthy, and exhilarating; 
 it hurls no body ; but do not take it into your 
 head that Pomona and Vertumnus are mightily 
 pleased at your having frolicked in honour of 
 them; and that should you fail to do so, they 
 would make you smart for it. The gardener's 
 spade and hoe are the only Pomona and Vertum- 
 nus. Don't be so weak as to think that your 
 garden will be destroyed by a tempest, if you 
 omit dancing the pyrrhic or the cordax. 
 
 There is another superstition which perhaps is 
 excusable, and even an incentive to virtue ; I 
 mean deifying great men who have been signal 
 benefactors to their own species. To be sure it 
 would be better only to look on them as venerable 
 personages, and especially to endeavour to imi- 
 
 Z tate 
 
338 TOLERATION. 
 
 tate them : therefore revere, without worshipping, 
 a Solon, a Thales, a Pythagoras; but by no 
 means do not pay thy adorations to Hercules for 
 having cleansed Augeas's stables, and lying with 
 fifty girls in one night. 
 
 Especially forbear setting up a worship for 
 wretches without any other merit than ignorance, 
 enthusiasm, and nastiness ; who made a vow of 
 idleness and beggary, and gloried in such infamy : 
 fit subjects indeed for deification after their death ; 
 who were never known to do the least good when 
 living! 
 
 Observe that the most superstitious times have 
 ever been noted for the greatest enormities. 
 
 TOLERATION, 
 
 W HAT is toleration ? It is a privilege to 
 which human nature is entitled : we are all made 
 up of weakness and errors, it therefore behoves 
 us mutually to forgive another's follies. This is 
 the very first law of nature. 
 
 Though the Gueber, the Banian, the Jew, the 
 Mahometan, the lettered Chinese, the Greek, the 
 Roman Catholic, the Quaker, traffic together on 
 the 'Change of Amsterdam, London, Surat, or 
 Bassora ; they will never offer to lift up a po- 
 niard against each other, to gain proselytes : where- 
 fore then, since the first council of Nice, have 
 we been almost continually cutting each other's 
 throats ? 
 
 Constantine began with issuing an edict, allow- 
 ing the exercise of all religions ; and some time 
 after turned persecutor. Before him, all the se- 
 vere treatment of the Christians proceeded purely 
 from their beginning to make a party in the state. 
 
 The 
 
TOLERATION. 339 
 
 f he Romans permitted every kind of worship, 
 even of the Jev^^s and Egyptians, both which 
 they so very much despised. How then came 
 Rome to tolerate these forms ?' It was because 
 neither the Egyptians nor the Jews themselves 
 went about to exterminate the ancient religion ot 
 the empire ; they did not cross seas and lands to 
 make proselytes ; the getting of money was all 
 they minded ; whereas it is indisputable, that the 
 Christians could not be easy, unless their religion 
 bore the sway. The Jews were disgusted at the 
 statue of Jupiter being set up in Jerusalem ; 
 but the Christians would not so much as allow it 
 to be in the capitol of Rome. St. Thomas can- 
 didly owns, that it was only for want of power 
 that the Christians did not dethronethe emperors: 
 they held that all the world ought to embrace their 
 religion ; this of course made them enemies to 
 all the world, till its happy conversion, 
 
 Their controversial points likewise set them at 
 enmity one against another concerning the divi- 
 nity of Christ: they who denied it were anathe- 
 matized as Ebionites; and these anathematized 
 the worshippers of Jesus. 
 
 It some would have all goods to be in com- 
 mon, as they alledged was the custom in the 
 Apostles time ; their adversaries call them Nico- 
 laitans, and accuse them of the most horrid 
 crimes. If others set up for a mystical devotion, 
 they are branded with the appellation of Gnostics, 
 and opposed with extreme vehemence and seve- 
 rity. Marcion, foi disputing on the Trinity, got 
 the name of an idolater. 
 
 Tertullian, Praxeas, Origen, Novatus, Nova- 
 tianus, Sabellus, and Donatus, were all perse- 
 cuted by their brethren before Constantine's time : 
 
 Z 2 and 
 
340 TOLERATION. 
 
 and no sooner had Constantine established the 
 Christian religion, than the Athanasians and Eu- 
 sebians fell foul of one another ; and ever since, 
 down to our own times, the Christian church has 
 been deluged with blood. 
 
 The Jewish people were, I own, extremely 
 barbarous and merciless ; massacring all the inha- 
 bitants of a little wretched country, to which it 
 had no more right ('j than their vile descendants 
 have to Paris or London. However, when Naa- 
 man is cured of his leprosy by dipping seven 
 times in the river Jordan, and by way of expres- 
 sing his gratitude to Elijah, from whom he had 
 the secret of that easy cure, he tells him that he 
 will worship the God of the Jews ; he yet re- 
 serves to himself the liberty to worship his sove- 
 reign's God likewise ; and asks Elisha's leave, 
 which the prophet readily grants (^). The Jews 
 worshipped their God, but never were offended 
 at, or so much as thought it strange, that every 
 nation had its own Deity. They acquiesced in 
 Chamoth's giving a tract of land to the Moabites, 
 
 provided 
 
 (*) This is a mistake of M.Voltaire. The Is- 
 raelites treated the Cananites with great severity by the 
 express command of God, who would have these na- 
 tions extirpated because of their horrid impiety, which 
 soon made them unworthy of the lands they possessed 
 and was the cause of their being given away to the 
 Israelites. 
 
 (*) This story of Naaman is not fairly represented. 
 Naaman does not ask Elisha's permission to worship 
 his master's God, but to bow himself down along with 
 his master, who leaned upon his hand ; so that it was 
 not a religious, but a civil ceremony, in the discharge 
 of his office. Thus Abraham, Gen. xxiii. 7. bowed 
 himself to the people of the land. 
 
TOLERATION. 34I 
 
 provided they would let them quietly enjoy what 
 they held from their god. Jacob made no diffi- 
 culty of marrying an idolater's daughter; for 
 Laban had another kind of god than he whom 
 Jacob worshipped. These are instances of tole- 
 ration among the most haughty, most obstinate, 
 and most cruel people of all antiquity; and we, 
 overlooking what little indulgence was among 
 them, have imitated only their sanguinary ran- 
 cour. 
 
 Every individual persecuting another for not 
 being of his opinion, is a monster; this is evi- 
 dent beyond all dispute ; but the government ! 
 men in power, princes ! how are they to deal 
 with those of a different worship from theirs? If 
 foreigners and powerful, it is certain a prince 
 will not disdain entering into an alliance with 
 them. Francis I. though his most Christian ma- 
 jesty, unites with the Musselmen against Charles 
 V. likewise a most Christian monarch. Francis 
 supplies the German Lutherans with money to 
 support their revolt against the emperor ; but, 
 according to custom, burns them in his own 
 country : thus, from policy, he pays them in 
 Saxony; and, from policy, makes bonfires of 
 them at Paris. But what was the consequence ? 
 Persecution ever makes proselytes. France came 
 to swarm with new Protestants, who at first 
 quietly submitted to be hanged, and afterwards 
 hung others; civil wars came on ; and St. Bar- 
 tholomew's day, or the massacre ot Paris, crowned 
 all. Thus this corner of the world became 
 worse than all that ever the ancients or moderns 
 have said of hell. 
 
