,,transcriber',s ,,note3 ,greek words in this text have been transliterated and placed between marks4 ,voltaire's ,philosophical ,dictionary ,new ,york ,,carlton ,,house ,,manufactured ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,preface ,this book does not demand continuous reading2 but at whatever place one opens it1 one will find matter for reflection4 ,the most useful books are those of which readers themselves compose half2 they extend the thoughts of which the germ is presented to them2 they correct what seems defective to them1 and they fortify by their reflections what seems to them weak4 ,it is only really by enlightened people that this book can be read2 the ordinary man is not made for such knowledge2 philosophy will never be his lot4 ,those who say that there are truths which must be hidden from the people1 need not be alarmed2 the people do not read2 they work six days of the week1 and on the seventh go to the inn4 ,in a word1 philosophical works are made only for philosophers1 and every honest man must try to be a philosopher1 without pluming himself on being one4 ,this alphabet is extracted from the most estimable works which are not commonly within the reach of the many2 and if the author does not always mention the sources of his information1 as being well enough known to the learned1 he must not be suspected of wishing to take the credit for other people's work1 because he himself preserves anonymity1 according to this word of the ,gospel3 ,let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth4 ,,contents ,,page ,,preface ,,by ,,voltaire #e ,,adultery #aa ,,advocate #af ,,ancients ,,and ,,moderns #ag ,,animals #ba ,,antiquity #bd ,,arts #bg ,,astrology #bi ,,atheism #cb ,,authority #df ,,authors #dh ,,banishment #ej ,,bankruptcy #ea ,,beauty #ec ,,bishop #ee ,,books #eg ,,bouleverd #fj ,,bourges #fa ,,brahmins #fb ,,character #fe ,,charlatan #fh ,,civil ,,laws #gc ,,climate #gd ,,common ,,sense #gh ,,concatenation ,,of ,,events #hj ,,contradictions #hc ,,corn #he ,,cromwell #hh ,,customs #id ,,democracy #if ,,destiny #ih ,,devout #ajb ,,ecclesiastical ,,ministry #ajc ,,emblem #ajf ,,english ,,theatre1 ,,on ,,the #aaj ,,envy #aab ,,equality #aad ,,expiation #aah ,,extreme #abb ,,ezourveidam #abe ,,faith #abf ,,false ,,minds #abh ,,fatherland #aca ,,final ,,causes #acc ,,fraud #acf ,,free-,,will #adb ,,french #adf ,,friendship #aej ,,god #aea ,,helvetia #aef ,,history #aeg ,,ignorance #afc ,,impious #aff ,,joan ,,of ,,arc #afh ,,kissing #agc ,,languages #agh ,,laws #ahd ,,liberty #ahg ,,library #aia ,,limits ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,mind #aid ,,local ,,crimes #aie ,,love #aig ,,luxury #bjj ,,man #bjc ,,man ,,in ,,the ,,iron ,,mask #bjd ,,marriage #baj ,,master #baa ,,men ,,of ,,letters #bad ,,metamorphosis #baf ,,milton1 ,,on ,,the ,,reproach ,,of ,,plagiarism ,,against #bag ,,mohammedans #bbj ,,mountain #bba ,,nakedness #bbb ,,natural ,,law #bbd ,,nature #bbg ,,necessary #bca ,,new ,,novelties #bcf ,,philosopher #bcg ,,power1 ,,omnipotence #bdj ,,prayers #bde ,,pr,,cis ,,of ,,ancient ,,philosophy #bdg ,,prejudices #bea ,,rare #bee ,,reason #beg ,,religion #bei ,,sect #bfg ,,self-,,esteem #bga ,,soul #bgc ,,states1 ,,governments #bid ,,superstition #big ,,tears #bii ,,theist #cja ,,tolerance #cjb ,,truth #cje ,,tyranny #cjh ,,virtue #cji ,,why8 #cac ,,declaration ,,of ,,admirers1 ,,questioners ,,and ,,doubters #cae ,,adultery ,,note ,,on ,a ,,magistrate ,,written ,,about #agfd ,a senior magistrate of a ,french town had the misfortune to have a wife who was debauched by a priest before her marriage1 and who since covered herself with disgrace by public scandals3 he was so moderate as to leave her without noise4 ,this man1 about forty years old1 vigorous and of agreeable appearance1 needs a woman2 he is too scrupulous to seek to seduce another man's wife1 he fears intercourse with a public woman or with a widow who would serve him as concubine4 ,in this disquieting and sad state1 he addresses to his ,church a plea of which the following is a prcis3 ,my wife is criminal1 and it is ,i who am punished4 ,another woman is necessary as a comfort to my life1 to my virtue even2 and the sect of which ,i am a member refuses her to me2 it forbids me to marry an honest girl4 ,the civil laws of to-day1 unfortunately founded on canon law1 deprive me of the rights of humanity4 ,the ,church reduces me to seeking either the pleasures it reproves1 or the shameful compensations it condemns2 it tries to force me to be criminal4 ,i cast my eyes over all the peoples of the earth2 there is not a single one except the ,roman ,catholic people among whom divorce and a new marriage are not natural rights4 ,what upheaval of the rule has therefore made among the ,catholics a virtue of undergoing adultery1 and a duty of lacking a wife when one has been infamously outraged by one's own8 ,why is a bond that has rotted indissoluble in spite of the great law adopted by the code1 quidquid ligatur dissolubile est8 ,i am allowed a separation a mensa et thoro1 and ,i am not allowed divorce4 ,the law can deprive me of my wife1 and it leaves me a name called sacrament6 ,what a contradiction6 what slavery6 and under what laws did we receive birth6 ,what is still more strange is that this law of my ,church is directly contrary to the words which this ,church itself believes to have been uttered by ,jesus ,christ3 ,whosoever shall put away his wife1 except it be for fornication1 and shall marry another1 committeth adultery 7,matt4 xix4 #i74 ,i do not examine whether the pontiffs of ,rome are in the right to violate at their pleasure the law of him they regard as their master2 whether when a state has need of an heir1 it is permissible to repudiate her who can give it one4 ,i do not inquire if a turbulent woman1 demented1 homicidal1 a poisoner1 should not be repudiated equally with an adulteress3 ,i limit myself to the sad state which concerns me3 ,god permits me to remarry1 and the ,bishop of ,rome does not permit me4 ,divorce was a practice among ,catholics under all the emperors2 it was also in all the dismembered states of the ,roman ,empire4 ,the kings of ,france1 those called of the first line1 almost all repudiated their wives in order to take new ones4 ,at last came ,gregory ,,ix41 enemy of the emperors and kings1 who by a decree made marriage an unshakeable yoke2 his decretal became the law of ,europe4 ,when the kings wanted to repudiate a wife who was an adulteress according to ,jesus ,christ's law1 they could not succeed2 it was necessary to find ridiculous pretexts4 ,louis the younger was obliged1 to accomplish his unfortunate divorce from ,eleanor of ,guienne1 to allege a relationship which did not exist4 ,henry ,,iv41 to repudiate ,marguerite de ,valois1 pretexted a still more false cause1 a refusal of consent4 ,one had to lie to obtain a divorce legitimately4 ,what6 a king can abdicate his crown1 and without the ,pope's permission he cannot abdicate his wife6 ,is it possible that otherwise enlightened men have wallowed so long in this absurd servitude6 ,that our priests1 that our monks renounce wives1 to that ,i consent2 it is an outrage against population1 it is a misfortune for them1 but they merit this misfortune which they have made for themselves4 ,they have been the victims of the popes who wanted to have in them slaves1 soldiers without families and without fatherland1 living solely for the ,church3 but ,i1 magistrate1 who serve the state all day1 ,i need a wife in the evening2 and the ,church has not the right to deprive me of a benefit which ,god accords me4 ,the apostles were married1 ,joseph was married1 and ,i want to be4 ,if ,i1 ,alsacian1 am dependent on a priest who dwells at ,rome1 if this priest has the barbarous power to rob me of a wife1 let him make a eunuch of me for the singing of ,misereres in his chapel4 ,,note ,,for ,,women ,equity demands that1 having recorded this note in favour of husbands1 we should also put before the public the case in favour of wives1 presented to the junta of ,portugal by a ,countess of ,arcira4 ,this is the substance of it3 ,the ,gospel has forbidden adultery for my husband just as for me2 he will be damned as ,i shall1 nothing is better established4 ,when he committed twenty infidelities1 when he gave my necklace to one of my rivals1 and my ear-rings to another1 ,i did not ask the judges to have him shaved1 to shut him up among monks and to give me his property4 ,and ,i1 for having imitated him once1 for having done with the most handsome young man in ,lisbon what he did every day with impunity with the most idiotic strumpets of the court and the town1 have to answer at the bar before licentiates each of whom would be at my feet if we were alone together in my closet2 have to endure at the court the usher cutting off my hair which is the most beautiful in the world2 and being shut up among nuns who have no common sense1 deprived of my dowry and my marriage covenants1 with all my property given to my coxcomb of a husband to help him seduce other women and to commit fresh adulteries4 ,i ask if it is just1 and if it is not evident that the laws were made by cuckolds8 ,in answer to my plea ,i am told that ,i should be happy not to be stoned at the city gate by the canons1 the priests of the parish and the whole populace4 ,this was the practice among the first nation of the earth1 the chosen nation1 the cherished nation1 the only one which was right when all the others were wrong4 ,to these barbarities ,i reply that when the poor adulteress was presented by her accusers to the ,master of the old and new law1 ,he did not have her stoned2 that on the contrary ,he reproached them with their injustice1 that he laughed at them by writing on the ground with his finger1 that he quoted the old ,hebraic proverb--,he that is without sin among you1 let him first cast a stone at her2 that then they all retired1 the oldest fleeing first1 because the older they were the more adulteries had they committed4 ,the doctors of canon law answer me that this history of the adulteress is related only in the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john1 that it was not inserted there until later4 ,leontius1 ,maldonat1 affirm that it is not to be found in a single ancient ,greek copy2 that none of the twenty-three early commentators mentions it4 ,origen1 ,st4 ,jerome1 ,st4 ,john ,chrysostom1 ,theophilact1 ,nonnus1 do not recognize it at all4 ,it is not to be found in the ,syriac ,bible1 it is not in ,ulphilas' version4 ,that is what my husband's advocates say1 they who would have me not only shaved1 but also stoned4 ,but the advocates who pleaded for me say that ,ammonius1 author of the third century1 recognized this story as true1 and that if ,st4 ,jerome rejects it in some places1 he adopts it in others2 that1 in a word1 it is authentic to-day4 ,i leave there1 and ,i say to my husband3 ,if you are without sin1 shave me1 imprison me1 take my property2 but if you have committed more sins than ,i have1 it is for me to shave you1 to have you imprisoned1 and to seize your fortune4 ,in justice these things should be equal4 ,my husband answers that he is my superior and my chief1 that he is more than an inch taller1 that he is shaggy as a bear2 that consequently ,i owe him everything1 and that he owes me nothing4 ,but ,i ask if ,queen ,anne of ,england is not her husband's chief8 if her husband the ,prince of ,denmark1 who is her ,high ,admiral1 does not owe her entire obedience8 and if she would not have him condemned by the court of peers if the little man's infidelity were in question8 ,it is therefore clear that if the women do not have the men punished1 it is when they are not the stronger4 ,,advocate ,an advocate is a man who1 not having a sufficient fortune to buy one of those resplendent offices on which the universe has its eyes1 studies the laws of ,theodosius and ,justinian for three years1 so that he may learn the usages of ,paris1 and who finally1 being registered1 has the right to plead causes for money1 if he have a strong voice4 ,,ancients ,,and ,,moderns ,the great dispute between the ancients and the moderns is not yet settled2 it has been on the table since the silver age succeeded the golden age4 ,mankind has always maintained that the good old times were much better than the present day4 ,nestor1 in the ,iliad1 wishing to insinuate himself as a wise conciliator into the minds of ,achilles and ,agamemnon1 starts by saying to them--,i lived formerly with better men than you2 no1 ,i have never seen and ,i shall never see such great personages as ,dryas1 ,cenus1 ,exadius1 ,polyphemus equal to the gods1 etc4 ,posterity has well avenged ,achilles for ,nestor's poor compliment4 ,nobody knows ,dryas any longer2 one has hardly heard speak of ,exadius1 or of ,cenus2 and as for ,polyphemus equal to the gods1 he has not too good a reputation1 unless the possession of a big eye in one's forehead1 and the eating of men raw1 are to have something of the divine4 ,lucretius does not hesitate to say that nature has degenerated 7lib4 ,,ii4 v4 #aaei74 ,antiquity is full of eulogies of another more remote antiquity4 ,horace combats this prejudice with as much finesse as force in his beautiful ,epistle to ,augustus 7,epist4 ,i4 liv4 ii474 ,must our poems1 then1 he says1 be like our wines1 of which the oldest are always preferred8 ,the learned and ingenious ,fontenelle expresses himself on this subject as follows3 ,the whole question of the pre-eminence between the ancients and the moderns1 once it is well understood1 is reduced to knowing whether the trees which formerly were in our countryside were bigger than those of to-day4 ,in the event that they were1 ,homer1 ,plato1 ,demosthenes cannot be equalled in these latter centuries4 ,let us throw light on this paradox4 ,if the ancients had more intellect than us1 it is that the brains of those times were better ordered1 formed of firmer or more delicate fibres1 filled with more animal spirits2 but in virtue of what were the brains of those times better ordered8 ,the trees also would have been bigger and more beautiful2 for if nature was then younger and more vigorous1 the trees1 as well as men's brains1 would have been conscious of this vigour and this youth4 7,digression on the ,ancients and the ,moderns1 vol4 #d1 #agdb edition47 ,with the illustrious academician's permission1 that is not at all the state of the question4 ,it is not a matter of knowing whether nature has been able to produce in our day as great geniuses and as good works as those of ,greek and ,latin antiquity2 but to know whether we have them in fact4 ,without a doubt it is not impossible for there to be as big oaks in the forest of ,chantilli as in the forest of ,dodona2 but supposing that the oaks of ,dodona had spoken1 it would be quite clear that they had a great advantage over ours1 which in all probability will never speak4 ,nature is not bizarre2 but it is possible that she gave the ,athenians a country and a sky more suitable than ,westphalia and the ,limousin for forming certain geniuses4 ,further1 it is possible that the government of ,athens1 by seconding the climate1 put into ,demosthenes' head something that the air of ,climart and ,la ,grenouillre and the government of ,cardinal de ,richelieu did not put into the heads of ,omer ,talon and ,jrome ,bignon4 ,this dispute is therefore a question of fact4 ,was antiquity more fecund in great monuments of all kinds1 up to the time of ,plutarch1 than modern centuries have been from the century of the ,medicis up to ,louis ,,xiv4 inclusive8 ,the ,chinese1 more than two hundred years before our era1 constructed that great wall which was not able to save them from the invasion of the ,tartars4 ,the ,egyptians1 three thousand years before1 had overloaded the earth with their astonishing pyramids1 which had a base of about ninety thousand square feet4 ,nobody doubts that1 if one wished to undertake to-day these useless works1 one could easily succeed by a lavish expenditure of money4 ,the great wall of ,china is a monument to fear2 the pyramids are monuments to vanity and superstition4 ,both bear witness to a great patience in the peoples1 but to no superior genius4 ,neither the ,chinese nor the ,egyptians would have been able to make even a statue such as those which our sculptors form to-day4 ,the chevalier ,temple1 who has made it his business to disparage all the moderns1 claims that in architecture they have nothing comparable to the temples of ,greece and ,rome3 but1 for all that he is ,english1 he must agree that the ,church of ,st4 ,peter is incomparably more beautiful than the ,capitol was4 ,it is curious with what assurance he maintains that there is nothing new in our astronomy1 nothing in the knowledge of the human body1 unless perhaps1 he says1 the circulation of the blood4 ,love of his own opinion1 founded on his vast self-esteem1 makes him forget the discovery of the satellites of ,jupiter1 of the five moons and the ring of ,saturn1 of the rotation of the sun on its axis1 of the calculated position of three thousand stars1 of the laws given by ,kepler and ,newton for the heavenly orbs1 of the causes of the precession of the equinoxes1 and of a hundred other pieces of knowledge of which the ancients did not suspect even the possibility4 ,the discoveries in anatomy are as great in number4 ,a new universe in little1 discovered by the microscope1 was counted for nothing by the chevalier ,temple2 he closed his eyes to the marvels of his contemporaries1 and opened them only to admire ancient ignorance4 ,he goes so far as to pity us for having nothing left of the magic of the ,indians1 the ,chaldeans1 the ,egyptians2 and by this magic he understands a profound knowledge of nature1 whereby they produced miracles3 but he does not cite one miracle1 because in fact there never were any4 ,what has become1 he asks1 of the charms of that music which so often enchanted man and beast1 the fishes1 the birds1 the snakes1 and changed their nature8 ,this enemy of his century really believes the fable of ,orpheus1 and has not apparently heard either the beautiful music of ,italy1 or even that of ,france1 which in truth does not charm snakes1 but does charm the ears of connoisseurs4 ,what is still more strange is that1 having all his life cultivated belles-lettres1 he does not reason better about our good authors than about our philosophers4 ,he looks on ,rabelais as a great man4 ,he cites the ,amours des ,gaules as one of our best works4 ,he was1 however1 a scholar1 a courtier1 a man of much wit1 an ambassador1 a man who had reflected profoundly on all he had seen4 ,he possessed great knowledge3 a prejudice sufficed to spoil all this merit4 ,there are beauties in ,euripides1 and in ,sophocles still more2 but they have many more defects4 ,one dares say that the beautiful scenes of ,corneille and the touching tragedies of ,racine surpass the tragedies of ,sophocles and ,euripides as much as these two ,greeks surpass ,thespis4 ,racine was quite conscious of his great superiority over ,euripides2 but he praised the ,greek poet in order to humiliate ,perrault4 ,molire1 in his good pieces1 is as superior to the pure but cold ,terence1 and to the droll ,aristophanes1 as to ,dancourt the buffoon4 ,there are therefore spheres in which the moderns are far superior to the ancients1 and others1 very few in number1 in which we are their inferiors4 ,it is to this that the whole dispute is reduced4 ,,animals ,what a pitiful1 what a sorry thing to have said that animals are machines bereft of understanding and feeling1 which perform their operations always in the same way1 which learn nothing1 perfect nothing1 etc46 ,what6 that bird which makes its nest in a semi-circle when it is attaching it to a wall1 which builds it in a quarter circle when it is in an angle1 and in a circle upon a tree2 that bird acts always in the same way8 ,that hunting-dog which you have disciplined for three months1 does it not know more at the end of this time than it knew before your lessons8 ,does the canary to which you teach a tune repeat it at once8 do you not spend a considerable time in teaching it8 have you not seen that it has made a mistake and that it corrects itself8 ,is it because ,i speak to you1 that you judge that ,i have feeling1 memory1 ideas8 ,well1 ,i do not speak to you2 you see me going home looking disconsolate1 seeking a paper anxiously1 opening the desk where ,i remember having shut it1 finding it1 reading it joyfully4 ,you judge that ,i have experienced the feeling of distress and that of pleasure1 that ,i have memory and understanding4 ,bring the same judgment to bear on this dog which has lost its master1 which has sought him on every road with sorrowful cries1 which enters the house agitated1 uneasy1 which goes down the stairs1 up the stairs1 from room to room1 which at last finds in his study the master it loves1 and which shows him its joy by its cries of delight1 by its leaps1 by its caresses4 ,barbarians seize this dog1 which in friendship surpasses man so prodigiously2 they nail it on a table1 and they dissect it alive in order to show the mesenteric veins4 ,you discover in it all the same organs of feeling that are in yourself4 ,answer me1 machinist1 has nature arranged all the means of feeling in this animal1 so that it may not feel8 has it nerves in order to be impassible8 ,do not suppose this impertinent contradiction in nature4 ,but the schoolmasters ask what the soul of animals is8 ,i do not understand this question4 ,a tree has the faculty of receiving in its fibres its sap which circulates1 of unfolding the buds of its leaves and its fruit2 will you ask what the soul of this tree is8 it has received these gifts2 the animal has received those of feeling1 of memory1 of a certain number of ideas4 ,who has bestowed these gifts8 who has given these faculties8 ,he who has made the grass of the fields to grow1 and who makes the earth gravitate toward the sun4 ,animals' souls are substantial forms1 said ,aristotle1 and after ,aristotle1 the ,arab school1 and after the ,arab school1 the angelical school1 and after the angelical school1 the ,sorbonne1 and after the ,sorbonne1 nobody at all4 ,animals' souls are material1 cry other philosophers4 ,these have not been in any better fortune than the others4 ,in vain have they been asked what a material soul is2 they have to admit that it is matter which has sensation3 but what has given it this sensation8 ,it is a material soul1 that is to say that it is matter which gives sensation to matter2 they cannot issue from this circle4 ,listen to other brutes reasoning about the brutes2 their soul is a spiritual soul which dies with the body2 but what proof have you of it8 what idea have you of this spiritual soul1 which1 in truth1 has feeling1 memory1 and its measure of ideas and ingenuity2 but which will never be able to know what a child of six knows8 ,on what ground do you imagine that this being1 which is not body1 dies with the body8 ,the greatest fools are those who have advanced that this soul is neither body nor spirit4 ,there is a fine system4 ,by spirit we can understand only some unknown thing which is not body4 ,thus these gentlemen's system comes back to this1 that the animals' soul is a substance which is neither body nor something which is not body4 ,whence can come so many contradictory errors8 ,from the habit men have always had of examining what a thing is1 before knowing if it exists4 ,the clapper1 the valve of a bellows1 is called in ,french the soul of a bellows4 ,what is this soul8 ,it is a name that ,i have given to this valve which falls1 lets air enter1 rises again1 and thrusts it through a pipe1 when ,i make the bellows move4 ,there is not there a distinct soul in the machine3 but what makes animals' bellows move8 ,i have already told you1 what makes the stars move4 ,the philosopher who said1 ,deus est anima brutorum1 was right2 but he should go further4 ,,antiquity ,have you sometimes seen in a village ,pierre ,aoudri and his wife ,peronelle wishing to go before their neighbours in the procession8 ,our grandfathers1 they say1 were tolling the bells before those who jostle us to-day owned even a pig-sty4 ,the vanity of ,pierre ,aoudri1 his wife and his neighbours1 knows nothing more about it4 ,their minds kindle4 ,the quarrel is important2 honour is in question4 ,proofs are necessary4 ,a scholar who sings in the choir1 discovers an old rusty iron pot1 marked with an ,a1 first letter of the name of the potter who made the pot4 ,pierre ,aoudri persuades himself that it was his ancestors' helmet4 ,in this way was ,csar descended from a hero and from the goddess ,venus4 ,such is the history of nations2 such is1 within very small margins1 the knowledge of early antiquity4 ,the scholars of ,armenia demonstrate that the terrestrial paradise was in their land4 ,some profound ,swedes demonstrate that it was near ,lake ,vener which is visibly a remnant of it4 ,some ,spaniards demonstrate also that it was in ,castille2 while the ,japanese1 the ,chinese1 the ,indians1 the ,africans1 the ,americans are not sufficiently unfortunate to know even that there was formerly a terrestrial paradise at the source of the ,phison1 the ,gehon1 the ,tigris and the ,euphrates1 or1 if you prefer it1 at the source of the ,guadalquivir1 the ,guadiana1 the ,douro and the ,ebro2 for from ,phison one easily makes ,phaetis2 and from ,phaetis one makes the ,baetis which is the ,guadalquivir4 ,the ,gehon is obviously the ,guadiana1 which begins with a ,g4 ,the ,ebro1 which is in ,catalonia1 is incontestably the ,euphrates1 of which the initial letter is ,e4 ,but a ,scotsman appears who demonstrates in his turn that the garden of ,eden was at ,edinburgh1 which has retained its name2 and it is to be believed that in a few centuries this opinion will make its fortune4 ,the whole globe was burned once upon a time1 says a man versed in ancient and modern history2 for ,i read in a newspaper that some absolutely black charcoal has been found in ,germany at a depth of a hundred feet1 between mountains covered with wood4 ,and it is suspected even that there were charcoal burners in this place4 ,phaeton's adventure makes it clear that everything has boiled right to the bottom of the sea4 ,the sulphur of ,mount ,vesuvius proves invincibly that the banks of the ,rhine1 ,danube1 ,ganges1 ,nile and the great ,yellow ,river are merely sulphur1 nitre and ,guiac oil1 which only await the moment of the explosion to reduce the earth to ashes1 as it has already been4 ,the sand on which we walk is evident proof that the earth has been vitrified1 and that our globe is really only a glass ball1 just as are our ideas4 ,but if fire has changed our globe1 water has produced still finer revolutions4 ,for you see clearly that the sea1 the tides of which mount as high as eight feet in our climate1 has produced mountains of a height of sixteen to seventeen thousand feet4 ,this is so true that some learned men who have never been in ,switzerland have found a big ship with all its rigging petrified on ,mount ,st4 ,gothard1 or at the bottom of a precipice1 one knows not where2 but it is quite certain that it was there4 ,therefore men were originally fish1 quod erat demonstrandum4 ,to descend to a less antique antiquity1 let us speak of the times when the greater part of the barbarous nations left their countries1 to go to seek others which were hardly any better4 ,it is true1 if there be anything true in ancient history1 that there were some ,gaulish brigands who went to pillage ,rome in the time of ,camillus4 ,other ,gaulish brigands had passed1 it is said1 through ,illyria on the way to hire their services as murderers to other murderers1 in the direction of ,thrace2 they exchanged their blood for bread1 and later established themselves in ,galatia4 ,but who were these ,gauls8 were they ,berichons and ,angevins8 ,they were without a doubt ,gauls whom the ,romans called ,cisalpines1 and whom we call ,transalpines1 famished mountain-dwellers1 neighbours of the ,alps and the ,apennines4 ,the ,gauls of the ,seine and the ,marne did not know at that time that ,rome existed1 and could not take it into their heads to pass ,mount ,cenis1 as ,hannibal did later1 to go to steal the wardrobes of ,roman senators who at that time for all furniture had a robe of poor grey stuff1 ornamented with a band the colour of ox blood2 two little pummels of ivory1 or rather dog's bone1 on the arms of a wooden chair2 and in their kitchens a piece of rancid bacon4 ,the ,gauls1 who were dying of hunger1 not finding anything to eat in ,rome1 went off therefore to seek their fortune farther away1 as was the practice of the ,romans later1 when they ravaged so many countries one after the other2 as did the peoples of the ,north when they destroyed the ,roman ,empire4 ,and1 further1 what is it which instructs very feebly about these emigrations8 ,it is a few lines that the ,romans wrote at hazard2 because for the ,celts1 the ,velches or the ,gauls1 these men who it is desired to make pass for eloquent1 at that time did not know1 they and their bards1 how either to read or write4 ,but to infer from that that the ,gauls or ,celts1 conquered after by a few of ,csar's legions1 and by a horde of ,bourguignons1 and lastly by a horde of ,sicamores1 under one ,clodovic1 had previously subjugated the whole world1 and given their names and laws to ,asia1 seems to me to be very strange3 the thing is not mathematically impossible1 and if it be demonstrated1 ,i give way2 it would be very uncivil to refuse to the ,velches what one accords to the ,tartars4 ,,arts ,,that ,,the ,,newness ,,of ,,the ,,arts ,,in ,,no ,,wise ,,proves ,,the ,,newness ,,of ,,the ,,globe ,all the philosophers thought matter eternal but the arts appear new4 ,there is not one1 even to the art of making bread1 which is not recent4 ,the first ,romans ate pap2 and these conquerors of so many nations never thought of either windmills or watermills4 ,this truth seems at first to contradict the antiquity of the globe such as it is1 or supposes terrible revolutions in this globe4 ,the inundations of barbarians can hardly annihilate arts which have become necessary4 ,i suppose that an army of negroes come among us like locusts1 from the mountains of ,cobonas1 through the ,monomotapa1 the ,monoemugi1 the ,nosseguais1 the ,maracates2 that they have traversed ,abyssinia1 ,nubia1 ,egypt1 ,syria1 ,asia ,minor1 the whole of our ,europe2 that they have overthrown everything1 ransacked everything2 there will still remain a few bakers1 a few cobblers1 a few tailors1 a few carpenters3 the necessary arts will survive2 only luxury will be annihilated4 ,it is what was seen at the fall of the ,roman ,empire2 the art of writing even became very rare2 almost all those which contributed to the comfort of life were reborn only long after4 ,we invent new ones every day4 ,from all this one can at bottom conclude nothing against the antiquity of the globe4 ,for1 supposing even that an influx of barbarians had made us lose entirely all the arts even to the arts of writing and making bread2 supposing1 further1 that for ten years past we had no bread1 pens1 ink and paper2 the land which has been able to subsist for ten years without eating bread and without writing its thoughts1 would be able to pass a century1 and a hundred thousand centuries without these aids4 ,it is quite clear that man and the other animals can exist very well without bakers1 without novelists1 and without theologians1 witness the whole of ,america1 witness three quarters of our continent4 ,the newness of the arts among us does not therefore prove the newness of the globe1 as was claimed by ,epicurus1 one of our predecessors in reverie1 who supposed that by chance the eternal atoms in declining1 had one day formed our earth4 ,pomponace said3 ,se il mondo non eterno1 per tutti santi molto vecchio4 ,,astrology ,astrology may rest on better foundations than ,magic4 ,for if no one has seen either ,goblins1 or ,lemures1 or ,dives1 or ,peris1 or ,demons1 or ,cacodemons1 the predictions of astrologers have often been seen to succeed4 ,if of two astrologers consulted on the life of a child and on the weather1 one says that the child will live to manhood1 the other not2 if one announces rain1 and the other fine weather1 it is clear that one of them will be a prophet4 ,the great misfortune of the astrologers is that the sky has changed since the rules of the art were established4 ,the sun1 which at the equinox was in ,aries in the time of the ,argonauts1 is to-day in ,taurus2 and the astrologers1 to the great ill-fortune of their art1 to-day attribute to one house of the sun what belongs visibly to another4 ,however1 that is not a demonstrative reason against astrology4 ,the masters of the art deceive themselves2 but it is not demonstrated that the art cannot exist4 ,there is no absurdity in saying3 ,such and such a child is born in the waxing of the moon1 during stormy weather1 at the rising of such and such star2 his constitution has been feeble1 and his life unhappy and short2 which is the ordinary lot of poor constitutions3 this child1 on the contrary1 was born when the moon was full1 the sun strong1 the weather calm1 at the rising of such and such star2 his constitution has been good1 his life long and happy4 ,if these observations had been repeated1 if they had been found accurate1 experience would have been able after some thousands of years to form an art which it would have been difficult to doubt3 one would have thought1 with some likelihood1 that men are like trees and vegetables which must be planted and sown only in certain seasons4 ,it would have been of no avail against the astrologers to say3 ,my son was born at a fortunate time1 and nevertheless died in his cradle2 the astrologer would have answered3 ,it often happens that trees planted in the proper season perish2 ,i answered to you for the stars1 but ,i did not answer for the flaw of conformation you communicated to your child4 ,astrology operates only when no cause opposes itself to the good the stars can do4 ,one would not have succeeded better in discrediting the astrologer by saying3 ,of two children who were born in the same minute1 one has been king1 the other has been only churchwarden of his parish2 for the astrologer could very well have defended himself by pointing out that the peasant made his fortune when he became churchwarden1 as the prince when he became king4 ,and if one alleged that a bandit whom ,sixtus ,v4 had hanged was born at the same time as ,sixtus ,v41 who from a pig-herd became ,pope1 the astrologers would say one had made a mistake of a few seconds1 and that it is impossible1 according to the rules1 for the same star to give the triple crown and the gibbet4 ,it is then only because a host of experiences belied the predictions1 that men perceived at last that the art was illusory2 but before being undeceived1 they were long credulous4 ,one of the most famous mathematicians in ,europe1 named ,stoffler1 who flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries1 and who long worked at the reform of the calendar1 proposed at the ,council of ,constance1 foretold a universal flood for the year #aebd4 ,this flood was to arrive in the month of ,february1 and nothing is more plausible2 for ,saturn1 ,jupiter and ,mars were then in conjunction in the sign of ,pisces4 ,all the peoples of ,europe1 ,asia and ,africa1 who heard speak of the prediction1 were dismayed4 ,everyone expected the flood1 despite the rainbow4 ,several contemporary authors record that the inhabitants of the maritime provinces of ,germany hastened to sell their lands dirt cheap to those who had most money1 and who were not so credulous as they4 ,everyone armed himself with a boat as with an ark4 ,a ,toulouse doctor1 named ,auriol1 had a great ark made for himself1 his family and his friends2 the same precautions were taken over a large part of ,italy4 ,at last the month of ,february arrived1 and not a drop of water fell3 never was month more dry1 and never were the astrologers more embarrassed4 ,nevertheless they were not discouraged1 nor neglected among us2 almost all princes continued to consult them4 ,i have not the honour of being a prince2 but the celebrated ,count of ,boulainvilliers and an ,italian1 named ,colonne1 who had much prestige in ,paris1 both foretold that ,i should die infallibly at the age of thirty-two4 ,i have been so malicious as to deceive them already by nearly thirty years1 wherefore ,i humbly beg their pardon4 ,,atheism ,,section ,i ,,of ,,the ,,comparison ,,so ,,often ,,made ,,between ,,atheism ,,and ,,idolatry ,it seems to me that in the ,encyclopedic ,dictionary the opinion of the ,jesuit ,richeome1 on atheists and idolaters1 has not been refuted as strongly as it might have been2 opinion held formerly by ,st4 ,thomas1 ,st4 ,gregory of ,nazianze1 ,st4 ,cyprian and ,tertullian1 opinion that ,arnobius set forth with much force when he said to the pagans3 ,do you not blush to reproach us with despising your gods1 and is it not much more proper to believe in no ,god at all1 than to impute to them infamous actions8#a opinion established long before by ,plutarch1 who says that he much prefers people to say there is no ,plutarch1 than to say--',there is an inconstant1 choleric1 vindictive ,plutarch'2#b opinion strengthened finally by all the effort of ,bayle's dialectic4 ,here is the ground of dispute1 brought to fairly dazzling light by the ,jesuit ,richeome1 and rendered still more plausible by the way ,bayle has turned it to account4#c ,there are two porters at the door of a house2 they are asked3 ',can one speak to your master8' ',he is not there1' answers one4 ',he is there1' answers the other1 'but he is busy making counterfeit money1 forged contracts1 daggers and poisons1 to undo those who have but accomplished his purposes4' ,the atheist resembles the first of these porters1 the pagan the other4 ,it is clear1 therefore1 that the pagan offends the ,deity more gravely than does the atheist4 ,with ,father ,richeome's and even ,bayle's permission1 that is not at all the position of the matter4 ,for the first porter to resemble the atheists1 he must not say--,my master is not here3 he should say--,i have no master2 him whom you claim to be my master does not exist2 my comrade is a fool to tell you that he is busy compounding poisons and sharpening daggers to assassinate those who have executed his caprices4 ,no such being exists in the world4 ,richeome has reasoned1 therefore1 very badly4 ,and ,bayle1 in his somewhat diffuse discourses1 has forgotten himself so far as to do ,richeome the honour of annotating him very malapropos4 ,plutarch seems to express himself much better in preferring people who affirm there is no ,plutarch1 to those who claim ,plutarch to be an unsociable man4 ,in truth1 what does it matter to him that people say he is not in the world8 ,but it matters much to him that his reputation be not tarnished4 ,it is not thus with the ,supreme ,being4 ,plutarch even does not broach the real object under discussion4 ,it is not a question of knowing who offends more the ,supreme ,being1 whether it be he who denies ,him1 or he who distorts ,him4 ,it is impossible to know otherwise than by revelation1 if ,god is offended by the empty things men say of ,him4 ,without a thought1 philosophers fall almost always into the ideas of the common herd1 in supposing ,god to be jealous of ,his glory1 to be choleric1 to love vengeance1 and in taking rhetorical figures for real ideas4 ,the interesting subject for the whole universe1 is to know if it be not better1 for the good of all mankind1 to admit a rewarding and revengeful ,god1 who recompenses good actions hidden1 and who punishes secret crimes1 than to admit none at all4 ,bayle exhausts himself in recounting all the infamies imputed by fable to the gods of antiquity4 ,his adversaries answer him with commonplaces that signify nothing4 ,the partisans of ,bayle and his enemies have almost always fought without making contact4 ,they all agree that ,jupiter was an adulterer1 ,venus a wanton1 ,mercury a rogue4 ,but1 as ,i see it1 that is not what needs consideration4 ,one must distinguish between ,ovid's ,metamorphoses and the religion of the ancient ,romans4 ,it is quite certain that never among the ,romans or even among the ,greeks1 was there a temple dedicated to ,mercury the rogue1 ,venus the wanton1 ,jupiter the adulterer4 ,the god whom the ,romans called ,deus optimus1 very good1 very great1 was not reputed to encourage ,clodius to sleep with ,csar's wife1 or ,csar to be ,king ,nicomedes' ,sodomite4 ,cicero does not say that ,mercury incited ,verres to steal ,sicily1 although ,mercury1 in the fable1 had stolen ,apollo's cows4 ,the real religion of the ancients was that ,jupiter1 very good and very just1 and the secondary gods1 punished the perjurer in the infernal regions4 ,likewise the ,romans were long the most religious observers of oaths4 ,religion was very useful1 therefore1 to the ,romans4 ,there was no command to believe in ,leda's two eggs1 in the changing of ,inachus' daughter into a cow1 in the love of ,apollo for ,hyacinthus4 ,one must not say therefore that the religion of ,numa dishonoured the ,deity4 ,for a long time1 therefore1 people have been disputing over a chimera2 which happens only too often4 ,the question is then asked whether a nation of atheists can exist2 it seems to me that one must distinguish between the nation properly so called1 and a society of philosophers above the nation4 ,it is very true that in every country the populace has need of the greatest curb1 and that if ,bayle had had only five or six hundred peasants to govern1 he would not have failed to announce to them the existence of a ,god1 rewarder and revenger4 ,but ,bayle would not have spoken of ,him to the ,epicureans who were rich people1 fond of rest1 cultivating all the social virtues1 and above all friendship1 fleeing the embarrassment and danger of public affairs1 in fine1 leading a comfortable and innocent life4 ,it seems to me that in this way the dispute is finished as regards society and politics4 ,for entirely savage races1 it has been said already that one cannot count them among either the atheists or the theists4 ,asking them their belief would be like asking them if they are for ,aristotle or ,democritus3 they know nothing2 they are not atheists any more than they are ,peripatetics4 ,in this case1 ,i shall answer that the wolves live like this1 and that an assembly of cannibal barbarians such as you suppose them is not a society2 and ,i shall always ask you if1 when you have lent your money to someone in your society1 you want neither your debtor1 nor your attorney1 nor your judge1 to believe in ,god4 ,,of ,,modern ,,atheists4 ,,reasons ,,of ,,the ,,worshippers ,,of ,,god ,we are intelligent beings3 intelligent beings cannot have been formed by a crude1 blind1 insensible being3 there is certainly some difference between the ideas of ,newton and the dung of a mule4 ,newton's intelligence1 therefore1 came from another intelligence4 ,when we see a beautiful machine1 we say that there is a good engineer1 and that this engineer has excellent judgment4 ,the world is assuredly an admirable machine2 therefore there is in the world an admirable intelligence1 wherever it may be4 ,this argument is old1 and none the worse for that4 ,all living bodies are composed of levers1 of pulleys1 which function according to the laws of mechanics2 of liquids which the laws of hydrostatics cause to circulate perpetually2 and when one thinks that all these beings have a perception quite unrelated to their organization1 one is overwhelmed with surprise4 ,the movement of the heavenly bodies1 that of our little earth round the sun1 all operate by virtue of the most profound mathematical law4 ,how ,plato who was not aware of one of these laws1 eloquent but visionary ,plato1 who said that the earth was erected on an equilateral triangle1 and the water on a right-angled triangle2 strange ,plato1 who says there can be only five worlds1 because there are only five regular bodies3 how1 ,i say1 did ,plato1 who did not know even spherical trigonometry1 have nevertheless a genius sufficiently fine1 an instinct sufficiently happy1 to call ,god the ,eternal ,geometer1 to feel the existence of a creative intelligence8 ,spinoza himself admits it4 ,it is impossible to strive against this truth which surrounds us and which presses on us from all sides4 ,,reasons ,,of ,,the ,,atheists ,notwithstanding1 ,i have known refractory persons who say that there is no creative intelligence at all1 and that movement alone has by itself formed all that we see and all that we are4 ,they tell you brazenly3 ,the combination of this universe was possible1 seeing that the combination exists3 therefore it was possible that movement alone arranged it4 ,take four of the heavenly bodies only1 ,mars1 ,venus1 ,mercury and the ,earth3 let us think first only of the place where they are1 setting aside all the rest1 and let us see how many probabilities we have that movement alone put them in their respective places4 ,we have only twenty-four chances in this combination1 that is1 there are only twenty-four chances against one to bet that these bodies will not be where they are with reference to each other4 ,let us add to these four globes that of ,jupiter2 there will be only a hundred and twenty against one to bet that ,jupiter1 ,mars1 ,venus1 ,mercury and our globe1 will not be placed where we see them4 ,add finally ,saturn3 there will be only seven hundred and twenty chances against one1 for putting these six big planets in the arrangement they preserve among themselves1 according to their given distances4 ,it is therefore demonstrated that in seven hundred and twenty throws1 movement alone has been able to put these six principal planets in their order4 ,take then all the secondary bodies1 all their combinations1 all their movements1 all the beings that vegetate1 that live1 that feel1 that think1 that function in all the globes1 you will have but to increase the number of chances2 multiply this number in all eternity1 up to the number which our feebleness calls 'infinity1' there will always be a unity in favour of the formation of the world1 such as it is1 by movement alone3 therefore it is possible that in all eternity the movement of matter alone has produced the entire universe such as it exists4 ,it is even inevitable that in eternity this combination should occur4 ,thus1 they say1 not only is it possible for the world to be what it is by movement alone1 but it was impossible for it not to be likewise after an infinity of combinations4 ,,answer ,all this supposition seems to me prodigiously fantastic1 for two reasons2 first1 that in this universe there are intelligent beings1 and that you would not know how to prove it possible for movement alone to produce understanding2 second1 that1 from your own avowal1 there is infinity against one to bet1 that an intelligent creative cause animates the universe4 ,when one is alone face to face with the infinite1 one feels very small4 ,again1 ,spinoza himself admits this intelligence2 it is the basis of his system4 ,you have not read it1 and it must be read4 ,why do you want to go further than him1 and in foolish arrogance plunge your feeble reason in an abyss into which ,spinoza dared not descend8 ,do you realize thoroughly the extreme folly of saying that it is a blind cause that arranges that the square of a planet's revolution is always to the square of the revolutions of other planets1 as the cube of its distance is to the cube of the distances of the others to the common centre8 ,either the heavenly bodies are great geometers1 or the ,eternal ,geometer has arranged the heavenly bodies4 ,but where is the ,eternal ,geometer8 is ,he in one place or in all places1 without occupying space8 ,i have no idea4 ,is it of ,his own substance that ,he has arranged all things8 ,i have no idea4 ,is ,he immense without quantity and without quality8 ,i have no idea4 ,all that ,i know is that one must worship ,him and be just4 ,,new ,,objection ,,of ,a ,,modern ,,atheist#d ,can one say that the parts of animals conform to their needs3 what are these needs8 preservation and propagation4 ,is it astonishing then that1 of the infinite combinations which chance has produced1 there has been able to subsist only those that have organs adapted to the nourishment and continuation of their species8 have not all the others perished of necessity8 ,,answer ,this objection1 oft-repeated since ,lucretius1 is sufficiently refuted by the gift of sensation in animals1 and by the gift of intelligence in man4 ,how should combinations which chance has produced1 produce this sensation and this intelligence 7as has just been said in the preceding paragraph78 ,without any doubt the limbs of animals are made for their needs with incomprehensible art1 and you are not so bold as to deny it4 ,you say no more about it4 ,you feel that you have nothing to answer to this great argument which nature brings against you4 ,the disposition of a fly's wing1 a snail's organs suffices to bring you to the ground4 ,,maupertuis' ,,objection ,modern natural philosophers have but expanded these so-called arguments1 often they have pushed them to trifling and indecency4 ,they have found ,god in the folds of the skin of the rhinoceros3 one could1 with equal reason1 deny ,his existence because of the tortoise's shell4 ,,answer ,what reasoning6 ,the tortoise and the rhinoceros1 and all the different species1 are proof equally in their infinite variety of the same cause1 the same design1 the same aim1 which are preservation1 generation and death4 ,there is unity in this infinite variety2 the shell and the skin bear witness equally4 ,what6 deny ,god because shell does not resemble leather6 ,and journalists have been prodigal of eulogies about these ineptitudes1 eulogies they have not given to ,newton and ,locke1 both worshippers of the ,deity who spoke with full knowledge4 ,,maupertuis' ,,objection ,of what use are beauty and proportion in the construction of the snake8 ,they may have uses1 some say1 of which we are ignorant4 ,at least let us be silent then2 let us not admire an animal which we know only by the harm it does4 ,,answer ,and be you silent too1 seeing that you cannot conceive its utility any more than ,i can2 or avow that in reptiles everything is admirably proportioned4 ,some are venomous1 you have been so yourself4 ,here there is question only of the prodigious art which has formed snakes1 quadrupeds1 birds1 fish and bipeds4 ,this art is sufficiently evident4 ,you ask why the snake does harm8 ,and you1 why have you done harm so many times8 ,why have you been a persecutor8 which is the greatest of all crimes for a philosopher4 ,that is another question1 a question of moral and physical ill4 ,for long has one asked why there are so many snakes and so many wicked men worse than snakes4 ,if flies could reason1 they would complain to ,god of the existence of spiders2 but they would admit what ,minerva admitted about ,arachne1 in the fable1 that she arranges her web marvellously4 ,one is bound therefore to recognize an ineffable intelligence which even ,spinoza admitted4 ,one must agree that this intelligence shines in the vilest insect as in the stars4 ,and as regards moral and physical ill1 what can one say1 what do8 console oneself by enjoying physical and moral good1 in worshipping the ,eternal ,being who has made one and permitted the other4 ,one more word on this subject4 ,atheism is the vice of a few intelligent persons1 and superstition is the vice of fools4 ,but rogues6 what are they8 rogues4 ,,section ,,ii ,let us say a word on the moral question set in action by ,bayle1 to know if a society of atheists could exist8 ,let us mark first of all in this matter what is the enormous contradiction of men in this dispute2 those who have risen against ,bayle's opinion with the greatest ardour2 those who have denied with the greatest insults the possibility of a society of atheists1 have since maintained with the same intrepidity that atheism is the religion of the government of ,china4 ,assuredly they are quite mistaken about the ,chinese government2 they had but to read the edicts of the emperors of this vast country to have seen that these edicts are sermons1 and that everywhere there is mention of the ,supreme ,being1 ruler1 revenger1 rewarder4 ,but at the same time they are not less mistaken on the impossibility of a society of atheists2 and ,i do not know how ,mr4 ,bayle can have forgotten one striking example which was capable of making his cause victorious4 ,in what does a society of atheists appear impossible8 ,it is that one judges that men who had no check could never live together2 that laws can do nothing against secret crimes2 that a revengeful ,god who punishes in this world or the other the wicked who have escaped human justice is necessary4 ,the laws of ,moses1 it is true1 did not teach a life to come1 did not threaten punishments after death1 did not teach the first ,jews the immortality of the soul2 but the ,jews1 far from being atheists1 far from believing in avoiding divine vengeance1 were the most religious of all men4 ,not only did they believe in the existence of an eternal ,god1 but they believed ,him always present among them2 they trembled lest they be punished in themselves1 in their wives1 in their children1 in their posterity1 even unto the fourth generation2 this curb was very potent4 ,but1 among the ,gentiles1 many sects had no curb2 the sceptics doubted everything3 the academicians suspended judgment on everything2 the ,epicureans were persuaded that the ,deity could not mix ,himself in the affairs of men2 and at bottom1 they admitted no ,deity4 ,they were convinced that the soul is not a substance1 but a faculty which is born and which perishes with the body2 consequently they had no yoke other than morality and honour4 ,the ,roman senators and knights were veritable atheists1 for the gods did not exist for men who neither feared nor hoped anything from them4 ,the ,roman senate in the time of ,csar and ,cicero1 was therefore really an assembly of atheists4 ,that great orator1 in his harangue