 Ye fools, never to pay a proper worship to 
 the God who made you ! wi etches, on whom the 
 
 Z 3 example 
 
342 TYRANNY. 
 
 example oi the Noachidae, the lettered Chinese, 
 the Persees, and all wise men have had no influ- 
 ence ! monsters, to whom superstitions are ne- 
 cessary as carrion to crows ! You have been al- 
 ready told it, and I have nothing else to tell you; 
 whilst you have but two religions among you, 
 they will be ever at daggers drawing; if you 
 have thirty they will live quietly. Turn your 
 eyes to the grand signior, he has among his sub- 
 jects Guebers, Banians, Greeks, Latins, Chris- 
 tians, and Nestorians. Whoever goes about to 
 raise any disturbance is surely impaled ; and 
 thus all live in peace and quietness, 
 
 TYRANNY. 
 
 XjY a tyrant is meant a sovereign who makes 
 his humour the law, who seizes on his subjects 
 substance, and afterwards inlists them to go and 
 give his neighbours the like treatment. These 
 tyrants are not known in Europe. 
 
 Tyranny is distinguished into that of one per- 
 son and of many ; a body invading the rights of 
 other bodies, and corrupting the laws that it may 
 exercise a despotism apparently legal, is the lat- 
 ter tyranny ; but Europe likewise has none of 
 these tyrants. 
 
 Under which tyranny would you chuse to live ? 
 Under none ; but had I the option, the tyranny 
 of one person appears to me less odious and 
 dreadful than that of many. A despot has al- 
 ways some intervals of good humour; which is 
 hever known in an assembly of despots. It a 
 tyrant has done me an injury, there is his mis- 
 tress, his confessor, or his page, by means of 
 whom 1 may appease him, and obtain redress; but 
 
 a set 
 
VIRTUE. 343 
 
 a set ot supercilious tyrants is inaccessible to all 
 applications. If they are not unjust, still they 
 are austere and harsh ; and no favours are ever 
 known to come from them. 
 
 Under one despot, I need only fland up against 
 a wall when I see him coming by, or prostrate my- 
 self, or knock my forehead against the ground, 
 according to the custom of the country ; but un- 
 der a body of perhaps a hundred despots, I may 
 be obliged to repeat this ceremony a hundred times 
 a day, which is not a little troublesome to those 
 who are not very nimble. Another disagreeable 
 circumstance is, if my farm happens to be in the 
 neighbourhood of one of our great lords, it is 
 unknown what damages I am obliged to put up 
 with ; and if I have a law-suit with a relation to 
 a relation of one of their high- mightinesses, it 
 will infallibly go against me. I am very much 
 afraid that in this world things will come to such 
 a pass, as to have no other option than being 
 cither hammer or anvil. Happy he! who gets 
 clear of this alternative. 
 
 W] 
 
 VIRTUE (»). 
 
 HAT is virtue? Doing good to others. 
 How can I give the name of virtue to any one 
 
 but 
 
 (^) Our author may give some offence to minute 
 critics in the following article, but upon consideration 
 the reader will find the whole to be a logomachia. By 
 virtue he means charity and beneficence. The cardi- 
 nal and theological virtues he calls excellent qualities, 
 but does not allow them to be virtues in regard to our 
 neighbour. No body pretends tiiey are; but they are 
 
 Z 4 virtues 
 
344 VIRTUE. 
 
 but to him who does me good ? I am in want, 
 you relieve me ; I am in danger, you come to 
 my assistance ; I have been deceived, you tell 
 me the truth. I am ill used, you comfort me; 
 I am ignorant, you instruct me : I must say then 
 you are virtuous. But what will become of the 
 cardinal and theological virtues ? Let some even 
 remain in the schools. 
 
 What is your temperance to me ? It is no 
 more than observance of a rule of health; you 
 will be the better for it ; and much good may 
 it do you. If you have faith and hope, better 
 still; they will procure you eternal lite. Your 
 theological virtues are heavenly gifts, and those 
 you call cardinal are excellent qualities for your 
 guidance in life; but, relatively to your neigh- 
 bour, they are no virtues. The prudent man 
 does good to himself ; the virtuous to men in ge- 
 neral. Very well was it said by St. Paul, that 
 charity is better than faith and hope. 
 
 But how! are no virtues to be admitted but 
 those by which others are benefited ? No indeed. 
 We live in a society ; consequently there is no- 
 thing truly good to us, but what is tor the good 
 of such society. If a hermit is sober and de- 
 vout, 
 
 virtues in regard to ourselves, and to the Deity ; or 
 they are excellent qualities, for we shall not dispute 
 about the word. We do not perceive, nevertheless, 
 how M. Voltaire can be said to give indirect encou- 
 ragement in this article to private vices, for he ac- 
 knowledges that gluttony, drunkenness, &c. are 
 blemishes or defects in a hermit, though not perni- 
 cious to society, because he does not live in a social 
 state. 
 
VIRTUE. 345 
 
 vout, and among other mortifications wears a 
 sackcloth shirt; such a one 1 set down as a 
 saint; but before I shall style him virtuous, let 
 him do some act of virtue which will promote 
 the well being of his fellow creatures. Whilst 
 he lives by himself, to us he is neither good 
 nor bad; he is nothing. If St. Bruno recon- 
 ciled families, and relieved the indigent, he 
 was virtuous; if he prayed and fasted in the de- 
 sart, he was a saint. Among men virtue is a 
 mutual exchange of kindnesses, and whoever 
 declines such exchanges, ought not to be reck- 
 oned a member of society. Were that saint to 
 live in the world, probably he would do good 
 in it; but whilst he keeps out of it, the world 
 will only do his saintship justice, in not allowing 
 him to be virtuous. He may be good to him- 
 self, but not to us. 
 
 But, say you, if a hermit be given to druok- 
 enness, sensuality, and private debauchery, he 
 is a vicious man; consequently with the oppo- 
 site qualities, he is virtuous. That is what I 
 cannot come into : il he has those faults he is a 
 very filthy man ; but, with regard to society, as 
 it is not hurt by his infamies, he is not vicious, 
 wicked, or deserving of punishment. It is to 
 be presumed, that were he to return into society, 
 he would do much harm, and prove a very bad 
 man. Of this there is a greater probability, 
 than that the temperate and chaste hermit will 
 be a good man ; lor in public life, faults in- 
 crease, and good qualities diminish. 
 
 A much stronger objection is, that Nero, Pope 
 Alexander VI. and other such monsters did some 
 good things. I take upon me to answer, that 
 when they did, they were virtuous. 
 
 Some 
 
34^ WAR. '' 
 
 Some divines, so far from allowing that excel- 
 lent Emperor Antoninus to have been a good 
 man, represent him as a conceited Stoic» who, 
 besides ruling over men, coveted their esteem ; 
 that in all the good he did to mankind* his own 
 reputation was the end; that his justice^ appli- 
 cation, and benevolence, proceeded purely from 
 vanity; and that his virtues were a downright 
 imposition on the world. At this, I cannot for- 
 bear crying out, O ! my God, be pleased in thy 
 goodness, often to give us such hypocrites, 
 
 WAR. 
 
 Jr A M I N E, the plague, and war, are the three 
 most famous ingredients in this lower world. 
 Under famine may be classed all the noxious 
 foods, which want obliges us to have recourse 
 to; thus shortening our life, whilst we hope to 
 support it. 
 