for ,cluentius1 says to the whole senate in assembly3 ,what ill does death do him8 we reject all the inept fables of the nether regions3 of what then has death deprived him8 of nothing but the consciousness of suffering4 ,does not ,csar1 the friend of ,cataline1 wishing to save his friend's life against this same ,cicero1 object to him that to make a criminal die is not to punish him at all1 that death is nothing1 that it is merely the end of our ills1 that it is a moment more happy than calamitous8 ,and do not ,cicero and the whole senate surrender to these reasons8 ,the conquerors and the legislators of the known universe formed visibly therefore a society of men who feared nothing from the gods1 who were real atheists4 ,further on ,bayle examines whether idolatry is more dangerous than atheism1 if it is a greater crime not to believe in the ,deity than to have unworthy opinions thereof3 in that he is of ,plutarch's opinion2 he believes it is better to have no opinion than to have a bad opinion2 but with all deference to ,plutarch1 it was clearly infinitely better for the ,greeks to fear ,ceres1 ,neptune and ,jupiter1 than to fear nothing at all4 ,the sanctity of oaths is clearly necessary1 and one should have more confidence in those who believe that a false oath will be punished1 than in those who think they can make a false oath with impunity4 ,it is indubitable that in a civilized town1 it is infinitely more useful to have a religion1 even a bad one1 than to have none at all4 ,it looks1 therefore1 that ,bayle should have examined rather which is the more dangerous1 fanaticism or atheism4 ,fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly2 for atheism inspires no bloody passion1 whereas fanaticism does3 atheism is not opposed to crime1 but fanaticism causes crimes to be committed4 ,fanatics committed the massacres of ,st4 ,bartholomew4 ,hobbes passed for an atheist2 he led a tranquil and innocent life4 ,the fanatics of his time deluged ,england1 ,scotland and ,ireland with blood4 ,spinoza was not only atheist1 but he taught atheism2 it was not he assuredly who took part in the judicial assassination of ,barneveldt2 it was not he who tore the brothers ,de ,witt in pieces1 and who ate them grilled4 ,the atheists are for the most part impudent and misguided scholars who reason badly1 and who not being able to understand the creation1 the origin of evil1 and other difficulties1 have recourse to the hypothesis of the eternity of things and of inevitability4 ,the ambitious1 the sensual1 have hardly time for reasoning1 and for embracing a bad system2 they have other things to do than comparing ,lucretius with ,socrates4 ,that is how things go among us4 ,that was not how things went with the ,roman senate which was almost entirely composed of atheists in theory and in practice1 that is to say1 who believed in neither a ,providence nor a future life2 this senate was an assembly of philosophers1 of sensualists and ambitious men1 all very dangerous1 who ruined the republic4 ,epicureanism existed under the emperors3 the atheists of the senate had been rebels in the time of ,sylla and ,csar3 under ,augustus and ,tiberius they were atheist slaves4 ,i would not wish to have to deal with an atheist prince1 who would find it to his interest to have me ground to powder in a mortar3 ,i should be quite sure of being ground to powder4 ,if ,i were a sovereign1 ,i would not wish to have to deal with atheist courtiers1 whose interest it would be to poison me3 ,i should have to be taking antidotes every day4 ,it is therefore absolutely necessary for princes and for peoples1 that the idea of a ,supreme ,being1 creator1 ruler1 rewarder1 revenger1 shall be deeply engraved in people's minds4 ,bayle says1 in his ,thoughts on the ,comets1 that there are atheist peoples4 ,the ,caffres1 the ,hottentots1 the ,topinambous1 and many other small nations1 have no ,god3 they neither deny nor affirm2 they have never heard speak of ,him2 tell them that there is a ,god3 they will believe it easily2 tell them that everything happens through the nature of things2 they will believe you equally4 ,to claim that they are atheists is to make the same imputation as if one said they are anti-,cartesian2 they are neither for nor against ,descartes4 ,they are real children2 a child is neither atheist nor deist1 he is nothing4 ,what conclusion shall we draw from all this8 ,that atheism is a very pernicious monster in those who govern2 that it is also pernicious in the persons around statesmen1 although their lives may be innocent1 because from their cabinets it may pierce right to the statesmen themselves2 that if it is not so deadly as fanaticism1 it is nearly always fatal to virtue4 ,let us add especially that there are less atheists to-day than ever1 since philosophers have recognized that there is no being vegetating without germ1 no germ without a plan1 etc41 and that wheat comes in no wise from putrefaction4 ,some geometers who are not philosophers have rejected final causes1 but real philosophers admit them2 a catechist proclaims ,god to the children1 and ,newton demonstrates ,him to the learned4 ,if there are atheists1 whom must one blame1 if not the mercenary tyrants of souls1 who1 making us revolt against their knaveries1 force a few weak minds to deny the ,god whom these monsters dishonour4 ,how many times have the people's leeches brought oppressed citizens to the point of revolting against their king6 ,men fattened on our substance cry to us3 ,be persuaded that a she-ass has spoken2 believe that a fish has swallowed a man and has given him up at the end of three days safe and sound on the shore2 have no doubt that the ,god of the universe ordered one ,jewish prophet to eat excrement 7,ezekiel71 and another prophet to buy two whores and to make with them sons of whoredom 7,hosea74 ,these are the very words that the ,god of truth and purity has been made to utter2 believe a hundred things either visibly abominable or mathematically impossible2 unless you do1 the ,god of pity will burn you1 not only during millions of thousands of millions of centuries in the fire of hell1 but through all eternity1 whether you have a body1 whether you have not4 ,these inconceivable absurdities revolt weak and rash minds1 as well as wise and resolute minds4 ,they say3 ,our masters paint ,god to us as the most insensate and the most barbarous of all beings2 therefore there is no ,god2 but they should say3 therefore our masters attribute to ,god their absurdities and their furies1 therefore ,god is the contrary of what they proclaim1 therefore ,god is as wise and as good as they make him out mad and wicked4 ,it is thus that wise men account for things4 ,but if a bigot hears them1 he denounces them to a magistrate who is a watchdog of the priests2 and this watchdog has them burned over a slow fire1 in the belief that he is avenging and imitating the divine majesty he outrages4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,arnobius1 ,adversus ,gentes41 lib4 v4 #b ,of ,superstition1 by ,plutarch4 #c ,see ,bayle1 ,continuation of ,divers ,thoughts1 par4 #gg1 art4 ,,xiii4 #d ,see1 for this objection1 ,maupertuis' ,essay on ,cosmology1 first part4 ,,authority ,wretched human beings1 whether you wear green robes1 turbans1 black robes or surplices1 cloaks and neckbands1 never seek to use authority where there is question only of reason1 or consent to be scoffed at throughout the centuries as the most impertinent of all men1 and to suffer public hatred as the most unjust4 ,a hundred times has one spoken to you of the insolent absurdity with which you condemned ,galileo1 and ,i speak to you for the hundred and first1 and ,i hope you will keep the anniversary of it for ever2 ,i desire that there be graved on the door of your ,holy ,office3 ,here seven cardinals1 assisted by minor brethren1 had the master of thought in ,italy thrown into prison at the age of seventy2 made him fast on bread and water because he instructed the human race1 and because they were ignorant4 ,there was pronounced a sentence in favour of ,aristotle's categories1 and there was decreed learnedly and equitably the penalty of the galleys for whoever should be sufficiently daring as to have an opinion different from that of the ,stagyrite1 whose books were formerly burned by two councils4 ,further on a faculty1 which had not great faculties1 issued a decree against innate ideas1 and later a decree for innate ideas1 without the said faculty being informed by its beadles what an idea is4 ,in the neighbouring schools judicial proceedings were instituted against the circulation of the blood4 ,an action was started against inoculation1 and parties have been subpoenaed4 ,at the ,customs of thought twenty-one folio volumes were seized1 in which it was stated treacherously and wickedly that triangles always have three angles2 that a father is older than his son2 that ,rhea ,silvia lost her virginity before giving birth to her child1 and that flour is not an oak leaf4 ,in another year was judged the action3 ,utrum chimera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones1 and was decided in the affirmative4 ,in consequence1 everyone thought themselves far superior to ,archimedes1 ,euclid1 ,cicero1 ,pliny1 and strutted proudly about the ,university quarter4 ,,authors ,author is a generic name which can1 like the name of all other professions1 signify good or bad1 worthy of respect or ridicule1 useful and agreeable1 or trash for the wastepaper-basket4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we think that the author of a good work should refrain from three things--from putting his name1 save very modestly1 from the epistle dedicatory1 and from the preface4 ,others should refrain from a fourth--that is1 from writing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,prefaces are another stumbling-block4 ,the ',i1' said ,pascal1 is hateful4 ,speak as little of yourself as possible2 for you must know that the reader's self-esteem is as great as yours4 ,he will never forgive you for wanting to condemn him to have a good opinion of you4 ,it is for your book to speak for you1 if it comes to be read by the crowd4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if you want to be an author1 if you want to write a book2 reflect that it must be useful and new1 or at least infinitely agreeable4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if an ignoramus1 a pamphleteer1 presumes to criticize without discrimination1 you can confound him2 but make rare mention of him1 for fear of sullying your writings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if you are attacked as regards your style1 never reply2 it is for your work alone to make answer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,someone says you are ill1 be content that you are well1 without wanting to prove to the public that you are in perfect health4 ,and above all remember that the public cares precious little whether you are well or ill4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a hundred authors make compilations in order to have bread1 and twenty pamphleteers make excerpts from these compilations1 or apology for them1 or criticism and satire of them1 also with the idea of having bread1 because they have no other trade4 ,all these persons go on ,friday to the police lieutenant of ,paris to ask permission to sell their rubbish4 ,they have audience immediately after the strumpets who do not look at them because they know that these are underhand dealings4#e 99 99 99 99 99 ,real authors are those who have succeeded in one of the real arts1 in epic poetry1 in tragedy or comedy1 in history or philosophy1 who have taught men or charmed them4 ,the others of whom we have spoken are1 among men of letters1 what wasps are among birds4 ,,footnotes3 #e ,when ,voltaire was writing1 it was the police lieutenant of ,paris who had1 under the chancellor1 the inspection of books3 since then1 a part of his department has been taken from him4 ,he has kept only the inspection of theatrical plays and works below those on printed sheets4 ,the detail of this part is immense4 ,in ,paris one is not permitted to print that one has lost one's dog1 unless the police are assured that in the poor beast's description there is no proposition contrary to morality and religion 7#ahai74 ,,banishment ,banishment for a period or for life1 punishment to which one condemns delinquents1 or those one wishes to appear as such4 ,not long ago one banished outside the sphere of jurisdiction a petty thief1 a petty forger1 a man guilty of an act of violence4 ,the result was that he became a big robber1 a forger on a big scale1 and murderer within the sphere of another jurisdiction4 ,it is as if we threw into our neighbours' fields the stones which incommode us in our own4 ,those who have written on the rights of men1 have been much tormented to know for certain if a man who has been banished from his fatherland still belongs to his fatherland4 ,it is nearly the same thing as asking if a gambler who has been driven away from the gaming-table is still one of the gamblers4 ,if to every man it is permitted by natural right to choose his fatherland1 he who has lost the right of citizen can1 with all the more reason1 choose for himself a new fatherland2 but can he bear arms against his former fellow-citizens8 ,there are a thousand examples of it4 ,how many ,french protestants naturalized in ,holland1 ,england and ,germany have served against ,france1 and against armies containing their own kindred and their own brothers6 ,the ,greeks who were in the ,king of ,persia's armies made war on the ,greeks1 their former compatriots4 ,one has seen the ,swiss in the ,dutch service fire on the ,swiss in the ,french service4 ,it is still worse than to fight against those who have banished you2 for1 after all1 it seems less dishonest to draw the sword for vengeance than to draw it for money4 ,,bankruptcy ,few bankruptcies were known in ,france before the sixteenth century4 ,the great reason is that there were no bankers4 ,lombards1 ,jews lent on security at ten per cent3 trade was conducted in cash4 ,exchange1 remittances to foreign countries were a secret unknown to all judges4 ,it is not that many people were not ruined2 but that was not called bankruptcy2 one said discomfiture2 this word is sweeter to the ear4 ,one used the word rupture as did the ,boulonnais2 but rupture does not sound so well4 ,the bankruptcies came to us from ,italy1 bancorotto1 bancarotta1 gambarotta e la giustizia non impicar4 ,every merchant had his bench 7banco7 in the place of exchange2 and when he had conducted his business badly1 declared himself fallito1 and abandoned his property to his creditors with the proviso that he retain a good part of it for himself1 be free and reputed a very upright man4 ,there was nothing to be said to him1 his bench was broken1 banco rotto1 banca rotta2 he could even1 in certain towns1 keep all his property and baulk his creditors1 provided he seated himself bare-bottomed on a stone in the presence of all the merchants4 ,this was a mild derivation of the old ,roman proverb--solvere aut in aere aut in cute1 to pay either with one's money or one's skin4 ,but this custom no longer exists2 creditors have preferred their money to a bankrupt's hinder parts4 ,in ,england and in some other countries1 one declares oneself bankrupt in the gazettes4 ,the partners and creditors gather together by virtue of this announcement which is read in the coffee-houses1 and they come to an arrangement as best they can4 ,as among the bankruptcies there are frequently fraudulent cases1 it has been necessary to punish them4 ,if they are taken to court they are everywhere regarded as theft1 and the guilty are condemned to ignominious penalties4 ,it is not true that in ,france the death penalty was decreed against bankrupts without distinction4 ,simple failures involved no penalty2 fraudulent bankrupts suffered the penalty of death in the states of ,orleans1 under ,charles ,,ix41 and in the states of ,blois in #aegf1 but these edicts1 renewed by ,henry ,,iv41 were merely comminatory4 ,it is too difficult to prove that a man has dishonoured himself on purpose1 and has voluntarily ceded all his goods to his creditors in order to cheat them4 ,when there has been a doubt1 one has been content with putting the unfortunate man in the pillory1 or with sending him to the galleys1 although ordinarily a banker makes a poor convict4 ,bankrupts were very favourably treated in the last year of ,louis ,,xiv4's reign1 and during the ,regency4 ,the sad state to which the interior of the kingdom was reduced1 the multitude of merchants who could not or would not pay1 the quantity of unsold or unsellable effects1 the fear of interrupting all commerce1 obliged the government in #agae1 #agaf1 #agah1 #agba1 #agbb1 and #agbf to suspend all proceedings against all those who were in a state of insolvency4 ,the discussions of these actions were referred to the judge-consuls2 this is a jurisdiction of merchants very expert in these cases1 and better constituted for going into these commercial details than the parliaments which have always been more occupied with the laws of the kingdom than with finance4 ,as the state was at that time going bankrupt1 it would have been too hard to punish the poor middle-class bankrupts4 ,since then we have had eminent men1 fraudulent bankrupts1 but they have not been punished4 ,,beauty ,ask a toad what beauty is1 the to kalon8 ,he will answer you that it is his toad wife with two great round eyes issuing from her little head1 a wide1 flat mouth1 a yellow belly1 a brown back4 ,interrogate a ,guinea negro1 for him beauty is a black oily skin1 deep-set eyes1 a flat nose4 ,interrogate the devil2 he will tell you that beauty is a pair of horns1 four claws and a tail4 ,consult1 lastly1 the philosophers1 they will answer you with gibberish3 they have to have something conforming to the arch-type of beauty in essence1 to the to kalon4 ,one day ,i was at a tragedy near by a philosopher4 ,how beautiful that is6 he said4 ,what do you find beautiful there8 ,i asked4 ,it is beautiful1 he answered1 because the author has reached his goal4 ,the following day he took some medicine which did him good4 ,the medicine has reached its goal1 ,i said to him4 ,what a beautiful medicine6 ,he grasped that one cannot say a medicine is beautiful1 and that to give the name of beauty to something1 the thing must cause you to admire it and give you pleasure4 ,he agreed that the tragedy had inspired these sentiments in him1 and that there was the to kalon1 beauty4 ,we journeyed to ,england3 the same piece1 perfectly translated1 was played there2 it made everybody in the audience yawn4 ,ho1 ho6 he said1 the to kalon is not the same for the ,english and the ,french4 ,after much reflection he came to the conclusion that beauty is often very relative1 just as what is decent in ,japan is indecent in ,rome1 and what is fashionable in ,paris1 is not fashionable in ,pekin2 and he saved himself the trouble of composing a long treatise on beauty4 ,there are actions which the whole world finds beautiful4 ,two of ,csar's officers1 mortal enemies1 send each other a challenge1 not as to who shall shed the other's blood with tierce and quarte behind a thicket as with us1 but as to who shall best defend the ,roman camp1 which the ,barbarians are about to attack4 ,one of them1 having repulsed the enemy1 is near succumbing2 the other rushes to his aid1 saves his life1 and completes the victory4 ,a friend sacrifices his life for his friend2 a son for his father4444 ,the ,algonquin1 the ,frenchman1 the ,chinaman1 will all say that that is very beautiful1 that these actions give them pleasure1 that they admire them4 ,they will say as much of the great moral maxims1 of ,zarathustra's--,in doubt if an action be just1 abstain4442 of ,confucius'--,forget injuries1 never forget kindnesses4 ,the negro with the round eyes and flat nose1 who will not give the name of beauties to the ladies of our courts1 will without hesitation give it to these actions and these maxims4 ,the wicked man even will recognize the beauty of these virtues which he dare not imitate4 ,the beauty which strikes the senses merely1 the imagination1 and that which is called intelligence1 is often uncertain therefore4 ,the beauty which speaks to the heart is not that4 ,you will find a host of people who will tell you that they have found nothing beautiful in three-quarters of the ,iliad2 but nobody will deny that ,codrus' devotion to his people was very beautiful1 supposing it to be true4 ,there are many other reasons which determine me not to write a treatise on beauty4 ,,bishop ,samuel ,ornik1 native of ,basle1 was1 as you know1 a very amiable young man who1 besides1 knew his ,new ,testament by heart in ,greek and ,german4 ,when he was twenty his parents sent him on a journey4 ,he was charged to carry some books to the coadjutor of ,paris1 at the time of the ,fronde4 ,he arrived at the door of the archbishop's residence2 the ,swiss told him that ,monseigneur saw nobody4 ,comrade1 said ,ornik to him1 you are very rude to your compatriots4 ,the apostles let everyone approach1 and ,jesus ,christ desired that people should suffer all the little children to come to him4 ,i have nothing to ask of your master2 on the contrary1 ,i have brought him something4 ,come inside1 then1 said the ,swiss4 ,he waits an hour in a first antechamber4 ,as he was very nave1 he began a conversation with a servant1 who was very fond of telling all he knew of his master4 ,he must be mightily rich1 said ,ornik1 to have this crowd of pages and flunkeys whom ,i see running about the house4 ,i don't know what his income is1 answered the other1 but ,i heard it said to ,joly and the ,abb ,charier that he already had two millions of debts4 ,but who is that lady coming out of the room8 ,that is ,madame de ,pomereu1 one of his mistresses4 ,she is really very pretty2 but ,i have not read that the apostles had such company in their bedrooms in the mornings4 ,ah6 ,i think the archbishop is going to give audience4 ,say--',his ,highness1 ,monseigneur4' ,willingly4 ,ornik salutes ,his ,highness1 presents his books1 and is received with a very gracious smile4 ,the archbishop says four words to him1 then climbs into his coach1 escorted by fifty horsemen4 ,in climbing1 ,monseigneur lets a sheath fall4 ,ornik is quite astonished that ,monseigneur carries so large an ink-horn in his pocket4 ,don't you see that's his dagger8 says the chatterbox4 ,everyone carries a dagger when he goes to parliament4 ,that's a pleasant way of officiating1 says ,ornik2 and he goes away very astonished4 ,he traverses ,france1 and enlightens himself from town to town2 thence he passes into ,italy4 ,when he is in the ,pope's territory1 he meets one of those bishops with a thousand crowns income1 walking on foot4 ,ornik was very polite2 he offers him a place in his cambiature4 ,you are doubtless on your way to comfort some sick man1 ,monseigneur8 ,sir1 ,i am on my way to my master's4 ,your master8 that is ,jesus ,christ1 doubtless8 ,sir1 it is ,cardinal ,azolin2 ,i am his almoner4 ,he pays me very poorly2 but he has promised to place me in the service of ,donna ,olimpia1 the favourite sister-in-law di nostro signore4 ,what6 you are in the pay of a cardinal8 ,but do you not know that there were no cardinals in the time of ,jesus ,christ and ,st4 ,john8 ,is it possible8 cried the ,italian prelate4 ,nothing is more true2 you have read it in the ,gospel4 ,i have never read it1 answered the bishop2 all ,i know is ,our ,lady's office4 ,i tell you there were neither cardinals nor bishops1 and when there were bishops1 the priests were their equals almost1 according to ,jerome's assertions in several places4 ,holy ,virgin1 said the ,italian4 ,i knew nothing about it3 and the popes8 ,there were not any popes any more than cardinals4 ,the good bishop crossed himself2 he thought he was with an evil spirit1 and jumped out of the cambiature4 ,,books ,you despise them1 books1 you whose whole life is plunged in the vanities of ambition and in the search for pleasure or in idleness2 but think that the whole of the known universe1 with the exception of the savage races is governed by books alone4 ,the whole of ,africa right to ,ethiopia and ,nigritia obeys the book of the ,alcoran1 after having staggered under the book of the ,gospel4 ,china is ruled by the moral book of ,confucius2 a greater part of ,india by the book of the ,veidam4 ,persia was governed for centuries by the books of one of the ,zarathustras4 ,if you have a law-suit1 your goods1 your honour1 your life even depends on the interpretation of a book which you never read4 ,robert the ,devil1 the ,four ,sons of ,aymon1 the ,imaginings of ,mr4 ,oufle1 are books also2 but it is with books as with men2 the very small number play a great part1 the rest are mingled in the crowd4 ,who leads the human race in civilized countries8 those who know how to read and write4 ,you do not know either ,hippocrates1 ,boerhaave or ,sydenham2 but you put your body in the hands of those who have read them4 ,you abandon your soul to those who are paid to read the ,bible1 although there are not fifty among them who have read it in its entirety with care4 ,to such an extent do books govern the world1 that those who command to-day in the city of the ,scipios and the ,catos have desired that the books of their law should be only for them2 it is their sceptre2 they have made it a crime of lse-majest for their subjects to look there without express permission4 ,in other countries it has been forbidden to think in writing without letters patent4 ,there are nations among whom thought is regarded purely as an object of commerce4 ,the operations of the human mind are valued there only at two sous the sheet4 ,in another country1 the liberty of explaining oneself by books is one of the most inviolable prerogatives4 ,print all that you like under pain of boring or of being punished if you abuse too considerably your natural right4 ,before the admirable invention of printing1 books were rarer and more expensive than precious stones4 ,almost no books among the barbarian nations until ,charlemagne1 and from him to the ,french king ,charles ,v41 surnamed the wise2 and from this ,charles right to ,franois ,ier1 there is an extreme dearth4 ,the ,arabs alone had books from the eighth century of our era to the thirteenth4 ,china was filled with them when we did not know how to read or write4 ,copyists were much employed in the ,roman ,empire from the time of the ,scipios up to the inundation of the barbarians4 ,the ,greeks occupied themselves much in transcribing towards the time of ,amyntas1 ,philip and ,alexander2 they continued this craft especially in ,alexandria4 ,this craft is somewhat ungrateful4 ,the merchants always paid the authors and the copyists very badly4 ,it took two years of assiduous labour for a copyist to transcribe the ,bible well on vellum4 ,what time and what trouble for copying correctly in ,greek and ,latin the works of ,origen1 of ,clement of ,alexandria1 and of all those other authors called fathers4 ,the poems of ,homer were long so little known that ,pisistratus was the first who put them in order1 and who had them transcribed in ,athens1 about five hundred years before the era of which we are making use4 ,to-day there are not perhaps a dozen copies of the ,veidam and the ,zend-,avesta in the whole of the ,east4 ,you would not have found a single book in the whole of ,russia in #agjj1 with the exception of ,missals and a few ,bibles in the homes of aged men drunk on brandy4 ,to-day people complain of a surfeit3 but it is not for readers to complain2 the remedy is easy2 nothing forces them to read4 ,it is not any the more for authors to complain4 ,those who make the crowd must not cry that they are being crushed4 ,despite the enormous quantity of books1 how few people read6 and if one read profitably1 one would see the deplorable follies to which the common people offer themselves as prey every day4 ,what multiplies books1 despite the law of not multiplying beings unnecessarily1 is that with books one makes others2 it is with several volumes already printed that a new history of ,france or ,spain is fabricated1 without adding anything new4 ,all dictionaries are made with dictionaries2 almost all new geography books are repetitions of geography books4 ,the ,summation of ,st4 ,thomas has produced two thousand fat volumes of theology2 and the same family of little worms that have gnawed the mother1 gnaw likewise the children4 ,,bouleverd ,,or ,,boulevart ,boulevart1 fortification1 rampart4 ,belgrade is the boulevart of the ,ottoman ,empire on the ,hungarian side4 ,who would believe that this word originally signified only a game of bowls8 ,the people of ,paris played bowls on the grass of the rampart2 this grass was called the verd1 like the grass market4 ,on boulait sur le verd4 ,from there it comes that the ,english1 whose language is a copy of ours in almost all the words which are not ,saxon1 have called the game of bowls bowling-green1 the verd 7green7 of the game of bowls4 ,we have taken back from them what we had lent them4 ,following their example1 we gave the name of boulingrins1 without knowing the strength of the word1 to the grass-plots we introduced into our gardens4 ,i once heard two good dames who were going for a walk on the ,bouleverd1 and not on the ,boulevart4 ,people laughed at them1 and wrongly4 ,but in all matters custom carries the day2 and everyone who is right against custom is hissed or condemned4 ,,bourges ,our questions barely turn on geography2 but let us be permitted to mark in two words our astonishment about the town of ,bourges4 ,the ,dictionnaire de ,trvoux claims that it is one of the most ancient towns of ,europe1 that it was the seat of the empire of the ,gauls1 and gave kings to the ,celts4 ,i do not wish to combat the ancientness of any town or any family4 ,but was there ever an empire of the ,gauls8 ,did the ,celts have kings8 ,this mania for antiquity is a malady from which one will not be healed so soon4 ,the ,gauls1 ,germany1 ,scandinavia have nothing that is antique save the land1 the trees and the animals4 ,if you want antiquities1 go toward ,asia1 and even then it is very small beer4 ,man is ancient and monuments new1 that is what we have in view in more than one article4 ,if it were a real benefit to be born in a stone or wooden enclosure more ancient than another1 it would be very reasonable to make the foundation of one's town date back to the time of the war of the giants2 but since there is not the least advantage in this vanity1 one must break away from it4 ,that is all ,i had to say about ,bourges4 ,,brahmins ,is it not probable that the ,brahmins were the first legislators of the earth1 the first philosophers1 the first theologians8 ,do not the few monuments of ancient history which remain to us form a great presumption in their favour1 since the first ,greek philosophers went to them to learn mathematics1 and since the most ancient curiosities collected by the emperors of ,china are all ,indian8 ,we will speak elsewhere of the ,shasta2 it is the first book of theology of the ,brahmins1 written about fifteen hundred years before their ,veidam1 and anterior to all the other books4 ,their annals make no mention of any war undertaken by them at any time4 ,the words for arms1 to kill1 to maim1 are not to be found either in the fragments of the ,shasta which we have1 or in the ,ezourveidam1 or in the ,cormoveidam4 ,i can at least give the assurance that ,i did not see them in these last two collections3 and what is still more singular is that the ,shasta which speaks of a conspiracy in heaven1 makes no mention of any war in the great peninsula enclosed between the ,indus and the ,ganges4 ,the ,hebrews1 who were known so late1 never name the ,brahmins2 they had no knowledge of ,india until after the conquests of ,alexander1 and their settling in ,egypt1 of which they had said so much evil4 ,the name of ,india is to be found only in the ,book of ,esther1 and in that of ,job which was not ,hebrew4 ,one remarks a singular contrast between the sacred books of the ,hebrews1 and those of the ,indians4 ,the ,indian books announce only peace and gentleness2 they forbid the killing of animals3 the ,hebrew books speak only of killing1 of the massacre of men and beasts2 everything is slaughtered in the name of the ,lord2 it is quite another order of things4 ,it is incontestably from the ,brahmins that we hold the idea of the fall of the celestial beings in revolt against the ,sovereign of nature2 and it is from there probably that the ,greeks drew the fable of the ,titans4 ,it is there also that the ,jews at last took the idea of the revolt of ,lucifer1 in the first century of our era4 ,how could these ,indians suppose a revolt in heaven without having seen one on earth8 ,such a jump from human nature to divine nature is barely conceivable4 ,usually one goes from known to unknown4 ,one does not imagine a war of giants until one has seen some men more robust than the others tyrannize over their fellows4 ,the first ,brahmins must either have experienced violent discords1 or at least have seen them in heaven4 ,it is a very astonishing phenomenon for a society of men who have never made war to have invented a species of war made in the imaginary spaces1 or in a globe distant from ours1 or in what is called the firmament1 the empyrean4 ,but it must be carefully observed that in this revolt of celestial beings against their ,sovereign no blows were struck1 no celestial blood flowed1 no mountains hurled at the head1 no angels cut in two1 as in ,milton's sublime and grotesque poem4 ,according to the ,shasta1 it is only a formal disobedience to the orders of the ,most ,high1 a cabal which ,god punishes by relegating the rebellious angels to a vast place of shadows called ,ondera during the period of an entire mononthour4 ,a mononthour is four hundred and twenty-six millions of our years4 ,but ,god deigned to pardon the guilty after five thousand years1 and their ondera was only a purgatory4 ,he made ,mhurd of them1 men1 and placed them in our globe on condition that they should not eat animals1 and that they should not copulate with the males of their new species1 under pain of returning to ondera4 ,those are the principal articles of the ,brahmins' faith1 which have lasted without interruption from immemorial times right to our day3 it seems strange to us that among them it should be as grave a sin to eat a chicken as to commit sodomy4 ,this is only a small part of the ancient cosmogony of the ,brahmins4 ,their rites1 their pagodas1 prove that among them everything was allegorical2 they still represent virtue beneath the emblem of a woman who has ten arms1 and who combats ten mortal sins represented by monsters4 ,our missionaries have not failed to take this image of virtue for that of the devil1 and to assure us that the devil is worshipped in ,india4 ,we have never been among these people but to enrich ourselves and to calumniate them4 ,really we have forgotten a very essential thing in this little article on the ,brahmins2 it is that their sacred books are filled with contradictions4 ,but the people do not know of them1 and the doctors have solutions ready1 figurative meanings1 allegories1 symbols1 express declarations of ,birma1 ,brahma and ,vitsnou1 which should close the mouths of all who reason4 ,,character ,from the ,greek word impression1 engraving4 ,it is what nature has graved in us4 ,can one change one's character8 ,yes1 if one changes one's body4 ,it is possible for a man born blunderer1 unbending and violent1 being stricken with apoplexy in his old age1 to become a foolish1 tearful child1 timid and peaceable4 ,his body is no longer the same4 ,but as long as his nerves1 his blood and his marrow are in the same state1 his nature will not change any more than a wolf's and a marten's instinct4 ,the character is composed of our ideas and our feelings3 well1 it is substantiated that we give ourselves neither feelings nor ideas2 therefore our character does not depend on us4 ,if it depended on us1 there is nobody who would not be perfect4 ,we cannot give ourselves tastes1 talents2 why should we give ourselves qualities8 ,if one does not reflect1 one thinks oneself master of everything2 when one reflects thereon1 one sees that one is master of nothing4 ,should you wish to change a man's character completely1 purge him with diluents every day until you have killed him4 ,charles ,,xii41 in his suppurative fever on the road to ,bender1 was no longer the same man4 ,one prevailed upon him as upon a child4 ,if ,i have a crooked nose and two cat's eyes1 ,i can hide them with a mask4 ,can ,i do more with the character which nature has given me8 ,a man born violent1 hasty1 presented himself before ,franois ,i41 ,king of ,france1 to complain of an injustice2 the prince's countenance1 the respectful bearing of the courtiers1 the very place where he is1 make a powerful impression on this man2 mechanically he lowers his eyes1 his rough voice softens1 he presents his petition humbly1 one would believe him born as gentle as are 7at that moment at least7 the courtiers1 amongst whom he is even disconcerted2 but ,franois ,i4 understands physiognomy1 he easily discovers in the lowered eyes1 burning nevertheless with sombre fire1 in the strained facial muscles1 in the compressed lips1 that this man is not so gentle as he is forced to appear4 ,this man follows him to ,pavia1 is taken with him1 led to the same prison in ,madrid3 ,franois ,i4's majesty no longer makes the same impression on him2 he grows familiar with the object of his respect4 ,one day when pulling off the king's boots1 and pulling them off badly1 the king1 embittered by his misfortune1 gets angry2 my man sends the king about his business1 and throws his boots out of the window4 ,sixtus ,v4 was born petulant1 stubborn1 haughty1 impetuous1 vindictive1 arrogant2 this character seemed softened during the trials of his novitiate4 ,he begins to enjoy a certain credit in his order2 he flies into a passion with a guard1 and batters him with his fist3 he is inquisitor at ,venice2 he performs his duties with insolence3 behold him cardinal1 he is possessed dalla rabbia papale3 this fury triumphs over his nature2 he buries his person and his character in obscurity2 he apes the humble and the dying man2 he is elected ,pope2 this moment gives back to the spring1 which politics have bent1 all its long curbed elasticity2 he is the haughtiest and most despotic of sovereigns4 ,naturam expella furca1 tamen usque recurret4 7,hor4 ,l4 ,i41 ep4 x74 ,drive away nature1 it returns at the gallop4 7,,destouches1 ,glorieux1 ,act #c1 ,sc4 #e47 ,religion1 morality put a brake on a nature's strength2 they cannot destroy it4 ,the drunkard in a cloister1 reduced to a half-stier of cider at each meal1 will no longer get drunk1 but he will always like wine4 ,age enfeebles character2 it is a tree that produces only degenerate fruit1 but the fruit is always of the same nature2 it is knotted and covered with moss1 it becomes worm-eaten1 but it is always oak or pear tree4 ,if one could change one's character1 one would give oneself one1 one would be master of nature4 ,can one give oneself anything8 do we not receive everything8 ,try to animate an indolent man with a continued activity2 to freeze with apathy the boiling soul of an impetuous fellow1 to inspire someone who has neither ear nor taste with a taste for music and poetry1 you will no more succeed than if you undertook to give sight to a man born blind4 ,we perfect1 we soften1 we conceal what nature has put in us1 but we do not put in ourselves anything at all4 ,one says to a farmer3 ,you have too many fish in this pond1 they will not prosper2 there are too many cattle in your meadows1 grass lacks1 they will grow thin4 ,it happens after this exhortation that the pikes eat half my man's carp1 and the wolves the half of his sheep2 the rest grow fat4 ,will he congratulate himself on his economy8 ,this countryman1 it is you2 one of your passions has devoured the others1 and you think you have triumphed over yourself4 ,do not nearly all of us resemble that old general of ninety who1 having met some young officers who were debauching themselves with some girls1 says to them angrily3 ,gentlemen1 is that the example ,i give you8 ,,charlatan ,the article entitled ,charlatan in the ,encyclopedic ,dictionary is filled with useful truths agreeably presented4 ,the ,chevalier de ,jaucourt has there presented the charlatanry of medicine4 ,we will take the liberty of adding here a few reflections4 ,the abode of the doctors is in the large towns2 there are barely any doctors in the country4 ,it is in the great towns that the rich invalids are2 debauchery1 the excesses of the table1 the passions1 are the cause of their maladies4 ,dumoulin1 not the lawyer1 the doctor1 who was as good a practician as the other1 said as he was dying1 that he left two great doctors behind him1 diet and river water4 ,in #agbh1 in the time of ,law1 the most famous charlatan of the first species1 another1 ,villars by name1 confided to some friends that his uncle who had lived nearly a hundred years1 and who died only by accident1 had left him the secret of a water which could easily prolong life to a hundred and fifty years1 provided a man was temperate4 ,when he saw a funeral pass1 he shrugged his shoulders in pity2 if the defunct1 he observed1 had drunk my water1 he would not be where he is4 ,his friends to whom he gave generously of the water1 and who observed the prescribed regime in some degree1 thrived on it and praised it4 ,he then sold the bottle for six francs2 the sale was prodigious4 ,it was water from the ,seine with a little nitre4 ,those who took it and who subjected themselves to a certain amount of regime1 above all those who were born with a good constitution1 recovered perfect health in a few days4 ,he said to the others3 ,it is your fault if you are not entirely cured3 correct these two vices and you will live at least a hundred and fifty years4 ,some of them reformed2 this good charlatan's fortune increased like his reputation4 ,the ,abb de ,pons1 the enthusiast1 put him far above the ,marchal de ,villars3 ,the ,marchal kills men1 he said to him1 but you make them live4 ,people learned at last that ,villars ,water was only river water2 they would have no more of it2 and went to other charlatans4 ,it is certain that he had done good1 and that the only reproach one could make against him was that he had sold ,seine water a little too dear4 ,he led men to temperance by which fact he was superior to the apothecary ,arnoult1 who stuffed ,europe with his sachets against apoplexy1 without recommending any virtue4 ,i knew in ,london a doctor named ,brown1 who practised in ,barbados4 ,he had a sugar refinery and negroes2 he was robbed of a considerable sum2 he assembled his negroes3 ,my lads1 he said to them1 the great serpent appeared to me during the night1 he told me that the thief would at this moment have a parrot's feather on the end of his nose4 ,the guilty man promptly put his hand to his nose4 ,it is you who robbed me1 said the master2 the great serpent has just told me so4 ,and he regained his money4 ,one can hardly condemn such a charlatanry2 but one must be dealing with negroes4 ,scipio ,africanus1 this great ,scipio very different otherwise from ,dr4 ,brown1 willingly made his soldiers believe that he was inspired by the gods4 ,this great charlatanry was long the custom4 ,can one blame ,scipio to have availed himself of it8 he was the man who perhaps did most honour to the ,roman ,republic2 but why did the gods inspire him not to render his accounts8 ,numa did better2 it was necessary to police some brigands and a senate which was the most difficult section of these brigands to govern4 ,if he had proposed his laws to the assembled tribes1 the assassins of his predecessor would have made a thousand difficulties4 ,he addressed himself to the goddess ,egeria1 who gave him some pandects from ,jupiter2 he was obeyed without contradiction1 and he reigned happily4 ,his instructions were good1 his charlatanry did good2 but if some secret enemy had discovered the imposture1 if he had said3 ,exterminate an impostor who prostitutes the name of the gods in order to deceive men1 ,numa ran the risk of being sent to heaven with ,romulus4 ,it is probable that ,numa took his measures very carefully1 and that he deceived the ,romans for their benefit1 with a dexterity suitable to the time1 the place1 the intelligence of the early ,romans4 ,mahomet was twenty times on the point of failing1 but he succeeded at last with the ,arabs of ,medina2 and people believed that he was the intimate friend of the ,archangel ,gabriel4 ,if to-day someone came to ,constantinople to announce that he was the favourite of the ,archangel ,raphael1 far superior to ,gabriel in dignity1 and that it was in him alone people should believe1 he would be impaled in the public place4 ,it is for charlatans to choose their time well4 ,was there not a little charlatanry in ,socrates with his familiar demon1 and ,apollo's precise declaration which proclaimed him the wisest of all men8 ,how can ,rollin1 in his history1 reason from this oracle8 ,how is it that he does not let the young idea know that it was pure charlatanry8 ,socrates chose his time badly4 ,a hundred years earlier1 maybe1 he would have governed ,athens4 ,all leaders of sects in philosophy have been somewhat charlatans3 but the greatest of all have been those who have aspired to domination4 ,cromwell was the most terrible of all our charlatans4 ,he appeared at precisely the only time he could succeed3 under ,elizabeth he would have been hanged2 under ,charles ,,ii4 he would have been merely ridiculous4 ,he came happily at a time when people were disgusted with kings2 and his son1 at a time when people were weary of a protector4 ,,of ,,charlatanry ,,in ,,science ,,and ,,literature ,the sciences can barely be without charlatanry4 ,people wish to have their opinions accepted2 the quibbling doctor wishes to eclipse the angelic doctor2 the recondite doctor wishes to reign alone4 ,each builds his system of physics1 metaphysics1 scholastic theology2 it is a competition in turning one's merchandise to account4 ,you have agents who extol it1 fools who believe you1 protectors who support you4 ,is there a greater charlatanry than that of substituting words for things1 and of wanting others to believe what you do not believe yourself8 ,one establishes whirlwinds of subtle matter1 ramous1 globulous1 striated1 channelled2 the other elements of matter which are not matter at all1 and a pre-established harmony which makes the clock of the body sound the hour1 when the clock of the soul shows it with its hand4 ,these chimeras find partisans for a few years4 ,when this rubbish has passed out of fashion1 new fanatics appear on the itinerant theatre2 they banish germs from the world1 they say that the sea produced the mountains1 and that men were once fish4 ,how much charlatanry has been put into history1 either by astonishing the reader with prodigies1 by titillating human malignity with satire1 or by flattering the families of tyrants with infamous eulogy8 ,the wretched species that writes for a living is charlatan in another way4 ,a poor man who has no trade1 who has had the misfortune to go to college1 and who thinks he knows how to write1 goes to pay his court to a bookseller1 and asks him for work4 ,the bookseller knows that the majority of most people who live in houses want to have little libraries1 that they need abridgments and new titles2 he orders from the writer an abridgment of the ,history by ,rapin-,thoyras1 an abridgment of the ,history of the ,church1 a ,collection of ,witty ,sayings drawn from the ,menagiana1 a ,dictionary of ,great ,men1 where an unknown pedant is placed beside ,cicero1 and a sonettiero of ,italy near ,virgil4 ,another bookseller orders novels1 or translations of novels4 ,if you have no imagination1 he says to the workman1 you will take a few of the adventures in ',cyrus1' in ',gusman d',alfarache1' in the ',secret ,memoirs of a ,gentleman of ,quality1' or ',of a ,lady of ,quality'2 and from the total you will prepare a volume of four hundred pages at twenty sous the sheet4 ,another bookseller gives the gazettes and almanacs for ten years past to a man of genius4 ,you will make me an extract of all that1 and you will bring it me back in three months under the name of ',faithful ,history of the ,times1' by the ,chevalier de ,trois ,etoiles1 ,lieutenant of the ,navy1 employed in the ,ministry of ,foreign ,affairs4 ,of this kind of book there are about fifty thousand in ,europe2 and it all passes just like the secret of whitening the skin1 of darkening the hair1 and the universal panacea4 ,,civil ,,laws ,,extract ,,from ,,some ,,notes ,,found ,,among ,a ,,lawyer',s ,,papers1 ,,which ,,maybe ,,merit ,,examination4 ,let the punishments of criminals be useful4 ,a hanged man is good for nothing1 and a man condemned to public works still serves the country1 and is a living lesson4 99 99 99 99 99 ,let all laws be clear1 uniform and precise3 to interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,let nothing be infamous save vice4 99 99 99 99 99 ,let taxes be always proportional4 99 99 99 99 99 ,let the law never be contradictory to custom3 for if the custom be good1 the law is worthless4 ,,climate ,climate influences religion as regards customs and ceremonies4 ,a legislator will not have had difficulty in making the ,indians bathe in the ,ganges at certain seasons of the moon2 it is a great pleasure for them4 ,he would have been stoned if he had proposed the same bath to the peoples who dwell on the banks of the ,dwina near ,archangel4 ,forbid pig to an ,arab who would have leprosy if he ate of this flesh which is very bad and disgusting in his country1 he will obey you joyfully4 ,issue the same veto to a ,westphalian and he will be tempted to fight you4 ,abstinence from wine is a good religious precept in ,arabia where orange water1 lemon water1 lime water are necessary to health4 ,mohammed would not have forbidden wine in ,switzerland perhaps1 especially before going to battle4 ,there are customs of pure fantasy4 ,why did the priests of ,egypt imagine circumcision8 it is not for health4 ,cambyses who treated them as they deserved1 they and their bull ,apis1 ,cambyses' courtiers1 ,cambyses' soldiers1 had not had their prepuces lopped1 and were very well4 ,climate does nothing to a priest's genitals4 ,one offered one's prepuce to ,isis1 probably as one presented everywhere the first fruits of the earth4 ,it was offering the first fruits of life4 ,religions have always rolled on two pivots2 observance and creed3 observance depends largely on climate2 creed not at all4 ,one could as easily make a dogma accepted on the equator as the polar circle4 ,it would later be rejected equally at ,batavia and in the ,orkneys1 while it would be maintained unguibus et rostro at ,salamanca4 ,that depends in no way on the soil and the atmosphere1 but solely on opinion1 that fickle queen of the world4 ,certain libations of wine will be precept in a vine-growing country1 and it will not occur to a legislator's mind to institute in ,norway sacred mysteries which cannot be performed without wine4 ,it will be expressly ordered to burn incense in the parvis of a temple where beasts are slaughtered in the ,deity's honour1 and for the priests' supper4 ,this butcher's shop called temple would be a place of abominable infection if it were not continually purified3 and without the assistance of aromatics1 the religion of the ancients would have caused the plague4 ,even the interior of the temple was decked with festoons of flowers in order to make the air sweeter4 ,no cow will be sacrificed in the burning land of the ,indian peninsula2 because this animal which furnishes necessary milk is very rare in an arid country1 its flesh is dry1 tough1 contains very little nourishment1 and the ,brahmins would live very badly4 ,on the contrary1 the cow will become sacred1 in view of its rarity and utility4 ,one will only enter barefoot the temple of ,jupiter ,ammon where the heat is excessive3 one must be well shod to perform one's devotions in ,copenhagen4 ,it is not so with dogma4 ,people have believed in polytheism in all climates2 and it is as easy for a ,crimean ,tartar as for an inhabitant of ,mecca to recognize a single ,god1 incommunicable1 non-begetting1 non-begotten4 ,it is through its dogma still more than through its rites that a religion is spread from one climate to another4 ,the dogma of the unity of ,god soon passed from ,medina to the ,caucasus2 then the climate cedes to opinion4 ,the ,arabs said to the ,turks3 ,we had ourselves circumcised in ,arabia without really knowing why2 it was an old fashion of the priests of ,egypt to offer to ,oshireth or ,osiris a little part of what they held most precious4 ,we had adopted this custom three thousand years before we became ,mohammedans4 ,you will be circumcised like us2 like us you will be obliged to sleep with one of your wives every ,friday1 and to give each year two and a half per cent of your income to the poor4 ,we drink only water and sherbet2 all intoxicating liquor is forbidden us2 in ,arabia it is pernicious4 ,you will embrace this regime although you love wine passionately1 and although it may even be often necessary for you to go on the banks of the ,phasis and ,araxes4 ,lastly1 if you want to go to ,heaven1 and be well placed there1 you will take the road to ,mecca4 ,the inhabitants of the north of the ,caucasus submit to these laws1 and embrace throughout the country a religion which was not made for them4 ,in ,egypt the symbolic worship of animals succeeded the dogmas of ,thaut4 ,the gods of the ,romans later shared ,egypt with the dogs1 the cats and the crocodiles4 ,to the ,roman religion succeeded ,christianity2 it was entirely driven out by ,mohammedanism1 which perhaps will cede its place to a new religion4 ,in all these vicissitudes climate has counted for nothing3 government has done everything4 ,we are considering here second causes only1 without raising profane eyes to the ,providence which directs them4 ,the ,christian religion1 born in ,syria1 having received its principal development in ,alexandria1 inhabits to-day the lands where ,teutate1 ,irminsul1 ,frida1 ,odin were worshipped4 ,there are peoples whose religion has been made by neither climate nor government4 ,what cause detached the north of ,germany1 ,denmark1 three-quarters of ,switzerland1 ,holland1 ,england1 ,scotland1 ,ireland1 from the ,roman communion8 ,poverty4 ,indulgences and deliverance from purgatory were sold too dear to souls whose bodies had at that time very little money4 ,the prelates1 the monks devoured a province's whole revenue4 ,people took a cheaper religion4 ,at last1 after twenty civil wars1 people believed that the ,pope's religion was very good for great lords1 and the reformed religion for citizens4 ,time will show whether the ,greek religion or the ,turkish religion will prevail by the gean ,sea and the ,pont-,euxine4 ,,common ,,sense ,there are sometimes in common expressions an image of what passes in the depths of all men's hearts4 ,among the ,romans sensus communis signified not only common sense1 but humanity1 sensibility4 ,as we are not as good as the ,romans1 this word signifies among us only half of what it signified among them4 ,it means only good sense1 plain reason1 reason set in operation1 a first notion of ordinary things1 a state midway between stupidity and intelligence4 ,this man has no common sense is a great insult4 ,a common-sense man is an insult likewise2 it means that he is not entirely stupid1 and that he lacks what is called wit and understanding4 ,but whence comes this expression common sense1 unless it be from the senses8 ,men1 when they invented this word1 avowed that nothing entered the soul save through the senses2 otherwise1 would they have used the word sense to signify common reasoning8 ,people say sometimes--,common sense is very rare4 ,what does this phrase signify8 that in many men reason set in operation is stopped in its progress by prejudices1 that such and such man who judges very sanely in one matter1 will always be vastly deceived in another4 ,this ,arab1 who will be a good calculator1 a learned chemist1 an exact astronomer1 will believe nevertheless that ,mohammed put half the moon in his sleeve4 ,why will he go beyond common sense in the three sciences of which ,i speak1 and why will he be beneath common sense when there is question of this half moon8 ,because in the first cases he has seen with his eyes1 he has perfected his intelligence2 and in the second1 he has seen with other people's eyes1 he has closed his own1 he has perverted the common sense which is in him4 ,how has this strange mental alienation been able to operate8 ,how can the ideas which move with so regular and so firm a step in the brain on a great number of subjects limp so wretchedly on another a thousand times more palpable and easy to comprehend8 ,this man always has inside him the same principles of intelligence2 he must have some organ vitiated then1 just as it happens sometimes that the finest gourmet may have a depraved taste as regards a particular kind of food4 ,how is the organ of this ,arab1 who sees half the moon in ,mohammed's sleeve1 vitiated8 ,it is through fear4 ,he has been told that if he did not believe in this sleeve1 his soul1 immediately after his death1 when passing over the pointed bridge1 would fall for ever into the abyss4 ,he has been told even worse things3 ,if ever you have doubts about this sleeve1 one dervish will treat you as impious2 another will prove to you that you are an insensate fool who1 having all possible motives for believing1 have not wished to subordinate your superb reason to the evidence2 a third will report you to the little divan of a little province1 and you will be legally impaled4 ,all this terrifies the good ,arab1 his wife1 his sister1 all his little family into a state of panic4 ,they have good sense about everything else1 but on this article their imagination is wounded1 as was the imagination of ,pascal1 who continually saw a precipice beside his armchair4 ,but does our ,arab believe in fact in ,mohammed's sleeve8 ,no4 ,he makes efforts to believe2 he says it is impossible1 but that it is true2 he believes what he does not believe4 ,on the subject of this sleeve he forms in his head a chaos of ideas which he is afraid to disentangle2 and this veritably is not to have common sense4 ,,concatenation ,,of ,,events ,the present is delivered1 it is said1 of the future4 ,events are linked to each other by an invincible fatality3 it is ,destiny which1 in ,homer1 is above even ,jupiter4 ,this master of gods and men declares roundly that he cannot stop his son ,sarpedon dying in his appointed time4 ,sarpedon was born at the moment when he had to be born1 and could not be born at another moment2 he could not die otherwise than before ,troy2 he could not be buried elsewhere than in ,lycia2 had at the appointed time to produce vegetables which had to be changed into the substance of a few ,lycians2 his heirs had to establish a new order in his states2 this new order had to exert an influence over the neighbouring kingdoms2 from it resulted a new arrangement of war and peace with the neighbours of the neighbours of ,lycia3 thus1 step by step1 the destiny of the whole world has been dependent on ,sarpedon's death1 which depended on ,helen being carried off2 and this carrying off was necessarily linked to ,hecuba's marriage1 which by tracing back to other events was linked to the origin of things4 ,if only one of these facts had been arranged differently1 another universe would have resulted3 but it was not possible for the present universe not to exist2 therefore it was not possible for ,jupiter to save his son's life1 for all that he was ,jupiter4 ,this system of necessity and fatality has been invented in our time by ,leibnitz1 according to what people say1 under the name of self-sufficient reason2 it is1 however1 very ancient3 that there is no effect without a cause and that often the smallest cause produces the greatest effects1 does not date from to-day4 ,lord ,bolingbroke avows that the little quarrels of ,madame ,marlborough and ,madame ,masham gave birth to his chance of making ,queen ,anne's private treaty with ,louis ,,xiv42 this treaty led to the ,peace of ,utrecht2 this ,peace of ,utrecht established ,philip ,v4 on the throne of ,spain4 ,philip ,v4 took ,naples and ,sicily from the house of ,austria2 the ,spanish prince who is to-day ,king of ,naples clearly owes his kingdom to my lady ,masham3 and he would not have had it1 he would not perhaps even have been born1 if the ,duchess of ,marlborough had been more complaisant towards the ,queen of ,england4 ,his existence at ,naples depended on one foolishness more or less at the court of ,london4 ,examine the position of all the peoples of the universe2 they are established like this on a sequence of facts which appear to be connected with nothing and which are connected with everything4 ,everything is cog1 pulley1 cord1 spring1 in this vast machine4 ,it is likewise in the physical sphere4 ,a wind which blows from the depths of ,africa and the austral seas1 brings a portion of the ,african atmosphere1 which falls in rain in the valleys of the ,alps2 these rains fertilize our lands2 our north wind in its turn sends our vapours among the negroes2 we do good to ,guinea1 and ,guinea does good to us4 ,the chain stretches from one end of the universe to the other4 ,but it seems to me that a strange abuse is made of the truth of this principle4 ,from it some people conclude that there is not a sole minute atom whose movement has not exerted its influence in the present arrangement of the world2 that there is not a single minute accident1 among either men or animals1 which is not an essential link in the great chain of fate4 ,let us understand each other3 every effect clearly has its cause1 going back from cause to cause in the abyss of eternity2 but every cause has not its effect going forward to the end of the centuries4 ,all events are produced by each other1 ,i admit2 if the past is delivered of the present1 the present is delivered of the future2 everything has father1 but everything has not always children4 ,here it is precisely as with a genealogical tree2 each house goes back1 as we say1 to ,adam2 but in the family there are many persons who have died without leaving issue4 ,there is a genealogical tree of the events of this world4 ,it is incontestable that the inhabitants of ,gaul and ,spain are descended from ,gomer1 and the ,russians from ,magog1 his younger brother3 one finds this genealogy in so many fat books6 ,on this basis one cannot deny that the ,great ,turk1 who is also descended from ,magog1 was not bound to be well beaten in #agfi by ,catherine ,,ii41 ,empress of ,russia4 ,this adventure is clearly connected with other great adventures4 ,but that ,magog spat to right or left1 near ,mount ,caucasus1 and that he made two circles in a well or three1 that he slept on the left side or on the right2 ,i do not see that that has had much influence on present affairs4 ,one must think that everything is not complete in nature1 as ,newton has demonstrated1 and that every movement is not communicated step by step until it makes a circuit of the world1 as he has demonstrated still further4 ,throw into water a body of like density1 you calculate easily that after a short time the movement of this body1 and the movement it has communicated to the water1 are destroyed2 the movement disappears and is effaced2 therefore the movement that ,magog might produce by spitting in a well cannot influence what is passing to-day in ,moldavia and ,wallachia2 therefore present events are not the children of all past events3 they have their direct lines2 but a thousand little collateral lines do not serve them at all4 ,once more1 every being has a father1 but every being has not children4 ,,contradictions ,if some literary society wishes to undertake the dictionary of contradictions1 ,i subscribe for twenty folio volumes4 ,the world can exist only by contradictions3 what is needed to abolish them8 to assemble the states of the human race4 ,but from the manner in which men are made1 it would be a fresh contradiction if they were to agree4 ,assemble all the rabbits of the universe1 there will not be two different opinions among them4 ,i know only two kinds of immutable beings on the earth1 mathematicians and animals2 they are led by two invariable rules1 demonstration and instinct3 and even the mathematicians have had some disputes1 but the animals have never varied4 ,the contrasts1 the light and shade in which public men are represented in history1 are not contradictions1 they are faithful portraits of human nature4 ,every day people condemn and admire ,alexander the murderer of ,clitus1 but the avenger of ,greece1 the conqueror of the ,persians1 and the founder of ,alexandria2 ,csar the debauchee1 who robs the public treasury of ,rome to reduce his country to dependence2 but whose clemency equals his valour1 and whose intelligence equals his courage2 ,mohammed1 impostor1 brigand2 but the sole religious legislator who had courage1 and who founded a great empire2 ,cromwell the enthusiast1 a rogue in his fanaticism even1 judicial assassin of his king1 but as profound politician as brave warrior4 ,a thousand contrasts frequently crowd together1 and these contrasts are in nature2 they are no more astonishing than a fine day followed by storm4 ,men are equally mad everywhere2 they have made the laws little by little1 as gaps are repaired in a wall4 ,here eldest sons have taken all they could from younger sons1 there younger sons share equally4 ,sometimes the ,church has commanded the duel1 sometimes she has anathematized it4 ,the partisans and the enemies of ,aristotle have each been excommunicated in their turn1 as have those who wore long hair and those who wore short4 ,in this world we have perfect law only to rule a species of madness called gaming4 ,the rules of gaming are the only ones which admit neither exception1 relaxation1 variety nor tyranny4 ,a man who has been a lackey1 if he play at lansquenet with kings1 is paid without difficulty if he win2 everywhere else the law is a sword with which the stronger cut the weaker in pieces4 ,nevertheless1 this world exists as if everything were well ordered2 the irregularity is of our nature2 our political world is like our globe1 a misshapen thing which always preserves itself4 ,it would be mad to wish that the mountains1 the seas1 the rivers1 were traced in beautiful regular forms2 it would be still more mad to ask perfect wisdom of men2 it would be wishing to give wings to dogs or horns to eagles4 ,,corn ,the ,gauls had corn in ,csar's time3 one is curious to know where they and the ,teutons found it to sow4 ,people answer you that the ,tyrians had brought it into ,spain1 the ,spaniards into ,gaul1 the ,gauls into ,germany4 ,and where did the ,tyrians get this corn8 ,among the ,greeks probably1 from whom they received it in exchange for their alphabet4 ,who had made this present to the ,greeks8 ,it was formerly ,ceres without a doubt2 and when one has gone back to ,ceres one can hardly go farther4 ,ceres must have come down on purpose from the sky to give us wheat1 rye1 barley1 etc4 ,but as the credit of ,ceres who gave the corn to the ,greeks1 and that of ,isheth or ,isis who bestowed it on the ,egyptians1 is very much fallen in these days1 we remain in uncertainty as to the origin of corn4 ,sanchoniathon affirms that ,dagon or ,dagan1 one of the grandsons of ,thaut1 had the control of corn in ,phoenicia4 ,well1 his ,thaut is of about the same time as our ,jared4 ,from this it results that corn is very old1 and that it is of the same antiquity as grass4 ,perhaps this ,dagon was the first man to make bread1 but that is not demonstrated4 ,strange thing6 we know positively that it is to ,noah that we are under an obligation for wine1 and we do not know to whom we owe bread4 ,and1 still more strange thing1 we are so ungrateful to ,noah1 that we have more than two thousand songs in honour of ,bacchus1 and we chant barely one in honour of ,noah our benefactor4 ,a ,jew has assured me that corn came by itself in ,mesopotamia1 like the apples1 wild pears1 chestnuts1 medlars in the ,west4 ,i want to believe it until ,i am sure of the contrary2 for corn must certainly grow somewhere4 ,it has become the ordinary and indispensable food in the good climates1 and throughout the ,north4 ,some great philosophers whose talents we esteem and whose systems we do not follow 7,buffon7 have claimed on page #aie of the ,natural ,history of the ,dog1 that mankind has made corn2 that our fathers by virtue of sowing lolium and gramina changed them into wheat4 ,as these philosophers are not of our opinion about shells1 they will permit us not to be of theirs about corn4 ,we do not believe that one has ever made tulips grow from jasmin4 ,we find that the germ of corn is quite different from that of lolium1 and we do not believe in any transmutation4 ,when somebody shows it to us we will retract4 ,corn assuredly is not the food of the greater part of the world4 ,maize1 tapioca1 feed the whole of ,america4 ,we have entire provinces where the peasants eat nothing but chestnut bread1 more nourishing and of better flavour than that of rye and barley which so many people eat1 and which is much better than the ration bread which is given to the soldier4 ,the whole of southern ,africa does not know of bread4 ,the immense archipelago of the ,indies1 ,siam1 ,laos1 ,pegu1 ,cochin ,china1 ,tonkin1 a part of ,china1 ,japan1 the coast of ,malabar and ,coromandel1 the banks of the ,ganges furnish a rice1 the cultivation of which is much easier than that of wheat1 and which causes it to be neglected4 ,corn is absolutely unknown for the space of fifteen hundred leagues on the coasts of the ,glacial ,sea4 ,this food1 to which we are accustomed1 is among us so precious that the fear of seeing a dearth of it alone causes riots among the most subjugated peoples4 ,the corn trade is everywhere one of the great objects of government2 it is a part of our being1 and yet this essential commodity is sometimes squandered ridiculously4 ,the powder merchants use the best flour for covering the heads of our young men and women4 ,but over three-quarters of the earth bread is not eaten at all4 ,people maintain that the ,ethiopians mocked at the ,egyptians who lived on bread4 ,but since it is our chief food1 corn has become one of the great objects of trade and politics4 ,so much has been written on this subject1 that if a husbandman sowed as much corn as the weight of the volumes we have about this commodity1 he might hope for the amplest harvest1 and become richer than those who in their gilded and lacquered drawing-rooms ignore his exceeding labour and wretchedness4 ,,cromwell ,,section ,i ,cromwell is painted as a man who was an impostor all his life4 ,i have difficulty in believing it4 ,i think that first of all he was an enthusiast1 and that later he made even his fanaticism serve his greatness4 ,a novice who is fervent at the age of twenty often becomes a skilful rogue at forty4 ,in the great game of human life one begins by being a dupe1 and one finishes by being a rogue4 ,a statesman takes as almoner a monk steeped in the pettinesses of his monastery1 devout1 credulous1 clumsy1 quite new to the world3 the monk learns1 forms himself1 intrigues1 and supplants his master4 ,cromwell did not know at first whether he would be an ecclesiastic or a soldier4 ,he was both4 ,in #afbb he served a campaign in the army of ,frederick ,henry1 ,prince of ,orange1 a great man1 brother of two great men2 and when he returned to ,england1 he went into the service of ,bishop ,williams1 and was his grace's theologian1 while his grace passed as his wife's lover4 ,his principles were those of the ,puritans2 thus he had to hate a bishop with all his heart1 and not have a liking for kings4 ,he was driven from ,bishop ,williams' house because he was a ,puritan2 and there is the origin of his fortune4 ,the ,english ,parliament declared itself against the throne and against the episcopacy2 some of his friends in this parliament procured the nomination of a village for him4 ,only at this time did he begin to exist1 and he was more than forty before he had ever made himself talked of4 ,in vain was he conversant with ,holy ,writ1 in vain did he argue about the rights of priests and deacons1 and preach a few poor sermons and libels1 he was ignored4 ,i have seen one of his sermons which is very insipid1 and which bears sufficient resemblance to the predications of the quakers2 assuredly there is to be found there no trace of that persuasive eloquence with which later he carried the parliaments away4 ,the reason is that in fact he was much more suited to public affairs than to the ,church4 ,it was above all in his tone and in his air that his eloquence consisted2 a gesture of that hand that had won so many battles and killed so many royalists1 was more persuasive than the periods of ,cicero4 ,it must be avowed that it was his incomparable bravery which made him known1 and which led him by degrees to the pinnacle of greatness4 ,he began by launching out as a volunteer who wished to make his fortune1 in the town of ,hull1 besieged by the king4 ,there he did many fine and happy actions1 for which he received a gratification of about six thousand francs from the parliament4 ,this present made by the parliament to an adventurer made it clear that the rebel party must prevail4 ,the king was not in a position to give to his general officers what the parliament gave to volunteers4 ,with money and fanaticism one is bound in the long run to be master of everything4 ,cromwell was made colonel4 ,then his great talents for war developed to the point that when the parliament created the ,count of ,manchester general of its armies1 it made ,cromwell lieutenant-general1 without his having passed through the other ranks4 ,never did man appear more worthy of commanding2 never were more activity and prudence1 more boldness and more resource seen than in ,cromwell4 ,he is wounded at the battle of ,york2 and while the first dressing is being put on his wound1 he learns that his general1 ,manchester1 is retiring1 and that the battle is lost4 ,he hastens to ,manchester's side2 he finds him fleeing with some officers2 he takes him by the arm1 and says to him with an air of confidence and grandeur3 ,you are mistaken1 my lord2 it is not on this side that the enemy is4 ,he leads him back near the battlefield1 rallies during the night more than twelve thousand men1 speaks to them in the name of ,god1 quotes ,moses1 ,gideon and ,joshua1 at daybreak recommences the battle against the victorious royal army1 and defeats it completely4 ,such a man had to perish or be master4 ,nearly all the officers of his army were enthusiasts who carried the ,new ,testament at their saddle-bow3 in the army as in the parliament men spoke only of making ,babylon fall1 of establishing the religion in ,jerusalem1 of shattering the colossus4 ,among so many madmen ,cromwell ceased to be mad1 and thought that it was better to govern them than to be governed by them4 ,the habit of preaching as though he were inspired remained to him4 ,picture a fakir who has put an iron belt round his waist as a penitence1 and who then takes off his belt to beat the other fakirs' ears3 there you have ,cromwell4 ,he becomes as intriguing as he was intrepid2 he associates himself with all the colonels of the army1 and thus forms among the troops a republic which forces the commander-in-chief to resign4 ,another commander-in-chief is nominated1 he disgusts him4 ,he governs the army1 and by it he governs the parliament2 he puts this parliament in the necessity of making him commander-in-chief at last4 ,all this was a great deal2 but what is essential is that he wins all the battles he engages in in ,england1 ,scotland and ,ireland2 and he wins them1 not in watching the fighting and in taking care of himself1 but always by charging the enemy1 rallying his troops1 rushing everywhere1 often wounded1 killing many royalist officers with his own hand1 like a desperate and infuriated grenadier4 ,amid this frightful war ,cromwell made love2 he went1 his ,bible under his arm1 to sleep with the wife of his major-general1 ,lambert4 ,she loved the ,count of ,holland1 who was serving in the king's army4 ,cromwell took him prisoner in a battle1 and enjoyed the pleasure of having his rival's head cut off4 ,his maxim was to shed the blood of every important enemy1 either on the field of battle1 or by the executioner's hand4 ,he always increased his power1 by always daring to abuse it2 the profundity of his plans took away nothing from his ferocious impetuosity4 ,he goes into the ,house of ,parliament and1 taking his watch1 which he threw on the ground and which he shattered to atoms3 ,i will break you1 he said1 like this watch4 ,he returns there some time after1 drives all the members out one after the other1 making them defile before him4 ,each is obliged1 as he passes1 to make him a deep bow3 one of them passes with his hat on his head2 ,cromwell takes his hat from him and throws it on the ground3 ,learn to respect me1 he says4 ,when he had outraged all kings by having his own legitimate king's head cut off1 and when he started to reign himself1 he sent his portrait to a crowned head2 it was to ,christine1 ,queen of ,sweden4 ,marvell1 a famous ,english poet1 who wrote very good ,latin verse1 accompanied this portrait with six verses where he made ,cromwell himself speak4 ,cromwell corrected the last two as follows3 ,at tibi submittit frontem reverentior umbra1 ,non sunt hi vultus regibus usque truces4 ,this queen was the first to recognize him as soon as he was protector of the three kingdoms4 ,almost all the sovereigns of ,europe sent their ambassadors to their brother ,cromwell1 to this bishop's servant1 who had just caused a sovereign1 their own kin1 to perish at the hand of the executioner4 ,they vied with each in soliciting his alliance4 ,cardinal ,mazarin1 to please him1 drove out of ,france the two sons of ,charles ,i41 the two grandsons of ,henry ,,iv41 the two first cousins of ,louis ,,xiv4 ,france conquered ,dunkirk for him1 and sent him the keys4 ,after his death1 ,louis ,,xiv4 and all his court wore mourning1 excepting ,mademoiselle1 who had the courage to come to the company in a coloured habit1 and alone maintained the honour of her race4 ,never was a king more absolute than he was4 ,he said that he had preferred governing under the name of protector rather than under that of king1 because the ,english knew the point to which a ,king of ,england's prerogative extended1 and did not know to what point a protector's might go4 ,that was to understand men1 who are governed by opinion1 and whose opinion depends on a name4 ,he had conceived a profound scorn for the religion which had served to his fortune4 ,there is a certain anecdote preserved in the house of ,st4 ,john1 which proves sufficiently the little account which ,cromwell made of the instrument which had produced such great effects in his hands4 ,he was drinking one day with ,ireton1 ,fleetwood and ,st4 ,john1 great-grandfather of the celebrated ,lord ,bolingbroke2 they wished to uncork a bottle1 and the corkscrew fell under the table2 they all looked for it and did not find it4 ,meanwhile a deputation from the ,presbyterian churches was waiting in the antechamber1 and an usher came to announce them4 ,tell them1 said ,cromwell1 that ,i have retired1 and that ,i am seeking the ,lord4 ,it was the expression which the fanatics used when they were saying their prayers4 ,when he had thus dismissed the band of ministers1 he said these very words to his confidants3 ,those puppies think that we are seeking the ,lord1 and we are only seeking the corkscrew4 ,there is barely an example in ,europe of any man who1 come from so low1 raised himself so high4 ,but what was absolutely essential to him with all his talents8 ,fortune4 ,he had this fortune2 but was he happy8 ,he lived poorly and anxiously until he was forty-three2 from that time he bathed himself in blood1 passed his life in turmoil1 and died before his time at the age of fifty-seven4 ,let us compare this life with that of ,newton1 who lived eighty-four years1 always tranquil1 always honoured1 always the light of all thinking beings1 seeing increase each day his renown1 his reputation1 his fortune1 without ever having either care or remorse2 and let us judge which of the two had the better part4 ,,section ,,ii ,oliver ,cromwell was regarded with admiration by the ,puritans and independents of ,england2 he is still their hero2 but ,richard ,cromwell1 his son1 is my man4 ,the first is a fanatic who would be hissed to-day in the ,house of ,commons1 if he uttered there one single one of the unintelligible absurdities which he gave out with so much confidence before other fanatics who listened to him open-mouthed and wide-eyed1 in the name of the ,lord4 ,if he said that one must seek the ,lord1 and fight the ,lord's battles2 if he introduced the ,jewish jargon into the parliament of ,england1 to the eternal shame of the human intelligence1 he would be nearer to being led to ,bedlam than to being chosen to command armies4 ,he was brave without a doubt2 so are wolves2 there are even monkeys as fierce as tigers4 ,from being a fanatic he became an adroit politician1 that is to say that from a wolf he became fox1 climbed by imposture from the first steps where the infuriated enthusiasm of the times had placed him1 right to the pinnacle of greatness2 and the impostor walked on the heads of the prostrated fanatics4 ,he reigned1 but he lived in the horrors of anxiety4 ,he knew neither serene days nor tranquil nights4 ,the consolations of friendship and society never approached him2 he died before his time1 more worthy1 without a doubt1 of execution than the king whom he had conducted from a window of his own palace to the scaffold4 ,richard ,cromwell1 on the contrary1 born with a gentle1 wise spirit1 refused to keep his father's crown at the price of the blood of two or three rebels whom he could sacrifice to his ambition4 ,he preferred to be reduced to private life rather than be an omnipotent assassin4 ,he left the protectorate without regret to live as a citizen4 ,free and tranquil in the country1 he enjoyed health there1 and there did he possess his soul in peace for eighty-six years1 loved by his neighbours1 to whom he was arbiter and father4 ,readers1 give your verdict4 ,if you had to choose between the destiny of the father and that of the son1 which would you take8 ,,customs ,,contemptible ,,customs ,,do ,,not ,,always ,,suppose ,a ,,contemptible ,,nation ,there are cases where one must not judge a nation by its customs and popular superstitions4 ,i suppose that ,csar1 having conquered ,egypt1 wanting to make trade flourish in the ,roman ,empire1 has sent an embassy to ,china1 by the port of ,arsino1 the ,red ,sea1 and the ,indian ,ocean4 ,the ,emperor ,yventi1 first of his name1 was then reigning2 the annals of ,china represent him as a very wise and learned prince4 ,after receiving ,csar's ambassadors with all the ,chinese politeness1 he informs himself secretly through his interpreters of the customs1 science and religion of this ,roman people1 as celebrated in the ,west as the ,chinese people is in the ,east4 ,he learns first of all that this people's pontiffs have arranged their year in so absurd a fashion that the sun has already the heavenly signs of spring when the ,romans are celebrating the first festivals of winter4 ,he learns that this nation supports at great cost a college of priests who know exactly the time when one should set sail and when one should give battle1 by inspecting an ox's liver1 or by the way in which the chickens eat barley4 ,this sacred science was brought formerly to the ,romans by a little god named ,tages1 who emerged from the earth in ,tuscany4 ,these peoples worship one supreme ,god whom they always call the very great and very good ,god4 ,nevertheless1 they have built a temple to a courtesan named ,flora2 and almost all the good women of ,rome have in their homes little household gods four or five inches high4 ,one of these little divinities is the goddess of the breasts2 the other the goddess of the buttocks4 ,there is a household god who is called the god ,pet4 ,the emperor ,yventi starts laughing3 the tribunals of ,nankin think first of all with him that the ,roman ambassadors are madmen or impostors who have taken the title of envoys of the ,roman ,republic2 but as the emperor is as just as he is polite1 he has private talks with the ambassadors4 ,he learns that the ,roman pontiffs have been very ignorant1 but that ,csar is now reforming the calendar2 they admit to him that the college of augurs was established in early barbarous times2 that this ridiculous institution1 become dear to a people long uncivilized1 has been allowed to subsist2 that all honest people laugh at the augurs2 that ,csar has never consulted them2 that according to a very great man named ,cato1 never has an augur been able to speak to his comrade without laughter2 and that finally ,cicero1 the greatest orator and the best philosopher in ,rome1 has just written against the augurs a little work entitled ,of ,divination1 in which he commits to eternal ridicule all the soothsayers1 all the predictions1 and all the sorcery of which the world is infatuated4 ,the emperor of ,china is curious to read ,cicero's book1 the interpreters translate it2 he admires the book and the ,roman ,republic4 ,,democracy ,ordinarily there is no comparison between the crimes of the great who are always ambitious1 and the crimes of the people who always want1 and can want only liberty and equality4 ,these two sentiments1 ,liberty and ,equality1 do not lead direct to calumny1 rapine1 assassination1 poisoning1 the devastation of one's neighbours' lands1 etc42 but ambitious might and the mania for power plunge into all these crimes whatever be the time1 whatever be the place4 ,popular government is in itself1 therefore1 less iniquitous1 less abominable than despotic power4 ,the great vice of democracy is certainly not tyranny and cruelty3 there have been mountain-dwelling republicans1 savage1 ferocious2 but it is not the republican spirit that made them so1 it is nature4 ,the real vice of a civilized republic is in the ,turkish fable of the dragon with many heads and the dragon with many tails4 ,the many heads hurt each other1 and the many tails obey a single head which wants to devour everything4 ,democracy seems suitable only to a very little country1 and further it must be happily situated4 ,small though it be1 it will make many mistakes1 because it will be composed of men4 ,discord will reign there as in a monastery2 but there will be no ,st4 ,bartholomew1 no ,irish massacres1 no ,sicilian vespers1 no inquisition1 no condemnation to the galleys for having taken some water from the sea without paying for it1 unless one supposes this republic composed of devils in a corner of hell4 ,one questions every day whether a republican government is preferable to a king's government8 ,the dispute ends always by agreeing that to govern men is very difficult4 ,the ,jews had ,god ,himself for master2 see what has happened to them on that account3 nearly always have they been beaten and slaves1 and to-day do you not find that they cut a pretty figure8 ,,destiny ,of all the books of the ,occident which have come down to us1 the most ancient is ,homer2 it is there that one finds the customs of profane antiquity1 of the gross heroes1 of the gross gods1 made in the image of men2 but it is there that among the reveries and inconsequences1 one finds too the seeds of philosophy1 and above all the idea of the destiny which is master of the gods1 as the gods are masters of the world4 ,when the magnanimous ,hector wishes absolutely to fight the magnanimous ,achilles1 and with this object starts fleeing with all his might1 and three times makes the circuit of the city before fighting1 in order to have more vigour2 when ,homer compares fleet-of-foot ,achilles1 who pursues him1 to a man who sleeps2 when ,madame ,dacier goes into ecstasies of admiration over the art and mighty sense of this passage1 then ,jupiter wants to save great ,hector who has made so many sacrifices to him1 and he consults the fates2 he weighs the destinies of ,hector and ,achilles in the balance 7,iliad1 liv4 xxii473 he finds that the ,trojan must absolutely be killed by the ,greek2 he cannot oppose it2 and from this moment1 ,apollo1 ,hector's guardian genius1 is forced to abandon him4 ,it is not that ,homer is not often prodigal1 and particularly in this place1 of quite contrary ideas1 following the privilege of antiquity2 but he is the first in whom one finds the notion of destiny4 ,this notion1 therefore1 was very much in vogue in his time4 ,the ,pharisees1 among the little ,jewish people1 did not adopt destiny until several centuries later2 for these ,pharisees themselves1 who were the first literates among the ,jews1 were very new fangled4 ,in ,alexandria they mixed a part of the dogmas of the ,stoics with the old ,jewish ideas4 ,st4 ,jerome claims even that their sect is not much anterior to the ,christian era4 ,the philosophers never had need either of ,homer or the ,pharisees to persuade themselves that everything happens through immutable laws1 that everything is arranged1 that everything is a necessary effect4 ,this is how they argued4 ,either the world exists by its own nature1 by its physical laws1 or a supreme being has formed it according to his supreme laws3 in both cases1 these laws are immutable2 in both cases everything is necessary2 heavy bodies tend towards the centre of the earth1 without being able to tend to pause in the air4 ,pear-trees can never bear pineapples4 ,a spaniel's instinct cannot be an ostrich's instinct2 everything is arranged1 in gear1 limited4 ,man can have only a certain number of teeth1 hair and ideas2 there comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth1 hair and ideas4 ,it would be a contradiction that what was yesterday was not1 that what is to-day is not2 it is also a contradiction that what must be cannot be4 ,if you could disturb the destiny of a fly1 there would be no reason that could stop your making the destiny of all the other flies1 of all the other animals1 of all men1 of all nature2 you would find yourself in the end more powerful than ,god4 ,imbeciles say3 ,my doctor has extricated my aunt from a mortal malady2 he has made my aunt live ten years longer than she ought to have lived4 ,others who affect knowledge1 say3 ,the prudent man makes his own destiny4 ,but often the prudent1 far from making their destinies1 succumb to them2 it is destiny which makes them prudent4 ,profound students of politics affirm that1 if ,cromwell1 ,ludlow1 ,ireton and a dozen other parliamentarians had been assassinated a week before ,charles ,i4's head was cut off1 this king might have lived longer and died in his bed2 they are right2 they can add further that if the whole of ,england had been swallowed up in the sea1 this monarch would not have perished on a scaffold near ,whitehall2 but things were arranged so that ,charles had to have his neck severed4 ,cardinal d',ossat was doubtless more prudent than a madman in ,bedlam2 but is it not clear that the organs of d',ossat the sage were made otherwise than those of the scatter-brain8 just as a fox's organs are different from a stork's and a lark's4 ,your doctor saved your aunt2 but assuredly he did not in that contradict nature's order2 he followed it4 ,it is clear that your aunt could not stop herself being born in such and such town1 that she could not stop herself having a certain malady at a particular time1 that the doctor could not be elsewhere than in the town where he was1 that your aunt had to call him1 that he had to prescribe for her the drugs which cured her1 or which one thinks cured her1 when nature was the only doctor4 ,a peasant thinks that it has hailed on his field by chance2 but the philosopher knows that there is no chance1 and that it was impossible1 in the constitution of this world1 for it not to hail on that day in that place4 ,there are persons who1 frightened by this truth1 admit half of it as debtors who offer half to their creditors1 and ask respite for the rest4 ,there are1 they say1 some events which are necessary1 and others which are not4 ,it would be very comic that one part of the world was arranged1 and that the other were not2 that a part of what happens had to happen1 and that another part of what happens did not have to happen4 ,if one looks closely at it1 one sees that the doctrine contrary to that of destiny is absurd2 but there are many people destined to reason badly1 others not to reason at all1 others to persecute those who reason4 ,some say to you3 ,do not believe in fatalism2 for then everything appearing inevitable1 you will work at nothing1 you will wallow in indifference1 you will love neither riches1 nor honours1 nor glory2 you will not want to acquire anything1 you will believe yourself without merit as without power2 no talent will be cultivated1 everything will perish through apathy4 ,be not afraid1 gentlemen1 we shall ever have passions and prejudices1 since it is our destiny to be subjected to prejudices and passions3 we shall know that it no more depends on us to have much merit and great talent1 than to have a good head of hair and beautiful hands3 we shall be convinced that we must not be vain about anything1 and yet we shall always have vanity4 ,i necessarily have the passion for writing this1 and you have the passion for condemning me2 both of us are equally fools1 equally the toys of destiny4 ,your nature is to do harm1 mine is to love truth1 and to make it public in spite of you4 ,the owl1 which feeds on mice in its ruins1 said to the nightingale3 ,finish singing under your beautiful shady trees1 come into my hole1 that ,i may eat you2 and the nightingale answered3 ,i was born to sing here1 and to laugh at you4 ,you ask me what will become of liberty8 ,i do not understand you4 ,i do not know what this liberty is of which you speak2 so long have you been disputing about its nature1 that assuredly you are not acquainted with it4 ,if you wish1 or rather1 if you are able to examine peaceably with me what it is1 pass to the letter ,l4 ,,devout ,the word devout signifies devoted2 and in the strict sense of the term this qualification should belong only to monks and nuns who make vows4 ,but as in the ,gospel there is no more mention of vows than of devout persons1 this title does not in fact belong to anyone4 ,everyone should be equally righteous4 ,a man who styles himself devout resembles a commoner who styles himself a marquis2 he arrogates to himself a quality he does not possess4 ,he thinks himself more worthy than his neighbour4 ,one can forgive such foolishness in women2 their frailty and their frivolity render them excusable2 the poor creatures pass from a lover to a director in good faith3 but one cannot pardon the rogues who direct them1 who abuse their ignorance1 who establish the throne of their pride on the credulity of the sex4 ,they resolve themselves into a little mystic seraglio composed of seven or eight aged beauties1 subdued by the weight of their lack of occupation1 and almost always do these persons pay tribute to their new masters4 ,no young woman without a lover1 no aged devout woman without a director4 ,oh6 the ,orientals are wiser than we are6 ,never does a pasha say3 ,we supped yesterday with the ,aga of the ,janissaries who is my sister's lover1 and the vicar of the mosque who is my wife's director4 ,,the ,,ecclesiastical ,,ministry ,the institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order1 and to make men merit the goodness of ,god by their virtue4 ,everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous4 ,instruction1 exhortation1 menaces of pains to come1 promises of immortal beatitude1 prayers1 counsels1 spiritual help are the only means ecclesiastics may use to try to make men virtuous here below1 and happy for eternity4 ,all other means are repugnant to the liberty of the reason1 to the nature of the soul1 to the inalterable rights of the conscience1 to the essence of religion and of the ecclesiastical ministry1 to all the rights of the sovereign4 ,virtue supposes liberty1 as the carrying of a burden supposes active force4 ,under coercion no virtue1 and without virtue no religion4 ,make a slave of me1 ,i shall be no better for it4 ,the sovereign even has no right to use coercion to lead men to religion1 which supposes essentially choice and liberty4 ,my thought is subordinate to authority no more than is sickness or health4 ,in order to disentangle all the contradictions with which books on canon law have been filled1 and to fix our ideas on the ecclesiastical ministry1 let us investigate amid a thousand equivocations what the ,church is4 ,the ,church is the assembly of all the faithful summoned on certain days to pray in common1 and at all times to do good actions4 ,the priests are persons established under the authority of the sovereign to direct these prayers and all religious worship4 ,a numerous ,church could not exist without ecclesiastics2 but these ecclesiastics are not the ,church4 ,it is no less evident that if the ecclesiastics1 who are part of civil society1 had acquired rights which might trouble or destroy society1 these rights ought to be suppressed4 ,it is still more evident that1 if ,god has attached to the ,church prerogatives or rights1 neither these rights nor these prerogatives should belong exclusively either to the chief of the ,church or to the ecclesiastics1 because they are not the ,church1 just as the magistrates are not the sovereign in either a democratic state or in a monarchy4 ,finally1 it is quite evident that it is our souls which are under the clergy's care1 solely for spiritual things4 ,our soul acts internally2 internal acts are thought1 volition1 inclinations1 acquiescence in certain truths4 ,all these acts are above all coercion1 and are within the ecclesiastical minister's sphere only in so far as he must instruct and never command4 ,this soul acts also externally4 ,external actions are under the civil law4 ,here coercion may have a place2 temporal or corporal pains maintain the law by punishing those who infringe it4 ,obedience to ecclesiastical order must consequently always be free and voluntary3 no other should be possible4 ,submission1 on the other hand1 to civil order may be coerced and compulsory4 ,for the same reason1 ecclesiastical punishments1 always spiritual1 do not reach here below any but those who are convinced inwardly of their fault4 ,civil pains1 on the contrary1 accompanied by a physical ill1 have their physical effects1 whether or no the guilty recognize their justice4 ,from this it results obviously that the authority of the clergy is and can be spiritual only2 that it should not have any temporal power2 that no coercive force is proper to its ministry1 which would be destroyed by it4 ,it follows from this further that the sovereign1 careful not to suffer any partition of his authority1 must permit no enterprise which puts the members of society in external and civil dependence on an ecclesiastical body4 ,such are the incontestable principles of real canon law1 of which the rules and decisions should be judged at all times by the eternal and immutable truths which are founded on natural law and the necessary order of society4 ,,emblem ,in antiquity everything is symbol or emblem4 ,in ,chaldea it starts by putting a ram1 two kids1 a bull in the sky1 to mark the productions of the earth in the spring4 ,fire is the symbol of the ,deity in ,persia2 the celestial dog warns the ,egyptians of the ,nile floods2 the serpent which hides its tail in its head1 becomes the image of eternity4 ,the whole of nature is represented and disguised4 ,in ,india again you find many of those old statues1 uncouth and frightful1 of which we have already spoken1 representing virtue provided with ten great arms with which to combat vice1 and which our poor missionaries have taken for the picture of the devil4 ,put all these symbols of antiquity before the eyes of a man of the soundest sense1 who has never heard speak of them1 he will not understand anything3 it is a language to be learned4 ,the old theological poets were in the necessity of giving ,god eyes1 hands1 feet2 of announcing ,him in the form of a man4 ,st4 ,clement of ,alexandria records some verses of ,xenophanes the ,colophonian 7,stromates liv4 v471 from which one sees that it is not merely from to-day that men have made ,god in their own image4 ,orpheus of ,thrace1 the first theologian of the ,greeks1 long before ,homer1 expresses himself similarly1 according to the same ,clement of ,alexandria4 ,everything being symbol and emblem1 the philosophers1 and especially those who had travelled in ,india1 employed this method2 their precepts were emblems and enigmas4 ,do not stir the fire with a sword1 that is1 do not irritate angry men4 ,do not hide the light under the bushel4--,do not hide the truth from men4 ,abstain from beans4--,flee frequently public assemblies in which one gave one's suffrage with black or white beans4 ,do not have swallows in your house4--,that it may not be filled with chatterers4 ,in the tempest worship the echo4--,in times of public trouble retire to the country4 ,do not write on the snow4--,do not teach feeble and sluggish minds4 ,do not eat either your heart or your brain4--,do not give yourself up to either grief or to too difficult enterprises1 etc4 ,such are the maxims of ,pythagoras1 the sense of which is not hard to understand4 ,the most beautiful of all the emblems is that of ,god1 whom ,timus of ,locres represents by this idea3 ,a circle the centre of which is everywhere and the circumference nowhere4 ,plato adopted this emblem2 ,pascal had inserted it among the material which he intended using1 and which has been called his ,thoughts4 ,in metaphysics1 in moral philosophy1 the ancients have said everything4 ,we coincide with them1 or we repeat them4 ,all modern books of this kind are only repetitions4 ,it is above all among the ,indians1 the ,egyptians1 the ,syrians1 that these emblems1 which to us appear most strange1 were consecrated4 ,it is there that the two organs of generation1 the two symbols of life1 were carried in procession with the greatest respect4 ,we laugh at it1 we dare treat these peoples as barbarous idiots1 because they innocently thanked ,god for having given them existence4 ,what would they have said if they had seen us enter our temples with the instrument of destruction at our side8 ,at ,thebes the sins of the people were represented by a goat4 ,on the coast of ,phoenicia a naked woman1 with a fish's tail1 was the emblem of nature4 ,one must not be astonished1 therefore1 if this use of symbols reached the ,hebrews when they had formed a body of people near the ,syrian desert4 ,one of the most beautiful emblems of the ,judaic books is this passage of ,ecclesiastes3 444 when the grinders cease because they are few1 and those that look out of the windows be darkened1 when the almond-tree shall flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden3 or ever the silver cord be loosed1 or the golden bowl be broken1 or the pitcher be broken at the fountain4444 ,that signifies that the old men lose their teeth1 that their sight is dim1 that their hair whitens like the flower of the almond-tree1 that their feet swell like the grasshopper1 that they are no more fit for engendering children1 and that then they must prepare for the great journey4 ,the ,song of ,songs is 7as one knows7 a continual emblem of the marriage of ,jesus ,christ with the ,church4 ,it is an emblem from beginning to end4 ,especially does the ingenious ,dom ,calmet demonstrate that the palm-tree to which the well-beloved goes is the cross to which our ,lord ,jesus ,christ was condemned4 ,but it must be avowed that a pure and healthy moral philosophy is still preferable to these allegories4 ,one sees in this people's books a crowd of typical emblems which revolt us to-day and which exercise our incredulity and our mockery1 but which appeared ordinary and simple to the ,asiatic peoples4 ,in ,ezekiel are images which appear to us as licentious and revolting3 in those times they were merely natural4 ,there are thirty examples in the ,song of ,songs1 model of the most chaste union4 ,remark carefully that these expressions1 these images are always quite serious1 and that in no book of this distant antiquity will you find the least mockery on the great subject of generation4 ,when lust is condemned it is in definite terms2 but never to excite to passion1 nor to make the smallest pleasantry4 ,this far-distant antiquity did not have its ,martial1 its ,catullus1 or its ,petronius4 ,it results from all the ,jewish prophets and from all the ,jewish books1 as from all the books which instruct us in the usages of the ,chaldeans1 the ,persians1 the ,phoenicians1 the ,syrians1 the ,indians1 the ,egyptians2 it results1 ,i say1 that their customs were not ours1 that this ancient world in no way resembled our world4 ,go from ,gibraltar to ,mequinez merely1 the manners are no longer the same2 no longer does one find the same ideas2 two leagues of sea have changed everything4 ,,on ,,the ,,english ,,theatre ,i have cast my eyes on an edition of ,shakespeare issued by ,master ,samuel ,johnson4 ,i saw there that foreigners who are astonished that in the plays of the great ,shakespeare a ,roman senator plays the buffoon1 and that a king appears on the stage drunk1 are treated as little-minded4 ,i do not desire to suspect ,master ,johnson of being a sorry jester1 and of being too fond of wine2 but ,i find it somewhat extraordinary that he counts buffoonery and drunkenness among the beauties of the tragic stage3 and no less singular is the reason he gives1 that the poet disdains accidental distinctions of circumstance and country1 like a painter who1 content with having painted the figure1 neglects the drapery4 ,the comparison would be more just if he were speaking of a painter who in a noble subject should introduce ridiculous grotesques1 should paint ,alexander the ,great mounted on an ass in the battle of ,arbela1 and ,darius' wife drinking at an inn with rapscallions4 ,but there is one thing more extraordinary than all1 that is that ,shakespeare is a genius4 ,the ,italians1 the ,french1 the men of letters of all other countries1 who have not spent some time in ,england1 take him only for a clown1 for a joker far inferior to ,harlequin1 for the most contemptible buffoon who has ever amused the populace4 ,nevertheless1 it is in this same man that one finds pieces which exalt the imagination and which stir the heart to its depths4 ,it is ,truth1 it is ,nature herself who speaks her own language with no admixture of artifice4 ,it is of the sublime1 and the author has in no wise sought it4 ,what can one conclude from this contrast of grandeur and sordidness1 of sublime reason and uncouth folly1 in short from all the contrasts that we see in ,shakespeare8 ,that he would have been a perfect poet had he lived in the time of ,addison4 ,the famous ,addison1 who flourished under ,queen ,anne1 is perhaps of all ,english writers the one who best knew how to guide genius with taste4 ,he had a correct style1 an imagination discreet in expression1 elegance1 strength and simplicity in his verse and in his prose4 ,a friend of propriety and orderliness1 he wanted tragedy to be written with dignity1 and it is thus that his ,cato is composed4 ,from the very first act the verses are worthy of ,virgil1 and the sentiments worthy of ,cato4 ,there is no theatre in ,europe where the scene of ,juba and ,syphax was not applauded as a masterpiece of skill1 of well-developed characters1 of fine contrasts1 and of pure and noble diction4 ,literary ,europe1 which knows the translations of this piece1 