 In the plague are included all contagious dis- 
 tempers ; and these are not less than two or 
 three thousand. These two gifts we hold from 
 providence; but war, in which all those gifts 
 are concentered, we owe to the fancy of three 
 or four hundred persons scattered over the sur- 
 face of this globe, under the name of princes 
 and ministers; and on this account it may be, 
 that in several dedications, they are called the 
 living images of the Deity. 
 
 The most hardened flatterer will allow, that 
 war is ever attended with plague and famine, 
 especially if he has seen the military hospitals in 
 Germany, or passed through any villages where 
 some notable feat of arms has been performed. 
 
 It 
 
WAU. 347 
 
 It is unquestionably a very noble art to ra- 
 vage countries, destroy dwellings, and comfnuni- 
 bus annis, out oi a hundred thousand men to 
 cut off forty thousand. This invention was 
 originally cultivated by nations, asj.embled for 
 their common good ; for instance, the diet ot 
 the Greeks sent word to the diet of Phi^gia and 
 its neighbours, that they were putting to sea in 
 a thousand fishing-boats, in order to do their best 
 to cut them off root and branch. 
 
 The Roman people, in a general assembly, re- 
 solved that it was their interest to go and fight 
 the Vejentes or the Volscians before harvest; 
 and some years alter, all the Romans being an- 
 gry with all the Carthaginians, fought a long 
 time both by sea and land. It is otherwise in 
 our titne. 
 
 A genealogist sets forth to a prince that he is 
 descended in a direct line from a count, whose 
 kindred, three or four hundred years ago, had 
 made a family compact with a house, the very 
 memory of which is extinguished. That house 
 had some distant claim to a province, the last 
 proprietor of which died of an apoplexy. The 
 prince and his council instantly resolve, that this 
 province belongs to him by divine right. The 
 province, which is some hundred leagues from 
 him, protests that it does not so much as know 
 him ; that it is not disposed to be governed by 
 him; that before prescribing laws to them, their 
 consent, at least, was necessary: these allega- 
 tions do not so much as reach the prince's ears ; 
 it is insisted on that his right is incontestable. 
 He instantly picks up a m.ultitude of men, who 
 have nothing to do, nor nothing to lose; cloaths 
 them with coarse blue cloth, one sou to the ell ; 
 
 puts 
 
34^ WAR. 
 
 puts them on hats bound with coarse white 
 worsted ; makes them turn to the right and left ; 
 and thus marches away with them to glory. 
 
 Other princes, on this armament, take part in 
 it to the best of their ability, and soon cover a 
 small extent of country, with more hireling mur- 
 derers than Gengis-Kan, Tamerlane and Bajazet 
 had at their heels. 
 
 People, at no small distance, on hearing that 
 fighting is going forward, and that if they would 
 make one, there are five or six sous a day for 
 them, immediately divide into two bands, like 
 reapers, and go and sell their services to the first 
 bidder. 
 
 These multitudes furiously butcher one an* 
 other, not only without having any concern in 
 the quarrel, but without so much as knowing 
 what it is about. 
 
 Sometimes five or six powers are engaged, 
 three against three, two against four, sometimes 
 even one against five, all equally detesting one 
 another; and friends and foes, by turns, agree- 
 ing only in one thing, to do all the mischief pos- 
 sible. 
 
 An odd circumstance in this infernal enter- 
 prize is, that every chief of these ruffians has his 
 colours consecrated ; and solemnly prays to God 
 before he goes to destroy his neighbour. If the 
 slain in a battle do not exceed two or three thou- 
 sand, the fortunate commander does not think it 
 worth thanking God for ; but if, besides killing 
 ten or twelve thousand men, he has been so far 
 favoured by heaven, as totally to destroy some 
 remarkable place, then a verbose hymn is sung 
 in four parts, composed in a language unknown 
 to all the combatants, and besides stuffed with 
 
 barbarisms. 
 
WAR. 349 
 
 barbarisms. The same song does for marriages 
 and births, as for massacres ; which is scarce 
 pardonable, especially in a nation of all others 
 the most noted for new songs. 
 
 All countries pay a certain number of orators 
 to celebrate these sduguinary actions ; some in a 
 long black coat, and over it a short docked 
 cloak ; others in a gown, with a kind of shirt 
 over it ; some again over their shirts have two 
 pieces of a motley-coloured stuflf hanging down. 
 They are all very long-winded in their ha- 
 rangues, and to illustrate a battle fought in We- 
 teravia, bring up what passed thousands ot years 
 ago in Palestine. 
 
 At other times these gentry declaim against 
 vice; they prove by syllogisms and antitheses, 
 that ladies, for slightly heightening the hue of 
 their cheeks with a little carmine, will assuredly 
 be the eternal objects of eternal vengeance ; that 
 Polyeucte and Atbalia (*) are the devil's works; 
 that he, whose table on a day of abstinence, is 
 loaded with fish to the amount of two hundred 
 crowns, is infallibly saved ; and that a poor man, 
 for eating two penny-worth of mutton, goes to 
 the devil for ever and ever. 
 
 Among five or six thousand such declama- 
 tions, there may be, and that is the most, three 
 or four, written by a Gaul named Massillon, 
 which a gentleman may bear to read; but in not 
 one of all those discourses has the orator the 
 spirit to animadvert on war, that scourge and 
 crime which includes all others. These grove- 
 ling speakers are continually prating against 
 
 love. 
 
 '*) Two French Tragedies. 
 
35© WAR. 
 
 love, mankind's only solace, and the only way 
 of repairing it: not a word do they say of the 
 detestable endeavours of the mighty for its de- 
 struction. 
 
 Bourdaloue, a very bad sermon have you made 
 against impurity, but not one either bad or gqpd 
 on those various kinds of murders, on those rob- 
 beries, on those violences, that universal rage, 
 by Vi^hich the world is laid waste ! Put together 
 all the vices of all ages and places, and never 
 will they come up to the mischiefs and enor- 
 mities of only one campaign. 
 
 Yc bungling soul-physicians, to bellow for an 
 hour and more against a few flea-bites, and not 
 say a word about that horrid distemper, which 
 tears us to pieces. Burn your books, ye mo- 
 ralizing philosophers! Whilst the humour of a 
 few shall make it an act of loyalty to butcher 
 thousands of our fellow-creatures, the part of 
 mankind dedicated to heroism will be the most 
 execrable and destructive monsters in all nature. 
 Of what avail is humanity, benevolence, modes- 
 ty, temperance, mildness, discretion, and piety ; 
 when half a pound of lead discharged at the dis- 
 tance of six hundred paces shatters my body ; 
 when I expire at the age of twenty under pains 
 unspeakable, and amidst thousands in the same 
 miserable condition; when my eyes at their last 
 opening see my native town all in a blaze ; and 
 the last sounds I hear are the shrieks and groans 
 of women and children expiring among the ruins, 
 and all for the pretended interest of a man who 
 is a stranger to us ! 
 
 The worst is, that war appears to be an un- 
 avoidable scourge ; for if we observe it, the god 
 Mars was worshipped in all nations; and among 
 
 the 
 
WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 35I 
 
 the Jews, Sabaoth signifies the god of armies : 
 but in Homer, Minerva calls Mars a furious 
 hare-brained infernal deity. 
 
 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 
 
 \^ HAT a clamour was raised in the schools, 
 and even among sober thinkers, when Leibnitz, 
 paraphrasing on Plato, built his structure of the 
 best of possible worlds, affirming that all things 
 went in the best manner, and that God could 
 make but one world. Now, Plato had allowed 
 that God could make five, there being five regu- 
 lar solid bodies ; the tetraedron or three-faced 
 pyramid, with the base equal, the cube, the 
 exaedron, the dodecaedron, and licoaedron. 
 But our world is not of the form of any of 
 Plato's bodies, so that he should have allowed 
 God a sixth manner. 
 
 So much for the divine Plato. Leibnitz, 
 who certainly was his superior both in metaphy- 
 sics and geometry, in the tenderness of philan- 
 thropy shewed mankind, that we ought to be 
 very well satisfied, and that God had done all 
 he could for us ; that he had necessarily, among 
 all possibilities, made choice of what was indis- 
 putably the best. 
 
 What becomes of original sin ? was the cry 
 of many. Let what will come of it, said Leib- 
 nitz and his friends ; but in his public writings 
 he makes original sin necessarily a part of the 
 best world. 
 
 How ! our first parents to be driven out of a 
 delightful abode, where they were to have lived 
 for ever, had they not eaten an apple ! How ! 
 in wretchedness to beget children loaded with a 
 
 varietv 
 
35^ WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 
 
 variety of wretchedness, and making others as 
 wretched as themselves ! How! to undergo such 
 diseases ; to feel such vexations ; to expire in 
 pain ; and by way ot refreshment to be burned 
 through all the ages of eternity ; was this the best 
 portion ? That is not over good for us; and in 
 what can it be good for God ? 
 
 Leibnitz was sensible this admitted of no an- 
 swer; accordingly he falls to making of large 
 books unintelligible to his very self. 
 
 To deny that there is any evil, may be said as 
 a banter by a Lucullus full of health, and feast- 
 ing in his saloon with his mistress and jocund 
 cronies ; but only let him look out at the win- 
 dow, and he will see some unhappy people; and 
 a fever will make the great man himself so. 
 
 1 am not fond of quoting; it is usually a cri- 
 tical task ; it is neglecting both what preceeds 
 and follows the passage quoted, and bringing on 
 one's self complaints and quarrels: yet I must 
 quote Lactantius, a father of the church, who, 
 in his thirteenth chapter on the Divine Anger, 
 puts the following words into Epicurus's m.outh; 
 *' Either God would remove evil out of this 
 *' world, and cannot; or he can or will not; or 
 ** he has neither the power nor will ; or lastly, 
 *♦ he has both the power and will. If he has 
 *' the will and not the power, this shews weak- 
 ** ness, which is contrary to the nature of God; 
 *' if he has the power, and not the will, it is ma- 
 ** lignity; and this is no less contrary to his na« 
 *' ture. If he is neither able nor willing, it is 
 both weakness and malignity; and this is 
 no less contrary to his nature. If he be both 
 willing and able (which alone is consonant 
 
 4( 
 
 to 
 
WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 353 
 
 *' to the nature of God) how came it that there 
 ** is evil in the world?" 
 
 This is a home argument; an<l accordingly 
 Lactantius gives but a sorry answer to it, in 
 saying that God wills evil, but that he has given 
 us wisdom for acquiring good. This answer 
 must be allowed to fall very short of the objec- 
 tion; as supposing that God, without producing 
 evil, could not have given us wisdom; if so, 
 our wisdom is a dear bargain. 
 
 The origin of evil (') has ever been an abyss, 
 the bottom of which lies beyond the reach of hu- 
 man 
 
 (*) How difficult soever this great question of the 
 cause and original of evil may appear to our author, 
 it has been admirably well solved by the learned Dr. 
 Clarke, in the inference he draws from the proofs of 
 the possibility and real existence of liberty. For li- 
 berty implying a natural power of doing evil as well 
 as good, and the imperfect nature of finite beings 
 making it possible for them to abuse their liberty to an 
 actual commission of evil, and it being necessary to 
 the order and beauty of the whole, there should be 
 different degrees of creatures, some less perfect than 
 others; hence there necessarily ariserh a possibility of 
 evil, though the Creator is infinitely good. Evil is 
 either natural or moral. 3Ioral evil arises wholly from 
 the abuse of liberty, which God gave to his creatures 
 for other purposes, and which it was reasonal^e and 
 fit to give them for the perfection and order of the 
 whole creation : but they, rontrary to the divine inten- 
 tion and command, have abused what was necessary 
 for the perfection of the whole, to the corruption and 
 depravation of themselves. Natural evil is either 
 counterpoised in the whole, with as great or greater 
 good; such are the afflictions and sufferings of good 
 
 A a men. 
 
354 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 
 
 man eye; and many philosophers and legislator?, 
 in their perplexity, had recourse to two princi- 
 ples, one good and the other evil; Tiphon was 
 the evil principle among the Egyptians, and 
 Arimane among the Persians. This divinity is 
 well known to have been espoused by the Mani- 
 chees; but these wise folks, having never con- 
 versed with either the good or the evil principle, 
 I think they are not to be believed on their bare 
 word. 
 
 Amidst the absurdities which swarm in the 
 "world, and may be classed among its evils, it is 
 no slight error to have supposed two Almighty 
 Beings struggling which should bear the greater 
 sway in the world, and making an agreement to- 
 gether, like Moliere's two physicians, Allow me 
 the puke, and I will allow you the bleeding. 
 
 ' Basilides, from the Platonics, affirmed, so 
 early as the first century of the church, that 
 God gave our world to be made by his lowest 
 angels; and that by their aukwardness and ig- 
 norance things are as they are. This theological 
 fable falls to pieces before the terrible objection, 
 that it is not in the nature of an infinitely wise 
 and powerful God to cause a world to be con- 
 structed 
 
 men, and then it is not properly an evil : or it is a 
 punishment, and then it is a necessary consequence 
 of moral evil. As for death, it is not a natural evil, 
 though generally counted such; since it is only the 
 want of immortality, a perfection which does not 
 belong to our nature, and such a want is not properly 
 an evil. See Dr. Clark on the Being and Attributes 
 of God. 
 
WHTEVER IS IS RIGHT. 355 
 
 structed by ignorant architects, who know not 
 how to conduct such a task. 
 
 Simon, aware of this objection, obviates it by 
 saying, -that the angel who acted as surveyor is 
 damned tor his bungling; but this bungling of 
 the angel does not mend our case. 
 
 Neither does the Grecian story of Pandora 
 solve the objection any better. The box with all 
 evils in it, and hope remaining at the bottom, is 
 indeed a charming allegory; but this Pandora 
 Vulcan made purely to be revenged of Prome- 
 theus, who had formed a man of mud. 
 
 The Indians are not a whit nearer the mark : 
 God on creating man gave him a drug, by which 
 he was to enjoy perpetual health; the man put 
 his drug on his ass ; the ass being thirsty, the 
 serpent shewed it the way to a spring, and whilst 
 the ass was drinking, the serpent made off with 
 the drug. 
 
 The Syrians had a coflceit, that the man and 
 the woman having been created in the fourth 
 heaven, they took a fancy to eat a bit of cake 
 instead of ambrosia, their natural regale. Am- 
 brosia perspired through the pores; but after 
 eating the cake they had a motion to go to stool, 
 and asked an angel the way to the privy. Do 
 you see, said the angel, yon little planet, scarce 
 visible, about sixty millions of leagues off? that 
 is the privy of the universe; make the best of 
 your way thither. They marcked, and there 
 they were left to continue; and ever since this 
 our world has been what it is. 
 