applauded even to the philosophic traits with which the rle of ,cato is filled4 ,the piece had the great success which its beauty of detail merited1 and which was assured to it by the troubles in ,england to which this tragedy was in more than one place a striking allusion4 ,but the appositeness of these allusions having passed1 the verse being only beautiful1 the maxims being only noble and just1 and the piece being cold1 people no longer felt anything more than the coldness4 ,nothing is more beautiful than ,virgil's second canto2 recite it on the stage1 it will bore3 on the stage one must have passion1 live dialogue1 action4 ,people soon returned to ,shakespeare's uncouth but captivating aberrations4 ,,envy ,one knows well enough what antiquity has said of this shameful passion1 and what the moderns have repeated4 ,hesiod is the first classic author who speaks of it4 ,the potter is envious of the potter1 the artisan of the artisan1 the poor man even of the poor man1 the musician of the musician 7or if one would give another sense to the word ,aoidos7 the poet of the poet4 ,long before ,hesiod1 ,job had said3 ,envy slayeth the silly one 7,job4 chap4 v4 verse #b74 ,i think that ,mandeville1 author of the ,fable of the ,bees1 was the first to try to prove that envy is a very good thing1 a very useful passion4 ,his first reason is that envy is as natural to man as hunger and thirst2 that it can be found in children1 as well as in horses and dogs4 ,do you want your children to hate each other1 kiss one more than the other2 the secret is infallible4 ,he maintains that the first thing that two young women meeting each other do is to cast about for what is ridiculous in each other1 and the second to flatter each other4 ,he believes that without envy the arts would be indifferently cultivated1 and that ,raphael would not have been a great painter if he had not been jealous of ,michael ,angelo4 ,mandeville has taken emulation for envy1 maybe2 maybe1 also1 emulation is only envy kept within the bounds of decency4 ,michael ,angelo might say to ,raphael3 ,your envy has only led you to work still better than me2 you have not decried me1 you have not intrigued against me with the ,pope1 you have not tried to have me excommunicated for having put cripples and one-eyed men in paradise1 and succulent cardinals with beautiful women naked as your hand in hell1 in my picture of the last judgment4 ,your envy is very praiseworthy2 you are a fine envious fellow2 let us be good friends4 ,but if the envious man is a wretch without talent1 jealous of merit as beggars are of the rich2 if1 pressed by the indigence as by the turpitude of his character he writes you some ,news from ,parnassus1 some ,letters of ,madame la ,comtesse1 some ,annes ,littraires1 this animal displays an envy that is good for nothing1 and for which ,mandeville could never make an apology4 ,one asks why the ancients thought that the eye of the envious man bewitched those who looked at it4 ,it is the envious1 rather1 who are bewitched4 ,descartes says3 ,that envy impels the yellow bile which comes from the lower part of the liver1 and the black bile which comes from the spleen1 which is diffused from the heart through the arteries1 etc4 ,but as no kind of bile is formed in the spleen1 ,descartes1 by speaking thus1 does not seem to merit too much that his natural philosophy should be envied4 ,a certain ,vot or ,votius1 a theological scamp1 who accused ,descartes of atheism1 was very ill with the black bile2 but he knew still less than ,descartes how his detestable bile was diffused in his blood4 ,madame ,pernelle is right3 ,the envious will die1 but envy never4 7,tartufe1 ,act v1 ,scene iii47 ,but it is good proverb which says that it is better to be envious than to have pity4 ,let us be envious1 therefore1 as hard as we can4 ,,equality ,,section ,i ,it is clear that men1 enjoying the faculties connected with their nature1 are equal2 they are equal when they perform animal functions1 and when they exercise their understanding4 ,the ,king of ,china1 the ,great ,mogul1 the ,padisha of ,turkey1 cannot say to the least of men3 ,i forbid you to digest1 to go to the privy and to think4 ,all the animals of each species are equal among themselves4 ,animals by nature have over us the advantage of independence4 ,if a bull which is wooing a heifer is driven away with the blows of the horns by a stronger bull1 it goes in search of another mistress in another field1 and lives free4 ,a cock1 beaten by a cock1 consoles itself in another poultry-house4 ,it is not so with us4 ,a little vizier exiles a bostangi to ,lemnos3 the vizier ,azem exiles the little vizier to ,tenedos3 the padisha exiles the little vizier ,azem to ,rhodes3 the ,janissaries put the padisha in prison1 and elect another who will exile good ,mussulmans as he chooses2 people will still be very obliged to him if he limits his sacred authority to this little exercise4 ,if this world were what it seems it should be1 if man could find everywhere in it an easy subsistence1 and a climate suitable to his nature1 it is clear that it would be impossible for one man to enslave another4 ,if this globe were covered with wholesome fruits2 if the air1 which should contribute to our life1 gave us no diseases and a premature death2 if man had no need of lodging and bed other than those of the buck and the deer2 then the ,gengis-kans and the ,tamerlans would have no servants other than their children1 who would be folk honourable enough to help them in their old age4 ,in the natural state enjoyed by all untamed quadrupeds1 birds and reptiles1 man would be as happy as they2 domination would then be a chimera1 an absurdity of which no one would think2 for why seek servants when you have no need of their service8 ,if it came into the head of some individual of tyrannous mind and brawny arm to enslave a neighbour less strong than he1 the thing would be impossible2 the oppressed would be on the ,danube before the oppressor had taken his measures on the ,volga4 ,all men would then be necessarily equal1 if they were without needs2 the poverty connected with our species subordinates one man to another2 it is not the inequality which is the real misfortune1 it is the dependence4 ,it matters very little that ,so-and-so calls himself ,his ,highness1 and ,so-and-so ,his ,holiness2 but to serve the one or the other is hard4 ,a big family has cultivated fruitful soil2 two little families near by have thankless and rebellious fields2 the two poor families have to serve the opulent family1 or slaughter it3 there is no difficulty in that4 ,one of the two indigent families offers its arms to the rich family in order to have bread2 the other goes to attack it and is beaten4 ,the serving family is the origin of the servants and the workmen2 the beaten family is the origin of the slaves4 ,in our unhappy world it is impossible for men living in society not to be divided into two classes1 the one the rich that commands1 the other the poor that serves2 and these two are subdivided into a thousand1 and these thousand still have different gradations4 ,when the prizes are drawn you come to us3 ,i am a man like you1 you say4 ,i have two hands and two feet1 as much pride as you1 nay more1 a mind as disordered1 at least1 as inconsequent1 as contradictory as yours4 ,i am a citizen of ,san ,marino1 or of ,ragusa1 or ,vaugirard3 give me my share of the land4 ,in our known hemisphere there are about fifty thousand million arpents to cultivate1 some passable1 some sterile4 ,we are only about a thousand million featherless bipeds in this continent2 that makes fifty arpents apiece3 be just2 give me my fifty arpents4 ,go and take them in the land of the ,cafres1 we answer1 or the ,hottentots1 or the ,samoyedes2 come to an amicable arrangement with them2 here all the shares are taken4 ,if among us you want to eat1 be clothed1 lodged1 warmed1 work for us as your father did2 serve us or amuse us1 and you will be paid2 otherwise you will be obliged to ask charity1 which would be too degrading to your sublime nature1 and would stop your being really the equal of kings1 and even of country parsons1 according to the pretensions of your noble pride4 ,,section ,,ii ,all the poor are not unhappy4 ,the majority were born in that state1 and continual work stops their feeling their position too keenly2 but when they feel it1 then one sees wars1 like that of the popular party against the senate party in ,rome1 like those of the peasants in ,germany1 ,england and ,france4 ,all these wars finish sooner or later with the subjection of the people1 because the powerful have money1 and money is master of everything in a state3 ,i say in a state2 for it is not the same between nations4 ,the nation which makes the best use of the sword will always subjugate the nation which has more gold and less courage4 ,all men are born with a sufficiently violent liking for domination1 wealth and pleasure1 and with much taste for idleness2 consequently1 all men want their money and the wives or daughters of others1 to be their master1 to subject them to all their caprices1 and to do nothing1 or at least to do only very agreeable things4 ,you see clearly that with these fine inclinations it is as impossible for men to be equal as it is impossible for two predicants or two professors of theology not to be jealous of each other4 ,the human race1 such as it is1 cannot subsist unless there is an infinity of useful men who possess nothing at all2 for it is certain that a man who is well off will not leave his own land to come to till yours2 and if you have need of a pair of shoes1 it is not the ,secretary to the ,privy ,council who will make them for you4 ,equality1 therefore1 is at once the most natural thing and the most fantastic4 ,as men go to excess in everything when they can1 this inequality has been exaggerated4 ,it has been maintained in many countries that it was not permissible for a citizen to leave the country where chance has caused him to be born2 the sense of this law is visibly3 ,this land is so bad and so badly governed1 that we forbid any individual to leave it1 for fear that everyone will leave it4 ,do better3 make all your subjects want to live in your country1 and foreigners to come to it4 ,all men have the right in the bottom of their hearts to think themselves entirely equal to other men3 it does not follow from that that the cardinal's cook should order his master to prepare him his dinner2 but the cook can say3 ,i am a man like my master2 like him ,i was born crying2 like me he will die with the same pangs and the same ceremonies4 ,both of us perform the same animal functions4 ,if the ,turks take possession of ,rome1 and if then ,i am cardinal and my master cook1 ,i shall take him into my service4 ,this discourse is reasonable and just2 but while waiting for the ,great ,turk to take possession of ,rome1 the cook must do his duty1 or else all human society is perverted4 ,as regards a man who is neither a cardinal's cook1 nor endowed with any other employment in the state2 as regards a private person who is connected with nothing1 but who is vexed at being received everywhere with an air of being patronized or scorned1 who sees quite clearly that many monsignors have no more knowledge1 wit or virtue than he1 and who at times is bored at waiting in their antechambers1 what should he decide to do8 ,why1 to take himself off4 ,,expiation ,maybe the most beautiful institution of antiquity is that solemn ceremony which repressed crimes by warning that they must be punished1 and which calmed the despair of the guilty by making them atone for their transgressions by penitences4 ,remorse must necessarily have preceded the expiations2 for the maladies are older than the medicine1 and all needs have existed before relief4 ,it was1 therefore1 before all the creeds1 a natural religion1 which troubled man's heart when in his ignorance or in his hastiness he had committed an inhuman action4 ,a friend killed his friend in a quarrel1 a brother killed his brother1 a jealous and frantic lover even killed her without whom he could not live4 ,the head of a nation condemned a virtuous man1 a useful citizen4 ,these are men in despair1 if they have sensibility4 ,their conscience harries them2 nothing is more true2 and it is the height of unhappiness4 ,only two choices remain1 either reparation1 or a settling in crime4 ,all sensitive souls choose the first1 monsters choose the second4 ,as soon as religions were established1 there were expiations2 the ceremonies accompanying them were ridiculous3 for what connection between the water of the ,ganges and a murder8 how could a man repair a homicide by bathing himself8 ,we have already remarked this excess of aberration and absurdity1 of imagining that he who washes his body washes his soul1 and wipes away the stains of bad actions4 ,the water of the ,nile had later the same virtue as the water of the ,ganges3 to these purifications other ceremonies were added3 ,i avow that they were still more impertinent4 ,the ,egyptians took two goats1 and drew lots for which of the two should be thrown below1 charged with the sins of the guilty4 ,the name of ,hazazel1 the expiator1 was given to this goat4 ,what connection1 ,i ask you1 between a goat and a man's crime8 ,it is true that since1 ,god permitted this ceremony to be sanctified among the ,jews our fathers1 who took so many ,egyptian rites2 but doubtless it was the repentance1 and not the goat1 which purified the ,jewish souls4 ,jason1 having killed ,absyrthe his step-brother1 comes1 it is said1 with ,medea1 more guilty than he1 to have himself absolved by ,circe1 queen and priestess of ,aea1 who ever after passed for a great magician4 ,circe absolves them with a sucking-pig and salt cakes4 ,that may make a fairly good dish1 but can barely either pay for ,absyrthe's blood or render ,jason and ,medea more honourable people1 unless they avow a sincere repentance while eating their sucking-pig4 ,orestes' expiation 7he had avenged his father by murdering his mother7 was to go to steal a statue from the ,tartars of ,crimea4 ,the statue must have been very badly made1 and there was nothing to gain on such an effect4 ,since then we have done better1 we have invented the mysteries2 the guilty might there receive their absolution by undergoing painful ordeals1 and by swearing that they would lead a new life4 ,it is from this oath that the new members were called among all nations by a name which corresponds to initiates1 qui ineunt vitam novam1 who began a new career1 who entered into the path of virtue4 ,the ,christian catechumens were called initiates only when they were baptised4 ,it is undoubted that in these mysteries one was washed of one's faults only by the oath to be virtuous2 that is so true that the hierophant in all the ,greek mysteries1 in sending away the assembly1 pronounced these two ,egyptian words--,koth1 ompheth1 watch1 be pure2 which is a proof at once that the mysteries came originally from ,egypt1 and that they were invented only to make men better4 ,the sages in all times did what they could1 therefore1 to inspire virtue1 and not to reduce human frailty to despair2 but also there are crimes so horrible that no mystery accorded expiation for them4 ,nero1 for all that he was emperor1 could not get himself initiated into the mysteries of ,ceres4 ,constantine1 on the ,report of ,zosimus1 could not obtain pardon for his crimes3 he was stained with the blood of his wife1 his son and all his kindred4 ,it was in the interest of the human race that such great transgressions should remain without expiation1 in order that absolution should not invite their committal1 and that universal horror might sometimes stop the villains4 ,the ,roman ,catholics have expiations which are called penitences4 ,by the laws of the barbarians who destroyed the ,roman ,empire1 crimes were expiated with money4 ,that was called compounding1 componat cum decem1 viginti1 triginta solidis4 ,it cost two hundred sous of that time to kill a priest1 and four hundred for killing a bishop2 so that a bishop was worth precisely two priests4 ,having thus compounded with men1 one compounded with ,god1 when confession was generally established4 ,finally1 ,pope ,john ,,xxii41 who made money out of everything1 prepared a tariff of sins4 ,the absolution of an incest1 four turonenses for a layman2 ab incestu pro laico in foro conscienti turonenses quatuor4 ,for the man and the woman who have committed incest1 eighteen turonenses four ducats and nine carlins4 ,that is not just2 if one person pays only four turonenses1 the two owed only eight turonenses4 ,sodomy and bestiality are put at the same rate1 with the inhibitory clause to title ,,xliii3 that amounts to ninety turonenses twelve ducats and six carlins3 cum inhibitione turonenses #ij1 ducatos #ab1 carlinos #f1 etc4 ,it is very difficult to believe that ,leo ,x4 was so imprudent as to have this impost printed in #aead1 as is asserted2 but it must be considered that no spark appeared at that time of the conflagration which reformers kindled later1 that the court of ,rome slumbered on the people's credulity1 and neglected to cover its exactions with the lightest veil4 ,the public sale of indulgences1 which followed soon after1 makes it clear that this court took no precaution to hide the turpitudes to which so many nations were accustomed4 ,as soon as complaints against the ,church's abuses burst forth1 the court did what it could to suppress the book2 but it could not succeed4 ,if ,i dare give my opinion of this impost1 ,i think that the various editions are not reliable2 the prices are not at all proportionate3 these prices do not agree with those which are alleged by d',aubign1 grandfather of ,madame de ,maintenon1 in the ,confession de ,sanci2 he rates virginity at six gros1 and incest with his mother and sister at five gros2 this account is ridiculous4 ,i think that there was in fact a tariff established in the datary's office1 for those who came to ,rome to be absolved1 or to bargain for dispensations2 but that the enemies of ,rome added much to it in order to render it more odious4 ,what is quite certain is that these imposts were never authorized by any council2 that it was an enormous abuse invented by avarice1 and respected by those whose interest it was not to abolish it4 ,the buyers and the sellers were equally satisfied3 thus1 barely anybody protested1 until the troubles of the reformation4 ,it must be admitted that an exact note of all these imposts would be of great service to the history of the human mind4 ,,extreme ,we shall try to extract from this word extreme a notion which may be useful4 ,one disputes every day if1 in war1 luck or leadership produces successes4 ,if1 in disease1 nature acts more than medicine for curing or killing4 ,if1 in jurisprudence1 it is not very advantageous to come to terms when one is in the right1 and to plead when one is in the wrong4 ,if literature contributes to the glory of a nation or to its decadence4 ,if one should or should not make the people superstitious4 ,if there is anything true in metaphysics1 history and moral philosophy4 ,if taste is arbitrary1 and if there is in fact good taste and bad taste1 etc41 etc4 ,to decide all these questions right away1 take an example of what is the most extreme in each2 compare the two opposed extremes1 and you will at once discover which is true4 ,you wish to know if leadership can infallibly determine the success of the war2 look at the most extreme case1 the most opposed situations1 in which leadership alone will infallibly triumph4 ,the enemy's army is forced to pass through a deep mountain gorge2 your general knows it3 he makes a forced march1 he takes possession of the heights1 he holds the enemy shut in a pass2 they must either die or surrender4 ,in this extreme case1 luck cannot have any part in the victory4 ,it is therefore demonstrated that skill can determine the success of a campaign2 from that alone is it proved that war is an art4 ,now imagine an advantageous but less decisive position2 success is not so certain1 but it is always very probable4 ,you arrive thus1 step by step1 to a perfect equality between the two armies4 ,what will decide then8 luck1 that is to say an unforeseen event1 a general officer killed when he is on his way to execute an important order1 a corps which is shaken by a false rumour1 a panic and a thousand other cases which cannot be remedied by prudence2 but it still remains certain that there is an art1 a generalship4 ,as much must be said of medicine1 of this art of operating on the head and the hand1 to restore life to a man who is about to lose it4 ,the first man who at the right moment bled and purged a sufferer from an apoplectic fit2 the first man who thought of plunging a knife into the bladder in order to extract a stone1 and of closing the wound again2 the first man who knew how to stop gangrene in a part of the body1 were without a doubt almost divine persons1 and did not resemble ,molire's doctors4 ,descend from this obvious example to experiments that are less striking and more equivocal2 you see fevers1 ills of all kinds which are cured1 without it being well proved if it be nature or the doctor who has cured them2 you see diseases of which the result cannot be guessed2 twenty doctors are deceived2 the one that has the most intelligence1 the surest eye1 guesses the character of the malady4 ,there is therefore an art2 and the superior man knows the finenesses of it4 ,thus did ,la ,peyronie guess that a man of the court had swallowed a pointed bone which had caused an ulcer1 and put him in danger of death2 thus did ,boerhaave guess the cause of the malady as unknown as cruel of a count of ,vassenaar4 ,there is therefore really an art of medicine2 but in all arts there are men like ,virgil and ,mvius4 ,in jurisprudence1 take a clear case1 in which the law speaks clearly2 a bill of exchange properly prepared and accepted2 the acceptor must be condemned to pay it in every country4 ,there is therefore a useful jurisprudence1 although in a thousand cases judgments are arbitrary1 to the misfortune of the human race1 because the laws are badly made4 ,do you desire to know if literature does good to a nation2 compare the two extremes1 ,cicero and an uncouth ignoramus4 ,see if it is ,pliny or ,attila who caused the fall of ,rome4 ,one asks if one should encourage superstition in the people2 see above all what is most extreme in this disastrous matter1 ,st4 ,bartholomew1 the massacres in ,ireland1 the crusades2 the question is soon answered4 ,is there any truth in metaphysics8 ,seize first of all the points that are most astonishing and the most true2 something exists for all eternity4 ,an eternal ,being exists by ,himself2 this ,being cannot be either wicked or inconsequent4 ,one must surrender to these truths2 almost all the rest is given over to dispute1 and the justest mind unravels the truth while the others are seeking in the shadows4 ,it is with all things as with colours2 the weakest eyes distinguish black from white2 the better1 more practised eyes1 discern shades that resemble each other4 ,,ezourveidam ,what is this ,ezourveidam which is in the ,king of ,france's library8 ,it is an ancient commentary which an ancient ,brahmin composed once upon a time1 before the epoch of ,alexander1 on the ancient ,veidam1 which was itself much less ancient than the book of the ,shasta4 ,let us respect1 ,i tell you1 all these ancient ,indians4 ,they invented the game of chess1 and the ,greeks went among them to learn geometry4 ,this ,ezourveidam was lastly translated by a ,brahmin1 correspondent of the unfortunate ,french ,india ,company4 ,it was brought to me on ,mount ,krapack1 where ,i have long been observing the snows2 and ,i sent it to the great ,library of ,paris1 where it is better placed than in my home4 ,those who wish to consult it will see that after many revolutions produced by the ,eternal1 it pleased the ,eternal to form a man who was called ,adimo1 and a woman whose name corresponds to that of life4 ,is this ,indian anecdote taken from the ,jewish books8 have the ,jews copied it from the ,indians8 or can one say that both wrote it originally1 and that fine minds meet8 ,the ,jews were not permitted to think that their writers had drawn anything from the ,brahmins1 for they had never heard tell of them4 ,we are not permitted to think about ,adam otherwise than the ,jews4 ,consequently ,i hold my tongue1 and ,i do not think at all4 ,,faith ,we have long pondered whether or no we should print this article1 which we found in an old book4 ,our respect for ,st4 ,peter's see restrained us4 ,but some pious men having convinced us that ,pope ,alexander ,,vi4 had nothing in common with ,st4 ,peter1 we at last decided to bring this little piece into the light1 without scruple4 ,one day ,prince ,pico della ,mirandola met ,pope ,alexander ,,vi4 at the house of the courtesan ,emilia1 while ,lucretia1 the holy father's daughter1 was in child-bed1 and one did not know in ,rome if the child was the ,pope's1 or his son's the ,duke of ,valentinois1 or ,lucretia's husband's1 ,alphonse of ,aragon1 who passed for impotent4 ,the conversation was at first very sprightly4 ,cardinal ,bembo records a part of it4 ,little ,pic1 said the ,pope1 who do you think is my grandson's father8 ,your son-in-law1 ,i think1 answered ,pic4 ,eh6 how can you believe such folly8 ,i believe it through faith4 ,but do you not know quite well that a man who is impotent does not make children8 ,faith consists1 returned ,pic1 in believing things because they are impossible2 and1 further1 the honour of your house demands that ,lucretia's son shall not pass as the fruit of an incest4 ,you make me believe more incomprehensible mysteries4 ,have ,i not to be convinced that a serpent spoke1 that since then all men have been damned1 that ,balaam's she-ass also spoke very eloquently1 and that the walls of ,jericho fell at the sound of trumpets8 ,pic forthwith ran through a litany of all the admirable things he believed4 ,alexander fell on his sofa by dint of laughing4 ,i believe all that like you1 he said1 for ,i know well that only by faith can ,i be saved1 and that ,i shall not be saved by my works4 ,ah6 ,holy ,father1 said ,pic1 you have need of neither works nor faith2 that is good for poor profane people like us2 but you who are vice-god can believe and do all you want to4 ,you have the keys of heaven2 and without a doubt ,st4 ,peter will not close the door in your face4 ,but for myself1 ,i avow ,i should need potent protection if1 being only a poor prince1 ,i had slept with my daughter1 and if ,i had used the stiletto and the cantarella as often as your ,holiness4 ,alexander could take a jest4 ,let us talk seriously1 he said to ,prince della ,mirandola4 ,tell me what merit one can have in telling ,god that one is persuaded of things of which in fact one cannot be persuaded8 ,what pleasure can that give ,god8 ,between ourselves1 saying that one believes what is impossible to believe is lying4 ,pico della ,mirandola made a great sign of the cross4 ,eh6 paternal ,god1 he cried1 may your ,holiness pardon me1 you are not a ,christian4 ,no1 by my faith1 said the ,pope4 ,i thought as much1 said ,pico della ,mirandola4 ,,false ,,minds ,we have blind men1 one-eyed men1 squint-eyed men1 men with long sight1 short sight1 clear sight1 dim sight1 weak sight4 ,all that is a faithful enough image of our understanding2 but we are barely acquainted with false sight4 ,there are hardly men who always take a cock for a horse1 or a chamber-pot for a house4 ,why do we often come across minds otherwise just enough1 which are absolutely false on important things8 ,why does this same ,siamese who will never let himself be cheated when there is question of counting him three rupees1 firmly believe in the metamorphoses of ,sammonocodom8 ,by what strange singularity do sensible men resemble ,don ,quixote who thought he saw giants where other men saw only windmills8 ,still1 ,don ,quixote was more excusable than the ,siamese who believes that ,sammonocodom came several times on earth1 and than the ,turk who is persuaded that ,mahomet put half the moon in his sleeve2 for ,don ,quixote1 struck with the idea that he must fight giants1 can figure to himself that a giant must have a body as big as a mill2 but from what supposition can a sensible man set off to persuade himself that the half of the moon has gone into a sleeve1 and that a ,sammonocodom has come down from heaven to play at shuttlecock1 cut down a forest1 and perform feats of legerdemain8 ,the greatest geniuses can have false judgment about a principle they have accepted without examination4 ,newton had very false judgment when he commentated the ,apocalypse4 ,all that certain tyrants of the souls desire is that the men they teach shall have false judgment4 ,a fakir rears a child who gives much promise2 he spends five or six years in driving into his head that the god ,fo appeared to men as a white elephant1 and he persuades the child that he will be whipped after his death for five hundred thousand years if he does not believe these metamorphoses4 ,he adds that at the end of the world the enemy of the god ,fo will come to fight against this divinity4 ,the child studies and becomes a prodigy2 he argues on his master's lessons2 he finds that ,fo has only been able to change himself into a white elephant1 because that is the most beautiful of animals4 ,the kings of ,siam and ,pegu1 he says1 have made war for a white elephant2 certainly if ,fo had not been hidden in that elephant1 these kings would not have been so senseless as to fight simply for the possession of an animal4 ,the enemy of ,fo will come to defy him at the end of the world2 certainly this enemy will be a rhinoceros1 for the rhinoceros fights the elephant4 ,it is thus that in mature age the fakir's learned pupil reasons1 and he becomes one of the lights of ,india2 the more subtle his mind1 the more false is it1 and he forms later minds as false as his4 ,one shows all these fanatics a little geometry1 and they learn it easily enough2 but strange to relate1 their minds are not straightened for that2 they perceive the truths of geometry2 but they do not learn to weigh probabilities2 they have got into a habit2 they will reason crookedly all their lives1 and ,i am sorry for them4 ,there are unfortunately many ways of having a false mind3 #a4 ,by not examining if the principle is true1 even when one deduces accurate consequences therefrom2 and this way is common4 #b4 ,by drawing false consequences from a principle recognized as true4 ,for example1 a servant is asked if his master is in his room1 by persons he suspects of wanting his life3 if he were foolish enough to tell them the truth on the pretext that one must not lie1 it is clear he would be drawing an absurd consequence from a very true principle4 ,a judge who would condemn a man who has killed his assassin1 because homicide is forbidden1 would be as iniquitous as he was poor reasoner4 ,similar cases are subdivided in a thousand different gradations4 ,the good mind1 the just mind1 is that which distinguishes them2 whence comes that one has seen so many iniquitous judgments1 not because the judges' hearts were bad1 but because they were not sufficiently enlightened4 ,,fatherland ,a young journeyman pastrycook who had been to college1 and who still knew a few of ,cicero's phrases1 boasted one day of loving his fatherland4 ,what do you mean by your fatherland8 a neighbour asked him4 ,is it your oven8 is it the village where you were born and which you have never seen since8 is it the street where dwelled your father and mother who have been ruined and have reduced you to baking little pies for a living8 is it the town-hall where you will never be police superintendent's clerk8 is it the church of ,our ,lady where you have not been able to become a choir-boy1 while an absurd man is archbishop and duke with an income of twenty thousand golden louis8 ,the journeyman pastrycook did not know what to answer4 ,a thinker who was listening to this conversation1 concluded that in a fatherland of some extent there were often many thousand men who had no fatherland4 ,you1 pleasure loving ,parisian1 who have never made any great journey save that to ,dieppe to eat fresh fish2 who know nothing but your varnished town house1 your pretty country house1 and your box at that ,opera where the rest of ,europe persists in feeling bored2 who speak your own language agreeably enough because you know no other1 you love all that1 and you love further the girls you keep1 the champagne which comes to you from ,rheims1 the dividends which the ,htel-de-,ville pays you every six months1 and you say you love your fatherland6 ,in all conscience1 does a financier cordially love his fatherland8 ,the officer and the soldier who will pillage their winter quarters1 if one lets them1 have they a very warm love for the peasants they ruin8 ,where was the fatherland of the scarred ,duc de ,guise1 was it in ,nancy1 ,paris1 ,madrid1 ,rome8 ,what fatherland have you1 ,cardinals de ,la ,balue1 ,duprat1 ,lorraine1 ,mazarin8 ,where was the fatherland of ,attila and of a hundred heroes of this type8 ,i would like someone to tell me which was ,abraham's fatherland4 ,the first man to write that the fatherland is wherever one feels comfortable was1 ,i believe1 ,euripides in his ,phaeton4 ,but the first man who left his birthplace to seek his comfort elsewhere had said it before him4 ,where then is the fatherland8 ,is it not a good field1 whose owner1 lodged in a well-kept house1 can say3 ,this field that ,i till1 this house that ,i have built1 are mine2 ,i live there protected by laws which no tyrant can infringe4 ,when those who1 like me1 possess fields and houses1 meet in their common interest1 ,i have my voice in the assembly2 ,i am a part of everything1 a part of the community1 a part of the dominion2 there is my fatherland48 ,well now1 is it better for your fatherland to be a monarchy or a republic8 ,for four thousand years has this question been debated4 ,ask the rich for an answer1 they all prefer aristocracy2 question the people1 they want democracy3 only kings prefer royalty4 ,how then is it that nearly the whole world is governed by monarchs8 ,ask the rats who proposed to hang a bell round the cat's neck4 ,but in truth1 the real reason is1 as has been said1 that men are very rarely worthy of governing themselves4 ,it is sad that often in order to be a good patriot one is the enemy of the rest of mankind4 ,to be a good patriot is to wish that one's city may be enriched by trade1 and be powerful by arms4 ,it is clear that one country cannot gain without another loses1 and that it cannot conquer without making misery4 ,such then is the human state that to wish for one's country's greatness is to wish harm to one's neighbours4 ,he who should wish that his fatherland might never be greater1 smaller1 richer1 poorer1 would be the citizen of the world4 ,,final ,,causes ,if a clock is not made to tell the hour1 ,i will then admit that final causes are chimeras2 and ,i shall consider it quite right for people to call me cause-finalier1 that is--an imbecile4 ,all the pieces of the machine of this world seem1 however1 made for each other4 ,a few philosophers affect to mock at the final causes rejected by ,epicurus and ,lucretius4 ,it is1 it seems to me1 at ,epicurus and ,lucretius rather that they should mock4 ,they tell you that the eye is not made for seeing1 but that man has availed himself of it for this purpose when he perceived that eyes could be so used4 ,according to them1 the mouth is not made for speaking1 for eating1 the stomach for digesting1 the heart for receiving the blood from the veins and for dispatching it through the arteries1 the feet for walking1 the ears for hearing4 ,these persons avow nevertheless that tailors make them coats to clothe them1 and masons houses to lodge them1 and they dare deny to nature1 to the great ,being1 to the universal ,intelligence1 what they accord to the least of their workmen4 ,of course one must not make an abuse of final causes2 we have remarked that in vain ,mr4 ,prieur1 in ,the ,spectacle of ,nature1 maintains that the tides are given to the ocean so that vessels may enter port more easily1 and to stop the water of the sea from putrefying4 ,in vain would he say that legs are made to be booted1 and the nose to wear spectacles4 ,in order that one may be certain of the true end for which a cause functions1 it is essential that that effect shall exist at all times and in all places4 ,there were not ships at all times and on all the seas2 hence one cannot say that the ocean was made for the ships4 ,one feels how ridiculous it would be to maintain that nature had worked from all time in order to adjust herself to the inventions of our arbitrary arts1 which appeared so late2 but it is quite evident that if noses were not made for spectacles1 they were for smelling1 and that there have been noses ever since there have been men4 ,similarly1 hands not having been given on behalf of glove-makers1 they are visibly destined for all the purposes which the metacarpal bones and the phalanges and the circular muscle of the wrist may procure for us4 ,cicero1 who doubted everything1 did not1 however1 doubt final causes4 ,it seems especially difficult for the organs of generation not to be destined to perpetuate the species4 ,this mechanism is very admirable1 but the sensation which nature has joined to this mechanism is still more admirable4 ,epicurus had to avow that pleasure is divine2 and that this pleasure is a final cause1 by which are ceaselessly produced sentient beings who have not been able to give themselves sensation4 ,this ,epicurus was a great man for his time2 he saw what ,descartes denied1 what ,gassendi affirmed1 what ,newton demonstrated1 that there is no movement without space4 ,he conceived the necessity of atoms to serve as constituent parts of invariable species4 ,those are exceedingly philosophical ideas4 ,nothing was especially more worthy of respect than the moral system of the true ,epicureans2 it consisted in the removal to a distance of public matters incompatible with wisdom1 and in friendship1 without which life is a burden4 ,but as regards the rest of ,epicurus' physics1 they do not appear any more admissible than ,descartes' channelled matter4 ,it is1 it seems to me1 to stop one's eyes and understanding to maintain that there is no design in nature2 and if there is design1 there is an intelligent cause1 there exists a ,god4 ,people present to us as objections the irregularities of the globe1 the volcanoes1 the plains of shifting sands1 a few small mountains destroyed and others formed by earthquakes1 etc4 ,but from the fact that the naves of the wheels of your coach have caught fire1 does it ensue that your coach was not made expressly to carry you from one place to another8 ,the chains of mountains which crown the two hemispheres1 and more than six hundred rivers which flow right to the sea from the feet of these rocks2 all the streams which come down from these same reservoirs1 and which swell the rivers1 after fertilizing the country2 the thousands of fountains which start from the same source1 and which water animal and vegetable kind2 all these things seem no more the effect of a fortuitous cause and of a declension of atoms1 than the retina which receives the rays of light1 the crystalline lens which refracts them1 the incus1 the malleus1 the stapes1 the tympanic membrane of the ear1 which receives the sounds1 the paths of the blood in our veins1 the systole and diastole of the heart1 this pendulum of the machine which makes life4 ,,fraud ,bambabef the fakir one day met one of the disciples of ,confutzee1 whom we call ,confucius1 and this disciple was named ,ouang1 and ,bambabef maintained that the people had need of being deceived1 and ,ouang claimed that one should never deceive anybody2 and here is the summary of their dispute3 ,,bambabef3 ,we must imitate the ,supreme ,being who does not show us things as they are2 he makes us see the sun in a diameter of two or three feet1 although this star is a million times bigger than the earth2 he makes us see the moon and the stars set on the same blue background1 whereas they are at different depths4 ,he requires that a square tower shall appear round to us from a distance2 he requires that fire shall seem hot to us1 although it is neither hot nor cold2 in fine1 he surrounds us with errors suited to our nature4 ,,ouang3 ,what you name error is not one at all4 ,the sun1 placed as it is at millions of millions of lis#f beyond our globe1 is not the sun we see4 ,we perceive in reality1 and we can perceive1 only the sun which is depicted in our retina at a determined angle4 ,our eyes have not been given us for appreciating sizes and distances1 we need other aids and other operations to appreciate them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,bambabef seemed very astonished at this proposition4 ,ouang1 who was very patient1 explained to him the theory of optics2 and ,bambabef1 who had a quick understanding1 surrendered to the demonstrations of ,confutzee's disciple1 then he resumed the argument4 ,,bambabef3 ,if ,god does not deceive us through the medium of our senses1 as ,i believed1 avow at least that doctors always deceive children for their good2 they tell them that they are giving them sugar1 and in fact they are giving them rhubarb4 ,i1 a fakir1 may then deceive the people who are as ignorant as the children4 ,,ouang3 ,i have two sons2 ,i have never deceived them2 when they have been ill ,i have told them that there was a very bitter medicine1 and that they must have the courage to take it2 it would harm you if it were sweet4 ,i have never allowed their masters and teachers to make them afraid of spirits1 ghosts1 goblins1 sorcerers2 by this means ,i have made brave1 wise young citizens of them4 ,,bambabef3 ,the people are not born so happily as your family4 ,,ouang3 ,all men are alike1 or nearly so2 they are born with the same dispositions4 ,one must not corrupt men's natures4 ,,bambabef3 ,we teach them errors1 ,i admit1 but it is for their good4 ,we make them believe that if they do not buy the nails we have blessed1 if they do not expiate their sins by giving us money1 they will become1 in another life1 post-horses1 dogs or lizards4 ,that intimidates them1 and they become honest people4 ,,ouang3 ,do you not see that you are perverting these poor people8 ,there are among them many more than you think who reason1 who laugh at your miracles1 at your superstitions1 who see quite well that they will not be changed into either lizards or post-horses4 ,what is the consequence8 ,they have enough sense to see that you are telling them impertinences1 and they have not enough to raise themselves toward a religion that is pure and free from superstition1 such as ours4 ,their passions make them believe that there is no religion at all1 because the only one that is taught them is ridiculous2 you become guilty of all the vices in which they are plunged4 ,,bambabef3 ,not at all1 for we do not teach them anything but good morality4 ,,ouang3 ,you would have yourselves stoned by the people if you taught them impure morality4 ,men are so made that they want to do evil1 but that they do not want it preached to them4 ,all that is necessary is that you should not mix a wise moral system with absurd fables1 because you weaken through your impostures1 which you can do without1 the morality that you are forced to teach4 ,,bambabef3 ,what6 you believe that one can teach the people truth without strengthening it with fables8 ,,ouang3 ,i firmly believe it4 ,our literati are of the same stuff as our tailors1 our weavers and our husbandmen4 ,they worship a ,god creator1 rewarder1 avenger4 ,they do not sully their worship1 either by absurd systems1 or by extravagant ceremonies2 and there are far less crimes among the literati than among the people4 ,why not deign to instruct our workmen as we instruct our literati8 ,,bambabef3 ,you would be very foolish2 it is as if you wanted them to have the same courtesy1 to be lawyers2 that is neither possible nor proper4 ,there must be white bread for the masters1 and brown bread for the servants4 ,,ouang3 ,i admit that all men should not have the same learning2 but there are some things necessary to all4 ,it is necessary that all men should be just2 and the surest way of inspiring all men with justice is to inspire in them religion without superstition4 ,,bambabef3 ,it is a fine project1 but it is impracticable4 ,do you think that men will be satisfied to believe in a ,god who punishes and rewards8 ,you have told me that it often happens that the most shrewd among the people revolt against my fables2 they will revolt in the same way against truth4 ,they will say3 ,who will assure me that ,god punishes and rewards8 where is the proof of it8 what is your mission8 what miracle have you performed that ,i may believe you8 ,they will laugh at you much more than at me4 ,,ouang3 ,that is where you are mistaken4 ,you imagine that people will shake off the yoke of an honest1 probable idea that is useful to everyone1 of an idea in accordance with human reason1 because people reject things that are dishonest1 absurd1 useless1 dangerous1 that make good sense shudder4 ,the people are very disposed to believe their magistrates3 when their magistrates propose to them only a reasonable belief1 they embrace it willingly4 ,there is no need of prodigies for believing in a just ,god1 who reads in man's heart2 this idea is too natural1 too necessary1 to be combated4 ,it is not necessary to say precisely how ,god will punish and reward2 it suffices that people believe in ,his justice4 ,i assure you ,i have seen entire towns which have had barely any other dogma1 and that it is in those towns that ,i have seen most virtue4 ,,bambabef3 ,take care2 in those towns you will find philosophers who will deny you both your pains and your recompenses4 ,,ouang3 ,you will admit to me that these philosophers will deny your inventions still more strongly2 so you gain nothing from that4 ,though there are philosophers who do not agree with my principles1 there are honest people none the less2 none the less do they cultivate the virtue of them1 which must be embraced by love1 and not by fear4 ,but1 further1 ,i maintain that no philosopher would ever be assured that ,providence did not reserve pains for the wicked and rewards for the good4 ,for if they ask me who told me that ,god punishes8 ,i shall ask them who has told them that ,god does not punish4 ,in fine1 ,i maintain that these philosophers1 far from contradicting me1 will help me4 ,would you like to be a philosopher8 ,,bambabef3 ,willingly2 but do not tell the fakirs4 ,,ouang3 ,let us think above all that1 if a philosopher wishes to be useful to human society1 he must announce a ,god4 ,,footnotes3 #f ,a li is #abd paces4 ,,free-,,will ,ever since men have reasoned1 the philosophers have obscured this matter3 but the theologians have rendered it unintelligible by absurd subtleties about grace4 ,locke is perhaps the first man to find a thread in this labyrinth2 for he is the first who1 without having the arrogance of trusting in setting out from a general principle1 examined human nature by analysis4 ,for three thousand years people have disputed whether or no the will is free4 ,in the ,essay on the ,human ,understanding1 chapter on ,power1 ,locke shows first of all that the question is absurd1 and that liberty can no more belong to the will than can colour and movement4 ,what is the meaning of this phrase to be free8 it means to be able1 or assuredly it has no sense4 ,for the will to be able is as ridiculous at bottom as to say that the will is yellow or blue1 round or square4 ,to will is to wish1 and to be free is to be able4 ,let us note step by step the chain of what passes in us1 without obfuscating our minds by any terms of the schools or any antecedent principle4 ,it is proposed to you that you mount a horse1 you must absolutely make a choice1 for it is quite clear that you either will go or that you will not go4 ,there is no middle way4 ,it is therefore of absolute necessity that you wish yes or no4 ,up to there it is demonstrated that the will is not free4 ,you wish to mount the horse2 why8 ,the reason1 an ignoramus will say1 is because ,i wish it4 ,this answer is idiotic1 nothing happens or can happen without a reason1 a cause2 there is one therefore for your wish4 ,what is it8 the agreeable idea of going on horseback which presents itself in your brain1 the dominant idea1 the determinant idea4 ,but1 you will say1 can ,i not resist an idea which dominates me8 ,no1 for what would be the cause of your resistance8 ,none4 ,by your will you can obey only an idea which will dominate you more4 ,now you receive all your ideas2 therefore you receive your wish1 you wish therefore necessarily4 ,the word liberty does not therefore belong in any way to your will4 ,you ask me how thought and wish are formed in us4 ,i answer you that ,i have not the remotest idea4 ,i do not know how ideas are made any more than how the world was made4 ,all that is given to us is to grope for what passes in our incomprehensible machine4 ,the will1 therefore1 is not a faculty that one can call free4 ,a free will is an expression absolutely void of sense1 and what the scholastics have called will of indifference1 that is to say willing without cause1 is a chimera unworthy of being combated4 ,where will be liberty then8 in the power to do what one wills4 ,i wish to leave my study1 the door is open1 ,i am free to leave it4 ,but1 say you1 if the door is closed1 and ,i wish to stay at home1 ,i stay there freely4 ,let us be explicit4 ,you exercise then the power that you have of staying2 you have this power1 but you have not that of going out4 ,the liberty about which so many volumes have been written is1 therefore1 reduced to its accurate terms1 only the power of acting4 ,in what sense then must one utter the phrase--,man is free8 in the same sense that one utters the words1 health1 strength1 happiness4 ,man is not always strong1 always healthy1 always happy4 ,a great passion1 a great obstacle1 deprive him of his liberty1 his power of action4 ,the word liberty1 free-will1 is therefore an abstract word1 a general word1 like beauty1 goodness1 justice4 ,these terms do not state that all men are always beautiful1 good and just2 similarly1 they are not always free4 ,let us go further3 this liberty being only the power of acting1 what is this power8 ,it is the effect of the constitution and present state of our organs4 ,leibnitz wishes to resolve a geometrical problem1 he has an apoplectic fit1 he certainly has not liberty to resolve his problem4 ,is a vigorous young man1 madly in love1 who holds his willing mistress in his arms1 free to tame his passion8 undoubtedly not4 ,he has the power of enjoying1 and has not the power of refraining4 ,locke was therefore very right to call liberty power4 ,when is it that this young man can refrain despite the violence of his passion8 when a stronger idea determines in a contrary sense the activity of his body and his soul4 ,but what6 the other animals will have the same liberty1 then1 the same power8 ,why not8 ,they have senses1 memory1 feeling1 perceptions1 as we have4 ,they act with spontaneity as we act4 ,they must have also1 as we have1 the power of acting by virtue of their perceptions1 by virtue of the play of their organs4 ,someone cries3 ,if it be so1 everything is only machine1 everything in the universe is subjected to eternal laws4 ,well6 would you have everything at the pleasure of a million blind caprices8 ,either everything is the sequence of the necessity of the nature of things1 or everything is the effect of the eternal order of an absolute master2 in both cases we are only wheels in the machine of the world4 ,it is a vain witticism1 a commonplace to say that without the pretended liberty of the will1 all pains and rewards are useless4 ,reason1 and you will come to a quite contrary conclusion4 ,if a brigand is executed1 his accomplice who sees him expire has the liberty of not being frightened at the punishment2 if his will is determined by itself1 he will go from the foot of the scaffold to assassinate on the broad highway2 if his organs1 stricken with horror1 make him experience an unconquerable terror1 he will stop robbing4 ,his companion's punishment becomes useful to him and an insurance for society only so long as his will is not free4 ,liberty then is only and can be only the power to do what one will4 ,that is what philosophy teaches us4 ,but if one considers liberty in the theological sense1 it is a matter so sublime that profane eyes dare not raise themselves to it4#g ,,footnotes3 #g ,see ,liberty4 ,,french ,the ,french language did not begin to have any form until towards the tenth century2 it was born from the ruins of ,latin and ,celtic1 mixed with a few ,germanic words4 ,this language was first of all the romanum rusticum1 rustic ,roman1 and the ,germanic language was the court language up to the time of ,charles the ,bald2 ,germanic remained the sole language of ,germany after the great epoch of the partition of #hdc4 ,rustic ,roman1 the ,romance language1 prevailed in ,western ,france2 the people of the country of ,vaud1 of the ,valais1 of the ,engadine valley1 and of a few other cantons1 still retain to-day manifest vestiges of this idiom4 ,at the end of the tenth century ,french was formed2 people wrote in ,french at the beginning of the eleventh2 but this ,french still retained more of ,rustic ,roman than the ,french of to-day4 ,the romance of ,philomena1 written in the tenth century in rustic ,roman1 is not in a tongue very different from that of the ,norman laws4 ,one still remarks ,celtic1 ,latin and ,german derivations4 ,the words signifying the parts of the human body1 or things of daily use1 and which have nothing in common with ,latin or ,german1 are in old ,gaulish or ,celtic1 such as tte1 jambe1 sabre1 pointe1 aller1 parler1 couter1 regarder1 aboyer1 crier1 coutume1 ensemble1 and many others of this kind4 ,most of the terms of war were ,frank or ,german3 ,marche1 halte1 