 But the Syrians are gravelled when asked, why 
 God permitted man to eat of the cake, and why 
 it should be productive of such dreadful evils to 
 us? 
 
 Aa2 To 
 
(( 
 (( 
 n 
 I( 
 
 (( 
 
 356 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 
 
 To shorten my journey, I shoot away from 
 the fourth heaven to Lord Bohngbroke. This 
 personage, who it must be allowed had a great 
 genius, gave the famous Pope his plan of 
 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT, which accordingly 
 occurs word for word in Lord Bolingbroke's 
 posthumuous works; and the same sentiment 
 occurs before in Lord Shaftesbury's Characteris- 
 tics. In his treatise entitled the Moralist, are 
 these words : 
 
 Much is alledged in answer, to shew why 
 nature errs, and how she came thus impotent 
 and erring from an unerring hand. But I 
 
 deny she errs. 'Tis, on the contrary, from 
 
 this order of inferior and superior things, that 
 we admire the world's beauty, founded thus 
 ** on contrarieties; whilst from such various 
 " and disagreeing principles, an universal con- 
 ** cord is established. 
 
 •* Thus in the several orders of terrestrial 
 forms, a resignation is required, a sacrifice 
 and yielding of natures one to another. The 
 vegetables by their death sustain the animals; 
 " and animal bodies dissolved, enrich the earth, 
 ** and raise again the vegetable world. Nu- 
 ** merous insects are reduced again by the supe- 
 ** rior kinds of birds and beasts; and these again 
 ** are checked by man, who in his turn submits 
 " to other natures, and resigns his form a sacri- 
 ** fice in common to the rest of things. And if 
 *• in natures so little exalted, and pre-eminent 
 " above each other, the sacrifice of interest can 
 appear so just; how much more reasonably 
 may all inferior natures be subjected to the 
 superior nature of the world ! — The central 
 powers, which hold the lasting orbs in their 
 
 
 (C 
 
 ic 
 
 (( 
 
 just 
 
<( 
 <( 
 (( 
 (( 
 (( 
 (( 
 
 it 
 
 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 357 
 
 ** just poise and movement, must not be con- 
 trouled to save a fleeting form, and rescue 
 from the precipice a puny animal, whose brittle 
 frame, howe'er protected, must of itself so soon 
 dissolve. The ambient air, the inward vapours, 
 the impending meteors, or whatever else is nu- 
 trimental or preservative of this earth, must 
 operate in a natural course ; and other constitu- 
 tions must submit to the good habit and consti- 
 tution of the all-sustaining globe." 
 Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury, and Pope their ar- 
 tist, are not more satisfactory than the others ; 
 their whatever is is right, imports no more, 
 than that all is directed by immutable laws ; and 
 who knows not that? You tell us nothing in ob- 
 serving with every little child, that flies are born 
 to be devoured by spiders ; spiders by swallows ; 
 swallows by magpies ; magpies by eagles ; and 
 eagles to be shot at by men, and men to kill one 
 another, and to be eaten by worms; and after- 
 wards by devils, at least a thousand to one. 
 
 Thus we see a clear and stated order through- 
 out every species of creatures : in short, there 
 is order in all things. The formation of a stone 
 in my bladder is a wonderful mechanism: stony 
 particles insensibly get into my blood ; are fil- 
 trated in my kidnies ; pass through the urethra ; 
 settle in my bladder ; and there, by an admirable 
 Newtonian attraction, concrete. The stone forms 
 and grows bigger, and by the finest dispositions 
 in the world, I undergo tortures worse than 
 death : a surgeon, having improved Tubal Cain's 
 invention, comes and stabs a sharp and edged 
 
 steel instrument into my , lays hold of my 
 
 stone with his forceps ; but by a necessary me- 
 chanism it breaks as he is trying to extract it, and 
 
 A a 3 by 
 
358 WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT. 
 
 by the same mechanism I expire as on the rack. 
 As whatever is is right, all this must be likewise 
 right ; it is evidently a consequence of the unal- 
 terable physical principles granted ; and I know it 
 as well as yourself. 
 
 Had we no feeling, no objection would lye 
 against such a system : but that is not the point ; 
 what we ask is, whether there are no sensible 
 evils, and whence they are originated ? Pope, in 
 his fourth epistle on whatever is is right, 
 says, " There is no evil, or all partial evil is 
 ** universal good." 
 
 An odd general good, truly; composed of the 
 gout, the stone, pains, afflictions, crimes, suffer- 
 ings, death, and damnation ! 
 
 The fall of man is the plaister we lay on all 
 these partial diseases of soul and body, which you 
 term general health ; but with Shaftesbury and 
 Bolingbroke, original sin is a mere jest, and 
 Pope is silent about it ; their system manifestly 
 undermines Christianity, and explains nothing 
 at all. 
 
 This system, however, has lately been coun- 
 tenanced by several divines, who make no diffi- 
 culty of contrarieties : well, let no body be 
 grudged the comfort of reasoning in his way on 
 the deluge of evil, with which the world is over- 
 whelmed; incurable patients should be allowed to 
 gratify their appetites in eating what they like ; 
 some have even cried up this system as consola- 
 tory. 
 
 A strange comfort I ov/n ! And do not you 
 find great relief in Shaftesbury's prescription, 
 who says, that God will not change his eternal 
 laws for so paltry a creature as man ? It must 
 however be owned, that this paltry animal has a 
 
 right 
 
WICKED, WICKEDNESS. 359 
 
 right humbly to lament, and, amidst his lamen- 
 tations, to endeavour at comprehending why 
 those eternal laws are not adapted to the well-be- 
 ing of every individual. 
 
 This system of whatever is is right, re- 
 presents the Author of nature merely as a power- 
 ful cruel king, who, if he does but compass his 
 designs, is very easy about the death, distresses, 
 and afflictions of his subjects. 
 
 So very far, then, is the opinion of the best 
 world possible from being consolatory, that it 
 puzzles those philosophers who embrace it. The 
 question of good and evil remains an inexplicable 
 chaos to candid enquirers ; cavillers may trifle 
 with it; they are galley-slaves playing with their 
 chains. As to the thoughtless commonalty, they 
 are not unlike fishes taken out of a river and put 
 into a reservoir, little thinking they are to undergo 
 a second removal in Lent; so we of ourselves 
 are totally ignorant of the causes of our destiny. 
 
 At the end of almost every chapter of meta- 
 physics, we should put the two letters used by 
 the Roman judges when a cause was obscure, 
 N. L, non liquet^ I don't understand it. 
 
 W] 
 
 WICKED, WICKEDNESS ('). 
 
 E are perpetually told that human nature is 
 essentially perverse, that man is born a child of 
 
 the 
 
 (*) Our author talks very favourably of humanity 
 vmder this article, which is inconsistent with the hor- 
 rid picture he gives of it in his Universal History. As 
 he would insinuate, however, that human nature is 
 exempt from original sin, he is guilty of a very great 
 
 Aa4 
 
360 WICKED, WICKEDNESSS. 
 
 the devil. Now nothing can be more imprudent ; 
 for, my friend, in preaching to me that all the 
 world is born in wickedness, thou informest me 
 that thou art born so, and that behoves me to be- 
 ware of thee, as I would of a fox or crocodile. 
 O ! not at all, sayest thou, I am regenerated, I 
 am no unbeliever or heretic, I may be trusted : so 
 then, the remainder of mankind being either here- 
 tics, or what thou calleft infidels, will be a mere 
 herd of monsters ; and whenever thou art speak- 
 ing to a Lutheran or a Turk, thou shouldest con- 
 clude that they are for robbing and murdering 
 thee, for they are the devil's spawn ; one is not 
 regenerated, and the other is degenerated. Much 
 more rational and much more handsome would 
 it be to say to men, " You are all. born good; 
 ** consider how dreadful it would be to defile the 
 *' purity of your being." Mankind should be 
 dealt with as individuals. If a prebendary leads 
 a scandalous life, a friend says to him. Is it pos- 
 sible that you can thus disgrace the dignity of a 
 prebendary ? A counsellor or judge is reminded 
 that he has the honour of being counsellor to the 
 king ; and that it is his duty to be an example of 
 virtue. The encouragement to a soldier is. Re- 
 member you belong to the regiment of Cham- 
 pagne; and every individual should be told, 
 Remember your dignity as a man. 
 
 Say 
 
 error; for it is an essential dogma of Christianity, 
 evidently laid down in scripture, that we have all 
 sinned in Adam, " as by one man sin entered into the 
 " world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all 
 " men, for that all have sinned." From this, and in 
 consequence of original sin, it may be said, that man 
 is of his own nature inclined to evil. 
 
WICKED, WICKEDNESS. .361 
 
 r.;] Say or do what you will, this must at length 
 be the case: tor what can mean this saying, so 
 common among all nations, Reflect within thy- 
 self. Now, were you born a child of the devil ; 
 were your origin criminal ; were your blood 
 formed of an infernal liquor; to bid you re- 
 flect within yourself would import. Consult your 
 diabolical nature, and follow its suggestions; 
 cheat, rob, murder, it is your father's law. 
 
 . Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as 
 he falls sick. Should some physicians come and 
 tell him you are born sick, it is certain that these 
 physicians, whatever they might say or do, will 
 not cure him if his disease be inherent in his na- 
 ture ; and these reasoners are themselves very 
 sick. 
 
 Bring together all the children of the universe, 
 you will see nothing in them but innocence, gen- 
 tleness, and fear; were they born wicked, spight- 
 ful, and cruel, some signs of it would come 
 from them, as little snakes strive to bite, and 
 little tygers to tear. But nature having been as 
 sparing of offensive weapons to man as to pigeons 
 and rabbits, it cannot have given them an instinct 
 to mischief and destruction. 
 
 Soman is not born wicked : how comes it then 
 that so many are infected with the pestilence of 
 wickedness ? It is because they who bear rule 
 over them, having caught the distemper, com- 
 municate it to others; as a woman, having the 
 distemper which Christopher Columbus brought 
 from America, has spread the venom all over 
 Europe. By the first ambitious man was the 
 world corrupted. 
 
 You will say that this first monster only fecun- 
 dated that germ of pride, rapine, fraud, and 
 
 cruelty. 
 
362 WICKED, WICKEDNESS. 
 
 cruelty, which is in all men. I own, that in 
 general, the greater part of our brethren easily 
 contract these qualities : but has every body the 
 putrid fever, the stone, and gravel, because every 
 body is liable to those distempers ? 
 
 There are whole nations which are not wicked ; 
 the Philadelphians, the Banyans have never shed 
 human blood. The Chinese, the people of Ton- 
 quin, Lao, Siam, and even of Japan, have lived 
 in the most profound tranquility for these hun- 
 dred years past. In the space of ten years 
 scarce any of those enormities at which human 
 nature stands astonished, is heard of in the cities 
 of Rome, Venice, Paris, London, and Amster- 
 dam ; cities, where yet cupidity, the mother of 
 all crimes, is flagrant. 
 
 If men were essentially wicked, and all born 
 under the sway of a being as malignant as 
 wretched, who, in revenge for his punishment, 
 inspired them with all his rage, we should every 
 morning hear of husbands being murdered by 
 their wives, and fathers by their children, just 
 as fowls are found killed by a polecat, who came 
 in the night and sucked their blood. 
 
 It we suppose there are ten hundred millions 
 ot men upon the earth, it is a great many ; and 
 this makes about five hundred millions of women, 
 who sew and spin, teed their little ones, keep 
 the house or hut clean, and backbite their neigh- 
 bours a little. I do not see any great harm these 
 poor simpletons do on earth. Of this number of 
 inhabitants on the globe, there are at least two 
 hundred millions of children, who certainly nei- 
 ther kill nor plunder, and about as many who, 
 through age and sickness, are not capable of those 
 crimes. Thus there remains, at most, but a hun- 
 dred 
 
WICKED, WICKEDNESS. 363 
 
 ^red millions whom youth and vigour qualify 
 for the commission of crimes. Ol these hun- 
 dred millions we may say, that ninety are conti- 
 nually taken up with prodigious labour, in forc- 
 ing the earth to furnish them with food and rai- 
 ment : now these have scarce time to perpetrate 
 outrages. 
 
 In the remaining ten millions will be included 
 idlers and jocund companions, who love peace 
 and festivity ; the men of talents, who are taken 
 up with their several professions ; magistrates and 
 priests, whom it manifestly behoves to lead an 
 irreproachable life, at least in appearance. So 
 that the real wicked men are reduced to some 
 few politicians, either secular or regular, who will 
 always be for disturbing the world ; and some 
 thousands of vagrants, who hire their services 
 to those politicians. Now never is a million of 
 these wild beasts employed at once, and among 
 these I reckon highwaymen ; so that at most, and 
 in the most tempestuous times, there is but one 
 man of a thousand who may be called wicked, 
 and he is not so always. 
 
 Thus is wickedness on earth infinitely less than 
 is talked of and believed. To be sure, there is 
 still too much misfortune, distress, and horrible 
 crimes ; but the pleasure of complaming and 
 magnifying is such, that at the least sciatcli you 
 cry out : the eaith is dehiged with blood. If you 
 have been cheated, then the world is full of per- 
 jury. An atrabilarioLis mind, on having been 
 wronged, sees the universe covered with damned 
 souls ; as a young rake, seated at supper with his 
 doxy after the opera, does not dream that there 
 are any distressed objects. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
[ 3^4 ] 
 
 A P P E N D I X*. 
 
 THE GARDENER'S CATECHISM ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A DIALOGUE 
 
 BETWEEN BASHAW TUCTAN, AND KARPOS THE 
 
 GARDENER. 
 
 TUCTAN. 
 
 jL OU sell your fruit, friend Karpos, very 
 dear; however, it is pretty good. — Pray what 
 religion do you profess now ? 
 
 Kar. Why, faith, my Lord Bashaw, I can't 
 very well tell you. When our little island! be- 
 longed to the Greeks, I remember I was ordered 
 to say that Ayiou 'nvEvy.x proceeded only from 
 T8 'TTolpH. I was told to pray to God standing bolt 
 upright, with my arms across, and was prohibited 
 eating milk in Lent. When the Venetians came, 
 our new Italian curate ordered me to say that 
 Ayiov TTvsuiJia, proceeded both from m /otaVf-a and 
 T« viov permitting me to eat milk, and making 
 me pray on my knees. On the return of the 
 
 Greeks, 
 
 * The three following articles are not in the first 
 London edition. 
 f Samos. 
 