marchal1 bivouac1 reitre1 lansquenet4 ,all the rest is ,latin2 and all the ,latin words were abridged1 according to the custom and genius of the nations of the north2 thus from palatium1 palais2 from lupus1 loup2 from ,auguste1 aot2 from ,junius1 juin2 from unctus1 oint2 from purpura1 pourpre2 from pretium1 prix1 etc4 ,hardly were there left any vestiges of the ,greek tongue1 which had been so long spoken at ,marseilles4 ,in the twelfth century there began to be introduced into the language some of the terms of ,aristotle's philosophy2 and towards the sixteenth century one expressed by ,greek terms all the parts of the human body1 their diseases1 their remedies2 whence the words cardiaque1 cphalique1 podagre1 apoplectique1 asthmatique1 iliaque1 empyme1 and so many others4 ,although the language then enriched itself from the ,greek1 and although since ,charles ,,viii4 it had drawn much aid from ,italian already perfected1 the ,french language had not yet taken regular consistence4 ,franois ,ier abolished the ancient custom of pleading1 judging1 contracting in ,latin2 custom which bore witness to the barbarism of a language which one did not dare use in public documents1 a pernicious custom for citizens whose lot was regulated in a language they did not understand4 ,one was obliged then to cultivate ,french2 but the language was neither noble nor regular4 ,the syntax was left to caprice4 ,the genius for conversation being turned to pleasantries1 the language became very fertile in burlesque and nave expressions1 and very sterile in noble and harmonious terms3 from this it comes that in rhyming dictionaries one finds twenty terms suitable for comic poetry1 for one for more exalted use2 and it is1 further1 a reason why ,marot never succeeded in a serious style1 and why ,amyot could render ,plutarch's elegance only with navet4 ,french acquired vigour beneath the pen of ,montaigne2 but it still had neither nobility nor harmony4 ,ronsard spoiled the language by bringing into ,french poetry the ,greek compounds which the doctors and philosophers used4 ,malherbe repaired ,ronsard's mischief somewhat4 ,the language became more noble and more harmonious with the establishment of the ,acadmie ,franaise1 and acquired finally1 in the reign of ,louis ,,xiv41 the perfection whereby it might be carried into all forms of composition4 ,the genius of this language is order and clarity2 for each language has its genius1 and this genius consists in the facility which the language gives for expressing oneself more or less happily1 for using or rejecting the familiar twists of other languages4 ,french having no declensions1 and being always subject to the article1 cannot adopt ,greek and ,latin inversions2 it obliges words to arrange themselves in the natural order of ideas4 ,only in one way can one say ,plancus a pris soin des affaires de ,csar4 ,that is the only arrangement one can give to these words4 ,express this phrase in ,latin--,res ,csaris ,plancus diligenter curavit3 one can arrange these words in a hundred and twenty ways1 without injuring the sense and without troubling the language4 ,the auxiliary verbs which eke out and enervate the phrases in modern languages1 still render the ,french tongue little suited to the concise lapidary style4 ,the auxiliary verbs1 its pronouns1 its articles1 its lack of declinable participles1 and finally its uniform gait1 are injurious to the great enthusiasm of poetry1 in which it has less resources than ,italian and ,english2 but this constraint and this bondage render it more suitable for tragedy and comedy than any language in ,europe4 ,the natural order in which one is obliged to express one's thoughts and construct one's phrases1 diffuses in this language a sweetness and easiness that is pleasing to all peoples2 and the genius of the nation mingling with the genius of the language has produced more agreeably written books than can be seen among any other people4 ,the pleasure and liberty of society having been long known only in ,france1 the language has received therefrom a delicacy of expression and a finesse full of simplicity barely to be found elsewhere4 ,this finesse has sometimes been exaggerated1 but people of taste have always known how to reduce it within just limits4 ,many persons have thought that the ,french language has become impoverished since the time of ,amyot and ,montaigne3 one does indeed find in many authors expressions which are no longer admissible2 but they are for the most part familiar expressions for which equivalents have been substituted4 ,the language has been enriched with a quantity of noble and energetic expressions2 and without speaking here of the eloquence of things1 it has acquired the eloquence of words4 ,it is in the reign of ,louis ,,xiv41 as has been said1 that this eloquence had its greatest splendour1 and that the language was fixed4 ,whatever changes time and caprice prepare for it1 the good authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will always serve as models4 ,,friendship ,friendship is the marriage of the soul2 and this marriage is subject to divorce4 ,it is a tacit contract between two sensitive and virtuous persons4 ,i say sensitive1 because a monk1 a recluse can be not wicked and live without knowing what friendship is4 ,i say virtuous1 because the wicked have only accomplices2 voluptuaries have companions in debauch1 self-seekers have partners1 politicians get partisans2 the generality of idle men have attachments2 princes have courtiers2 virtuous men alone have friends4 ,cethegus was the accomplice of ,catilina1 and ,maecenas the courtier of ,octavius2 but ,cicero was the friend of ,atticus4 ,,god ,during the reign of ,arcadius1 ,logomacos1 lecturer in theology of ,constantinople1 went to ,scythia and halted at the foot of the ,caucasus1 in the fertile plains of ,zephirim1 on the frontier of ,colchis4 ,that good old man ,dondindac was in his great lower hall1 between his sheepfold and his vast barn2 he was kneeling with his wife1 his five sons and five daughters1 his kindred and his servants1 and after a light meal they were all singing ,god's praises4 ,what do you there1 idolator8 said ,logomacos to him4 ,i am not an idolator1 answered ,dondindac4 ,you must be an idolator1 said ,logomacos1 seeing that you are not ,greek4 ,tell me1 what was that you were singing in your barbarous ,scythian jargon8 ,all tongues are equal in the ears of ,god1 answered the ,scythian4 ,we were singing ,his praises4 ,that's very extraordinary1 returned the theologian4 ,a ,scythian family who pray ,god without having been taught by us6 ,he soon engaged ,dondindac the ,scythian in conversation1 for he knew a little ,scythian1 and the other a little ,greek4 ,the following conversation was found in a manuscript preserved in the library of ,constantinople4 ,,logomacos3 ,let us see if you know your catechism4 ,why do you pray ,god8 ,,dondindac3 ,because it is right to worship the ,supreme ,being from whom we hold everything4 ,,logomacos3 ,not bad for a barbarian6 ,and what do you ask of ,him8 ,,dondindac3 ,i thank ,him for the benefits ,i enjoy1 and even for the ills with which ,he tries me2 but ,i take good care not to ask ,him for anything2 ,he knows better than us what we need1 and besides1 ,i am afraid to ask ,him for good weather when my neighbour is asking for rain4 ,,logomacos3 ,ah6 ,i thought he was going to say something silly4 ,let us start again farther back4 ,barbarian1 who has told you there is a ,god8 ,,dondindac3 ,the whole of nature4 ,,logomacos3 ,that does not suffice4 ,what idea have you of ,god8 ,,dondindac3 ,the idea of my creator1 of my master1 who will reward me if ,i do good1 and who will punish me if ,i do ill4 ,,logomacos3 ,trash1 nonsense all that6 ,let us come to essentials4 ,is ,god infinite secundum quid1 or in essence8 ,,dondindac3 ,i don't understand you4 ,,logomacos3 ,brutish fool6 ,is ,god in one place1 beyond all places1 or in all places8 ,,dondindac3 ,i have no idea 444 just as you please4 ,,logomacos3 ,dolt6 ,is it possible for what has been not to have been1 and can a stick not have two ends8 ,does ,he see the future as future or as present8 how does ,he draw the being out of non-existence1 and how annihilate the being8 ,,dondindac3 ,i have never examined these things4 ,,logomacos3 ,what a blockhead6 ,come1 one must humble oneself1 see things in proportion4 ,tell me1 my friend1 do you think that matter can be eternal8 ,,dondindac3 ,what does it matter to me whether it exists from all eternity or not8 ,i do not exist from all eternity4 ,god is always my master2 ,he has given me the notion of justice1 ,i must follow it2 ,i do not want to be a philosopher1 ,i want to be a man4 ,,logomacos3 ,these blockheads are troublesome4 ,let us go step by step4 ,what is ,god8 ,,dondindac3 ,my sovereign1 my judge1 my father4 ,,logomacos3 ,that's not what ,i'm asking you4 ,what is ,his nature8 ,,dondindac3 ,to be potent and good4 ,,logomacos3 ,but1 is ,he corporeal or spiritual8 ,,dondindac3 ,how should ,i know8 ,,logomacos3 ,what6 you don't know what a spirit is8 ,,dondindac3 ,not in the least3 of what use would it be to me8 should ,i be more just8 should ,i be a better husband1 a better father1 a better master1 a better citizen8 ,,logomacos3 ,it is absolutely essential you should learn what a spirit is4 ,it is1 it is1 it is 444 ,i will tell you another time4 ,,dondindac3 ,i'm very much afraid that you may tell me less what it is than what it is not4 ,allow me to put a question to you in my turn4 ,i once saw one of your temples2 why do you depict ,god with a long beard8 ,,logomacos3 ,that's a very difficult question which needs preliminary instruction4 ,,dondindac3 ,before receiving your instruction1 ,i must tell you what happened to me one day4 ,i had just built a closet at the end of my garden2 ,i heard a mole arguing with a cockchafer4 ,that's a very fine building1 said the mole4 ,it must have been a very powerful mole who did that piece of work4 ,you're joking1 said the cockchafer4 ,it was a cockchafer bubbling over with genius who is the architect of this building4 ,from that time ,i resolved never to argue4 ,,helvetia ,happy ,helvetia6 to what charter do you owe your liberty8 to your courage1 to your resolution1 to your mountains4 ,but ,i am your emperor4 ,but ,i do not want you any longer4 ,but your fathers were my father's slaves4 ,it is for that very reason that their children do not wish to serve you4 ,but ,i had the right belonging to my rank4 ,and we have the right of nature4 ,why is liberty so rare8 ,because it is the chiefest good4 ,,history ,,definition ,history is the recital of facts given as true1 in contradistinction to the fable1 which is the recital of facts given as false4 ,there is the history of opinions which is hardly anything but a collection of human errors4 ,the history of the arts can be the most useful of all when it joins to the knowledge of the invention and the progress of the arts the description of their mechanism4 ,natural history1 improperly called history1 is an essential part of natural philosophy4 ,the history of events has been divided into sacred history and profane history2 sacred history is a series of divine and miraculous operations whereby it pleased ,god once on a time to lead the ,jewish nation1 and to-day to exercise our faith4 ,,first ,,foundations ,,of ,,history ,the first foundations of all history are the recitals of the fathers to the children1 transmitted afterward from one generation to another2 at their origin they are at the very most probable1 when they do not shock common sense1 and they lose one degree of probability in each generation4 ,with time the fable grows and the truth grows less2 from this it comes that all the origins of peoples are absurd4 ,thus the ,egyptians had been governed by the gods for many centuries2 then they had been governed by demi-gods2 finally they had had kings for eleven thousand three hundred and forty years2 and in that space of time the sun had changed four times from east to west4 ,the ,phoenicians of ,alexander's time claimed to have been established in their country for thirty thousand years2 and these thirty thousand years were filled with as many prodigies as the ,egyptian chronology4 ,i avow that physically it is very possible that ,phoenicia has existed not merely thirty thousand years1 but thirty thousand milliards of centuries1 and that it experienced like the rest of the world thirty million revolutions4 ,but we have no knowledge of it4 ,one knows what a ridiculously marvellous state of affairs ruled in the ancient history of the ,greeks4 ,the ,romans1 for all that they were serious1 did not any the less envelop the history of their early centuries in fables4 ,this nation1 so recent compared with the ,asiatic peoples1 was five hundred years without historians4 ,it is not surprising1 therefore1 that ,romulus was the son of ,mars1 that a she-wolf was his foster mother1 that he marched with a thousand men of his village of ,rome against twenty-five thousand combatants of the village of the ,sabines3 that later he became a god2 that ,tarquin1 the ancient1 cut a stone with a razor1 and that a vestal drew a ship to land with her girdle1 etc4 ,the early annals of all our modern nations are no less fabulous2 the prodigious and improbable things must sometimes be reported1 but as proofs of human credulity3 they enter the history of opinions and foolishnesses2 but the field is too vast4 ,,of ,,records ,in order to know with a little certainty something of ancient history1 there is only one means1 it is to see if any incontestable records remain4 ,we have only three in writing3 the first is the collection of astronomical observations made for nineteen hundred consecutive years at ,babylon1 sent by ,alexander to ,greece4 ,this series of observations1 which goes back to two thousand two hundred and thirty-four years before our era1 proves invincibly that the ,babylonians existed as a body of people several centuries before2 for the arts are only the work of time1 and men's natural laziness leaves them for some thousands of years without other knowledge and without other talents than those of feeding themselves1 of defending themselves against the injuries of the air1 and of slaughtering each other4 ,let us judge by the ,germans and by the ,english in ,csar's time1 by the ,tartars to-day1 by the two-thirds of ,africa1 and by all the peoples we have found in ,america1 excepting in some respects the kingdoms of ,peru and of ,mexico1 and the republic of ,tlascala4 ,let us remember that in the whole of this new world nobody knew how to read or write4 ,the second record is the central eclipse of the sun1 calculated in ,china two thousand one hundred and fifty-five years before our era1 and recognized true by our astronomers4 ,of the ,chinese the same thing must be said as of the peoples of ,babylon2 they already comprised a vast civilized empire without a doubt4 ,but what puts the ,chinese above all the peoples of the earth is that neither their laws1 nor their customs1 nor the language spoken among them by their lettered mandarins has changed for about four thousand years4 ,nevertheless1 this nation and the nation of ,india1 the most ancient of all those that exist to-day1 which possess the vastest and the most beautiful country1 which invented almost all the arts before we had learned any of them1 have always been omitted right to our days in all so-called universal histories4 ,and when a ,spaniard and a ,frenchman took a census of the nations1 neither one nor the other failed to call his country the first monarchy in the world1 and his king the greatest king in the world1 flattering himself that his king would give him a pension as soon as he had read his book4 ,the third record1 very inferior to the two others1 exists in the ,arundel marbles3 the chronicle of ,athens is graved there two hundred and sixty-three years before our era2 but it goes back only to ,cecrops1 thirteen hundred and nineteen years beyond the time when it was engraved4 ,in the history of antiquity those are the sole incontestable epochs that we have4 ,let us give serious attention to these marbles brought back from ,greece by ,lord ,arundel4 ,their chronicle begins fifteen hundred and eighty-two years before our era4 ,that is to-day 7#agga7 an antiquity of #c1cec years1 and you do not see there a single fact touching on the miraculous1 on the prodigious4 ,it is the same with the ,olympiads2 it is not there that one should say ,grcia mendax1 lying ,greece4 ,the ,greeks knew very well how to distinguish between history and fable1 between real facts and the tales of ,herodotus3 just as in their serious affairs their orators borrowed nothing from the speeches of the sophists or from the images of the poets4 ,the date of the taking of ,troy is specified in these marbles2 but no mention is made of ,apollo's arrows1 or of the sacrifice of ,iphigenia1 or of the ridiculous combats of the gods4 ,the date of the inventions of ,triptolemy and ,ceres is found there2 but ,ceres is not called goddess4 ,mention is made of a poem on the abduction of ,prosperine2 it is not said that she is the daughter of ,jupiter and a goddess1 and that she is wife of the god of the infernal regions4 ,hercules is initiated into the mysteries of ,eleusis2 but not a word on his twelve labours1 nor on his passage into ,africa in his cup1 nor on his divinity1 nor on the big fish by which he was swallowed1 and which kept him in its belly three days and three nights1 according to ,lycophron4 ,among us1 on the contrary1 a standard is brought from heaven by an angel to the monks of ,saint-,denis2 a pigeon brings a bottle of oil to a church in ,rheims2 two armies of snakes give themselves over to a pitched battle in ,germany2 an archbishop of ,mayence is besieged and eaten by rats2 and1 to crown everything1 great care has been taken to mark the year of these adventures4 ,all history is recent4 ,it is not astonishing that we have no ancient profane history beyond about four thousand years4 ,the revolutions of this globe1 the long and universal ignorance of that art which transmits facts by writing are the cause of it4 ,this art was common only among a very small number of civilized nations2 and was in very few hands even4 ,nothing rarer among the ,french and the ,germans than to know how to write2 up to the fourteenth century of our era nearly all deeds were only attested by witnesses4 ,it was1 in ,france1 only under ,charles ,,vii41 in #aded1 that one started to draft in writing some of the customs of ,france4 ,the art of writing was still rarer among the ,spanish1 and from that it results that their history is so dry and so uncertain1 up to the time of ,ferdinand and ,isabella4 ,one sees by that to what extent the very small number of men who knew how to write could deceive1 and how easy it was to make us believe the most enormous absurdities4 ,there are nations which have subjugated a part of the world without having the usage of characters4 ,we know that ,gengis-khan conquered a part of ,asia at the beginning of the thirteenth century1 but it is not through either him or the ,tartars that we know it4 ,their history1 written by the ,chinese and translated by ,father ,gaubil1 states that these ,tartars had not at that time the art of writing4 ,this art cannot have been less unknown to the ,scythian ,oguskan1 named ,madies by the ,persians and the ,greeks1 who conquered a part of ,europe and ,asia so long before the reign of ,cyrus4 ,it is almost certain that at that time of a hundred nations there were hardly two or three who used characters4 ,it is possible that in an ancient world destroyed1 men knew writing and the other arts2 but in ours they are all very recent4 ,there remain records of another kind1 which serve to establish merely the remote antiquity of certain peoples1 and which precede all the known epochs1 and all the books2 these are the prodigies of architecture1 like the pyramids and the palaces of ,egypt1 which have resisted time4 ,herodotus1 who lived two thousand two hundred years ago1 and who had seen them1 was not able to learn from the ,egyptian priests at what time they had been erected4 ,it is difficult to give to the most ancient of the pyramids less than four thousand years of antiquity2 but one must consider that these efforts of the ostentation of the kings could only have been commenced long after the establishment of the towns4 ,but to build towns in a land inundated every year1 let us always remark that it was first necessary to raise the land of the towns on piles in this land of mud1 and to render them inaccessible to the flood2 it was essential1 before taking this necessary course1 and before being in a state to attempt these great works1 for the people to have practised retreating during the rising of the ,nile1 amid the rocks which form two chains right and left of this river4 ,it was necessary for these mustered peoples to have the instruments for tilling1 those of architecture1 a knowledge of surveying1 with laws and a police4 ,all this necessarily requires a prodigious space of time4 ,we see by the long details which face every day the most necessary and the smallest of our undertakings1 how difficult it is to do great things1 and it needs not only indefatigable stubbornness1 but several generations animated with this stubbornness4 ,however1 whether it be ,menes1 ,thaut or ,cheops1 or ,rameses who erected one or two of these prodigious masses1 we shall not be the more instructed of the history of ancient ,egypt3 the language of this people is lost4 ,we therefore know nothing but that before the most ancient historians there was matter for making an ancient history4 ,,ignorance ,i am ignorant of how ,i was formed1 and of how ,i was born4 ,for a quarter of my life ,i was absolutely ignorant of the reasons for all that ,i saw1 heard and felt1 and ,i was nothing but a parrot at whom other parrots chattered4 ,when ,i looked round me and within me1 ,i conceived that something exists for all eternity2 since there are beings who exist to-day1 ,i concluded that there is a being who is necessary and necessarily eternal4 ,thus1 the first step ,i took to emerge from my ignorance crossed the boundaries of all the centuries4 ,but when ,i tried to walk in this infinite quarry open before me1 ,i could neither find a single path1 nor discern plainly a single object2 and from the leap ,i made to contemplate eternity1 ,i fell back again into the abyss of my ignorance4 ,i saw what was called matter1 from the star ,sirius and the stars of the ,milky ,way1 as distant from ,sirius as ,sirius is from us1 right to the last atom that can be perceived with the microscope1 and ,i am ignorant as to what matter is4 ,the light which let me see all these beings is unknown to me2 ,i can1 with the help of a prism1 dissect this light1 and divide it into seven pencils of rays2 but ,i cannot divide these pencils2 ,i am ignorant of what they are composed4 ,light is of the nature of matter1 since it has movement and makes an impression on objects2 but it does not tend toward a centre like all bodies3 on the contrary1 it escapes invincibly from the centre1 whereas all matter bears towards its centre4 ,light seems penetrable1 and matter is impenetrable4 ,is this light matter8 is it not matter8 with what innumerable properties can it be endowed8 ,i am ignorant thereof4 ,is this substance which is so brilliant1 so swift and so unknown1 are these other substances which roll in the immensity of space1 eternal as they seem infinite8 ,i have no idea4 ,has a necessary being1 of sovereign intelligence1 created them out of nothing1 or has he arranged them8 did he produce this order in ,time or before ,time8 ,what even is this ,time of which ,i speak8 ,i cannot define it4 ,o ,god6 ,teach me1 for ,i am enlightened neither by other men's darkness nor by my own4 ,what is sensation8 ,how have ,i received it8 what connection is there between the air which strikes my ear and the sensation of sound8 between this body and the sensation of colour8 ,i am profoundly ignorant thereof1 and ,i shall always be ignorant thereof4 ,what is thought8 where does it dwell8 how is it formed8 who gives me thought during my sleep8 is it by virtue of my will that ,i think8 ,but always during my sleep1 and often while ,i am awake1 ,i have ideas in spite of myself4 ,these ideas1 long forgotten1 long relegated to the back shop of my brain1 issue from it without my interfering1 and present themselves to my memory1 which makes vain efforts to recall them4 ,external objects have not the power to form ideas in me1 for one does not give oneself what one has not2 ,i am too sensible that it is not ,i who give them to me1 for they are born without my orders4 ,who produces them in me8 whence do they come8 whither do they go8 ,fugitive phantoms1 what invisible hand produces you and causes you to disappear8 ,why1 alone of all animals1 has man the mania for dominating his fellow-men8 ,why and how has it been possible that of a hundred thousand million men more than ninety-nine have been immolated to this mania8 ,how is reason so precious a gift that we would not lose it for anything in the world8 and how has this reason served only to make us the most unhappy of all beings8 ,whence comes it that loving truth passionately1 we are always betrayed to the most gross impostures8 ,why is life still loved by this crowd of ,indians deceived and enslaved by the bonzes1 crushed by a ,tartar's descendants1 overburdened with work1 groaning in want1 assailed by disease1 exposed to every scourge8 ,whence comes evil1 and why does evil exist8 ,o atoms of a day6 ,o my companions in infinite littleness1 born like me to suffer everything and to be ignorant of everything1 are there enough madmen among you to believe that they know all these things8 ,no1 there are not2 no1 at the bottom of your hearts you feel your nonentity as ,i render justice to mine4 ,but you are arrogant enough to want people to embrace your vain systems2 unable to be tyrants over our bodies1 you claim to be tyrants over our souls4 ,,the ,,impious ,who are the impious8 those who give a white beard1 feet and hands to the ,being of beings1 to the great ,demiourgos1 to the eternal intelligence by which nature is governed4 ,but they are only excusably impious1 poor impious people against whom one must not grow wroth4 ,if even they paint the great incomprehensible ,being born on a cloud which can bear nothing2 if they are foolish enough to put ,god in a mist1 in the rain1 or on a mountain1 and to surround him with little chubby1 flushed faces accompanied by two wings2 ,i laugh and ,i pardon them with all my heart4 ,the impious persons who attribute to the ,being of beings preposterous predictions and injustices would anger me if this great ,being had not given me a reason which quells my wrath4 ,the silly fanatic repeats to me1 after others1 that it is not for us to judge what is reasonable and just in the great ,being1 that ,his reason is not like our reason1 that ,his justice is not like our justice4 ,eh6 how1 you mad demoniac1 do you want me to judge justice and reason otherwise than by the notions ,i have of them8 do you want me to walk otherwise than with my feet1 and to speak otherwise than with my mouth8 ,the impious man who supposes the great ,being jealous1 arrogant1 malignant1 vindictive1 is more dangerous4 ,i would not want to sleep under the same roof as this man4 ,but how would you treat the impious man who says to you3 ,see only through my eyes1 do not think2 ,i announce to you a tyrannical ,god who has made me to be your tyrant2 ,i am his well-beloved3 during all eternity he will torture millions of his creatures whom he detests in order to gladden me2 ,i shall be your master in this world1 and ,i shall laugh at your torments in the other4 ,do you not feel an itching to thrash this cruel1 impious fellow8 ,if you are born gentle1 will you not run with all your might to the west when this barbarian utters his atrocious reveries in the east8 ,,joan ,,of ,,arc ,it is meet that the reader should be acquainted with the true history of ,joan of ,arc surnamed the ,maid4 ,the details of her adventure are very little known and may give readers pleasure2 here they are4 ,paul ,jove says that the courage of the ,french was stimulated by this girl1 and takes good care not to believe her inspired4 ,neither ,robert1 ,gaguin1 ,paul ,emile1 ,polydore ,vergile1 ,genebrard1 ,philip of ,bergamo1 ,papyre ,masson1 nor even ,mariana1 say that she was sent by ,god2 and even though ,mariana the ,jesuit had said it1 that would not deceive me4 ,mzerai relates that the prince of the celestial militia appeared to her4 ,i am sorry for ,mzerai1 and ,i ask pardon of the prince of the celestial militia4 ,most of our historians1 who copy each other1 suppose that the ,maid uttered prophecies1 and that her prophecies were accomplished4 ,she is made to say that she will drive the ,english out of the kingdom1 and they were still there five years after her death4 ,she is said to have written a long letter to the ,king of ,england1 and assuredly she could neither read nor write2 such an education was not given to an inn servant in the ,barois2 and the information laid against her states that she could not sign her name4 ,but1 it is said1 she found a rusted sword1 the blade of which was engraved with five golden fleurs-de-lis2 and this sword was hidden in the church of ,sainte ,catherine de ,fierbois at ,tours4 ,there1 certainly is a great miracle6 ,poor ,joan of ,arc having been captured by the ,english1 despite her prophecies and her miracles1 maintained first of all in her cross-examination that ,st4 ,catherine and ,st4 ,marguerite had honoured her with many revelations4 ,i am astonished that she never said anything of her talks with the prince of the celestial militia4 ,these two saints apparently liked talking better than ,st4 ,michael4 ,her judges thought her a sorceress1 she thought herself inspired4 ,one great proof that ,charles ,,vii4's captains made use of the marvellous in order to encourage the soldiers1 in the deplorable state to which ,france was reduced1 is that ,saintrailles had his shepherd1 as the ,comte de ,dunois had his shepherdess4 ,the shepherd made prophecies on one side1 while the shepherdess made them on the other4 ,but unfortunately the ,comte de ,dunois' prophetess was captured at the siege of ,compigne by a bastard of ,vendme1 and ,saintrailles' prophet was captured by ,talbot4 ,the gallant ,talbot was far from having the shepherd burned4 ,this ,talbot was one of those true ,englishmen who scorn superstition1 and who have not the fanaticism for punishing fanatics4 ,this1 it seems to me1 is what the historians should have observed1 and what they have neglected4 ,the ,maid was taken to ,jean de ,luxembourg1 ,comte de ,ligny4 ,she was shut up in the fortress of ,beaulieu1 then in that of ,beaurevoir1 and from there in that of ,crotoy in ,picardy4 ,first of all ,pierre ,cauchon1 ,bishop of ,beauvais1 who was of the ,king of ,england's party against his own legitimate king1 claims the ,maid as a sorceress arrested on the limits of his diocese4 ,he wishes to judge her as a sorceress4 ,he supported the right he claimed by a downright lie4 ,joan had been captured on the territory of the bishopric of ,noyon3 and neither the ,bishop of ,beauvais1 nor the ,bishop of ,noyon assuredly had the right of condemning anybody1 and still less of committing to death a subject of the ,duke of ,lorraine1 and a warrior in the pay of the ,king of ,france4 ,there was at that time 7who would believe it87 a vicar-general of the ,inquisition in ,france1 by name ,brother ,martin4#h ,it was one of the most horrible effects of the total subversion of that unfortunate country4 ,brother ,martin claimed the prisoner as smelling of heresy 7odorantem hresim74 ,he called upon the ,duke of ,burgundy and the ,comte de ,ligny1 by the right of his office1 and of the authority given to him by the ,holy ,see1 to deliver ,joan to the ,holy ,inquisition4 ,the ,sorbonne hastened to support ,brother ,martin1 and wrote to the ,duke of ,burgundy and to ,jean de ,luxembourg--,you have used your noble power to apprehend this woman who calls herself the ,maid1 by means of whom the honour of ,god has been immeasurably offended1 the faith exceedingly hurt1 and the ,church too greatly dishonoured2 for by reason of her1 idolatry1 errors1 bad doctrine1 and other inestimable evils have ensued in this kingdom 444 but what this woman has done would be of small account1 if did not ensue what is meet for satisfying the offence perpetrated by her against our gentle ,creator and ,his faith1 and the ,holy ,church with her other innumerable misdeeds 444 and it would be intolerable offence against the divine majesty if it happened that this woman were freed4#i ,finally1 the ,maid was awarded to ,jean ,cauchon whom people called the unworthy bishop1 the unworthy ,frenchman1 and the unworthy man4 ,jean de ,luxembourg sold the ,maid to ,cauchon and the ,english for ten thousand livres1 and the ,duke of ,bedford paid them4 ,the ,sorbonne1 the bishop and ,brother ,martin1 then presented a new petition to this ,duke of ,bedford1 regent of ,france1 in honour of our ,lord and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ1 for that the said ,joan may be briefly put into the hands of the ,church4 ,joan was led to ,rouen4 ,the archbishopric was vacant at that time1 and the chapter permitted the ,bishop of ,beauvais to work in the town4 7,besogner is the term which was used47 ,he chose as assessors nine doctors of the ,sorbonne with thirty-five other assistants1 abbots or monks4 ,the vicar of the ,inquisition1 ,martin1 presided with ,cauchon2 and as he was only a vicar1 he had but second place4 ,joan underwent fourteen examinations2 they are singular4 ,she said that she saw ,st4 ,catherine and ,st4 ,marguerite at ,poitiers4 ,doctor ,beaupre asks her how she recognized the saints4 ,she answers that it was by their way of bowing4 ,beaupre asks her if they are great chatterboxes4 ,go look on the register1 she says4 ,beaupre asks her if1 when she saw ,st4 ,michael1 he was naked4 ,she answers3 ,do you think our ,lord had nothing to clothe him with8 ,the curious will carefully observe here that ,joan had long been directed with other religious women of the populace by a rogue named ,richard1#aj who performed miracles1 and who taught these girls to perform them4 ,one day he gave communion three times in succession to ,joan1 in honour of the ,trinity4 ,it was then the custom in matters of importance and in times of great peril4 ,the knights had three masses said1 and communicated three times when they went to seek fortune or to fight in a duel4 ,it is what has been observed on the part of the ,chevalier ,bayard4 ,the workers of miracles1 ,joan's companions1 who were submissive to ,richard1 were named ,pierrone and ,catherine4 ,pierrone affirmed that she had seen that ,god appeared to her in human form as a friend to a friend4 ,god was clad in a long white robe1 etc4 ,up to the present the ridiculous2 here now is the horrible4 ,one of ,joan's judges1 doctor of theology and priest1 by name ,nicholas the ,bird-,catcher1 comes to confess her in prison4 ,he abuses the sacrament to the point of hiding behind a piece of serge two priests who transcribed ,joan of ,arc's confession4 ,thus did the judges use sacrilege in order to be murderers4 ,and an unfortunate idiot1 who had had enough courage to render very great services to the king and the country1 was condemned to be burned by forty-four ,french priests who immolated her for the ,english faction4 ,it is sufficiently well-known how someone had the cunning and meanness to put a man's suit beside her to tempt her to wear this suit again1 and with what absurd barbarism this transgression was claimed as a pretext for condemning her to the flames1 as if in a warrior girl it was a crime worthy of the fire1 to put on breeches instead of a skirt4 ,all this wrings the heart1 and makes common sense shudder4 ,one cannot conceive how we dare1 after the countless horrors of which we have been guilty1 call any nation by the name of barbarian4 ,most of our historians1 lovers of the so-called embellishments of history rather than of truth1 say that ,joan went fearlessly to the torture2 but as the chronicles of the times bear witness1 and as the historian ,villaret admits1 she received her sentence with cries and tears2 a weakness pardonable in her sex1 and perhaps in ours1 and very compatible with the courage which this girl had displayed amid the dangers of war2 for one can be fearless in battle1 and sensitive on the scaffold4 ,i must add that many persons have believed without any examination that the ,maid of ,orleans was not burned at ,rouen at all1 although we have the official report of her execution4 ,they have been deceived by the account we still have of an adventuress who took the name of the ,maid1 deceived ,joan of ,arc's brothers1 and under cover of this imposture1 married in ,lorraine a nobleman of the house of ,armoise4 ,there were two other rogues who also passed themselves off as the ,maid of ,orleans4 ,all three claimed that ,joan was not burned at all1 and that another woman had been substituted for her4 ,such stories can be admitted only by those who want to be deceived4 ,,footnotes3 #h ,beuchot says3 ,there was at that time in ,france an ,inquisitor-,general1 named ,brother ,jean or ,jacques le ,graverend4 ,his vice-inquisitor or vicar1 who took part in ,joan's trial1 was not called ,brother ,martin1 but ,brother ,jean ,magistri or the ,master4 #i ,this is a translation of the ,latin of the ,sorbonne1 made long after4 #aj ,beuchot says that ,berriat ,saint-,prix1 in his ,jeanne d',arc1 proves1 page #cda et seq41 that the imputations against ,brother ,richard are groundless1 and that he could exercise no influence at the trial4 ,,kissing ,i ask pardon of the boys and the girls2 but maybe they will not find here what they will seek4 ,this article is only for scholars and serious persons for whom it is barely suitable4 ,there is but too much question of kissing in the comedies of ,molire's time4 ,champagne1 in the comedy of ,la ,mre ,coquette by ,quinault1 asks kisses of ,laurette2 she says to him--,you are not content1 then2 really it is shameful2 ,i have kissed you twice4 ,champagne answers her--,what6 you keep account of your kisses8 7,act ,i4 ,sc4 #a474 ,the valets always used to ask kisses of the soubrettes2 people kissed each other on the stage4 ,usually it was very dull and very intolerable1 particularly in the case of ugly actors1 who were nauseating4 ,if the reader wants kisses1 let him look for them in the ,pastor ,fido2 there is one entire chorus where nothing but kisses is mentioned2 and the piece is founded solely on a kiss that ,mirtillo gave one day to ,amarilli1 in a game of blind man's buff1 un bacio molto saporito4 ,everyone knows the chapter on kisses1 in which ,jean de la ,casa1 ,archbishop of ,benevento1 says that people can kiss each other from head to foot4 ,he pities the people with big noses who can only approach each other with difficulty2 and he counsels ladies with long noses to have flat-nosed lovers4 ,the kiss was a very ordinary form of salutation throughout ancient times4 ,plutarch recalls that the conspirators1 before killing ,csar1 kissed his face1 hand and breast4 ,tacitus says that when ,agricola1 his father-in-law1 returned from ,rome1 ,domitian received him with a cold kiss1 said nothing to him1 and left him confounded in the crowd4 ,the inferior who could not succeed in greeting his superior by kissing him1 put his mouth to his own hand1 and sent him a kiss that the other returned in the same way if he so wished4 ,this sign was used even for worshipping the gods4 ,job1 in his parable 7,chap4 xxxi471 which is perhaps the oldest of known books1 says that he has not worshipped the sun and the moon like the other ,arabs1 that he has not carried his hand to his mouth as he looked at the stars4 ,in our ,occident nothing remains of this ancient custom but the puerile and genteel civility that is still taught to children in some small towns1 of kissing their right hands when someone has given them some sweets4 ,it was a horrible thing to betray with a kiss2 it was that that made ,csar's assassination still more hateful4 ,we know all about ,judas' kisses2 they have become proverbial4 ,joab1 one of ,david's captains1 being very jealous of ,amasa1 another captain1 says to him 7#b ,sam4 xx4 #i73 ,art thou in health1 my brother8 ,and he took ,amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him1 and with his other hand drew his sword and smote him therewith in the fifth rib1 and shed out his bowels on the ground4 ,no other kiss is to be found in the other fairly frequent assassinations which were committed among the ,jews1 unless it be perhaps the kisses which ,judith gave to the captain ,holophernes1 before cutting off his head while he was in bed asleep2 but no mention is made of them1 and the thing is merely probable4 ,in one of ,shakespeare's tragedies called ,othello1 this ,othello1 who is a black1 gives two kisses to his wife before strangling her4 ,that seems abominable to honourable people2 but ,shakespeare's partisans say it is beautifully natural1 particularly in a black4 ,when ,giovanni ,galeas ,sforza was assassinated in ,milan ,cathedral1 on ,st4 ,stephen's day1 the two ,medici in the ,reparata church2 ,admiral ,coligny1 the ,prince of ,orange1 the ,marchal d',ancre1 the brothers ,witt1 and so many others2 at least they were not kissed4 ,there was among the ancients ,i know not what of symbolic and sacred attached to the kiss1 since one kissed the statues of the gods and their beards1 when the sculptors had shown them with a beard4 ,initiates kissed each other at the mysteries of ,ceres1 as a sign of concord4 ,the early ,christians1 men and women1 kissed each other on the mouth at their agap4 ,this word signified love-feast4 ,they gave each other the holy kiss1 the kiss of peace1 the kiss of brother and sister1 agion philma4 ,this custom lasted for more than four centuries1 and was abolished at last on account of its consequences4 ,it was these kisses of peace1 these agap of love1 these names of brother and sister1 that long drew to the little-known ,christians1 those imputations of debauchery with which the priests of ,jupiter and the priestesses of ,vesta charged them4 ,you see in ,petronius1 and in other profane authors1 that the libertines called themselves brother and sister4 ,it was thought that among the ,christians the same names signified the same infamies4 ,they were innocent accomplices in spreading these accusations over the ,roman empire4 ,there were in the beginning seventeen different ,christian societies1 just as there were nine among the ,jews1 including the two kinds of ,samaritans4 ,the societies which flattered themselves at being the most orthodox accused the others of the most inconceivable obscenities4 ,the term of gnostic1 which was at first so honourable1 signifying learned1 enlightened1 pure1 became a term of horror and scorn1 a reproach of heresy4 ,saint ,epiphanius1 in the third century1 claimed that they used first to tickle each other1 the men and the women2 that then they gave each other very immodest kisses1 and that they judged the degree of their faith by the voluptuousness of these kisses2 that the husband said to his wife1 in presenting a young initiate to her3 ,have an agape with my brother1 and that they had an agape4 ,we do not dare repeat here1 in the chaste ,french tongue1#aa what ,saint ,epiphanius adds in ,greek 7,epiphanius1 contra hres1 lib4 ,i41 vol4 ii74 ,we will say merely that perhaps this saint was somewhat imposed upon2 that he allowed himself to be too carried away by zeal1 and that all heretics are not hideous debauchees4 ,the sect of ,pietists1 wishing to imitate the early ,christians1 to-day give each other kisses of peace on leaving the assembly1 calling each other my brother1 my sister2 it is what1 twenty years ago1 a very pretty and very human ,pietist lady avowed to me4 ,the ancient custom was to kiss on the mouth2 the ,pietists have carefully preserved it4 ,there was no other manner of greeting dames in ,france1 ,germany1 ,italy1 ,england2 it was the right of cardinals to kiss queens on the mouth1 and in ,spain even4 ,what is singular is that they had not the same prerogative in ,france1 where ladies always had more liberty than anywhere else1 but every country has its ceremonies1 and there is no usage so general that chance and custom have not provided exceptions4 ,it would have been an incivility1 an affront1 for an honourable woman1 when she received a lord's first visit1 not to have kissed him1 despite his moustaches4 ,it is a displeasing custom1 says ,montaigne 7,book ,,iii41 chap4 v471 and offensive to ladies1 to have to lend their lips to whoever has three serving-men in his suite1 disagreeable though he be4 ,this custom was1 nevertheless1 the oldest in the world4 ,if it is disagreeable for a young and pretty mouth to stick itself out of courtesy to an old and ugly mouth1 there was a great danger between fresh1 red mouths of twenty to twenty-five years old2 and that is what finally brought about the abolition of the ceremony of kissing in the mysteries and the agap4 ,it is what caused women to be confined among the ,orientals1 so that they might kiss only their fathers and their brothers2 custom long since introduced into ,spain by the ,arabs4 ,behold the danger3 there is one nerve of the fifth pair which goes from the mouth to the heart1 and thence lower down1 with such delicate industry has nature prepared everything6 ,the little glands of the lips1 their spongy tissue1 their velvety paps1 the fine skin1 ticklish1 gives them an exquisite and voluptuous sensation1 which is not without analogy with a still more hidden and still more sensitive part4 ,modesty may suffer from a lengthily savoured kiss between two ,pietists of eighteen4 ,it is to be remarked that the human species1 the turtledoves and the pigeons alone are acquainted with kisses2 thence came among the ,latins the word columbatm1 which our language has not been able to render4 ,there is nothing of which abuse has not been made4 ,the kiss1 designed by nature for the mouth1 has often been prostituted to membranes which do not seem made for this usage4 ,one knows of what the templars were accused4 ,we cannot honestly treat this interesting subject at greater length1 although ,montaigne says3 ,one should speak thereof shamelessly3 brazenly do we utter 'killing1' 'wounding1' 'betraying1' but of that we dare not speak but with bated breath4 ,,footnotes3 #aa ,or the ,english--,translator4 ,,languages ,there is no complete language1 no language which can express all our ideas and all our sensations2 their shades are too numerous1 too imperceptible4 ,nobody can make known the precise degree of sensation he experiences4 ,one is obliged1 for example1 to designate by the general names of love and hate a thousand loves and a thousand hates all different from each other2 it is the same with our pleasures and our pains4 ,thus all languages are1 like us1 imperfect4 ,they have all been made successively and by degrees according to our needs4 ,it is the instinct common to all men which made the first grammars without perceiving it4 ,the ,lapps1 the ,negroes1 as well as the ,greeks1 needed to express the past1 the present and the future2 and they did it3 but as there has never been an assembly of logicians who formed a language1 no language has been able to attain a perfectly regular plan4 ,all words1 in all possible languages1 are necessarily the images of sensations4 ,men have never been able to express anything but what they felt4 ,thus everything has become metaphor2 everywhere the soul is enlightened1 the heart burns1 the mind wanders4 ,among all peoples the infinite has been the negation of the finite2 immensity the negation of measure4 ,it is evident that our five senses have produced all languages1 as well as all our ideas4 ,the least imperfect are like the laws3 those in which there is the least that is arbitrary are the best4 ,the most complete are necessarily those of the peoples who have cultivated the arts and society4 ,thus the ,hebraic language should be one of the poorest languages1 like the people who used to speak it4 ,how should the ,hebrews have had maritime terms1 they who before ,solomon had not a boat8 how the terms of philosophy1 they who were plunged in such profound ignorance up to the time when they started to learn something in their migration to ,babylon8 ,the language of the ,phoenicians1 from which the ,hebrews drew their jargon1 should be very superior1 because it was the idiom of an industrious1 commercial1 rich people1 distributed all over the earth4 ,the most ancient known language should be that of the nation most anciently gathered together as a body of people4 ,it should be1 further1 that of the people which has been least subjugated1 or which1 having been subjugated1 has civilized its conquerors4 ,and in this respect1 it is constant that ,chinese and ,arabic are the most ancient of all those that are spoken to-day4 ,there is no mother-tongue4 ,all neighbouring nations have borrowed from each other3 but one has given the name of mother-tongue to those from which some known idioms are derived4 ,for example1 ,latin is the mother-tongue in respect of ,italian1 ,spanish and ,french3 but it was itself derived from ,tuscan2 and ,tuscan was derived from ,celtic and ,greek4 ,the most beautiful of all languages must be that which is at once1 the most complete1 the most sonorous1 the most varied in its twists and the most regular in its progress1 that which has most compound words1 that which by its prosody best expresses the soul's slow or impetuous movements1 that which most resembles music4 ,greek has all these advantages3 it has not the roughness of ,latin1 in which so many words end in um1 ur1 us4 ,it has all the pomp of ,spanish1 and all the sweetness of ,italian4 ,it has above all the living languages of the world the expression of music1 by long and short syllables1 and by the number and variety of its accents4 ,thus all disfigured as it is to-day in ,greece1 it can still be regarded as the most beautiful language in the universe4 ,the most beautiful language cannot be the most widely distributed1 when the people which speaks it is oppressed1 not numerous1 without commerce with other nations1 and when these other nations have cultivated their own languages4 ,thus ,greek should be less diffused than ,arabic1 and even ,turkish4 ,of all ,european languages ,french should be the most general1 because it is the most suited to conversation3 it has taken its character from that of the people which speaks it4 ,the ,french have been1 for nearly a hundred and fifty years1 the people which has best known society1 which the first discarded all embarrassment1 and the first among whom women were free and even sovereign1 when elsewhere they were only slaves4 ,the always uniform syntax of this language1 which admits no inversions1 is a further facility barely possessed by other tongues2 it is more current coin than others1 even though it lacks weight4 ,the prodigious quantity of agreeably frivolous books which this nation has produced is a further reason for the favour which its language has obtained among all nations4 ,profound books will not give vogue to a language3 they will be translated2 people will learn ,newton's philosophy2 but they will not learn ,english in order to understand it4 ,what makes ,french still more common is the perfection to which the drama has been carried in this tongue4 ,it is to ,cinna1 ,phdre1 the ,misanthrope that it owes its vogue1 and not to the conquests of ,louis ,,xiv4 ,it is not so copious and so flexible as ,italian1 or so majestic as ,spanish1 or so energetic as ,english2 and yet it has had more success than these three languages from the sole fact that it is more suited to intercourse1 and that there are more agreeable books in it than elsewhere4 ,it has succeeded like the cooks of ,france1 because it has more flattered general taste4 ,the same spirit which has led the nations to imitate the ,french in their furniture1 in the arrangement of rooms1 in gardens1 in dancing1 in all that gives charm1 has led them also to speak their language4 ,the great art of good ,french writers is precisely that of the women of this nation1 who dress better than the other women of ,europe1 and who1 without being more beautiful1 appear to be so by the art with which they adorn themselves1 by the noble and simple charm they give themselves so naturally4 ,it is by dint of good breeding that this language has managed to make the traces of its former barbarism disappear4 ,everything would bear witness to this barbarism to whosoever should look closely4 ,one would see that the number vingt comes from viginti1 and that formerly this g and this t were pronounced with a roughness characteristic of all the northern nations2 of the month of ,augustus has been made the month of aot4 ,not so long ago a ,german prince thinking that in ,france one never pronounced the term ,auguste otherwise1 called ,king ,auguste of ,poland ,king ,aot4 ,all the letters which have been suppressed in pronunciation1 but retained in writing1 are our former barbarous clothes4 ,it was when manners were softened that the language also was softened3 before ,franois ,ier summoned women to his court1 it was as clownish as we were4 ,it would have been as good to speak old ,celtic as the ,french of the time of ,charles ,,viii4 and ,louis ,,xii43 ,german was not more harsh4 ,it has taken centuries to remove this rust4 ,the imperfections which remain would still be intolerable1 were it not for the continual care one takes to avoid them1 as a skilful horseman avoids stones in the road4 ,good writers are careful to combat the faulty expressions which popular ignorance first brings into vogue1 and which1 adopted by bad authors1 then pass into the gazettes and the pamphlets4 ,roastbeef signifies in ,english roasted ox1 and our waiters talk to us nowadays of a roastbeef of mutton4 ,riding-coat means a coat for going on horseback2 of it people have made redingote1 and the populace thinks it an ancient word of the language4 ,it has been necessary to adopt this expression with the people because it signifies an article of common use4 ,in matters of arts and crafts and necessary things1 the common people subjugated the court1 if one dare say so2 just as in matters of religion those who most despise the common run of people are obliged to speak and to appear to think like them4 ,to call things by the names which the common people has imposed on them is not to speak badly2 but one recognizes a people naturally more ingenious than another by the proper names which it gives to each thing4 ,it is only through lack of imagination that a people adapts the same expression to a hundred different ideas4 ,it is a ridiculous sterility not to have known how to express otherwise an arm of the sea1 a scale arm1 an arm of a chair2 there is poverty of thought in saying equally the head of a nail1 the head of an army4 ,ignorance has introduced another custom into all modern languages4 ,a thousand terms no longer signify what they should signify4 ,idiot meant solitary1 to-day it means foolish2 epiphany signified appearance1 to-day it is the festival of three kings2 baptize is to dip in water1 we say baptize with the name of ,john or ,james4 ,to these defects in almost all languages are added barbarous irregularities4 ,venus is a charming name1 venereal is abominable4 ,another result of the irregularity of these languages composed at hazard in uncouth times is the quantity of compound words of which the simple form does not exist any more4 ,they are children who have lost their father4 ,we have architects and no tects2 there are things which are ineffable and none which are effable4 ,one is intrepid1 one is not trepid4 ,there are impudent fellows1 insolent fellows1 but neither pudent fellows nor solent fellows4 ,all languages more or less retain some of these defects2 they are all irregular lands from which the hand of the adroit artist knows how to derive advantage4 ,other defects which make a nation's character evident always slip into languages4 ,in ,france there are fashions in expressions as in ways of doing the hair4 ,a fashionable invalid or doctor will take it into his head to say that he has had a soupon of fever to signify that he has had a slight attack2 soon the whole nation has soupons of colics1 soupons of hatred1 love1 ridicule4 ,preachers in the pulpit tell you that you must have at least a soupon of ,god's love4 ,after a few months this fashion gives place to another4 ,what does most harm to the nobility of the language is not this passing fashion with which people are soon disgusted1 not the solecisms of fashionable people into which good authors do not fall1 but the affectation of mediocre authors in speaking of serious things in a conversational style4 ,everything conspires to corrupt a language that is rather widely diffused2 authors who spoil the style by affectation2 those who write to foreign countries1 and who almost always mingle foreign expressions with their natural tongue2 merchants who introduce into conversation their business terms4 ,all languages being imperfect1 it does not follow that one should change them4 ,one must adhere absolutely to the manner in which the good authors have spoken them2 and when one has a sufficient number of approved authors1 a language is fixed4 ,thus one can no longer change anything in ,italian1 ,spanish1 ,english1 ,french1 without corrupting them2 the reason is clear3 it is that one would soon render unintelligible the books which provide the instruction and the pleasure of the nations4 ,,laws ,sheep live very placidly in community1 they are considered very easy-going1 because we do not see the prodigious quantity of animals they devour4 ,it is even to be believed that they eat them innocently and without knowing it1 like us when we eat a ,sassenage cheese4 ,the republic of the sheep is a faithful representation of the golden age4 ,a chicken-run is visibly the most perfect monarchic state4 ,there is no king comparable to a cock4 ,if he marches proudly in the midst of his people1 it is not out of vanity4 ,if the enemy approaches1 he does not give orders to his subjects to go to kill themselves for him by virtue of his certain knowledge and plenary power2 he goes to battle himself1 ranges his chickens behind him and fights to the death4 ,if he is the victor1 he himself sings the ,te ,deum4 ,in civil life there is no one so gallant1 so honest1 so disinterested4 ,he has all the virtues4 ,has he in his royal beak a grain of corn1 a grub1 he gives it to the first lady among his subjects who presents herself4 ,solomon in his harem did not come near a poultry-yard cock4 ,if it be true that the bees are governed by a queen to whom all her subjects make love1 that is a still more perfect government4 ,the ants are considered to be an excellent democracy4 ,democracy is above all the other ,states1 because there everyone is equal1 and each individual works for the good of all4 ,the republic of the beavers is still superior to that of the ants1 at least if we judge by their masonry work4 ,the monkeys resemble strolling players rather than a civilized people2 and they do not appear to be gathered together under fixed1 fundamental laws1 like the preceding species4 ,we resemble the monkeys more than any other animal by the gift of imitation1 the frivolity of our ideas1 and by our inconstancy which has never allowed us to have uniform and durable laws4 ,when nature formed our species and gave us instincts1 self-esteem for our preservation1 benevolence for the preservation of others1 love which is common to all the species1 and the inexplicable gift of combining more ideas than all the animals together2 when she had thus given us our portion1 she said to us3 ,do as you can4 ,there is no good code in any country4 ,the reason for this is evident2 the laws have been made according to the times1 the place and the need1 etc4 ,when the needs have changed1 the laws which have remained1 have become ridiculous4 ,thus the law which forbade the eating of pig and the drinking of wine was very reasonable in ,arabia1 where pig and wine are injurious2 it is absurd at ,constantinople4 ,the law which gives the whole fee to the eldest son is very good in times of anarchy and pillage4 ,then the eldest son is the captain of the castle which the brigands will attack sooner or later2 the younger sons will be his chief officers1 the husbandmen his soldiers4 ,all that is to be feared is that the younger son may assassinate or poison the ,salian lord his elder brother1 in order to become in his turn the master of the hovel2 but these cases are rare1 because nature has so combined our instincts and our passions that we have more horror of assassinating our elder brother than we have of being envious of his position4 ,but this law1 suitable for the owners of dungeons in ,chilperic's time is detestable when there is question of sharing stocks in a city4 ,to the shame of mankind1 one knows that the laws of games are the only ones which everywhere are just1 clear1 inviolable and executed4 ,why is the ,indian who gave us the rules of the game of chess willingly obeyed all over the world1 and why are the popes' decretals1 for example1 to-day an object of horror and scorn8 the reason is that the inventor of chess combined everything with precision for the satisfaction of the players1 and that the popes1 in their decretals1 had nothing in view but their own interest4 ,the ,indian wished to exercise men's minds equally1 and give them pleasure2 the popes wished to besot men's minds4 ,also1 the essence of the game of chess has remained the same for five thousand years1 it is common to all the inhabitants of the earth2 and the decretals are known only at ,spoletto1 ,orvieto1 ,loretto1 where the shallowest lawyer secretly hates and despises them4 ,but ,i delight in thinking that there is a natural law independent of all human conventions3 the fruit of my work must belong to me2 ,i must honour my father and my mother2 ,i have no right over my fellow's life1 and my fellow has none over mine1 etc4 ,but when ,i think that from ,chedorlaomer to ,mentzel1#ab colonel of hussars1 everyone loyally kills and pillages his fellow with a licence in his pocket1 ,i am very afflicted4 ,i am told that there are laws among thieves1 and also laws of war4 ,i ask what are these laws of war4 ,i learn that they mean hanging a brave officer who has held fast in a bad post without cannon against a royal army2 that they mean having a prisoner hanged1 if the enemy has hanged one of yours2 that they mean putting to the fire and the sword villages which have not brought their sustenance on the appointed day1 according to the orders of the gracious sovereign of the district4 ,good1 say ,i1 that is the ',spirit of the ,laws4' ,it seems to me that most men have received from nature enough common sense to make laws1 but that everyone is not just enough to make good laws4 ,,footnotes3 #ab ,chedorlaomer was king of the ,elamites1 and contemporary with ,abraham4 ,see ,genesis ch4 xiv4 ,mentzel was a famous chief of ,austrian partisans in the war of #agda4 ,at the head of five thousand men1 he made ,munich capitulate on ,february #acth1 #agdb4 ,,liberty ,either ,i am very much mistaken1 or ,locke the definer has very well defined liberty as power4 ,i am mistaken again1 or ,collins1 celebrated ,london magistrate1 is the only philosopher who has really sifted this idea1 and ,clark's answer to him was merely that of a theologian4 ,but of all that has been written in ,france on liberty1 the following little dialogue seems to me the most clear4 ,a3 ,there is a battery of guns firing in your ears1 have you the liberty to hear them or not to hear them8 ,b3 ,without doubt1 ,i cannot stop myself hearing them4 ,a3 ,do you want this gun to carry off your head and the heads of your wife and daughter1 who are walking with you8 ,b3 ,what are you talking about8 as long as ,i am of sound mind1 ,i cannot want such a thing2 it is impossible4 ,a3 ,good2 you hear this gun necessarily1 and you wish necessarily that neither you nor your family shall die from a cannon shot while you are out for a walk2 you have not the power either of not hearing or of wishing to remain here8 ,b3 ,clearly4 ,a3 ,you have consequently taken some thirty steps in order to be sheltered from the gun1 you have had the power to walk these few steps with me8 ,b3 ,again very clearly4 ,a3 ,and if you had been a paralytic1 you could not have avoided being exposed to this battery1 you would necessarily have heard and received a gun shot2 and you would be dead necessarily8 ,b3 ,nothing is more true4 ,a3 ,in what then does your liberty consist1 unless it be in the power that your self has exercised in performing what your will required of absolute necessity8 ,b3 ,you embarrass me2 liberty then is nothing but the power of doing what ,i want to do8 ,a3 ,think about it1 and see if liberty can be understood otherwise4 ,b3 ,in that case my hunting dog is as free as ,i am2 he has necessarily the will to run when he sees a hare1 and the power of running if he has not a pain in his legs4 ,i have then nothing above my dog2 you reduce me to the state of the beasts4 ,a3 ,what poor sophistry from the poor sophists who have taught you4 ,indeed you are in a bad way to be free like your dog6 ,do you not eat1 sleep1 propagate like him1 even almost to the attitude8 ,do you want the sense of smell other than through your nose8 ,why do you want to have liberty otherwise than your dog has8 ,b3 ,but ,i have a soul which reasons much1 and my dog reasons hardly at all4 ,he has almost only simple ideas1 and ,i have a thousand metaphysical ideas4 ,a3 ,well1 you are a thousand times freer than he is2 that is1 you have a thousand times more power of thinking than he has2 but you do not think otherwise than he does4 ,b3 ,what6 ,i am not free to wish what ,i wish8 ,a3 ,what do you mean by that8 ,b3 ,i mean what everyone means4 ,doesn't one say every day1 wishes are free8 ,a3 ,a proverb is not a reason2 explain yourself more clearly4 ,b3 ,i mean that ,i am free to wish as ,i please4 ,a3 ,with your permission1 that has no sense2 do you not see that it is ridiculous to say1 ,i wish to wish8 ,you wish necessarily1 as a result of the ideas that have offered themselves to you4 ,do you wish to be married2 yes or no8 ,b3 ,but if ,i tell you that ,i want neither the one nor the other8 ,a3 ,you will be answering like someone who says3 ,some believe ,cardinal ,mazarin to be dead1 others believe him to be alive1 and as for me ,i believe neither the one nor the other4 ,b3 ,well1 ,i want to be married4 ,a3 ,ah6 that is an answer4 ,why do you want to be married8 ,b3 ,because ,i am in love with a beautiful1 sweet1 well-bred young girl1 who is fairly rich and sings very well1 whose parents are very honest people1 and because ,i flatter myself ,i am loved by her1 and very welcome to her family4 ,a3 ,that is a reason4 ,you see that you cannot wish without reason4 ,i declare to you that you are free to marry2 that is1 that you have the power to sign the contract1 have your nuptials1 and sleep with your wife4 ,b3 ,how now6 ,i cannot wish without reason8 ,and what will become of that other proverb3 ,sit pro ratione voluntas2 my will is my reason1 ,i wish because ,i wish8 ,a3 ,that is absurd1 my dear fellow2 there would be in you an effect without a cause4 ,b3 ,what6 ,when ,i play at odds and evens1 ,i have a reason for choosing evens rather than odds8 ,a3 ,yes1 undoubtedly4 ,b3 ,and what is that reason1 if you please8 ,a3 ,the reason is that the idea of even rather than the opposite idea presents itself to your mind4 ,it would be comic that there were cases where you wished because there was a cause of wishing1 and that there were cases where you wished without any cause4 ,when you wish to be married1 you evidently feel the dominating reason2 you do not feel it when you are playing at odds and evens2 and yet there certainly must be one4 ,b3 ,but1 ,i repeat1 ,i am not free then8 ,a3 ,your will is not free1 but your actions are4 ,you are free to act1 when you have the power to act4 ,b3 ,but all the books ,i have read on the liberty of indifference4444 ,a3 ,what do you mean by the liberty of indifference8 ,b3 ,i mean the liberty of spitting on the right or on the left1 of sleeping on my right side or on my left1 of taking a walk of four turns or five4 ,a3 ,really the liberty you would have there would be a comic liberty6 ,god would have given you a fine gift6 ,it would really be something to boast of6 ,of what use to you would be a power which was exercised only on such futile occasions8 ,but the fact is that it is ridiculous to suppose the will to wish to spit on the right4 ,not only is this will to wish absurd1 but it is certain that several trifling circumstances determine you in these acts that you call indifferent4 ,you are no more free in these acts than in the others4 ,but1 ,i repeat1 you are free at all times1 in all places1 as soon as you do what you wish to do4 ,b3 ,i suspect you are right4 ,i will think about it4#ac ,,footnotes3 #ac ,see ,free-,will4 ,,library ,a big library has this in it of good1 that it dismays those who look at it4 ,two hundred thousand volumes discourage a man tempted to print2 but unfortunately he at once says to himself3 ,people do not read all those books1 and they may read mine4 ,he compares himself to a drop of water who complains of being lost in the ocean and ignored3 a genius had pity on it2 he caused it to be swallowed by an oyster2 it became the most beautiful pearl in the ,orient1 and was the chief ornament in the throne of the ,great ,mogul4 ,those who are only compilers1 imitators1 commentators1 splitters of phrases1 usurious critics1 in short1 those on whom a genius has no pity1 will always remain drops of water4 ,our man works in his garret1 therefore1 in the hope of becoming a pearl4 ,it is true that in this immense collection of books there are about a hundred and ninety-nine thousand which will never be read1 from cover to cover at least2 but one may need to consult some of them once in a lifetime4 ,it is a great advantage for whoever wishes to learn to find at his hand in the king's palace the volume and page he seeks1 without being kept waiting a moment4 ,it is one of the most noble institutions4 ,no expense is more magnificent and more useful4 ,the public library of the ,king of ,france is the finest in the whole world1 less on account of the number and rarity of the volumes than of the ease and courtesy with which the librarians lend them to all scholars4 ,this library is incontestably the most precious monument there is in ,france4 ,this astounding multitude of books should not scare4 ,we have already remarked that ,paris contains about seven hundred thousand men1 that one cannot live with them all1 and that one chooses three or four friends4 ,thus must one no more complain of the multitude of books than of the multitude of citizens4 ,a man who wishes to learn a little about his existence1 and who has no time to waste1 is quite embarrassed4 ,he wishes to read simultaneously ,hobbes1 ,spinoza1 ,bayle who wrote against them1 ,leibnitz who disputed with ,bayle1 ,clarke who disputed with ,leibnitz1 ,malebranche who differed from them all1 ,locke who passed as having confounded ,malebranche1 ,stillingfleet who thought he had vanquished ,locke1 ,cudworth who thinks himself above them because he is understood by no one4 ,one would die of old age before having thumbed the hundredth part of the metaphysical romances4 ,one is very content to have the most ancient books1 as one inquires into the most ancient medals4 ,it is that which makes the honour of a library4 ,the oldest books in the world are the ,kings of the ,chinese1 the ,shastabad of the ,brahmins1 of which ,mr4 ,holwell has brought to our knowledge admirable passages1 what remains of the ancient ,zarathustra1 the fragments of ,sanchoniathon which ,eusebius has preserved for us and which bears the characteristics of the most remote antiquity4 ,i do not speak of the ,pentateuch which is above all one could say of it4 ,we still have the prayer of the real ,orpheus1 which the hierophant recited in the old ,greek mysteries4 ,walk in the path of justice1 worship the sole master of the universe4 ,he is one2 ,he is sole by ,himself4 ,all beings owe ,him their existence2 ,he acts in them and by them4 ,he sees everything1 and never has been seen by mortal eyes4 ,st4 ,clement of ,alexandria1 the most learned of the fathers of the ,church1 or rather the only scholar in profane antiquity1 gives him almost always the name of ,orpheus of ,thrace1 of ,orpheus the ,theologian1 to distinguish him from those who wrote later under his name4 ,we have no longer anything either of ,museus or of ,linus4 ,a few passages from these predecessors of ,homer would well be an adornment to a library4 ,augustus had formed the library called the ,palatine4 ,the statue of ,apollo presided over it4 ,the emperor embellished it with busts of the best authors4 ,one saw in ,rome twenty-nine great public libraries4 ,there are now more than four thousand important libraries in ,europe4 ,choose which suits you1 and try not to be bored4 ,,limits ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,mind ,someone asked ,newton one day why he walked when he wanted to1 and how his arm and his hand moved at his will4 ,he answered manfully that he had no idea4 ,but at least1 his interlocutor said to him1 you who understand so well the gravitation of the planets will tell me why they turn in one direction rather than in another6 ,and he again confessed that he had no idea4 ,those who taught that the ocean was salt for fear that it might become putrid1 and that the tides were made to bring our ships into port 7,the ,abb ,pluche in ,the ,spectacle of ,nature71 were somewhat ashamed when the reply was made to them that the ,mediterranean has ports and no ebb4 ,musschenbroeck himself fell into this inadvertence4 ,has anyone ever been able to say precisely how a log is changed on the hearth into burning carbon1 and by what mechanism lime is kindled by fresh water8 ,is the first principle of the movement of the heart in animals properly understood8 does one know clearly how generation is accomplished8 has one guessed what gives us sensations1 ideas1 memory8 ,we do not understand the essence of matter any more than the children who touch its surface4 ,who will teach us by what mechanism this grain of wheat that we throw into the ground rises again to produce a pipe laden with an ear of corn1 and how the same soil produces an apple at the top of this tree1 and a chestnut on its neighbour8 ,many teachers have said--,what do ,i not know8 ,montaigne used to say--,what do ,i know8 ,ruthlessly trenchant fellow1 wordy pedagogue1 meddlesome theorist1 you seek the limits of your mind4 ,they are at the end of your nose4 ,,local ,,crimes ,traverse the whole earth1 you will find that theft1 murder1 adultery1 calumny are regarded as crimes which society condemns and curbs2 but should what is approved in ,england1 and condemned in ,italy1 be punished in ,italy as an outrage against the whole of humanity8 ,that is what ,i call a local crime4 ,does not that which is criminal only in the enclosure of some mountains1 or between two rivers1 demand of judges more indulgence than those outrages which are held in horror in all countries8 ,should not the judge say to himself3 ,i should not dare punish at ,ragusa what ,i punish at ,loretto8 ,should not this reflection soften in his heart the hardness that it is only too easy to contract during the long exercise of his office8 ,you know the kermesses in ,flanders2 in the last century they were carried to a point of indecency which might revolt eyes unaccustomed to these spectacles4 ,this is how ,christmas was celebrated in some towns4 ,first there appeared a young man half naked1 with wings on his back2 he recited the ,ave ,maria to a young girl who answered him fiat1 and the angel kissed her on the mouth3 then a child enclosed in a great cardboard cock cried1 imitating the cock's cry3 ,puer natus est nobis4 ,a big ox bellowed ubi1 which it pronounced oubi2 a sheep bleated ,bethlehem4 ,an ass cried hihanus1 to signify eamus2 a long procession1 preceded by four fools with baubles and rattles1 closed the performance4 ,there remain to-day traces of these popular devotions1 which among more educated peoples would be taken for profanations4 ,a bad-tempered ,swiss1 more drunk maybe than those who played the rles of ox and ass1 came to words with them in ,louvain2 blows were given2 the people wanted to hang the ,swiss1 who escaped with difficulty4 ,the same man had a violent quarrel at the ,hague in ,holland for having stoutly taken ,barneveldt's part against an extravagant ,gomarist4 ,he was put into prison in ,amsterdam for having said that priests are the scourge of humanity and the source of all our misfortunes4 ,what6 he said4 ,if one believes that good works make for salvation1 one finds oneself in a dungeon2 if one laughs at a cock and an ass1 one risks being hanged4 ,this adventure1 burlesque though it is1 makes it quite clear that one can be reprehensible on one or two points in our hemisphere1 and be absolutely innocent in the rest of the world4 ,,love ,there are so many sorts of love that one does not know to whom to address oneself for a definition of it4 ,the name of love is given boldly to a caprice lasting a few days1 a sentiment without esteem1 gallants' affectations1 a frigid habit1 a romantic fantasy1 relish followed by prompt disrelish3 people give this name to a thousand chimeras4 ,if philosophers want to probe to the bottom this barely philosophical matter1 let them meditate on the banquet of ,plato1 in which ,socrates1 honourable lover of ,alcibiades and ,agathon1 converses with them on the metaphysics of love4 ,lucretius speaks of it more as a natural philosopher3 ,virgil follows in the steps of ,lucretius2 amor omnibus idem4 ,it is the stuff of nature broidered by nature4 ,do you want an idea of love8 look at the sparrows in your garden2 look at your pigeons2 look at the bull which is brought to the heifer2 look at this proud horse which two of your grooms lead to the quiet mare awaiting him2 she draws aside her tail to welcome him2 see how her eyes sparkle2 hark to the neighing2 watch the prancing1 the curvetting1 the ears pricked1 the mouth opening with little convulsions1 the swelling nostrils1 the flaring breath1 the manes rising and floating1 the impetuous movement with which he hurls himself on the object which nature has destined for him2 but be not jealous of him1 and think of the advantages of the human species2 in love they compensate for all those that nature has given to the animals--strength1 beauty1 nimbleness1 speed4 ,there are animals1 even1 who have no enjoyment in possession4 ,scale fish are deprived of this delight3 the female throws millions of eggs on the mud2 the male coming across them passes over them1 and fertilizes them with his seed1 without troubling about the female to whom they belong4 ,most animals that pair1 taste pleasure only by a single sense1 and as soon as the appetite is satisfied1 everything is extinguished4 ,no animal1 apart from you1 knows what kissing is2 the whole of your body is sensitive2 your lips especially enjoy a voluptuousness that nothing can tire2 and this pleasure belongs to no species but yours3 you can give yourself up to love at any time1 and the animals have but a fixed time4 ,if you reflect on these superiorities1 you will say with the ,count of ,rochester--,in a country of atheists love would cause the ,deity to be worshipped4 ,as men have received the gift of perfecting all that nature accords them1 they have perfected love4 ,cleanliness1 the care of oneself1 by rendering the skin more delicate1 increase the pleasure of contact2 and attention to one's health renders the organs of voluptuousness more sensitive4 ,all the other sentiments that enter into that of love1 just like metals which amalgamate with gold3 friendship1 regard1 come to help2 the faculties of mind and body are still further chains4 ,self-love above all tightens all these bonds4 ,one applauds oneself for one's choice1 and a crowd of illusions form the decoration of the building of which nature has laid the foundations4 ,that is what you have above the animals4 ,but if you taste so many pleasures unknown to them1 how many sorrows too of which the beasts have no idea6 ,what is frightful for you is that over three-fourths of the earth nature has poisoned the pleasures of love and the sources of life with an appalling disease to which man alone is subject1 and which infects in him the organs of generation alone4 ,it is in no wise with this plague as with so many other maladies that are the result of our excesses4 ,it was not debauch that introduced it into the world4 ,phryne1 ,lais1 ,flora1 ,messalina and those like them1 were not attacked by it2 it was born in some islands where men lived in innocence1 and thence spread itself over the ancient world4 ,if ever one could accuse nature of despising her work1 of contradicting her plans1 of acting against her designs1 it is in this detestable scourge which has soiled the earth with horror and filth4 ,is that the best of all possible worlds8 ,what6 if ,csar1 ,antony1 ,octavius never had this disease1 was it not possible for it not to cause the death of ,franois ,i48 ,no1 people say1 things were ordered thus for the best4 ,i want to believe it2 but it is sad for those to whom ,rabelais dedicated his book4 ,erotic philosophers have often debated the question of whether ,helose could still really love ,abelard when he was a monk and emasculate8 ,one of these qualities did very great harm to the other4 ,but console yourself1 ,abelard1 you were loved2 the root of the hewn tree still retains a remnant of sap2 the imagination aids the heart4 ,one can still be happy at table even though one eats no longer4 ,is it love8 is it simply a memory8 is it friendship8 ,all that is composed of something indescribable4 ,it is an obscure feeling resembling the fantastic passions retained by the dead in the ,elysian fields4 ,the heroes who1 during their lifetime1 shone in the chariot races1 drove imaginary chariots when they were dead4 ,helose lived with you on illusions and supplements4 ,she kissed you sometimes1 and with all the more pleasure that having taken a vow at the ,paraclet monastery to love you no longer1 her kisses thereby became more precious as more guilty4 ,a woman can barely be seized with a passion for a eunuch3 but she can keep her passion for her lover become eunuch1 provided that he remains lovable4 ,it is not the same1 ladies1 for a lover who has grown old in service2 the externals subsist no longer2 the wrinkles horrify2 the white eyebrows shock2 the lost teeth disgust2 the infirmities estrange3 all that one can do is to have the virtue of being nurse1 and of tolerating what one has loved4 ,it is burying a dead man4 ,,luxury ,people have declaimed against luxury for two thousand years1 in verse and in prose1 and people have always delighted in it4 ,what has not been said of the early ,romans when these brigands ravaged and pillaged the harvests2 when1 to enlarge their poor village1 they destroyed the poor villages of the ,volscians and the ,samnites8 ,they were disinterested1 virtuous men2 they had not yet been able to steal either gold1 silver1 or precious stones1 because there were not any in the little towns they plundered4 ,their woods and their marshes produced neither pheasants nor partridges1 and people praise their temperance4 ,when gradually they had pillaged everything1 stolen everything from the far end of the ,adriatic ,gulf to the ,euphrates1 and when they had enough intelligence to enjoy the fruit of their plundering2 when they cultivated the arts1 when they tasted of all pleasures1 and when they even made the vanquished taste of them1 they ceased then1 people say1 to be wise and honest men4 ,all these declamations reduce themselves to proving that a robber must never either eat the dinner he has taken1 or wear the coat he has pilfered1 or adorn himself with the ring he has filched4 ,he should throw all that1 people say1 in the river1 so as to live like an honest man4 ,say rather that he should not have stolen4 ,condemn brigands when they pillage2 but do not treat them as senseless when they enjoy4 ,honestly1 when a large number of ,english sailors enriched themselves at the taking of ,pondicherry and ,havana1 were they wrong to enjoy themselves later in ,london1 as the price of the trouble they had had in the depths of ,asia and ,america8 ,the declaimers want one to bury in the ground the wealth one has amassed by the fortune of arms1 by agriculture1 by commerce and by industry4 ,they cite ,lacedmon2 why do they not cite also the republic of ,san ,marino8 ,what good did ,sparto to ,greece8 ,did she ever have ,demosthenes1 ,sophocles1 ,apelles1 ,phidias8 ,the luxury of ,athens produced great men in every sphere2 ,sparta had a few captains1 and in less number even than other towns4 ,but how fine it is that as small a republic as ,lacedmon retains its poverty4#ad ,one arrives at death as well by lacking everything as by enjoying what can make life pleasant4 ,the ,canadian savage subsists1 and comes to old age like the ,english citizen who has an income of fifty thousand guineas4 ,but who will ever compare the land of the ,iroquois to ,england8 ,let the republic of ,ragusa and the canton of ,zug make sumptuary laws1 they are right1 the poor man must not spend beyond his powers2 but ,i have read somewhere3 ,learn that luxury enriches a great state1 even if it ruins a small4#ae ,if by luxury you understand excess1 everyone knows that excess in any form is pernicious1 in abstinence as in gluttony1 in economy as in generosity4 ,i do not know how it has happened that in my village where the land is ungrateful1 the taxes heavy1 the prohibition against exporting the corn one has sown intolerable1 there is nevertheless barely a cultivator who has not a good cloth coat1 and who is not well shod and well fed4 ,if this cultivator toiled in his fields in his fine coat1 with white linen1 his hair curled and powdered1 there1 certainly1 would be the greatest luxury1 and the most impertinent2 but that a bourgeois of ,paris or ,london should appear at the theatre clad like a peasant1 there would be the most vulgar and ridiculous niggardliness4 ,when scissors1 which are certainly not of the remotest antiquity1 were invented1 what did people not say against the first men who pared their nails1 and who cut part of the hair which fell on their noses8 ,they were treated1 without a doubt1 as fops and prodigals1 who bought an instrument of vanity at a high price1 in order to spoil the ,creator's handiwork4 ,what an enormous sin to cut short the horn which ,god made to grow at the end of our fingers6 ,it was an outrage against the ,deity6 ,it was much worse when shirts and socks were invented4 ,one knows with what fury the aged counsellors who had never worn them cried out against the young magistrates who were addicted to this disastrous luxury4#af ,,footnotes3 #ad ,lacedmon avoided luxury only by preserving the community or equality of property2 but she did not preserve either the one or the other save by having the land cultivated by an enslaved people4 ,the existence of the equality or community of property supposes the existence of an enslaved people4 ,the ,spartans had virtue1 just like highwaymen1 inquisitors and all classes of men whom habit has familiarized with a species of crime1 to the point of committing them without remorse4 #ae ,the sumptuary laws are by their nature a violation of the right of property4 ,if in a little state there is not a great inequality of fortune1 there will be no luxury2 if this inequality exists1 luxury is the remedy for it4 ,it is her sumptuary laws that have lost ,geneva her liberty4 #af ,if by luxury one understands everything that is beyond the necessary1 luxury is a natural consequence of the progress of the human species2 and to reason consequently every enemy of luxury should believe with ,rousseau that the state of happiness and virtue for man is that1 not of the savage1 but of the orang-outang4 ,one feels that it would be absurd to regard as an evil the comforts which all men would enjoy3 also1 does one not generally give the name of luxury to the superfluities which only a small number of individuals can enjoy4 ,in this sense1 luxury is a necessary consequence of property1 without which no society can subsist1 and of a great inequality between fortunes which is the consequence1 not of the right of property1 but of bad laws4 ,moralists should address their sermons to the legislators1 and not to individuals1 because it is in the order of possible things that a virtuous and enlightened man may have the power to make reasonable laws1 and it is not in human nature for all the rich men of a country to renounce through virtue procuring for themselves for money the enjoyments of pleasure or vanity4 ,,general ,,reflection ,,on ,,man ,it needs twenty years to lead man from the plant state in which he is within his mother's womb1 and the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood1 to the state when the maturity of the reason begins to appear4 ,it has needed thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure4 ,it would need eternity to learn something about his soul4 ,it takes an instant to kill him4 ,,man ,,in ,,the ,,iron ,,mask ,the author of the ,sicle de ,louis ,,xiv4#ag is the first to speak of the man in the iron mask in an authenticated history4 ,the reason is that he was very well informed about the anecdote which astonishes the present century1 which will astonish posterity1 and which is only too true4 ,he was deceived about the date of the death of this singularly unfortunate unknown4 ,the date of his burial at ,st4 ,paul was ,march #crd1 #agjc1 and not #agjd4 7,note4--,according to a certificate reported by ,saint-,foix1 the date was ,november #bjth1 #agjc47 ,he was imprisoned first of all at ,pignerol before being so on ,st4 ,margaret's ,islands1 and later in the ,bastille2 always under the same man's guard1 ,saint-,mars1 who saw him die4 ,father ,griffet1 ,jesuit1 has communicated to the public the diary of the ,bastille1 which testifies to the dates4 ,he had this diary without difficulty1 for he held the delicate position of confessor of prisoners imprisoned in the ,bastille4 ,the man in the iron mask is a riddle to which everyone wishes to guess the answer4 ,some say that he was the ,duc de ,beaufort3 but the ,duc de ,beaufort was killed by the ,turks at the defence of ,candia1 in #affi2 and the man in the iron mask was at ,pignerol1 in #affb4 ,besides1 how would one have arrested the ,duc de ,beaufort surrounded by his army8 how would one have transferred him to ,france without anybody knowing anything about it8 and why should he have been put in prison1 and why this mask8 ,others have considered the ,comte de ,vermandois1 natural son of ,louis ,,xiv41 who died publicly of the small-pox in #afhc1 with the army1 and was buried in the town of ,arras4 ,later it was thought that the ,duke of ,monmouth1 whose head ,king ,james ,,ii4 had cut off publicly in ,london in #afhe1 was the man in the iron mask4 ,it would have been necessary for him to be resuscitated1 and then for him to change the order of the times1 for him to put the year #affb in place of #afhe2 for ,king ,james who never pardoned anyone1 and who on that account deserved all his misfortunes1 to have pardoned the ,duke of ,monmouth1 and to have caused the death1 in his place1 of a man exactly like him4 ,it would have been necessary to find this double who would have been so kind as to have his neck cut off in public in order to save the ,duke of ,monmouth4 ,it would have been necessary for the whole of ,england to have been under a misapprehension2 for ,james then to have sent his earnest entreaties to ,louis ,,xiv4 to be so good as to serve as his constable and gaoler4 ,then ,louis ,,xiv4 having done ,king ,james this little favour1 would not have failed to have the same consideration for ,king ,william and for ,queen ,anne1 with whom he was at war2 and he would carefully have preserved in these two monarchs' consideration his dignity of gaoler1 with which ,king ,james had honoured him4 ,all these illusions being dissipated1 it remains to be learned who was this prisoner who was always masked1 the age at which he died1 and under what name he was buried4 ,it is clear that if he was not allowed to pass into the courtyard of the ,bastille1 if he was not allowed to speak to his doctor1 unless covered by a mask1 it was for fear that in his features might be recognized some too striking resemblance4 ,he might show his tongue1 and never his face4 ,as regards his age1 he himself said to the ,bastille apothecary1 a few days before his death1 that he thought he was about sixty2 and ,master ,marsolan1 surgeon to the ,marchal de ,richelieu1 and later to the ,duc d',orlans1 regent1 son-in-law of this apothecary1 has repeated it to me more than once4 ,finally1 why give him an ,italian name8 he was always called ,marchiali6 ,he who writes this article knows more about it1 maybe1 than ,father ,griffet1 and will not say more4 ,,publishers ,,note#ah ,it is surprising to see so many scholars and so many intelligent and sagacious writers torment themselves with guessing who can have been the famous man in the iron mask1 without the simplest1 most natural1 most probable idea ever presenting itself to them4 ,once the fact as ,m4 de ,voltaire reports it is admitted1 with its circumstances2 the existence of a prisoner of so singular a species1 put in the rank of the best authenticated historical truths2 it seems that not only is nothing easier than to imagine who this prisoner was1 but that it is even difficult for there to be two opinions on the subject4 ,the author of this article would have communicated his opinion earlier1 if he had not believed that this idea must already have come to many others1 and if he were not persuaded that it was not worth while giving as a discovery what1 according to him1 jumps to the eyes of all who read this anecdote4 ,however1 as for some time past this event has divided men's minds1 and as quite recently the public has again been given a letter in which it is claimed as proved that this celebrated prisoner was a secretary of the ,duke of ,mantua 7which cannot be reconciled with the great marks of respect shown by ,m4 de ,saint-,mars to his prisoner71 the author has thought it his duty to tell at last what has been his opinion for many years4 ,maybe this conjecture will put an end to all other researches1 unless the secret be revealed by those who can be its guardians1 in such a way as to remove all doubts4 ,he will not amuse himself with refuting those who have imagined that this prisoner could be the ,comte de ,vermandois1 the ,duc de ,beaufort1 or the ,duke of ,monmouth4 ,the scholarly and very wise author of this last opinion has well refuted the others2 but he had based his own opinion essentially merely on the impossibility of finding in ,europe some other prince whose detention it would have been of the very highest importance should not be known4 ,m4 de ,saint-,foix is right1 if he means to speak only of princes whose existence was known2 but why has nobody yet thought of supposing that the iron mask might have been an unknown prince1 brought up in secret1 and whose existence it was important should remain unknown8 ,the ,duke of ,monmouth was not for ,france a prince of such great importance2 and one does not see even what could have engaged this power1 at least after the death of this duke and of ,james ,,ii41 to make so great a secret of his detention1 if indeed he was the iron mask4 ,it is hardly probable either that ,m4 de ,louvois and ,m4 de ,saint-,mars would have shown the ,duke of ,monmouth the profound respect which ,m4 de ,voltaire assures they showed the iron mask4 ,the author conjectures1 from the way that ,m4 de ,voltaire has told the facts1 that this celebrated historian is as persuaded as he is of the suspicion which he is going1 he says1 to bring to light2 but that ,m4 de ,voltaire1 as a ,frenchman1 did not wish1 he adds1 to publish point-blank1 particularly as he had said enough for the answer to the riddle not to be difficult to guess4 ,here it is1 he continues1 as ,i see it4 ,the iron mask was undoubtedly a brother and an elder brother of ,louis ,,xiv41 whose mother had that taste for fine linen on which ,m4 de ,voltaire lays stress4 ,it was in reading the ,memoirs of that time1 which report this anecdote about the queen1 that1 recalling this same taste in the iron mask1 ,i doubted no longer that he was her son3 a fact of which all the other circumstances had persuaded me already4 ,it is known that ,louis ,,xiii4 had not lived with the queen for a long time2 that the birth of ,louis ,,xiv4 was due only to a happy chance skilfully induced2 a chance which absolutely obliged the king to sleep in the same bed with the queen4 ,this is how ,i think the thing came to pass4 ,the queen may have thought that it was her fault that no heir was born to ,louis ,,xiii4 ,the birth of the iron mask will have undeceived her4 ,the cardinal to whom she will have confided the fact will have known1 for more than one reason1 how to turn the secret to account2 he will have thought of making use of this event for his own benefit and for the benefit of the state4 ,persuaded by this example that the queen could give the king children1 the plan which produced the chance of one bed for the king and the queen was arranged in consequence4 ,but the queen and the cardinal1 equally impressed with the necessity of hiding from ,louis ,,xiii4 the iron mask's existence1 will have had him brought up in secret4 ,this secret will have been a secret for ,louis ,,xiv4 until ,cardinal ,mazarin's death4 ,but this monarch learning then that he had a brother1 and an elder brother whom his mother could not disacknowledge1 who further bore maybe the marked features which betrayed his origin1 reflecting that this child born during marriage could not1 without great inconvenience and a horrible scandal1 be declared illegitimate after ,louis ,,xiii4's death1 ,louis ,,xiv4 will have judged that he could not use a wiser or juster means than the one he employed in order to assure his own tranquillity and the peace of the state2 means which relieved him of committing a cruelty which policy would have represented as necessary to a monarch less conscientious and less magnanimous than ,louis ,,xiv4 ,it seems to me1 our author continues1 that the more one knows of the history of those times1 the more one must be struck by these assembled circumstances which are in favour of such a supposition4 ,,footnotes3 #ag ,voltaire4 #ah ,this note1 given as a publisher's note in the #agga edition1 passes among many men of letters as being by ,voltaire himself4 ,he knew of this edition1 and he never contradicted the opinion there advanced on the subject of the man in the iron mask4 ,he was the first to speak of this man4 ,he always combated all the conjectures made about the mask3 he always spoke as though better informed than others on the subject1 and as though unwilling to tell all he knew4 ,there is a letter in circulation from ,mlle4 de ,valois1 written to the ,duke1 afterward ,marchal de ,richelieu1 where she boasts of having learned from the ,duc d',orlans1 her father1 under strange conditions1 who the man in the iron mask was2 this man1 she says1 was a twin brother of ,louis ,,xiv41 born a few hours after him4 ,either this letter1 which it was so useless1 so indecent1 so dangerous to read1 is a supposititious letter1 or the regent1 in giving his daughter the reward she had so nobly acquired1 thought to weaken the danger there was in revealing a state secret1 by altering the facts1 so as to make of this prince a younger son without right to the throne1 instead of the heir-apparent to the crown4 ,but ,louis ,,xiv41 who had a brother2 ,louis ,,xiv41 whose soul was magnanimous2 ,louis ,,xiv41 who prided himself even on a scrupulous probity1 whom history has reproached with no crime1 who indeed committed no crime apart from letting himself be too swayed by the counsels of ,louvois and the ,jesuits2 ,louis ,,xiv4 would never have detained one of his brothers in perpetual prison1 in order to forestall the evils announced by an astrologer1 in whom he did not believe4 ,he needed more important motives4 ,eldest son of ,louis ,,xiii41 acknowledged by this prince1 the throne belonged to him2 but a son born of ,anne of ,austria1 unknown to her husband1 had no rights1 and could1 nevertheless1 try to make himself acknowledged1 rend ,france with a long civil war1 win maybe over ,louis ,,xiii4's son1 by alleging the right of primogeniture1 and substitute a new race for the old race of the ,bourbons4 ,these motives1 if they did not entirely justify ,louis ,,xiv4's rigour1 serve at least to excuse him2 and the prisoner1 too well-informed of his fate1 could be grateful to him for not having listened to more rigorous counsels1 counsels which politics have often employed against those who had pretensions to thrones occupied by their competitors4 ,from his youth ,voltaire was connected with the ,duc de ,richelieu1 who was not discreet3 if ,mlle4 de ,valois' letter is authentic1 he knew of it2 but1 possessed of a just mind1 he felt the error1 and sought other information4 ,he was in a position to obtain it2 he rectified the truth altered in the letter1 as he rectified so many other errors4 ,,marriage ,i came across a reasoner who said3 ,engage your subjects to marry as soon as possible2 let them be exempt from taxes the first year1 and let their tax be distributed over those who at the same age are celibate4 ,the more married men you have1 the less crime there will be4 ,look at the frightful records of your registers of crime2 you will find there a hundred bachelors hanged or wheeled for one father of a family4 ,marriage makes man wiser and more virtuous4 ,the father of a family1 near to committing a crime1 is often stopped by his wife whose blood1 less feverish than his1 makes her gentler1 more compassionate1 more fearful of theft and murder1 more timorous1 more religious4 ,the father of a family does not want to blush before his children4 ,he fears to leave them a heritage of shame4 ,marry your soldiers1 they will not desert any more4 ,bound to their families1 they will be bound also to their fatherland4 ,a bachelor soldier often is nothing but a vagabond1 to whom it is indifferent whether he serves the king of ,naples or the king of ,morocco4 ,the ,roman warriors were married2 they fought for their wives and children2 and they enslaved the wives and children of other nations4 ,a great ,italian politician1 who further was very learned in oriental languages1 a very rare thing among our politicians1 said to me in my youth3 ,caro figlio1 remember that the ,jews have never had but one good institution1 that of having a horror of virginity4 ,if this little race of superstitious intermediaries had not considered marriage as the first law of man1 if there had been among them convents of nuns1 they were irreparably lost4 ,,master ,,section ,i ,unfortunate that ,i am to have been born6 said ,ardassan ,ougli1 young page of the great ,sultan of the ,turks4 ,if it were only the great ,sultan on whom ,i am dependent2 but ,i am subject to the chief of my oda1 to the capigi pasha2 and when ,i receive my pay1 ,i have to bow down to one of the tefterdar's clerks who deducts half of it4 ,before ,i was seven years old ,i had cut off1 in spite of myself1 in ceremony1 the end of my prepuce1 and it made me ill for a fortnight4 ,the dervish who prays for us is my master2 an iman is still more my master2 the mollah is still more my master than the iman4 ,the cadi is another master2 the cadi-leskier is master still more2 the mufti is much more master than all these together4 ,the grand vizier's kaia can with a word have me thrown into the canal2 and the grand vizier1 finally1 can have my neck wrung at his pleasure1 and stuff the skin of my head1 without anybody even taking notice4 ,how many masters1 great ,god6 even if ,i had as many bodies and as many souls as ,i have duties to accomplish1 ,i could not attend to everything4 ,oh1 ,allah6 if only you had made me a screech-owl6 ,i should live free in my hole1 and ,i should eat mice at my ease without masters or servants4 ,that assuredly is man's real destiny2 only since he was perverted has he masters4 ,no man was made to serve another man continuously4 ,each would have charitably aided his fellow1 if things were as they should be4 ,the man with eyes would have led the blind man1 the active man would have acted as crutch to the cripple4 ,this world would have been the paradise of ,mohammed2 and it is the hell which is exactly under the pointed bridge4 ,thus did ,ardassan ,ougli speak1 after receiving the stirrup-leather from one of his masters4 ,after a few years ,ardassan ,ougli became pasha with three tails4 ,he made a prodigious fortune1 and he firmly believed that all men1 excepting the ,great ,turk and the ,grand ,vizier1 were born to serve him1 and all women to give him pleasure in accordance with his caprice4 ,,section ,,ii ,how has it been possible for one man to become another man's master1 and by what species of incomprehensible magic has he been able to become the master of many other men8 ,on this phenomenon a great number of good volumes have been written2 but ,i give the preference to an ,indian fable1 because it is short1 and because the fables have said everything4 ,adimo1 the father of all the ,indians1 had two sons and two daughters by his wife ,procriti4 ,the elder son was a giant1 the younger was a little hunchback1 the two daughters were pretty4 ,as soon as the giant was conscious of his strength1 he lay with his two sisters1 and made the little hunchback serve him4 ,of his two sisters1 one was his cook1 the other his gardener4 ,when the giant wanted to sleep1 he started by chaining his little hunchback brother to a tree2 and when the brother escaped1 he caught him in four strides1 and gave him twenty strokes with a length of ox sinew4 ,the hunchback became submissive and the best subject in the world4 ,the giant1 satisfied to see him fulfilling his duties as subject1 permitted him to lie with one of his sisters for whom he himself had taken a distaste4 ,the children who came of this marriage were not entirely hunchbacked2 but they had sufficiently misshapen forms4 ,they were reared in fear of ,god and the giant4 ,they received an excellent education2 they were taught that their great uncle was giant by divine right1 that he could do with his family as pleased him2 that if he had a pretty niece or great-niece1 she was for him alone without a doubt1 and that no one could lie with her until he wanted her no longer4 ,the giant having died1 his son1 who was not by a long way as strong and as big as he1 thought nevertheless that he1 like his father1 was giant by divine right4 ,he claimed to make all the men work for him1 and to lie with all the women4 ,the family leagued itself against him1 he was beaten to death1 and the others turned themselves into a republic4 ,the ,siamese1 on the contrary1 maintain that the family had started by being republican1 and that the giant did not come until after a great number of years and dissensions2 but all the authors of ,benares and ,siam agree that mankind lived an infinity of centuries before having the intelligence to make laws2 and they prove it by an unanswerable reason1 which is that even to-day when everyone plumes himself on his intelligence1 no way has been found of making a score of passably good laws4 ,it is indeed still an insoluble question in ,india whether republics were established before or after monarchies1 whether confusion appeared more horrible to mankind than despotism4 ,i do not know what happened in order of time2 but in that of nature it must be agreed that all men being born equal1 violence and adroitness made the