THE GARDENER S CATECHISM. 2^5 
 
 Greeks, and their expelling the Venetians, I was 
 obliged again to renounce r» viov and milk por- 
 ridge. You have at length expelled the Greeks, 
 and I hear you cry out, as loud as you can Al- 
 lah ILLA ALLAH ! For my part, I no longer 
 know what I am ; but I love God with all mv 
 heart, and sell my fruit very reasonably. 
 
 Tuc. You have some fine figs there. 
 
 Kar. At your service, my lord. 
 
 Tuc. They say you have a fine daughter, 
 too. 
 
 Kar. Yes, my Lord Bashaw, but she is not at 
 your service. 
 
 Tuc. Why so? Wretch! 
 
 Kar. Because I am an honest man; I may 
 sell my figs if I please; but I must not sell mv 
 daughter. 
 
 Tuc. And pray by what law are you for- 
 bidden not to sell one kind of fruit as well as 
 another ? 
 
 Kar. By the law of all honest gardeners. 
 The honour of my daughter is not my property, 
 but her's. It is not with us a marketable com- 
 modity. 
 
 Tuc. You are then disloval to your Bashaw. 
 
 Kar. Not at all ; I am his faithful servant 
 in every thing that is just, so long as he con- 
 tinues my master. 
 
 Tuc. And so, if your Greek patriarch shouM ' 
 form a plot against me, and should order you, in 
 the name of t« Trc/ipa and r» uiov, to enter intd 
 it, you would not have devotion enough to turn 
 traitor ? Ha ! 
 
 Kar. Not I. 
 
 Tuc. And, pray, why should you refuse to 
 obey your patriarch on such an occasion ? 
 
 Kar. 
 
366 THE gardener's CATECHISM. 
 
 Kar. Because I have taken an oath of alle- 
 giance to you as my Bashaw ; and I know that 
 T8 TTcclpa does not command any one to engage 
 in plots and conspiracies. 
 
 Tuc. I am glad of that, at least. But what 
 if the Greeks should retake the isle, and expel 
 vour Bashaw ; would you be faithful to me 
 still ? 
 
 Kar, What! when you are no longer my 
 Bashaw ? 
 
 Tuc. What then would become of your oath 
 of allegiance? 
 
 Kar. Something like my figs ; you will not 
 be any more the better for it. Craving your 
 honour's pardon, it is certain, that if you were 
 now dead I should owe you no allegiance. 
 
 Tuc. The supposition is a little impolite; 
 but however your conclusion is true. 
 
 Kar. And would it not be the same, my 
 lord, if you were expelled? for you would have 
 a successor to whom I must take a fresh oath 
 of allegiance. Why should you require fidelity 
 of me when it would be no longer of use to you ? 
 That would be just as if you could not eat my 
 figs yourself, and yet you would prevent my 
 selling them to any body else. 
 
 Tuc. You are a reasoner, I see, and have 
 your principles of action. 
 
 Kar. Ay, such as they are. They are but 
 few ; but they serve me ; and perhaps if I had 
 more they would only puzzle me. 
 
 Tuc. I should be curious to know your 
 principles. 
 
 Kar. They are, to be a good husband, a 
 good father, a good neighbour, and a good gar- 
 dener. I go no farther, and hope, for the rest, 
 
 that 
 
FREEDOM OF SENTIMENT. 367 
 
 that God will take every thing in good part, and 
 have mercy on me. 
 
 Tuc. And do you think that he will show the 
 same mercy to me who am governor of this is- 
 land of Samos ? 
 
 Kar. And, pray, how do you think I should 
 know that ? Is it for me to conjecture how 
 God Almighty behaves to Bafliaws ? That is an 
 affair between you and him which I do not in- 
 termeddle with in any shape. All that I believe 
 of the matter is, that if you are as honest a Ba- 
 shaw as I am a gardener, God will be very good 
 to you. 
 
 Tuc. By Mahomet, I like this idolater very 
 well 1 Farewell, friend ; Allah be your pro- 
 tection. 
 
 Kar. Thank ye, my Lord Bashaw ! God have 
 mercy upon you. 
 
 FREEDOM OF SENTIMENT. 
 
 An the year 1707, about the time at which the 
 English gained the battle of Saragossa, pro- 
 tected Portugal, and gave to Spain a king, 
 my Lord Valiant, a general officer, who 
 had been wounded in fight, had retired to Bare- 
 ges for the benefit of the waters. The Count 
 Medroso, who had fallen from his horse behind 
 the baggage-waggons, a league and a halt from 
 the field of battle, had repaired also to the same 
 place. The latter had been well acquainted with 
 the Inquisition, on which account his Lordship 
 entered one day, after dinner, into the following 
 conversation with him. 
 
 L. Val. And so. Count, you have been an 
 officer in the Inquisition. You must have been 
 engaged in a most villainous employment. 
 
 Med. 
 
368 FREEDOM OF SENTIMENT, 
 
 Med. Very true, my lord ; but as I had ra- 
 ther be their officer than their victim, I preferred 
 the misfortune of burning ray neighbour to that 
 oi being roasted myself. 
 
 L. Val. What a horrible alternative ! Your 
 countrymen were a hundred times happier under 
 the yoke of the Moors, who permitted you to in- 
 dulge yourselves freely in superstition, and im- 
 perious as they were as conquerors, never dreamed 
 of exercising that strange prerogative of enslav- 
 ing souls. 
 
 Med. We are not permitted now either to 
 write, speak, or even to think. If we speak, 
 it is easy to misinterpret our words, and still 
 much more so if we write. And though we 
 cannot be condemned at an Auto da fe for our 
 secret thoughts, we are threatened to lye burn- 
 ing for ever, by the command of God himself, 
 if we dare to think otherwise than the Domi- 
 nicans. They have persuaded the government 
 also, that if we had common sense, the state 
 would soon be in a combustion, and the nation 
 become the most unhappy people upon earth. 
 
 L. Val. And do you believe that the English 
 are so unhappy, who cover the ocean with their 
 ships, and c^me from the other end of Europe 
 to fight your battles for you ? Do you find that 
 the Dutch, who have stripped you of almost all 
 your discoveries in India, and who now are 
 among your protectors, are really so abandoned by 
 heaven, for having given free liberty to the 
 press, and converted the thoughts of mankind 
 into a profitable species of commerce ? Was the 
 Roman empire the less powerful for permitting 
 Cicero to write his sentiments freely ? 
 
 Medj 
 
FREEDOM OF SENTIMENT. 369 
 
 Med. Cicero ! Who is he ? I never heard of 
 his name before. We hear nothing of your 
 Cicero's, but of our holy father the Pope, and 
 St. Anthony of Padua. . Nay, I have hitherto 
 been told that the Romish religion is demolished, 
 if men once begin to think for themselves. 
 
 L. Val. How are you to believe this, who 
 are asssured that your church is of divine insti- 
 tution, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it? If this be true, nothing can ever de- 
 stroy it. 
 