first masters1 the laws made the last4 ,,men ,,of ,,letters ,in our barbarous times1 when the ,franks1 the ,germans1 the ,bretons1 the ,lombards1 the ,spanish ,muzarabs1 knew not how either to read or write1 there were instituted schools1 universities1 composed almost entirely of ecclesiastics who1 knowing nothing but their own jargon1 taught this jargon to those who wished to learn it2 the academies came only a long time afterwards2 they despised the foolishness of the schools1 but did not always dare to rise against them1 because there are foolishnesses that are respected provided that they concern respectable things4 ,the men of letters who have rendered the greatest services to the small number of thinking beings spread over the world1 are the isolated writers1 the true scholars shut in their studies1 who have neither argued on the benches of the universities1 nor told half-truths in the academies2 and almost all of them have been persecuted4 ,our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road4 ,montesquieu says that the ,scythians rent their slaves' eyes1 so that they might be less distracted while they were churning their butter2 that is just how the inquisition functions1 and in the land where this monster reigns almost everybody is blind4 ,in ,england people have had two eyes for more than two hundred years2 the ,french are starting to open one eye2 but sometimes there are men in power who do not want the people to have even this one eye open4 ,these poor persons in power are like ,doctor ,balouard of the ,italian ,comedy1 who does not want to be served by anyone but the dolt ,harlequin1 and who is afraid of having too shrewd a valet4 ,compose some odes in praise of ,my ,lord ,superbus ,fadus1 some madrigals for his mistress2 dedicate a book on geography to his door-keeper1 you will be well-received2 enlighten mankind1 you will be exterminated4 ,descartes was forced to leave his country1 ,gassendi was calumniated1 ,arnauld dragged out his days in exile2 every philosopher is treated as the prophets were among the ,jews4 ,who would believe that in the eighteenth century a philosopher was dragged before the secular tribunals1 and treated as impious by the tribunals of arguments1 for having said that men could not practise the arts if they had no hands8 ,i do not despair that soon the first person who is so insolent as to say that men could not think if they had no heads will be immediately condemned to the galleys2 for1 some young graduate will say to him1 the soul is a pure spirit1 the head is only matter2 ,god can put the soul in the heel1 as well as in the brain2 therefore ,i denounce you as impious4 ,the greatest misfortune of a man of letters is not perhaps being the object of his confrres' jealousy1 the victim of the cabal1 the despised of the men of power2 but of being judged by fools4 ,fools go far sometimes1 particularly when bigotry is added to ineptitude1 and to ineptitude the spirit of vengeance4 ,the further great misfortune of a man of letters is that ordinarily he is unattached4 ,a bourgeois buys himself a small position1 and there he is backed by his colleagues4 ,if he suffers an injustice1 he finds defenders at once4 ,the man of letters is unsuccoured2 he resembles a flying-fish2 if he rises a little1 the birds devour him2 if he dives1 the fish eat him4 ,every public man pays tribute to malignity1 but he is paid in honours and gold4 ,,metamorphosis1 ,,metempsychosis ,is it not very natural that all the metamorphoses with which the world is covered should have made people imagine in the ,orient1 where everything has been imagined1 that our souls passed from one body to another8 ,an almost imperceptible speck becomes a worm1 this worm becomes a butterfly2 an acorn transforms itself into an oak2 an egg into a bird2 water becomes cloud and thunder2 wood is changed into fire and ash2 everything in nature appears1 in fine1 metamorphosed4 ,soon people attributed to souls1 which were regarded as light figures1 what they saw in more gross bodies4 ,the idea of metempsychosis is perhaps the most ancient dogma of the known universe1 and it still reigns in a large part of ,india and ,china4 ,,milton1 ,,on ,,the ,,reproach ,,of ,,plagiarism ,,against ,some people have accused ,milton of having taken his poem from the tragedy of ,the ,banishment of ,adam by ,grotius1 and from the ,sarcotis of the ,jesuit ,masenius1 printed at ,cologne in #afed and in #affa1 long before ,milton gave his ,paradise ,lost4 ,as regards ,grotius1 it was well enough known in ,england that ,milton had carried into his epic ,english poem a few ,latin verses from the tragedy of ,adam4 ,it is in no wise to be a plagiarist to enrich one's language with the beauties of a foreign language4 ,no one accused ,euripides of plagiarism for having imitated in one of the choruses of ,iphigenia the second book of the ,iliad2 on the contrary1 people were very grateful to him for this imitation1 which they regarded as a homage rendered to ,homer on the ,athenian stage4 ,virgil never suffered a reproach for having happily imitated1 in the neid1 a hundred verses by the first of ,greek poets4 ,against ,milton the accusation was pushed a little further4 ,a ,scot1 ,will ,lauder by name1 very attached to the memory of ,charles ,i41 whom ,milton had insulted with the most uncouth animosity1 thought himself entitled to dishonour the memory of this monarch's accuser4 ,it was claimed that ,milton was guilty of an infamous imposture in robbing ,charles ,i4 of the sad glory of being the author of the ,eikon ,basilika1 a book long dear to the royalists1 and which ,charles ,i41 it was said1 had composed in his prison to serve as consolation for his deplorable adversity4 ,lauder1 therefore1 about the year of #ageb1 wanted to begin by proving that ,milton was only a plagiarist1 before proving that he had acted as a forger against the memory of the most unfortunate of kings2 he procured some editions of the poem of the ,sarcotis4 ,it seemed evident that ,milton had imitated some passages of it1 as he had imitated ,grotius and ,tasso4 ,but ,lauder did not rest content there2 he unearthed a bad translation in ,latin verse of the ,paradise ,lost of the ,english poet2 and joining several verses of this translation to those by ,masenius1 he thought thereby to render the accusation more grave1 and ,milton's shame more complete4 ,it was in that1 that he was badly deceived2 his fraud was discovered4 ,he wanted to make ,milton pass for a forger1 and he was himself convicted of forging4 ,no one examined ,masenius' poem of which at that time there were only a few copies in ,europe4 ,all ,england1 convinced of the ,scot's poor trick1 asked no more about it4 ,the accuser1 confounded1 was obliged to disavow his manoeuvre1 and ask pardon for it4 ,since then a new edition of ,masenius was printed in #ageg4 ,the literary public was surprised at the large number of very beautiful verses with which the ,sarcotis was sprinkled4 ,it is in truth nothing but a long declamation of the schools on the fall of man3 but the exordium1 the invocation1 the description of the garden of ,eden1 the portrait of ,eve1 that of the devil1 are precisely the same as in ,milton4 ,further1 it is the same subject1 the same plot1 the same catastrophe4 ,if the devil wishes1 in ,milton1 to be revenged on man for the harm which ,god has done him1 he has precisely the same plan in the work of the ,jesuit ,masenius2 and he manifests it in verses worthy maybe of the century of ,augustus4 7,sarcotis1 ,i41 #bga et seq47 ,one finds in both ,masenius and ,milton little episodes1 trifling digressions which are absolutely alike2 both speak of ,xerxes who covered the sea with his ships4 ,both speak in the same tone of the ,tower of ,babel2 both give the same description of luxury1 of pride1 of avarice1 of gluttony4 ,what most persuaded the generality of readers of ,milton's plagiarism was the perfect resemblance of the beginning of the two poems4 ,many foreigners1 after reading the exordium1 had no doubt but that the rest of ,milton's poem was taken from ,masenius4 ,it is a very great error and easy to recognize4 ,i do not think that the ,english poet imitated in all more than two hundred of the ,jesuit of ,cologne's verses2 and ,i dare say that he imitated only what was worthy of being imitated4 ,these two hundred verses are very beautiful2 so are ,milton's2 and the total of ,masenius' poem1 despite these two hundred beautiful verses1 is not worth anything at all4 ,molire took two whole scenes from the ridiculous comedy of the ,pdant ,jou by ,cyrano de ,bergerac4 ,these two scenes are good1 he said as he was jesting with his friends4 ,they belong to me by right3 ,i recover my property4 ,after that anyone who treated the author of ,tartufe and ,le ,misanthrope as a plagiarist would have been very badly received4 ,it is certain that generally ,milton1 in his ,paradise1 has in imitating flown on his own wings2 and it must be agreed that if he borrowed so many traits from ,grotius and from the ,jesuit of ,cologne1 they are blended in the crowd of original things which are his2 in ,england he is always regarded as a very great poet4 ,it is true that he should have avowed having translated two hundred of a ,jesuit's verses2 but in his time1 at the court of ,charles ,,ii41 people did not worry themselves with either the ,jesuits1 or ,milton1 or ,paradise ,lost1 or ,paradise ,regained4 ,all those things were either scoffed at1 or unknown4 ,,mohammedans ,i tell you again1 ignorant imbeciles1 whom other ignoramuses have made believe that the ,mohammedan religion is voluptuous and sensual1 there is not a word of truth in it2 you have been deceived on this point as on so many others4 ,canons1 monks1 vicars even1 if a law were imposed on you not to eat or drink from four in the morning till ten at night1 during the month of ,july1 when ,lent came at this period2 if you were forbidden to play at any game of chance under pain of damnation2 if wine were forbidden you under the same pain2 if you had to make a pilgrimage into the burning desert2 if it were enjoined on you to give at least two and a half per cent4 of your income to the poor2 if1 accustomed to enjoy possession of eighteen women1 the number were cut down suddenly by fourteen2 honestly1 would you dare call that religion sensual8 ,the ,latin ,christians have so many advantages over the ,mussulmans1 ,i do not say in the matter of war1 but in the matter of doctrines2 the ,greek ,christians have so beaten them latterly from #agfi to #aggc1 that it is not worth the trouble to indulge in unjust reproaches against ,islam4 ,try to retake from the ,mohammedans all that they usurped2 but it is easier to calumniate them4 ,i hate calumny so much that ,i do not want even to impute foolishness to the ,turks1 although ,i detest them as tyrants over women and enemies of the arts4 ,i do not know why the historian of the ,lower ,empire maintains that ,mohammed speaks in his ,koran of his journey into the sky3 ,mohammed does not say a word about it2 we have proved it4 ,one must combat ceaselessly4 ,when one has destroyed an error1 there is always someone who resuscitates it4 ,,mountain ,it is a very old1 very universal fable that tells of the mountain which1 having frightened all the countryside by its outcry that it was in labour1 was hissed by all present when it brought into the world a mere mouse4 ,the people in the pit were not philosophers4 ,those who hissed should have admired4 ,it was as fine for the mountain to give birth to a mouse1 as for the mouse to give birth to a mountain4 ,a rock which produces a rat is a very prodigious thing2 and never has the world seen anything approaching this miracle4 ,all the globes of the universe could not call a fly into existence4 ,where the vulgar laugh1 the philosopher admires2 and he laughs where the vulgar open their big1 stupid eyes in astonishment4 ,,nakedness ,why should one lock up a man or a woman who walked stark naked in the street8 and why is no one shocked by absolutely nude statues1 by pictures of the ,madonna and of ,jesus that may be seen in some churches8 ,it is probably that the human species lived long without being clothed4 ,people unacquainted with clothing have been found in more than one island and in the ,american continent4 ,the most civilized hide the organs of generation with leaves1 woven rushes1 feathers4 ,whence comes this form of modesty8 is it the instinct for lighting desires by hiding what it gives pleasure to discover8 ,is it really true that among slightly more civilized nations1 such as the ,jews and half-,jews1 there have been entire sects who would not worship ,god save by stripping themselves of all their clothes8 such were1 it is said1 the ,adamites and the ,abelians4 ,they gathered quite naked to sing the praises of ,god3 ,st4 ,epiphanius and ,st4 ,augustine say so4 ,it is true that they were not contemporary1 and that they were very far from these people's country4 ,but at all events this madness is possible3 it is not even more extraordinary1 more mad than a hundred other madnesses which have been round the world one after the other4 ,we have said elsewhere that to-day even the ,mohammedans still have saints who are madmen1 and who go naked like monkeys4 ,it is very possible that some fanatics thought it was better to present themselves to the ,deity in the state in which ,he formed them1 than in the disguise invented by man4 ,it is possible that they showed everything out of piety4 ,there are so few well-made persons of both sexes1 that nakedness might have inspired chastity1 or rather disgust1 instead of increasing desire4 ,it is said particularly that the ,abelians renounced marriage4 ,if there were any fine lads and pretty lasses among them1 they were at least comparable to ,st4 ,adhelme and to blessed ,robert d',arbrisselle1 who slept with the prettiest persons1 that their continence might triumph all the more4 ,but ,i avow that it would have been very comic to see a hundred ,helens and ,parises singing anthems1 giving each other the kiss of peace1 and making agap4 ,all of which shows that there is no singularity1 no extravagance1 no superstition which has not passed through the heads of mankind4 ,happy the day when these superstitions do not trouble society and make of it a scene of disorder1 hatred and fury6 ,it is better without doubt to pray ,god stark naked1 than to stain ,his altars and the public places with human blood4 ,,natural ,,law ,b3 ,what is natural law8 ,a3 ,the instinct which makes us feel justice4 ,b3 ,what do you call just and unjust8 ,a3 ,what appears such to the entire universe4 ,b3 ,the universe is composed of many heads4 ,it is said that in ,lacedmon were applauded thefts for which people in ,athens were condemned to the mines4 ,a3 ,abuse of words1 logomachy1 equivocation2 theft could not be committed at ,sparta1 when everything was common property4 ,what you call theft was the punishment for avarice4 ,b3 ,it was forbidden to marry one's sister in ,rome4 ,it was allowed among the ,egyptians1 the ,athenians and even among the ,jews1 to marry one's sister on the father's side4 ,it is but with regret that ,i cite that wretched little ,jewish people1 who should assuredly not serve as a rule for anyone1 and who 7putting religion aside7 was never anything but a race of ignorant and fanatic brigands4 ,but still1 according to their books1 the young ,thamar1 before being ravished by her brother ,amnon1 says to him3--,nay1 my brother1 do not thou this folly1 but speak unto the king2 for he will not withhold me from thee4 7#b ,samuel xiii4 #ab1 #ac47 ,a3 ,conventional law all that1 arbitrary customs1 fashions that pass3 the essential remains always4 ,show me a country where it was honourable to rob me of the fruit of my toil1 to break one's promise1 to lie in order to hurt1 to calumniate1 to assassinate1 to poison1 to be ungrateful towards a benefactor1 to beat one's father and one's mother when they offer you food4 ,b3 ,have you forgotten that ,jean-,jacques1 one of the fathers of the modern ,church1 has said that the first man who dared enclose and cultivate a piece of land was the enemy of the human race1 that he should have been exterminated1 and that the fruits of the earth are for all1 and that the land belongs to none8 ,have we not already examined together this lovely proposition which is so useful to society 7,discourse on ,inequality1 second part78 ,a3 ,who is this ,jean-,jacques8 he is certainly not either ,john the ,baptist1 nor ,john the ,evangelist1 nor ,james the ,greater1 nor ,james the ,less#ai2 it must be some ,hunnish wit who wrote that abominable impertinence or some poor joker bufo magro who wanted to laugh at what the entire world regards as most serious4 ,for instead of going to spoil the land of a wise and industrious neighbour1 he had only to imitate him2 and every father of a family having followed this example1 behold soon a very pretty village formed4 ,the author of this passage seems to me a very unsociable animal4 ,b3 ,you think then that by outraging and robbing the good man who has surrounded his garden and chicken-run with a live hedge1 he has been wanting in respect towards the duties of natural law8 ,a3 ,yes1 yes1 once again1 there is a natural law1 and it does not consist either in doing harm to others1 or in rejoicing thereat4 ,b3 ,i imagine that man likes and does harm only for his own advantage4 ,but so many people are led to look for their own interest in the misfortune of others1 vengeance is so violent a passion1 there are such disastrous examples of it2 ambition1 still more fatal1 has inundated the world with so much blood1 that when ,i retrace for myself the horrible picture1 ,i am tempted to avow that man is a very devil4 ,in vain have ,i in my heart the notion of justice and injustice2 an ,attila courted by ,st4 ,leo1 a ,phocas flattered by ,st4 ,gregory with the most cowardly baseness1 an ,alexander ,,vi4 sullied with so many incests1 so many murders1 so many poisonings1 with whom the weak ,louis ,,xii41 who is called the good1 makes the most infamous and intimate alliance2 a ,cromwell whose protection ,cardinal ,mazarin seeks1 and for whom he drives out of ,france the heirs of ,charles ,i41 ,louis ,,xiv4's first cousins1 etc41 etc42 a hundred like examples set my ideas in disorder1 and ,i know no longer where ,i am4 ,a3 ,well1 do storms stop our enjoyment of to-day's beautiful sun8 ,did the earthquake which destroyed half the city of ,lisbon stop your making the voyage to ,madrid very comfortably8 ,if ,attila was a brigand and ,cardinal ,mazarin a rogue1 are there not princes and ministers who are honest people8 ,has it not been remarked that in the war of #agja1 ,louis ,,xiv4's council was composed of the most virtuous men8 ,the ,duc de ,beauvilliers1 the ,marquis de ,torci1 the ,marchal de ,villars1 ,chamillart lastly who passed for being incapable1 but never for dishonest4 ,does not the idea of justice subsist always8 ,it is upon that idea that all laws are founded4 ,the ,greeks called them daughters of heaven1 which only means daughters of nature4 ,have you no laws in your country8 ,b3 ,yes1 some good1 some bad4 ,a3 ,where1 if it was not in the notions of natural law1 did you get the idea that every man has within himself when his mind is properly made8 ,you must have obtained it there1 or nowhere4 ,b3 ,you are right1 there is a natural law2 but it is still more natural to many people to forget it4 ,a3 ,it is natural also to be one-eyed1 hump-backed1 lame1 deformed1 unhealthy2 but one prefers people who are well made and healthy4 ,b3 ,why are there so many one-eyed and deformed minds8 ,a3 ,peace6 ,but go to the article on ,power4 ,,footnotes3 #ai ,jean,john3 ,jacques,james4 ,,nature ,,dialogue ,,between ,,the ,,philosopher ,,and ,,nature ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,who are you1 ,nature8 ,i live in you2 for fifty years have ,i been seeking you1 and ,i have not found you yet4 ,,nature3 ,the ancient ,egyptians1 who lived1 it is said1 some twelve hundred years1 made me the same reproach4 ,they called me ,isis2 they put a great veil on my head1 and they said that nobody could lift it4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,that is what makes me address myself to you4 ,i have been able to measure some of your globes1 know their paths1 assign the laws of motion2 but ,i have not been able to learn who you are4 ,are you always active8 are you always passive8 did your elements arrange themselves1 as water deposits itself on sand1 oil on water1 air on oil8 have you a mind which directs all your operations1 as councils are inspired as soon as they are assembled1 although their members are sometimes ignoramuses8 ,i pray you tell me the answer to your riddle4 ,,nature3 ,i am the great everything4 ,i know no more about it4 ,i am not a mathematician2 and everything is arranged in my world according to mathematical laws4 ,guess if you can how it is all done4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,certainly1 since your great everything does not know mathematics1 and since all your laws are most profoundly geometrical1 there must be an eternal geometer who directs you1 a supreme intelligence who presides over your operations4 ,,nature3 ,you are right2 ,i am water1 earth1 fire1 atmosphere1 metal1 mineral1 stone1 vegetable1 animal4 ,i feel indeed that there is in me an intelligence2 you have an intelligence1 you do not see it4 ,i do not see mine either2 ,i feel this invisible power2 ,i cannot know it3 why should you1 who are but a small part of me1 want to know what ,i do not know8 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,we are curious4 ,i want to know how being so crude in your mountains1 in your deserts1 in your seas1 you appear nevertheless so industrious in your animals1 in your vegetables8 ,,nature3 ,my poor child do you want me to tell you the truth8 ,it is that ,i have been given a name which does not suit me2 my name is ,nature1 and ,i am all art4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,that word upsets all my ideas4 ,what6 nature is only art8 ,,nature3 ,yes1 without any doubt4 ,do you not know that there is an infinite art in those seas and those mountains that you find so crude8 do you not know that all those waters gravitate towards the centre of the earth1 and mount only by immutable laws2 that those mountains which crown the earth are the immense reservoirs of the eternal snows which produce unceasingly those fountains1 lakes and rivers without which my animal species and my vegetable species would perish8 ,and as for what are called my animal kingdom1 my vegetable kingdom and my mineral kingdom1 you see here only three2 learn that ,i have millions of kingdoms4 ,but if you consider only the formation of an insect1 of an ear of corn1 of gold1 of copper1 everything will appear as marvels of art4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,it is true4 ,the more ,i think about it1 the more ,i see that you are only the art of ,i know not what most potent and industrious great being1 who hides himself and who makes you appear4 ,all reasoners since ,thales1 and probably long before him1 have played at blind man's buff with you2 they have said3 ,i have you6 and they had nothing4 ,we all resemble ,ixion2 he thought he was kissing ,juno1 and all that he possessed was a cloud4 ,,nature3 ,since ,i am all that is1 how can a being such as you1 so small a part of myself1 seize me8 ,be content1 atoms my children1 with seeing a few atoms that surround you1 with drinking a few drops of my milk1 with vegetating for a few moments on my breast1 and with dying without having known your mother and your nurse4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,my dear mother1 tell me something of why you exist1 of why there is anything4 ,,nature3 ,i will answer you as ,i have answered for so many centuries all those who have interrogated me about first principles3 ,i ,,know ,,nothing ,,about ,,them4 ,,the ,,philosopher3 ,would not non-existence be better than this multitude of existences made in order to be continually dissolved1 this crowd of animals born and reproduced in order to devour others and to be devoured1 this crowd of sentient beings formed for so many painful sensations1 that other crowd of intelligences which so rarely hear reason4 ,what is the good of all that1 ,nature8 ,,nature3 ,oh6 go and ask ,him who made me4 ,,necessary ,,osmin3 ,do you not say that everything is necessary8 ,,selim3 ,if everything were not necessary1 it would follow that ,god had made useless things4 ,,osmin3 ,that is to say that it was necessary to the divine nature to make all that it has made8 ,,selim3 ,i think so1 or at least ,i suspect it2 there are people who think otherwise2 ,i do not understand them2 maybe they are right4 ,i am afraid of disputes on this subject4 ,,osmin3 ,it is also of another necessary that ,i want to talk to you4 ,,selim3 ,what6 of what is necessary to an honest man that he may live8 of the misfortune to which one is reduced when one lacks the necessary8 ,,osmin3 ,no2 for what is necessary to one is not always necessary to the other3 it is necessary for an ,indian to have rice1 for an ,englishman to have meat2 a fur is necessary to a ,russian1 and a gauzy stuff to an ,african2 this man thinks that twelve coach-horses are necessary to him1 that man limits himself to a pair of shoes1 a third walks gaily barefoot3 ,i want to talk to you of what is necessary to all men4 ,,selim3 ,it seems to me that ,god has given all that is necessary to this species3 eyes to see with1 feet for walking1 a mouth for eating1 an oesophagus for swallowing1 a stomach for digesting1 a brain for reasoning1 organs for producing one's fellow creature4 ,,osmin3 ,how does it happen then that men are born lacking a part of these necessary things8 ,,selim3 ,it is because the general laws of nature have brought about some accidents which have made monsters to be born2 but generally man is provided with everything that is necessary to him in order to live in society4 ,,osmin3 ,are there notions common to all men which serve to make them live in society8 ,,selim3 ,yes4 ,i have travelled with ,paul ,lucas1 and wherever ,i went1 ,i saw that people respected their father and their mother1 that people believed themselves to be obliged to keep their promises1 that people pitied oppressed innocents1 that they hated persecution1 that they regarded liberty of thought as a rule of nature1 and the enemies of this liberty as enemies of the human race2 those who think differently seemed to me badly organized creatures1 monsters like those who are born without eyes and hands4 ,,osmin3 ,are these necessary things in all time and in all places8 ,,selim3 ,yes1 if they were not they would not be necessary to the human species4 ,,osmin3 ,so a belief which is new is not necessary to this species4 ,men could very well live in society and accomplish their duty to ,god1 before believing that ,mahomet had frequent interviews with the angel ,gabriel4 ,,selim3 ,nothing is clearer2 it would be ridiculous to think that man could not accomplish his duty to ,god before ,mahomet came into the world2 it was not at all necessary for the human species to believe in the ,alcoran3 the world went along before ,mahomet just as it goes along to-day4 ,if ,mahometanism had been necessary to the world1 it would have existed in all places2 ,god who has given us all two eyes to see the sun1 would have given us all an intelligence to see the truth of the ,mussulman religion4 ,this sect is therefore only like the positive laws that change according to time and place1 like the fashions1 like the opinions of the natural philosophers which follow one after the other4 ,the ,mussulman sect could not be essentially necessary to mankind4 ,,osmin3 ,but since it exists1 ,god has permitted it8 ,,selim3 ,yes1 as he permits the world to be filled with foolishness1 error and calamity2 that is not to say that men are all essentially made to be fools and miscreants4 ,he permits that some men be eaten by snakes2 but one cannot say--,god made man to be eaten by snakes4 ,,osmin3 ,what do you mean when you say ,god permits8 can nothing happen without ,his order8 permit1 will and do1 are they not the same thing for ,him8 ,,selim3 ,he permits crime1 but ,he does not commit it4 ,,osmin3 ,committing a crime is acting against divine justice1 it is disobeying ,god4 ,well1 ,god cannot disobey ,himself1 ,he cannot commit crime2 but ,he has made man in such a way that man may commit many crimes3 where does that come from8 ,,selim3 ,there are people who know1 but ,i do not2 all that ,i know is that the ,alcoran is ridiculous1 although from time to time it has some tolerably good things2 certainly the ,alcoran was not at all necessary to man2 ,i stick by that3 ,i see clearly what is false1 and ,i know very little that is true4 ,,osmin3 ,i thought you would instruct me1 and you teach me nothing4 ,,selim3 ,is it not a great deal to recognize people who deceive you1 and the gross and dangerous errors which they retail to you8 ,,osmin3 ,i should have ground for complaint against a doctor who showed me all the harmful plants1 and who did not show me one salutary plant4 ,,selim3 ,i am not a doctor1 and you are not ill2 but it seems to me ,i should be giving you a very good prescription if ,i said to you3 ,put not your trust in all the inventions of charlatans1 worship ,god1 be an honest man1 and believe that two and two make four4 ,,new ,,novelties ,it seems that the first words of ,ovid's ,metamorphoses1 ,in nova fert animus1 are the motto of the human race4 ,nobody is touched by the admirable spectacle of the sun which rises1 or rather seems to rise1 every day2 everybody runs to see the smallest little meteor which appears for an instant in that accumulation of vapours1 called the sky1 that surround the earth4 ,an itinerant bookseller does not burden himself with a ,virgil1 with a ,horace1 but with a new book1 even though it be detestable4 ,he draws you aside and says to you3 ,sir1 do you want some books from ,holland8 ,from the beginning of the world women have complained of the fickleness that is imputed to them in favour of the first new object which presents itself1 and whose novelty is often its only merit4 ,many ladies 7it must be confessed1 despite the infinite respect we have for them7 have treated men as they complain they have themselves been treated2 and the story of ,gioconda is much older than ,ariosto4 ,perhaps this universal taste for novelty is one of nature's favours4 ,people cry to us3 ,be content with what you have1 desire nothing that is beyond your estate1 restrain your curiosity1 tame your intellectual disquiet4 ,these are very good maxims2 but if we had always followed them1 we should still be eating acorns1 we should be sleeping in the open air1 and we should not have had ,corneille1 ,racine1 ,molire1 ,poussin1 ,lebrun1 ,lemoine or ,pigalle4 ,,philosopher ,philosopher1 lover of wisdom1 that is to say1 of truth4 ,all philosophers have had this dual character2 there is not one in antiquity who has not given mankind examples of virtue and lessons in moral truths4 ,they have all contrived to be deceived about natural philosophy2 but natural philosophy is so little necessary for the conduct of life1 that the philosophers had no need of it4 ,it has taken centuries to learn a part of nature's laws4 ,one day was sufficient for a wise man to learn the duties of man4 ,the philosopher is not enthusiastic2 he does not set himself up as a prophet2 he does not say that he is inspired by the gods4 ,thus ,i shall not put in the rank of philosophers either the ancient ,zarathustra1 or ,hermes1 or the ancient ,orpheus1 or any of those legislators of whom the nations of ,chaldea1 ,persia1 ,syria1 ,egypt and ,greece boasted4 ,those who styled themselves children of the gods were the fathers of imposture2 and if they used lies for the teaching of truths1 they were unworthy of teaching them2 they were not philosophers2 they were at best very prudent liars4 ,by what fatality1 shameful maybe for the ,western peoples1 is it necessary to go to the far ,orient to find a wise man who is simple1 unostentatious1 free from imposture1 who taught men to live happily six hundred years before our vulgar era1 at a time when the whole of the ,north was ignorant of the usage of letters1 and when the ,greeks were barely beginning to distinguish themselves by their wisdom8 ,this wise man is ,confucius1 who being legislator never wanted to deceive men4 ,what more beautiful rule of conduct has ever been given since him in the whole world8 ,rule a state as you rule a family2 one can only govern one's family well by setting the example4 ,virtue should be common to both husbandman and monarch4 ,apply thyself to the trouble of preventing crimes in order to lessen the trouble of punishing them4 ,under the good kings ,yao and ,xu the ,chinese were good2 under the bad kings ,kie and ,chu they were wicked4 ,do to others as to thyself4 ,love all men2 but cherish honest people4 ,forget injuries1 and never kindnesses4 ,i have seen men incapable of study2 ,i have never seen them incapable of virtue4 ,let us admit that there is no legislator who has proclaimed truths more useful to the human race4 ,a host of ,greek philosophers have since taught an equally pure moral philosophy4 ,if they had limited themselves to their empty systems of natural philosophy1 their names would be pronounced to-day in mockery only4 ,if they are still respected1 it is because they were just and that they taught men to be so4 ,one cannot read certain passages of ,plato1 and notably the admirable exordium of the laws of ,zaleucus1 without feeling in one's heart the love of honourable and generous actions4 ,the ,romans have their ,cicero1 who alone is worth perhaps all the philosophers of ,greece4 ,after him come men still more worthy of respect1 but whom one almost despairs of imitating2 ,epictetus in bondage1 the ,antonines and the ,julians on the throne4 ,which is the citizen among us who would deprive himself1 like ,julian1 ,antoninus and ,marcus ,aurelius1 of all the delicacies of our flabby and effeminate lives8 who would sleep as they did on the ground8 who would impose on himself their frugality8 who1 as they did1 would march barefoot and bareheaded at the head of the armies1 exposed now to the heat of the sun1 now to the hoar-frost8 who would command all their passions as they did8 ,there are pious men among us2 but where are the wise men8 where are the resolute1 just and tolerant souls8 ,there have been philosophers of the study in ,france2 and all1 except ,montaigne1 have been persecuted4 ,it is1 ,i think1 the last degree of the malignity of our nature1 to wish to oppress these very philosophers who would correct it4 ,i quite understand that the fanatics of one sect slaughter the enthusiasts of another sect1 that the ,franciscans hate the ,dominicans1 and that a bad artist intrigues to ruin one who surpasses him2 but that the wise ,charron should have been threatened with the loss of his life1 that the learned and generous ,ramus should have been assassinated1 that ,descartes should have been forced to flee to ,holland to escape the fury of the ignorant1 that ,gassendi should have been obliged to withdraw several times to ,digne1 far from the calumnies of ,paris2 these things are a nation's eternal shame4 ,,power1 ,,omnipotence ,i suppose that the man who reads this article is convinced that this world is formed with intelligence1 and that a little astronomy and anatomy suffices to make this universal and supreme intelligence admired4 ,can he know by himself if this intelligence is omnipotent1 that is to say1 infinitely powerful8 ,has he the least notion of the infinite1 to understand what is an infinite power8 ,the celebrated historian philosopher1 ,david ,hume1 says in ,particular ,providence3 ,a weight of ten ounces is lifted in a balance by another weight2 therefore this other weight is of more than ten ounces2 but one can adduce no reason why it should weigh a hundred ounces4 ,one can say likewise3 ,you recognize a supreme intelligence strong enough to form you1 to preserve you for a limited time1 to reward you1 to punish you4 ,do you know enough of this power to demonstrate that it can do still more8 ,how can you prove by your reason that this being can do more than he has done8 ,the life of all animals is short4 ,could he make it longer8 ,all animals are the prey of each other3 everything is born to be devoured4 ,could he form without destroying8 ,you do not know what nature is4 ,you cannot therefore know if nature has not forced him to do only the things he has done4 ,this globe is only a vast field of destruction and carnage4 ,either the great ,being has been able to make of it an eternal abode of delight for all sentient beings1 or ,he has not been able4 ,if ,he has been able and if ,he has not done so1 fear to regard him as malevolent2 but if ,he has not been able1 fear not to look on ,him as a very great power1 circumscribed by nature in ,his limits4 ,whether or no ,his power is infinite does not regard you4 ,it is a matter of indifference to a subject whether his master possesses five hundred leagues of land or five thousand2 he is subject neither more nor less4 ,which would be the greater insult to this ineffable ,being1 to say3 ,he has made miserable men without being able to dispense with them1 or ,he has made them for ,his pleasure8 ,many sects represent ,him as cruel2 others1 for fear of admitting a wicked ,god1 have the audacity to deny ,his existence4 ,is it not better to say that probably the necessity of ,his nature and the necessity of things have determined everything8 ,the world is the theatre of moral ill and physical ill2 one is only too aware of it3 and the ,all is good of ,shaftesbury1 ,bolingbroke and ,pope1 is only a witty paradox1 a poor joke4 ,the two principles of ,zarathustra and ,manes1 so carefully scrutinized by ,bayle1 are a still poorer joke4 ,they are1 as has been observed already1 ,molire's two doctors1 one of whom says to the other3 ,grant me the emetic1 and ,i will grant you the bleeding4 ,manichism is absurd2 and that is why it has had so many supporters4 ,i admit that ,i have not been enlightened by all that ,bayle says about the ,manichans and the ,paulicians4 ,that is controversy2 ,i would have preferred pure philosophy4 ,why discuss our mysteries beside ,zarathustra's8 ,as soon as you dare to treat of our mysteries1 which need only faith and no reasoning1 you open precipices for yourself4 ,the trash in our scholastic theology has nothing to do with the trash in ,zarathustra's reveries4 ,why debate original sin with ,zarathustra8 ,there was never any question of it save in ,st4 ,augustine's time4 ,neither ,zarathustra nor any legislator of antiquity had ever heard speak of it4 ,if you dispute with ,zarathustra1 put under lock and key the old and the new ,testaments which he did not know1 and which one must revere without desiring to explain them4 ,what then should ,i have said to ,zarathustra8 ,my reason cannot admit two gods who fight1 that is good only in a poem where ,minerva quarrels with ,mars4 ,my feeble reason is much more content with a single great ,being1 whose essence was to make1 and who has made all that nature has permitted ,him1 than it is satisfied with two great ,beings1 one of whom spoils the works of the other4 ,your bad principle ,ahriman1 has not been able to upset a single one of the astronomical and physical laws of the good principle ,ormuzd2 everything progresses in the heavens with the greatest regularity4 ,why should the wicked ,ahriman have had power over this little globe of the world8 ,if ,i had been ,ahriman1 ,i should have attacked ,ormuzd in his fine grand provinces of so many suns and stars4 ,i should not have limited myself to making war on him in a little village4 ,there is much evil in this village3 but whence have you the knowledge that this evil is not inevitable8 ,you are forced to admit an intelligence diffused over the universe2 but 7#a7 do you know1 for instance1 if this power reaches right to foreseeing the future8 ,you have asserted it a thousand times2 but you have never been able either to prove it1 or to understand it4 ,you cannot know how any being whatever sees what is not4 ,well1 the future is not2 therefore no being can see it4 ,you are reduced to saying that ,he foresees it2 but foreseeing is conjecturing4 ,this is the opinion of the ,socinians4 ,well1 a ,god who1 according to you1 conjectures1 can be mistaken4 ,in your system ,he is really mistaken2 for if ,he had foreseen that ,his enemy would poison all ,his works here below1 ,he would not have produced them2 ,he would not have prepared for ,himself the shame of being continually vanquished4 7#b7 ,do ,i not do ,him much more honour by saying that ,he has made everything by the necessity of ,his nature1 than you do ,him by raising an enemy who disfigures1 who soils1 who destroys all ,his works here below8 7#c7 ,it is not to have an unworthy idea of ,god to say that1 having formed thousands of millions of worlds where death and evil do not dwell1 it was necessary that evil and death should dwell in this world4 7#d7 ,it is not to disparage ,god to say that ,he could not form man without giving him self-esteem2 that this self-esteem could not lead him without misguiding him almost always2 that his passions are necessary1 but that they are disastrous2 that propagation cannot be executed without desire2 that desire cannot animate man without quarrels2 that these quarrels necessarily bring wars in their train1 etc4 7#e7 ,when he sees part of the combinations of the animal1 vegetable and mineral kingdoms1 and this globe pierced everywhere like a sieve1 from which escape in crowds so many exhalations1 what philosopher will be bold enough1 what scholastic foolish enough to see clearly that nature could stop the effects of volcanoes1 the inclemencies of the atmosphere1 the violence of the winds1 the plagues1 and all the destructive scourges8 7#f7 ,one must be very powerful1 very strong1 very industrious1 to have formed lions which devour bulls1 and to have produced men who invent arms to kill at one blow1 not only bulls and lions1 but even each other4 ,one must be very powerful to have caused to be born spiders which spin webs to catch flies2 but that is not to be omnipotent1 infinitely powerful4 7#g7 ,if the great ,being had been infinitely powerful1 there is no reason why ,he should not have made sentient animals infinitely happy2 ,he has not done so1 therefore ,he was not able4 7#h7 ,all the sects of the philosophers have stranded on the reef of moral and physical ill4 ,it only remains to avow that ,god having acted for the best has not been able to act better4 7#i7 ,this necessity settles all the difficulties and finishes all the disputes4 ,we have not the impudence to say--,all is good4 ,we say--,all is the least bad that is possible4 7#aj7 ,why does a child often die in its mother's womb8 ,why is another who has had the misfortune to be born1 reserved for torments as long as his life1 terminated by a frightful death8 ,why has the source of life been poisoned all over the world since the discovery of ,america8 why since the seventh century of our era does smallpox carry off the eighth part of the human race8 why since all time have bladders been subject to being stone quarries8 why the plague1 war1 famine1 the inquisition8 ,turn in every direction1 you will find no other solution than that everything has been necessary4 ,i speak here to philosophers only and not to theologians4 ,we know well that faith is the thread in the labyrinth4 ,we know that the fall of ,adam and ,eve1 original sin1 the immense power given to the devil1 the predilection accorded by the great ,being to the ,jewish people1 and the baptism substituted for the amputation of the prepuce1 are the answers which explain everything4 ,we have argued only against ,zarathustra and not against the university of ,conimbre or ,combre1 to which we submit in our articles4 ,,prayers ,we do not know any religion without prayers1 even the ,jews had some1 although there was not among them any public form1 until the time when they sang canticles in their synagogues1 which happened very late4 ,all men1 in their desires and their fears1 invoked the aid of a deity4 ,some philosophers1 more respectful to the ,supreme ,being1 and less condescending to human frailty1 for all prayer desired only resignation4 ,it is indeed what seems proper as between creature and creator4 ,but philosophy is not made to govern the world2 she rises above the common herd2 she speaks a language that the crowd cannot understand4 ,it would be suggesting to fishwives that they should study conic sections4 ,even among the philosophers1 ,i do not believe that anyone apart from ,maximus of ,tyre has treated of this matter2 this is the substance of ,maximus' ideas4 ,the ,eternal has ,his intentions from all eternity4 ,if prayer accords with ,his immutable wishes1 it is quite useless to ask of ,him what ,he has resolved to do4 ,if one prays ,him to do the contrary of what ,he has resolved1 it is praying ,him to be weak1 frivolous1 inconstant2 it is believing that ,he is thus1 it is to mock ,him4 ,either you ask ,him a just thing2 in this case ,he must do it1 and the thing will be done without your praying ,him for it2 entreating ,him is even to distrust ,him3 or the thing is unjust1 and then you outrage ,him4 ,you are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore3 if worthy1 ,he knows it better than you2 if unworthy1 you commit a crime the more in asking for what you do not deserve4 ,in a word1 we pray to ,god only because we have made ,him in our own image4 ,we treat ,him like a pasha1 like a sultan whom one may provoke and appease4 ,in short1 all nations pray to ,god3 wise men resign themselves and obey ,him4 ,let us pray with the people1 and resign ourselves with the wise men4 ,,pr,,cis ,,of ,,ancient ,,philosophy ,i have spent nearly forty years of my pilgrimage in two or three corners of this world seeking the philosopher's stone that is called ,truth4 ,i have consulted all the adepts of antiquity1 ,epicurus and ,augustine1 ,plato and ,malebranche1 and ,i have remained in my poverty4 ,maybe in all these philosophers' crucibles there are one or two ounces of gold2 but all the rest is residue1 dull mud1 from which nothing can be born4 ,it seems to me that the ,greeks our masters wrote much more to show their intelligence than that they used their intelligence in order to learn4 ,i do not see a single author of antiquity who had a coherent system1 a clear1 methodical system progressing from consequence to consequence4 ,when ,i wanted to compare and combine the systems of ,plato1 of the preceptor of ,alexander1 of ,pythagoras and of the ,orientals1 here1 more or less1 is what ,i was able to gather3 ,chance is a word empty of sense2 nothing can exist without a cause4 ,the world is arranged according to mathematical laws2 it is therefore arranged by an intelligence4 ,it is not an intelligent being such as ,i am1 who directed the formation of this world1 for ,i cannot form a mite2 therefore this world is the work of a prodigiously superior intelligence4 ,does this being1 who possesses intelligence and power in so high a degree1 exist necessarily8 ,it must be so1 for either the being received existence from another1 or from its own nature4 ,if the being received existence from another1 which is very difficult to imagine1 ,i must have recourse to this other1 and this other will be the prime author4 ,to whichever side ,i turn ,i have to admit a prime author1 potent and intelligent1 who is such necessarily by his own nature4 ,did this prime author produce things out of nothing8 that is not imaginable2 to create out of nothing is to change nothing into something4 ,i must not admit such a production unless ,i find invincible reasons which force me to admit what my intelligence can never comprehend4 ,all that exists appears to exist necessarily1 since it exists4 ,for if to-day there is a reason for the existence of things1 there was one yesterday1 there was one in all time2 and this cause must always have had its effect1 without which it would have been during eternity a useless cause4 ,but how shall things have always existed1 being visibly under the hand of the prime author8 ,this power therefore must always have acted2 in the same way1 nearly1 that there is no sun without light1 so there is no movement without a being that passes from one point of space to another point4 ,there is therefore a potent and intelligent being who has always acted2 and if this being had never acted1 of what use would his existence have been to him8 ,all things are therefore eternal emanations of this prime author4 ,but how imagine that stone and mud are emanations of the eternal ,being1 potent and intelligent8 ,of two things one1 either the matter of this stone and this mud exist necessarily by themselves1 or they exist necessarily through this prime author2 there is no middle course4 ,thus1 therefore1 there are only two choices to make1 admit either matter eternal by itself1 or matter issuing eternally from the potent1 intelligent eternal ,being4 ,but1 either subsisting by its own nature1 or emanated from the producing ,being1 it exists from all eternity1 because it exists1 and there is no reason why it should not have existed before4 ,if matter is eternally necessary1 it is therefore impossible1 it is therefore contradictory that it does not exist2 but what man can affirm that it is impossible1 that it is contradictory that this pebble and this fly have not existence8 ,one is1 nevertheless1 forced to suppress this difficulty which astonishes the imagination more than it contradicts the principles of reasoning4 ,in fact1 as soon as you have imagined that everything has emanated from the supreme and intelligent ,being1 that nothing has emanated from the ,being without reason1 that this ,being existing always1 must always have acted1 that consequently all things must have eternally issued from the womb of ,his existence1 you should no more refuse to believe in the matter of which this pebble and this fly1 an eternal production1 are formed1 than you refuse to imagine light as an eternal emanation from the omnipotent ,being4 ,since ,i am a being with extension and thought1 my extension and my thought are therefore necessary productions of this ,being4 ,it is evident to me that ,i cannot give myself either extension or thought4 ,i have therefore received both from this necessary ,being4 ,can ,he give me what ,he has not8 ,i have intelligence and ,i am in space2 therefore ,he is intelligent1 and ,he is in space4 ,to say that this eternal ,being1 this omnipotent ,god1 has from all time necessarily filled the universe with ,his productions1 is not to deprive ,him of ,his liberty2 on the contrary1 for liberty is only the power of acting4 ,god has always acted to the full2 therefore ,god has always made use of the fullness of ,his liberty4 ,the liberty that is called liberty of indifference is a phrase without idea1 an absurdity2 for it would be determination without reason2 it would be an effect without a cause4 ,therefore1 ,god cannot have this so-called liberty which is a contradiction in terms4 ,he has therefore always acted through this same necessity which makes ,his existence4 ,it is therefore impossible for the world to be without ,god1 it is impossible for ,god to be without the world4 ,this world is filled with beings who succeed each other1 therefore ,god has always produced beings who succeed each other4 ,these preliminary assertions are the basis of the ancient ,oriental philosophy and of that of the ,greeks4 ,one must except ,democritus and ,epicurus1 whose corpuscular philosophy combated these dogmas4 ,but let us remark that the ,epicureans relied on an entirely erroneous natural philosophy1 and that the metaphysical system of all the other philosophers holds good with all the systems of natural philosophy4 ,the whole of nature1 excepting the vacuum1 contradicts ,epicurus2 and no phenomenon contradicts the philosophy which ,i have just explained4 ,well1 is not a philosophy which is in accord with all that passes in nature1 and which contents the most careful minds1 superior to all other non-revealed systems8 ,after the assertions of the ancient philosophers1 which ,i have reconciled as far as has been possible for me1 what is left to us8 a chaos of doubts and chimeras4 ,i do not think that there has ever been a philosopher with a system who did not at the end of his life avow that he had wasted his time4 ,it must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to mankind than the inventors of syllogisms3 the man who invented the shuttle surpasses with a vengeance the man who imagined innate ideas4 ,,prejudices ,prejudice is an opinion without judgment4 ,thus all over the world do people inspire children with all the opinions they desire1 before the children can judge4 ,there are some universal1 necessary prejudices1 which even make virtue4 ,in all countries children are taught to recognize a rewarding and revenging ,god2 to respect and love their father and their mother2 to look on theft as a crime1 selfish lying as a vice before they can guess what is a vice and what a virtue4 ,there are then some very good prejudices2 they are those which are ratified by judgment when one reasons4 ,sentiment is not a simple prejudice2 it is something much stronger4 ,a mother does not love her son because she has been told she must love him2 she cherishes him happily in spite of herself4 ,it is not through prejudice that you run to the help of an unknown child about to fall into a precipice1 or be eaten by a beast4 ,but it is through prejudice that you will respect a man clad in certain clothes1 walking gravely1 speaking likewise4 ,your parents have told you that you should bow before this man2 you respect him before knowing whether he merits your respect2 you grow in years and in knowledge2 you perceive that this man is a charlatan steeped in arrogance1 self-interest and artifice2 you despise what you revered1 and the prejudice cedes to judgment4 ,through prejudice you have believed the fables with which your