 Med. That is true, but it maybe reduced to 
 almost nothing. Thus it is owing to this think- 
 ing that Sweden, Denmark, England, and the 
 greater part of Germany, labour under the terri- 
 ble misfortune of being no longer subject to the 
 Pope. It is even said, that if men thus continue 
 to follow the light of their own mistaken under- 
 standings, they will be contented soon with the 
 simple adoration of God, and the mere practice 
 of moral virtue. If the gates of hell should pre- 
 vail so far as this, what would become of the 
 holy office ? 
 
 L. Val. Had the primitive Christians been 
 thus prohibited to think, Christianity would cer- 
 tainly never have been established. 
 
 Med. I do not rightly understand what you 
 mean. 
 
 L. Val. I mean to say, that if Tiberius and 
 the rest of the emperors had encouraged Domi- 
 nicans to prevent the primitive Christians from 
 the use of- pen and ink : nay, had not the privi- 
 lege of thinking freely been long enjoyed in 
 Rome, it had been impossible for theChrisfians 
 to have established their tenets. If, then, the 
 first establishment of Christianity was owing to 
 
 B b this 
 
370 FREEDOM OF SENTIMENT. 
 
 this liberty of thinking, how contradictory and 
 absurd is it to endeavour to destroy that basis on 
 which your church itself was first founded ? If 
 any proposal regarding your worldly interest be 
 made to you, do not you consider sometime be- 
 fore you adopt it ? And what can be more inte. 
 resting to a man in this world, than that of his 
 eternal happiness or misery in the next ? There 
 are above an hundred different religions upon 
 earth that condemn you and your tenets as absurd, 
 impious, and damnable. Enter into an examina- 
 tion, therefore, of those tenets. 
 
 Med. How should I be able to examine 
 them ? I am no Dominican. 
 
 L. Val. But you are a man, and that is 
 sufficient. 
 
 Med. Alas ! you are much more a man than 
 I am. 
 
 L. Val. You have nothing to do but to learn 
 to think ; you were born with a capacity for it : 
 and thougfs, when a bird in the cage of the In- 
 quisition, the holy office dipt your wings, they 
 may grow again. A man who does not under- 
 stand geometry may learn it. There is nobody 
 that cannot be in some degree instructed. It is 
 a shame to trust our souls in the hands of those 
 we should be afraid to trust with our money. 
 Come, Come, venture to think for yourself. 
 
 Med. But, they say, that if all the world 
 thus thought for themselves, it would be produc- 
 tive of strange confusion. 
 - L. Val. Quite the contrary, I assure you. 
 Does not every one speak his mind freely of the 
 entertainment at a theatre, and is the representa- 
 tion interrupted by it ? But if any insolent pro- 
 tector of a bad poet should start up, and insist 
 
 upon 
 
COMMON SENSE. 371 
 
 upon the audience approving what they might dis- 
 like, what would be the consequence ? They 
 would naturally go to loggerheads, as they some- 
 times do at the playhouses in London. The 
 exercise of such tyranny, over the minds of men, 
 hath been productive, in a great degree, of the 
 miseries that have fallen upon mankind. We 
 have been happy in England since every man hath 
 been at liberty to speak his own mind. 
 
 Med. And we are very quiet at Lisbon, where 
 no body is permitted to say anything. 
 
 L. Val. You are quiet, but you are not 
 happy. Your tranquillity is that of galley-slaves, 
 who tug the oar, and keep time in silence. 
 
 Med. Do you think, then, that my soul is 
 in the gallies ? 
 
 L. Val. Yes, and I would deliver you from 
 your bondage. 
 
 Med. But what if I find myself quite at ease 
 in the gallies ? 
 
 L. Val. Nay, in that case, you deserve to 
 continue there. 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 
 J. HERE is sometimes to be found in idioma- 
 tical and vulgar expressions, an image of what 
 passes in the hearts of all mankind. Sensus com- 
 munis signified, among the ancient Romans, not 
 onlv Common Sense, but also humanity and sen- 
 sibility. As we are much inferior to the Romans, 
 it signifies with us only the half its import with 
 them. Itmeans only common understandmg, a sim- 
 pie capacity to reason, the mere comprehension of 
 ordinary things, a kind of mean between stupidity 
 and genius. To say that a man wants common 
 
 B b 2 sense 
 
372 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 sense is a gross affront. To say that he does not 
 want common sense is an afFront also; as it is as 
 much as to say, that although he is not altogether 
 stupid, he has neither genius nor wit. But 
 whence comes this expression common sense^ if 
 not from the senses? In the invention and use 
 of this term, mankind plainly confess that no- 
 thing enters into the mind but through the senses ; 
 would they, else,» have used the word Sense, to 
 signify common understanding. 
 
 We sometimes say that common-sense is very 
 rare. What is the meaning of that phrase ? 
 Certainly no more than that the progress or exer- 
 cise of reason is interrupted in some men by their 
 prejudices or prepossessions. Hence we see a 
 man capable of reasoning very justly on one 
 subject, err most grossly in arguing upon ano- 
 ther. An Arabian, who may be an exact calcu- 
 lator, an ingenious chymist, and a good astro- 
 nomer, believes, nevertheless, that Mahomet 
 could put one half of the moon in his sleeve. 
 Wherefore is it that he is superior to mere com- 
 mon-sense in judging of these three sciences, 
 and inferior to it in his conceptions of the half- 
 moon in Mahomet's sleeve? In the first case he 
 sees with his own eyes, and judges with his own 
 understanding; in the second, he sees with the 
 eyes of others, shutting his own, and perverting 
 that understanding which Nature gave him. 
 
 In what manner can this strange perversion 
 of mind be effected ? How can those ideas, 
 which succeed each other so regularly and con- 
 stantly in our contemplations on numerous other 
 objects, be so miserably confused in our reflect- 
 ing upon another, a thousand times more ob- 
 vious and palpable ? the capacity of the man, 
 
 t/jat 
 
COMMON SENSE. 373 
 
 that is, bis principles of intelligence being still 
 the same, some ot his organs, therefore must be 
 depraved; as we sometimes see in the nicest 
 Epicure a vitiated taste with regard to some 
 species of viands. But how came the organ of 
 the Arab, who sees an half moon in Mahomet's 
 sleeve, to be thus depraved! By Fear? He hath 
 been told, that, if he does not believe in this 
 story of the half-moon and sleeve, his soul, in 
 passing over the narrow bridge immediately after 
 his death, will be tumbled into the gulph beneath, 
 there to perish eternally. Again he is farther 
 told, that if he should doubt the truth of the 
 sleeve, one Dervise will accuse him of impiety; 
 a second will prove him to be destitute of com- 
 mon-sense, in that having all possible motives 
 of credibility laid before him, he yet refuses to 
 submit his proud reason to the force of evidence ; 
 a third will have him brought before the petty 
 divan of a petty province, and get him legally 
 impaled. 
 
 All this strikes a panic in our good Arabian, 
 his wife, sister, and all his little family. They 
 do not want for sense in judging of other mat- 
 ters; but their conceptions are hurt in regard 
 to this particular, just like that of Pascal, who 
 saw continually a precipice by the side of his 
 easy chair. But does our Arab really believe 
 this story of Mahomet's sleeve ? No. He en- 
 deavours to believe it; he says to himself it is 
 impossible^ but it is true; 1 believe what I do 
 not believe. Thus a confused heap of ideas are 
 formed in his brain, which he is afraid to un* 
 ravel; and this causes him tx) want common- 
 sense in reasoning upon this subject. 
 
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