childhood was cradled2 you have been told that the ,titans made war on the gods1 and ,venus was amorous of ,adonis2 when you are twelve you accept these fables as truths2 when you are twenty you look on them as ingenious allegories4 ,let us examine briefly the different sorts of prejudices1 so as to set our affairs in order4 ,we shall be perhaps like those who1 at the time of ,law's system1 perceived that they had calculated imaginary riches4 ,,prejudices ,,of ,,the ,,senses ,is it not strange that our eyes always deceive us1 even when we have very good sight1 and that on the contrary our ears do not deceive us8 ,let your well-informed ear hear ,you are beautiful1 ,i love you2 it is quite certain that someone has not said ,i hate you1 you are ugly3 but you see a smooth mirror2 it is demonstrated that you are mistaken1 it has a very uneven surface4 ,you see the sun as about two feet in diameter2 it is demonstrated that it is a million times bigger than the earth4 ,it seems that ,god has put truth in your ears1 and error in your eyes2 but study optics1 and you will see that ,god has not deceived you1 and that it is impossible for objects to appear to you otherwise than you see them in the present state of things4 ,,physical ,,prejudices ,the sun rises1 the moon also1 the earth is motionless3 these are natural physical prejudices4 ,but that lobsters are good for the blood1 because when cooked they are red2 that eels cure paralysis because they wriggle2 that the moon affects our maladies because one day someone observed that a sick man had an increase of fever during the waning of the moon2 these ideas and a thousand others are the errors of ancient charlatans who judged without reasoning1 and who1 being deceived1 deceived others4 ,,historical ,,prejudices ,most historical stories have been believed without examination1 and this belief is a prejudice4 ,fabius ,pictor relates that many centuries before him1 a vestal of the town of ,alba1 going to draw water in her pitcher1 was ravished1 that she gave birth to ,romulus and ,remus1 that they were fed by a she-wolf1 etc4 ,the ,roman people believed this fable2 they did not examine whether at that time there were vestals in ,latium1 whether it were probable that a king's daughter would leave her convent with her pitcher1 whether it were likely that a she-wolf would suckle two children instead of eating them2 the prejudice established itself4 ,a monk writes that ,clovis1 being in great danger at the battle of ,tolbiac1 made a vow to turn ,christian if he escaped2 but is it natural to address oneself to a foreign god on such an occasion8 is it not then that the religion in which one was born acts most potently8 ,which is the ,christian who1 in a battle against the ,turks1 will not address himself to the ,holy ,virgin rather than to ,mohammed8 ,it is added that a pigeon brought the holy phial in its beak to anoint ,clovis1 and that an angel brought the oriflamme to lead him2 prejudice believed all the little stories of this kind4 ,those who understand human nature know well that ,clovis the usurper and ,rolon 7or ,rol7 the usurper turned ,christian in order to govern the ,christians more surely1 just as the ,turkish usurpers turned ,mussulman in order to govern the ,mussulmans more surely4 ,,religious ,,prejudices ,if your nurse has told you that ,ceres rules over the crops1 or that ,vistnou and ,xaca made themselves men several times1 or that ,sammonocodom came to cut down a forest1 or that ,odin awaits you in his hall near ,jutland1 or that ,mohammed or somebody else made a journey into the sky2 if lastly your tutor comes to drive into your brain what your nurse has imprinted on it you keep it for life4 ,if your judgment wishes to rise against these prejudices1 your neighbours and1 above all1 your neighbours' wives cry out ,impious reprobate1 and dismay you2 your dervish1 fearing to see his income diminish1 accuses you to the cadi1 and this cadi has you impaled if he can1 because he likes ruling over fools1 and thinks that fools obey better than others3 and that will last until your neighbours and the dervish and the cadi begin to understand that foolishness is good for nothing1 and that persecution is abominable4 ,,rare ,rare in natural philosophy is the opposite of dense4 ,in moral philosophy1 it is the opposite of common4 ,this last variety of rare is what excites admiration4 ,one never admires what is common1 one enjoys it4 ,an eccentric thinks himself above the rest of wretched mortals when he has in his study a rare medal that is good for nothing1 a rare book that nobody has the courage to read1 an old engraving by ,albrecht ,durer1 badly designed and badly printed3 he triumphs if he has in his garden a stunted tree from ,america4 ,this eccentric has no taste2 he has only vanity4 ,he has heard say that the beautiful is rare2 but he should know that all that is rare is not beautiful4 ,beauty is rare in all nature's works1 and in all works of art4 ,whatever ill things have been said of women1 ,i maintain that it is rarer to find women perfectly beautiful than passibly good4 ,you will meet in the country ten thousand women attached to their homes1 laborious1 sober1 feeding1 rearing1 teaching their children2 and you will find barely one whom you could show at the theatres of ,paris1 ,london1 ,naples1 or in the public gardens1 and who would be looked on as a beauty4 ,likewise1 in works of art1 you have ten thousand daubs and scrawls to one masterpiece4 ,if everything were beautiful and good1 it is clear that one would no longer admire anything2 one would enjoy4 ,but would one have pleasure in enjoying8 that is a big question4 ,why have the beautiful passages in ,the ,cid1 ,the ,horaces1 ,cinna1 had such a prodigious success8 ,because in the profound night in which people were plunged1 they suddenly saw shine a new light that they did not expect4 ,it was because this beauty was the rarest thing in the world4 ,the groves of ,versailles were a beauty unique in the world1 as were then certain passages of ,corneille4 ,st4 ,peter's1 ,rome1 is unique4 ,but let us suppose that all the churches of ,europe were equal to ,st4 ,peter's1 ,rome1 that all statues were ,venus dei ,medici1 that all tragedies were as beautiful as ,racine's ,iphignie1 all works of poetry as well written as ,boileau's ,art ,potique1 all comedies as good as ,tartufe1 and thus in every sphere2 would you then have as much pleasure in enjoying masterpieces become common as they made you taste when they were rare8 ,i say boldly ,no62 and ,i believe that the ancient school1 which so rarely was right1 was right when it said3 ,ab assuetis non fit passio1 habit does not make passion4 ,but1 my dear reader1 will it be the same with the works of nature8 ,will you be disgusted if all the maids are so beautiful as ,helen2 and you1 ladies1 if all the lads are like ,paris8 ,let us suppose that all wines are excellent1 will you have less desire to drink8 if the partridges1 pheasants1 pullets are common at all times1 will you have less appetite8 ,i say boldly again ,no61 despite the axiom of the schools1 ,habit does not make passion3 and the reason1 you know it1 is that all the pleasures which nature gives us are always recurring needs1 necessary enjoyments1 and that the pleasures of the arts are not necessary4 ,it is not necessary for a man to have groves where water gushes to a height of a hundred feet from the mouth of a marble face1 and on leaving these groves to go to see a fine tragedy4 ,but the two sexes are always necessary to each other4 ,the table and the bed are necessities4 ,the habit of being alternately on these two thrones will never disgust you4 ,in ,paris a few years ago people admired a rhinoceros4 ,if there were in one province ten thousand rhinoceroses1 men would run after them only to kill them4 ,but let there be a hundred thousand beautiful women men will always run after them to 444 honour them4 ,,reason ,at the time when all ,france was mad about ,law's system1 and ,law was controller-general1 there came to him in the presence of a great assembly a man who was always right1 who always had reason on his side4 ,said he to ,law3 ,sir1 you are the biggest madman1 the biggest fool1 or the biggest rogue who has yet appeared among us2 and that is saying a great deal3 this is how ,i prove it4 ,you have imagined that a state's wealth can be increased tenfold with paper2 but as this paper can represent only the money that is representative of true wealth1 the products of the land and industry1 you should have begun by giving us ten times more corn1 wine1 cloth1 canvas1 etc4 ,that is not enough1 you must be sure of your market4 ,but you make ten times as many notes as we have of silver and commodities1 therefore you are ten times more extravagant1 or more inept1 or more of a rogue than all the comptrollers who have preceded you4 ,this is how ,i prove my major4 ,hardly had he started his major than he was conducted to ,saint-,lazare4 ,when he came out of ,saint-,lazare1 where he studied much and strengthened his reason1 he went to ,rome2 he asked for a public audience of the ,pope1 on condition that he was not interrupted in his harangue2 and he spoke to the ,pope in these terms3 ,holy ,father1 you are an antichrist and this is how ,i prove it to ,your ,holiness4 ,i call antichrist the man who does the contrary to what ,christ did and commanded4 ,now ,christ was poor1 and you are very rich2 he paid tribute1 and you exact tribute2 he submitted to the powers that were1 and you have become a power2 he walked on foot1 and you go to ,castel-,gandolfo in a sumptuous equipage2 he ate all that one was so good as to give him1 and you want us to eat fish on ,friday and ,saturday1 when we live far from sea and river2 he forbade ,simon ,barjona to use a sword1 and you have swords in your service1 etc41 etc41 etc4 ,therefore in this sense ,your ,holiness is antichrist4 ,in every other sense ,i hold you in great veneration1 and ,i ask you for an indulgence in articulo mortis4 ,my man was put in the ,castello ,st4 ,angelo4 ,when he came out of the ,castello ,st4 ,angelo1 he rushed to ,venice1 and asked to speak to the doge4 ,your ,serenity1 he said1 must be a scatter-brain to marry the sea every year3 for firstly1 one only marries the same person once2 secondly1 your marriage resembles ,harlequin's which was half made1 seeing that it lacked but the consent of the bride2 thirdly1 who has told you that one day other maritime powers will not declare you incapable of consummating the marriage8 ,he spoke1 and was shut up in the ,tower of ,st4 ,mark's4 ,when he came out of the ,tower of ,st4 ,mark's1 he went to ,constantinople2 he had audience of the mufti2 and spoke to him in these terms3 ,your religion1 although it has some good points1 such as worship of the great ,being1 and the necessity of being just and charitable1 is otherwise nothing but a rehash of ,judaism and a tedious collection of fairy tales4 ,if the archangel ,gabriel had brought the leaves of the ,koran to ,mahomet from some planet1 all ,arabia would have seen ,gabriel come down3 nobody saw him2 therefore ,mahomet was a brazen impostor who deceived imbeciles4 ,hardly had he pronounced these words than he was impaled4 ,nevertheless he had always been right1 and had always had reason on his side4 ,,religion ,i meditated last night2 ,i was absorbed in the contemplation of nature2 ,i admired the immensity1 the course1 the harmony of these infinite globes which the vulgar do not know how to admire4 ,i admired still more the intelligence which directs these vast forces4 ,i said to myself3 ,one must be blind not to be dazzled by this spectacle2 one must be stupid not to recognize the author of it2 one must be mad not to worship ,him4 ,what tribute of worship should ,i render ,him8 ,should not this tribute be the same in the whole of space1 since it is the same supreme power which reigns equally in all space8 ,should not a thinking being who dwells in a star in the ,milky ,way offer ,him the same homage as the thinking being on this little globe where we are8 ,light is uniform for the star ,sirius and for us2 moral philosophy must be uniform4 ,if a sentient1 thinking animal in ,sirius is born of a tender father and mother who have been occupied with his happiness1 he owes them as much love and care as we owe to our parents4 ,if someone in the ,milky ,way sees a needy cripple1 if he can relieve him and if he does not do it1 he is guilty toward all globes4 ,everywhere the heart has the same duties3 on the steps of the throne of ,god1 if ,he has a throne2 and in the depth of the abyss1 if ,he is an abyss4 ,i was plunged in these ideas when one of those genii who fill the intermundane spaces came down to me4 ,i recognized this same aerial creature who had appeared to me on another occasion to teach me how different ,god's judgments were from our own1 and how a good action is preferable to a controversy4 ,he transported me into a desert all covered with piled up bones2 and between these heaps of dead men there were walks of ever-green trees1 and at the end of each walk a tall man of august mien1 who regarded these sad remains with pity4 ,alas6 my archangel1 said ,i1 where have you brought me8 ,to desolation1 he answered4 ,and who are these fine patriarchs whom ,i see sad and motionless at the end of these green walks8 they seem to be weeping over this countless crowd of dead4 ,you shall know1 poor human creature1 answered the genius from the intermundane spaces2 but first of all you must weep4 ,he began with the first pile4 ,these1 he said1 are the twenty-three thousand ,jews who danced before a calf1 with the twenty-four thousand who were killed while lying with ,midianitish women4 ,the number of those massacred for such errors and offences amounts to nearly three hundred thousand4 ,in the other walks are the bones of the ,christians slaughtered by each other for metaphysical disputes4 ,they are divided into several heaps of four centuries each4 ,one heap would have mounted right to the sky2 they had to be divided4 ,what6 ,i cried1 brothers have treated their brothers like this1 and ,i have the misfortune to be of this brotherhood6 ,here1 said the spirit1 are the twelve million ,americans killed in their fatherland because they had not been baptized4 ,my ,god6 why did you not leave these frightful bones to dry in the hemisphere where their bodies were born1 and where they were consigned to so many different deaths8 ,why assemble here all these abominable monuments to barbarism and fanaticism8 ,to instruct you4 ,since you wish to instruct me1 ,i said to the genius1 tell me if there have been peoples other than the ,christians and the ,jews in whom zeal and religion wretchedly transformed into fanaticism1 have inspired so many horrible cruelties4 ,yes1 he said4 ,the ,mohammedans were sullied with the same inhumanities1 but rarely2 and when one asked amman1 pity1 of them and offered them tribute1 they pardoned4 ,as for the other nations there has not been one right from the existence of the world which has ever made a purely religious war4 ,follow me now4 ,i followed him4 ,a little beyond these piles of dead men we found other piles2 they were composed of sacks of gold and silver1 and each had its label3 ,substance of the heretics massacred in the eighteenth century1 the seventeenth and the sixteenth4 ,and so on in going back3 ,gold and silver of ,americans slaughtered1 etc41 etc4 ,and all these piles were surmounted with crosses1 mitres1 croziers1 triple crowns studded with precious stones4 ,what1 my genius6 it was then to have these riches that these dead were piled up8 ,yes1 my son4 ,i wept2 and when by my grief ,i had merited to be led to the end of the green walks1 he led me there4 ,contemplate1 he said1 the heroes of humanity who were the world's benefactors1 and who were all united in banishing from the world1 as far as they were able1 violence and rapine4 ,question them4 ,i ran to the first of the band2 he had a crown on his head1 and a little censer in his hand2 ,i humbly asked him his name4 ,i am ,numa ,pompilius1 he said to me4 ,i succeeded a brigand1 and ,i had brigands to govern3 ,i taught them virtue and the worship of ,god2 after me they forgot both more than once2 ,i forbade that in the temples there should be any image1 because the ,deity which animates nature cannot be represented4 ,during my reign the ,romans had neither wars nor seditions1 and my religion did nothing but good4 ,all the neighbouring peoples came to honour me at my funeral3 that happened to no one but me4 ,i kissed his hand1 and ,i went to the second4 ,he was a fine old man about a hundred years old1 clad in a white robe4 ,he put his middle-finger on his mouth1 and with the other hand he cast some beans behind him4 ,i recognized ,pythagoras4 ,he assured me he had never had a golden thigh1 and that he had never been a cock2 but that he had governed the ,crotoniates with as much justice as ,numa governed the ,romans1 almost at the same time2 and that this justice was the rarest and most necessary thing in the world4 ,i learned that the ,pythagoreans examined their consciences twice a day4 ,the honest people6 how far we are from them6 ,but we who have been nothing but assassins for thirteen hundred years1 we say that these wise men were arrogant4 ,in order to please ,pythagoras1 ,i did not say a word to him and ,i passed to ,zarathustra1 who was occupied in concentrating the celestial fire in the focus of a concave mirror1 in the middle of a hall with a hundred doors which all led to wisdom4 7,zarathustra's precepts are called doors1 and are a hundred in number47 ,over the principal door ,i read these words which are the prcis of all moral philosophy1 and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists3 ,when in doubt if an action is good or bad1 refrain4 ,certainly1 ,i said to my genius1 the barbarians who immolated all these victims had never read these beautiful words4 ,we then saw the ,zaleucus1 the ,thales1 the ,aniximanders1 and all the sages who had sought truth and practised virtue4 ,when we came to ,socrates1 ,i recognized him very quickly by his flat nose4 ,well1 ,i said to him1 here you are then among the number of the ,almighty's confidants6 ,all the inhabitants of ,europe1 except the ,turks and the ,tartars of the ,crimea1 who know nothing1 pronounce your name with respect4 ,it is revered1 loved1 this great name1 to the point that people have wanted to know those of your persecutors4 ,melitus and ,anitus are known because of you1 just as ,ravaillac is known because of ,henry ,,iv42 but ,i know only this name of ,anitus4 ,i do not know precisely who was the scoundrel who calumniated you1 and who succeeded in having you condemned to take hemlock4 ,since my adventure1 replied ,socrates1 ,i have never thought about that man2 but seeing that you make me remember it1 ,i have much pity for him4 ,he was a wicked priest who secretly conducted a business in hides1 a trade reputed shameful among us4 ,he sent his two children to my school4 ,the other disciples taunted them with having a father who was a currier2 they were obliged to leave4 ,the irritated father had no rest until he had stirred up all the priests and all the sophists against me4 ,they persuaded the counsel of the five hundred that ,i was an impious fellow who did not believe that the ,moon1 ,mercury and ,mars were gods4 ,indeed1 ,i used to think1 as ,i think now1 that there is only one ,god1 master of all nature4 ,the judges handed me over to the poisoner of the republic2 he cut short my life by a few days3 ,i died peacefully at the age of seventy2 and since that time ,i pass a happy life with all these great men whom you see1 and of whom ,i am the least4 ,after enjoying some time in conversation with ,socrates1 ,i went forward with my guide into a grove situated above the thickets where all the sages of antiquity seemed to be tasting sweet repose4 ,i saw a man of gentle1 simple countenance1 who seemed to me to be about thirty-five years old4 ,from afar he cast compassionate glances on these piles of whitened bones1 across which ,i had had to pass to reach the sages' abode4 ,i was astonished to find his feet swollen and bleeding1 his hands likewise1 his side pierced1 and his ribs flayed with whip cuts4 ,good ,heavens6 ,i said to him1 is it possible for a just man1 a sage1 to be in this state8 ,i have just seen one who was treated in a very hateful way1 but there is no comparison between his torture and yours4 ,wicked priests and wicked judges poisoned him2 is it by priests and judges that you have been so cruelly assassinated8 ,he answered with much courtesy--,yes4 ,and who were these monsters8 ,they were hypocrites4 ,ah6 that says everything2 ,i understand by this single word that they must have condemned you to death4 ,had you then proved to them1 as ,socrates did1 that the ,moon was not a goddess1 and that ,mercury was not a god8 ,no1 these planets were not in question4 ,my compatriots did not know at all what a planet is2 they were all arrant ignoramuses4 ,their superstitions were quite different from those of the ,greeks4 ,you wanted to teach them a new religion1 then8 ,not at all2 ,i said to them simply--',love ,god with all your heart and your fellow-creature as yourself1 for that is man's whole duty4' ,judge if this precept is not as old as the universe2 judge if ,i brought them a new religion4 ,i did not stop telling them that ,i had come not to destroy the law but to fulfil it2 ,i had observed all their rites2 circumcised as they all were1 baptized as were the most zealous among them1 like them ,i paid the ,corban2 ,i observed the ,passover as they did1 eating standing up a lamb cooked with lettuces4 ,i and my friends went to pray in the temple2 my friends even frequented this temple after my death2 in a word1 ,i fulfilled all their laws without a single exception4 ,what6 these wretches could not even reproach you with swerving from their laws8 ,no1 without a doubt4 ,why then did they put you in the condition in which ,i now see you8 ,what do you expect me to say6 they were very arrogant and selfish4 ,they saw that ,i knew them2 they knew that ,i was making the citizens acquainted with them2 they were the stronger2 they took away my life3 and people like them will always do as much1 if they can1 to whoever does them too much justice4 ,but did you say nothing1 do nothing that could serve them as a pretext8 ,to the wicked everything serves as pretext4 ,did you not say once that you were come not to send peace1 but a sword8 ,it is a copyist's error2 ,i told them that ,i sent peace and not a sword4 ,i have never written anything2 what ,i said can have been changed without evil intention4 ,you therefore contributed in no way by your speeches1 badly reported1 badly interpreted1 to these frightful piles of bones which ,i saw on my road in coming to consult you8 ,it is with horror only that ,i have seen those who have made themselves guilty of these murders4 ,and these monuments of power and wealth1 of pride and avarice1 these treasures1 these ornaments1 these signs of grandeur1 which ,i have seen piled up on the road while ,i was seeking wisdom1 do they come from you8 ,that is impossible2 ,i and my people lived in poverty and meanness3 my grandeur was in virtue only4 ,i was about to beg him to be so good as to tell me just who he was4 ,my guide warned me to do nothing of the sort4 ,he told me that ,i was not made to understand these sublime mysteries4 ,only did ,i conjure him to tell me in what true religion consisted4 ,have ,i not already told you8 ,love ,god and your fellow-creature as yourself4 ,what6 if one loves ,god1 one can eat meat on ,friday8 ,i always ate what was given me2 for ,i was too poor to give anyone food4 ,in loving ,god1 in being just1 should one not be rather cautious not to confide all the adventures of one's life to an unknown man8 ,that was always my practice4 ,can ,i not1 by doing good1 dispense with making a pilgrimage to ,st4 ,james of ,compostella8 ,i have never been in that country4 ,is it necessary for me to imprison myself in a retreat with fools8 ,as for me1 ,i always made little journeys from town to town4 ,is it necessary for me to take sides either for the ,greek ,church or the ,latin8 ,when ,i was in the world ,i never made any difference between the ,jew and the ,samaritan4 ,well1 if that is so1 ,i take you for my only master4 ,then he made me a sign with his head which filled me with consolation4 ,the vision disappeared1 and a clear conscience stayed with me4 ,,sect ,,section ,i ,every sect1 in whatever sphere1 is the rallying-point of doubt and error4 ,scotist1 ,thomist1 ,realist1 ,nominalist1 ,papist1 ,calvinist1 ,molinist1 ,jansenist1 are only pseudonyms4 ,there are no sects in geometry2 one does not speak of a ,euclidian1 an ,archimedean4 ,when the truth is evident1 it is impossible for parties and factions to arise4 ,never has there been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon4 ,the branch of astronomy which determines the course of the stars and the return of eclipses being once known1 there is no more dispute among astronomers4 ,in ,england one does not say--,i am a ,newtonian1 a ,lockian1 a ,halleyan4 ,why8 ,those who have read cannot refuse their assent to the truths taught by these three great men4 ,the more ,newton is revered1 the less do people style themselves ,newtonians2 this word supposes that there are anti-,newtonians in ,england4 ,maybe we still have a few ,cartesians in ,france2 that is solely because ,descartes' system is a tissue of erroneous and ridiculous imaginings4 ,it is likewise with the small number of truths of fact which are well established4 ,the records of the ,tower of ,london having been authentically gathered by ,rymer1 there are no ,rymerians1 because it occurs to no one to combat this collection4 ,in it one finds neither contradictions1 absurdities nor prodigies2 nothing which revolts the reason1 nothing1 consequently1 which sectarians strive to maintain or upset by absurd arguments4 ,everyone agrees1 therefore1 that ,rymer's records are worthy of belief4 ,you are ,mohammedan1 therefore there are people who are not1 therefore you might well be wrong4 ,what would be the true religion if ,christianity did not exist8 the religion in which there were no sects2 the religion in which all minds were necessarily in agreement4 ,well1 to what dogma do all minds agree8 to the worship of a ,god and to integrity4 ,all the philosophers of the world who have had a religion have said in all time--,there is a ,god1 and one must be just4 ,there1 then1 is the universal religion established in all time and throughout mankind4 ,the point in which they all agree is therefore true1 and the systems through which they differ are therefore false4 ,my sect is the best1 says a ,brahmin to me4 ,but1 my friend1 if your sect is good1 it is necessary2 for if it were not absolutely necessary you would admit to me that it was useless3 if it is absolutely necessary1 it is for all men2 how then can it be that all men have not what is absolutely necessary to them8 ,how is it possible for the rest of the world to laugh at you and your ,brahma8 ,when ,zarathustra1 ,hermes1 ,orpheus1 ,minos and all the great men say--,let us worship ,god1 and let us be just1 nobody laughs2 but everyone hisses the man who claims that one cannot please ,god unless when one dies one is holding a cow's tail1 and the man who wants one to have the end of one's prepuce cut off1 and the man who consecrates crocodiles and onions1 and the man who attaches eternal salvation to the dead men's bones one carries under one's shirt1 or to a plenary indulgence which one buys at ,rome for two and a half sous4 ,whence comes this universal competition in hisses and derision from one end of the world to the other8 ,it is clear that the things at which everyone sneers are not of a very evident truth4 ,what shall we say of one of ,sejan's secretaries who dedicated to ,petronius a bombastic book entitled--,the ,truths of the ,sibylline ,oracles1 ,proved by the ,facts8 ,this secretary proves to you first that it was necessary for ,god to send on earth several sibyls one after the other2 for ,he had no other means of teaching mankind4 ,it is demonstrated that ,god spoke to these sibyls1 for the word sibyl signifies ,god's counsel4 ,they had to live a long time1 for it is the very least that persons to whom ,god speaks should have this privilege4 ,they were twelve in number1 for this number is sacred4 ,they had certainly predicted all the events in the world1 for ,tarquinius ,superbus bought three of their ,books from an old woman for a hundred crowns4 ,what incredulous fellow1 adds the secretary1 will dare deny all these evident facts which happened in a corner before the whole world8 ,who can deny the fulfilment of their prophecies8 ,has not ,virgil himself quoted the predictions of the sibyls8 ,if we have not the first examples of the ,sibylline ,books1 written at a time when people did not know how to read or write1 have we not authentic copies8 ,impiety must be silent before such proofs4 ,thus did ,houttevillus speak to ,sejan4 ,he hoped to have a position as augur which would be worth an income of fifty thousand francs1 and he had nothing4#bj ,what my sect teaches is obscure1 ,i admit it1 says a fanatic2 and it is because of this obscurity that it must be believed2 for the sect itself says it is full of obscurities4 ,my sect is extravagant1 therefore it is divine2 for how should what appears so mad have been embraced by so many peoples1 if it were not divine8 ,it is precisely like the ,alcoran which the ,sonnites say has an angel's face and an animal's snout2 be not scandalized by the animal's snout1 and worship the angel's face4 ,thus speaks this insensate fellow4 ,but a fanatic of another sect answers--,it is you who are the animal1 and ,i who am the angel4 ,well1 who shall judge the suit8 who shall decide between these two fanatics8 ,the reasonable1 impartial man learned in a knowledge that is not that of words2 the man free from prejudice and lover of truth and justice2 in short1 the man who is not the foolish animal1 and who does not think he is the angel4 ,,section ,,ii ,sect and error are synonymous4 ,you are ,peripatetic and ,i ,platonician2 we are therefore both wrong2 for you combat ,plato only because his fantasies have revolted you1 and ,i am alienated from ,aristotle only because it seems to me that he does not know what he is talking about4 ,if one or the other had demonstrated the truth1 there would be a sect no longer4 ,to declare oneself for the opinion of the one or the other is to take sides in a civil war4 ,there are no sects in mathematics1 in experimental physics4 ,a man who examines the relations between a cone and a sphere is not of the sect of ,archimedes3 he who sees that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the square of the two other sides is not of the sect of ,pythagoras4 ,when you say that the blood circulates1 that the air is heavy1 that the sun's rays are pencils of seven refrangible rays1 you are not either of the sect of ,harvey1 or the sect of ,torricelli1 or the sect of ,newton2 you agree merely with the truth demonstrated by them1 and the entire universe will ever be of your opinion4 ,this is the character of truth2 it is of all time2 it is for all men2 it has only to show itself to be recognized2 one cannot argue against it4 ,a long dispute signifies--,both parties are wrong4 ,,footnotes3 #bj ,reference to the ,abb ,houtteville1 author of a book entitled--,the ,truth of the ,christian ,religion1 ,proved by the ,facts4 ,,self-,,esteem ,nicole in his ,essais de ,morale1 written after two or three thousand volumes of ethics 7,treatise on ,charity1 ,chap4 ,,ii71 says that by means of the wheels and gibbets which people establish in common are repressed the tyrannous thoughts and designs of each individual's self-esteem4 ,i shall not examine whether people have gibbets in common1 as they have meadows and woods in common1 and a common purse1 and if one represses ideas with wheels2 but it seems very strange to me that ,nicole should take highway robbery and assassination for self-esteem4 ,one should distinguish shades of difference a little better4 ,the man who said that ,nero had his mother assassinated through self-esteem1 that ,cartouche had much self-esteem1 would not be expressing himself very correctly4 ,self-esteem is not wickedness1 it is a sentiment that is natural to all men2 it is much nearer vanity than crime4 ,a beggar in the suburbs of ,madrid nobly begged charity2 a passer-by says to him3 ,are you not ashamed to practise this infamous calling when you are able to work8 ,sir1 answered the beggar1 ,i ask for money1 not advice4 ,and he turned on his heel with full ,castillian dignity4 ,this gentleman was a proud beggar1 his vanity was wounded by a trifle4 ,he asked charity out of love for himself1 and could not tolerate the reprimand out of further love for himself4 ,a missionary travelling in ,india met a fakir laden with chains1 naked as a monkey1 lying on his stomach1 and having himself whipped for the sins of his compatriots1 the ,indians1 who gave him a few farthings4 ,what self-denial6 said one of the lookers-on4 ,self-denial6 answered the fakir4 ,learn that ,i have myself flogged in this world in order to return it in another1 when you will be horses and ,i horseman4 ,those who have said that love of ourselves is the basis of all our opinions and all our actions1 have therefore been quite right in ,india1 ,spain1 and all the habitable world3 and as one does not write to prove to men that they have faces1 it is not necessary to prove to them that they have self-esteem4 ,self-esteem is the instrument of our conservation2 it resembles the instrument of the perpetuity of the species3 it is necessary1 it is dear to us1 it gives us pleasure1 and it has to be hidden4 ,,soul ,,section ,i ,this is a vague1 indeterminate term1 which expresses an unknown principle of known effects that we feel in us4 ,the word soul corresponds to the ,latin anima1 to the ,greek pneuma1 to the term of which all nations have made use to express what they did not understand any better than we do4 ,in the proper and literal sense of the ,latin and the languages derived from ,latin1 it signifies that which animates4 ,thus people have spoken of the soul of men1 of animals1 sometimes of plants1 to signify their principal of vegetation and life4 ,in pronouncing this word1 people have never had other than a confused idea1 as when it is said in ,genesis--,and the ,lord ,god formed man of the dust of the ground1 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life2 and man became a living soul2 and the soul of animals is in the blood2 and kill not my soul1 etc4 ,thus the soul was generally taken for the origin and the cause of life1 for life itself4 ,that is why all known nations long imagined that everything died with the body4 ,if one can disentangle anything in the chaos of ancient histories1 it seems that the ,egyptians at least were the first to distinguish between the intelligence and the soul3 and the ,greeks learned from them to distinguish their nous1 their pneuma1 their skia4 ,the ,latins1 following their example1 distinguish animus and anima2 and we1 finally1 have also had our soul and our understanding4 ,but is that which is the principle of our life different from that which is the principle of our thoughts8 is it the same being8 ,does that which directs us and gives us sensation and memory resemble that which is in animals the cause of digestion and the cause of their sensations and of their memory8 ,there is the eternal object of the disputes of mankind2 ,i say eternal object2 for not having any first notion from which we can descend in this examination1 we can only rest for ever in a labyrinth of doubt and feeble conjecture4 ,we have not the smallest step where we may place a foot in order to reach the most superficial knowledge of what makes us live and of what makes us think4 ,how should we have8 we should have had to see life and thought enter a body4 ,does a father know how he has produced his son8 does a mother how she conceived him8 ,has anyone ever been able to divine how he acts1 how he wakes1 how he sleeps8 ,does anyone know how his limbs obey his will8 has anyone discovered by what art ideas are marked out in his brain and issue from it at his command8 ,frail automatons moved by the invisible hand which directs us on this stage of the world1 which of us has been able to detect the wire which guides us8 ,we dare question whether the soul is spirit or matter2 if it is created before us1 if it issues from non-existence at our birth1 if after animating us for one day on earth1 it lives after us into eternity4 ,these questions appear sublime2 what are they8 questions of blind men saying to other blind men--,what is light8 ,when we want to learn something roughly about a piece of metal1 we put it in a crucible in the fire4 ,but have we a crucible in which to put the soul8 ,the soul is spirit1 says one4 ,but what is spirit8 ,assuredly no one has any idea2 it is a word that is so void of sense that one is obliged to say what spirit is not1 not being able to say what it is4 ,the soul is matter1 says another4 ,but what is matter8 ,we know merely some of its appearances and some of its properties2 and not one of these properties1 not one of these appearances1 seems to have the slightest connection with thought4 ,thought is something distinct from matter1 say you4 ,but what proof of it have you8 ,is it because matter is divisible and figurable1 and thought is not8 ,but who has told you that the first principles of matter are divisible and figurable8 ,it is very probable that they are not2 entire sects of philosophers maintain that the elements of matter have neither form nor extension4 ,with a triumphant air you cry--,thought is neither wood1 nor stone1 nor sand1 nor metal1 therefore thought does not belong to matter4 ,weak1 reckless reasoners6 gravitation is neither wood1 nor sand1 nor metal1 nor stone2 movement1 vegetation1 life are not these things either1 and yet life1 vegetation1 movement1 gravitation1 are given to matter4 ,to say that ,god cannot make matter think is to say the most insolently absurd thing that anyone has ever dared utter in the privileged schools of lunacy4 ,we are not certain that ,god has treated matter like this2 we are only certain that ,he can4 ,but what matters all that has been said and all that will be said about the soul8 what does it matter that it has been called entelechy1 quintessence1 flame1 ether8 that it has been thought universal1 uncreated1 transmigrant1 etc48 ,in these matters that are inaccessible to the reason1 what do these romances of our uncertain imaginations matter8 ,what does it matter that the ,fathers of the first four centuries thought the soul corporeal8 ,what does it matter that ,tertullian1 by a contradiction frequent in him1 has decided that it is simultaneously corporeal1 formed and simple8 ,we have a thousand witnesses to ignorance1 and not one that gives a glimmer of probability4 ,how then are we so bold as to assert what the soul is8 ,we know certainly that we exist1 that we feel1 that we think4 ,do we want to take a step beyond8 we fall into a shadowy abyss2 and in this abyss we are still so madly reckless as to dispute whether this soul1 of which we have not the least idea1 was made before us or with us1 and whether it perishes or is immortal4 ,the article ,,soul1 and all the articles of the nature of metaphysics1 must start by a sincere submission to the incontrovertible dogmas of the ,church4 ,revelation is worth more1 without doubt1 than the whole of philosophy4 ,systems exercise the mind1 but faith illumines and guides it4 ,do we not often pronounce words of which we have only a very confused idea1 or even of which we have none at all8 ,is not the word soul an instance8 ,when the clapper or valve of a bellows is out of order1 and when air which is in the bellows leaves it by some unexpected opening in this valve1 so that it is no longer compressed against the two blades1 and is not thrust violently towards the hearth which it has to light1 ,french servants say--,the soul of the bellows has burst4 ,they know no more about it than that2 and this question in no wise disturbs their peace of mind4 ,the gardener utters the phrase the soul of the plants1 and cultivates them very well without knowing what he means by this term4 ,the violin-maker poses1 draws forward or back the soul of a violin beneath the bridge in the belly of the instrument2 a puny piece of wood more or less gives the violin or takes away from it a harmonious soul4 ,we have many industries in which the workmen give the qualification of soul to their machines4 ,never does one hear them dispute about this word4 ,such is not the case with philosophers4 ,for us the word soul signifies generally that which animates4 ,our ancestors the ,celts gave to their soul the name of seel1 from which the ,english soul1 and the ,german seel2 and probably the ancient ,teutons and the ancient ,britons had no quarrels in their universities over this expression4 ,the ,greeks distinguished three sorts of souls--psych1 which signified the sensitive soul1 the soul of the senses2 and that is why ,love1 child of ,aphrodite1 had so much passion for ,psyche1 and why ,psyche loved him so tenderly3 pneuma1 the breath which gives life and movement to the whole machine1 and which we have translated by spiritus1 spirit2 vague word to which have been given a thousand different meanings3 and finally nous1 the intelligence4 ,we possessed therefore three souls1 without having the least notion of any of them4 ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas 7,summation of ,st4 ,thomas4 ,lyons edition1 #agch7 admits these three souls as a peripatetic1 and distinguishes each of these three souls in three parts4 psych was in the breast1 pneuma was distributed throughout the body1 and nous was in the head4 ,there has been no other philosophy in our schools up to our day1 and woe betide any man who took one of these souls for the other4 ,in this chaos of ideas there was1 nevertheless1 a foundation4 ,men had noticed that in their passions of love1 hate1 anger1 fear1 their internal organs were stimulated to movement4 ,the liver and the heart were the seat of the passions4 ,if one thought deeply1 one felt a strife in the organs of the head2 therefore the intellectual soul was in the head4 ,without respiration no vegetation1 no life2 therefore the vegetative soul was in the breast which receives the breath of air4 ,when men saw in dreams their dead relatives or friends1 they had to seek what had appeared to them4 ,it was not the body which had been consumed on a funeral pyre1 or swallowed up in the sea and eaten by the fishes4 ,it was1 however1 something1 so they maintained2 for they had seen it2 the dead man had spoken2 the dreamer had questioned him4 ,was it psych1 was it pneuma1 was it nous1 with whom one had conversed in the dream8 ,one imagined a phantom1 an airy figure3 it was skia1 it was daimn1 a ghost from the shades1 a little soul of air and fire1 very unrestricted1 which wandered ,i know not where4 ,eventually1 when one wanted to sift the matter1 it became a constant that this soul was corporeal2 and the whole of antiquity never had any other idea4 ,at last came ,plato who so subtilized this soul that it was doubtful if he did not separate it entirely from matter2 but that was a problem that was never solved until faith came to enlighten us4 ,in vain do the materialists quote some of the fathers of the ,church who did not express themselves with precision4 ,st4 ,irenus says 7liv4 v4 chaps4 vi and vii7 that the soul is only the breath of life1 that it is incorporeal only by comparison with the mortal body1 and that it preserves the form of man so that it may be recognized4 ,in vain does ,tertullian express himself like this--,the corporeality of the soul shines bright in the ,gospel4 7,corporalitas anim in ipso ,evangelio relucescit1 ,,de ,,anima1 cap4 vii47 ,for if the soul did not have a body1 the image of the soul would not have the image of the body4 ,in vain does he record the vision of a holy woman who had seen a very shining soul1 of the colour of air4 ,in vain does ,tatien say expressly 7,oratio ad ,grcos1 c4 xxiii47--,the soul of man is composed of many parts4 ,in vain is ,st4 ,hilarius quoted as saying in later times 7,st4 ,hilarius on ,st4 ,matthew7--,there is nothing created which is not corporeal1 either in heaven1 or on earth1 or among the visible1 or among the invisible3 everything is formed of elements2 and souls1 whether they inhabit a body1 or issue from it1 have always a corporeal substance4 ,in vain does ,st4 ,ambrose1 in the sixth century1 say 7,on ,abraham1 liv4 ii41 ch4 viii47--,we recognize nothing but the material1 except the venerable ,trinity alone4 ,the body of the entire ,church has decided that the soul is immaterial4 ,these saints fell into an error at that time universal2 they were men2 but they were not mistaken over immortality1 because that is clearly announced in the ,gospels4 ,we have so evident a need of the decision of the infallible ,church on these points of philosophy1 that we have not indeed by ourselves any sufficient notion of what is called pure spirit1 and of what is named matter4 ,pure spirit is an expression which gives us no idea2 and we know matter only by a few phenomena4 ,we know it so little that we call it substance2 well1 the word substance means that which is under2 but what is under will be eternally hidden from us4 ,what is under is the ,creator's secret2 and this secret of the ,creator is everywhere4 ,we do not know either how we receive life1 or how we give it1 or how we grow1 or how we digest1 or how we sleep1 or how we think1 or how we feel4 ,the great difficulty is to understand how a being1 whoever he be1 has thoughts4 ,,section ,,ii ,the author of the article ,,soul in the ,encyclopedia 7the ,abb ,yvon7 followed ,jaquelot scrupulously2 but ,jaquelot teaches us nothing4 ,he sets himself also against ,locke1 because the modest ,locke said 7liv4 iv1 ch4 iii1 para4 vi47--,we possibly shall never be able to know whether any mere material being thinks or no2 it being impossible for us1 by the contemplation of our own ideas without revelation1 to discover whether ,omnipotency has not given to some systems of matter1 fitly disposed1 a power to perceive and think1 or else joined and fixed to matter1 so disposed1 a thinking immaterial substance3 it being1 in respect of our notions1 not much more remote from our comprehension to conceive that ,god can1 if he pleases1 superadd to matter a faculty of thinking1 than that he should superadd to it another substance with a faculty of thinking2 since we know not wherein thinking consists1 nor to what sort of substances the ,almighty has been pleased to give that power which cannot be in any created being but merely by the good pleasure and bounty of the ,creator1 for ,i see no contradiction in it1 that the first eternal thinking ,being should1 if he pleased1 give to certain systems of created senseless matter1 put together as he thinks fit1 some degrees of sense1 perception and thought4 ,those are the words of a profound1 religious and modest man4 ,we know what quarrels he had to undergo on account of this opinion which appeared bold1 but which was in fact in him only a consequence of his conviction of the omnipotence of ,god and the weakness of man4 ,he did not say that matter thought2 but he said that we have not enough knowledge to demonstrate that it is impossible for ,god to add the gift of thought to the unknown being called matter1 after according it the gift of gravitation and the gift of movement1 both of which are equally incomprehensible4 ,locke was not assuredly the only one who had advanced this opinion2 it was the opinion of all antiquity1 who1 regarding the soul as very unrestricted matter1 affirmed consequently that matter could feel and think4 ,it was ,gassendi's opinion1 as may be seen in his objections to ,descartes4 ,it is true1 says ,gassendi1 that you know what you think2 but you are ignorant of what species of substance you are1 you who think4 ,thus although the operation of thought is known to you1 the principle of your essence is hidden from you2 and you do not know what is the nature of this substance1 one of the operations of which is to think4 ,you are like a blind man who1 feeling the heat of the sun and being informed that it is caused by the heat of the sun1 thinks he has a clear and distinct idea of this luminary2 because if he were asked what the sun was1 he could reply that it is a thing which heats1 etc4 ,the same ,gassendi1 in his ,epicurean ,philosophy1 repeats several times that there is no mathematical evidence of the pure spirituality of the soul4 ,descartes1 in one of his letters to the ,palatine ,princess ,elisabeth1 says to her--,i confess that by the natural reason alone we can make many conjectures on the soul1 and have gratifying hopes1 but no certainty4 ,and in that sentence ,descartes combats in his letters what he puts forward in his works2 a too ordinary contradiction4 ,in fine we have seen that all the ,fathers of the first centuries of the ,church1 while believing the soul immortal1 believed it at the same time material2 they thought that it is as easy for ,god to conserve as to create4 ,they said--,god made the soul thinking1 ,he will preserve it thinking4 ,malebranche has proved very well that we have no idea by ourselves1 and that objects are incapable of giving us ideas3 from that he concludes that we see everything in ,god4 ,that is at the bottom the same thing as making ,god the author of all our ideas2 for with what should we see in ,him1 if we had not instruments for seeing8 and these instruments1 it is ,he alone who holds them and guides them4 ,this system is a labyrinth1 one lane of which would lead you to ,spinozism1 another to ,stoicism1 another to chaos4 ,when one has had a good argument about spirit and matter1 one always finishes by not understanding each other4 ,no philosopher has been able with his own strength to lift this veil stretched by nature over all the first principles of things4 ,men argue1 nature acts4 ,,section ,,iii ,,of ,,the ,,soul ,,of ,,animals1 ,,and ,,of ,,some ,,empty ,,ideas ,before the strange system which supposes animals to be pure machines without any sensation1 men had never thought that the beasts possessed an immaterial soul2 and nobody had pushed recklessness to the point of saying that an oyster has a spiritual soul4 ,everyone concurred peaceably in agreeing that the beasts had received from ,god feeling1 memory1 ideas1 and no pure spirit4 ,nobody had abused the gift of reason to the point of saying that nature had given the beasts all the organs of feeling so that they might not feel anything4 ,nobody had said that they cry when they are wounded1 and that they fly when pursued1 without experiencing pain or fear4 ,at that time people did not deny the omnipotence of ,god2 ,he had been able to communicate to the organized matter of animals pleasure1 pain1 remembrance1 the combination of a few ideas2 ,he had been able to give to several of them1 such as the monkey1 the elephant1 the hunting-dog1 the talent of perfecting themselves in the arts which were taught to them2 not only had ,he been able to endow nearly all carnivorous animals with the talent of warring better in their experienced old age than in their too trustful youth2 not only1 ,i say1 had ,he been able to do these things1 but ,he had done them3 the universe bore witness thereto4 ,pereira and ,descartes maintained that the universe was mistaken1 that ,god was a juggler1 that ,he had given animals all the instruments of life and sensation1 so that they might have neither life nor sensation1 properly speaking4 ,but ,i do not know what so-called philosophers1 in order to answer ,descartes' chimera1 leaped into the opposite chimera2 they gave liberally of pure spirit to the toads and the insects4 ,between these two madnesses1 the one refusing feeling to the organs of feeling1 the other lodging a pure spirit in a bug1 somebody thought of a middle path4 ,it was instinct4 ,and what is instinct8 ,oh1 oh1 it is a substantial form2 it is a plastic form2 it is ,i do not know what6 it is instinct4 ,i shall be of your opinion so long as you will call the majority of things1 ,i do not know what2 so long as your philosophy begins and ends with ,i do not know what1 ,i shall quote ,prior to you in his poem on the vanity of the world4 ,the author of the article ,,soul in the ,encyclopedia explains himself like this3--,i picture the animals' soul as an immaterial and intelligent substance1 but of what species8 ,it must1 it seems to me1 be an active principle which has sensations1 and which has only that4444 ,if we reflect on the nature of the soul of animals1 it supplies us with groundwork which might lead us to think that its spirituality will save it from annihilation4 ,i do not know how one pictures an immaterial substance4 ,to picture something is to make an image of it2 and up till now nobody has been able to paint the spirit4 ,for the word picture1 ,i want the author to understand ,i conceive2 speaking for myself1 ,i confess ,i do not conceive it4 ,i confess still less that a spiritual soul may be annihilated1 because ,i do not conceive either creation or non-existence2 because ,i have never been present at ,god's council2 because ,i know nothing at all about the principle of things4 ,if ,i wish to prove that the soul is a real being1 someone stops me by telling me that it is a faculty4 ,if ,i assert that it is a faculty1 and that ,i have the faculty of thinking1 ,i am told that ,i am mistaken2 that ,god1 the eternal master of all nature1 does everything in me1 and directs all my actions and all my thoughts2 that if ,i produced my thoughts1 ,i should know the thought ,i will have in a minute2 that ,i never know it2 that ,i am only an automaton with sensations and ideas1 necessarily dependent1 and in the hands of the ,supreme ,being1 infinitely more compliant to ,him than clay is to the potter4 ,i confess my ignorance1 therefore2 ,i avow that four thousand tomes of metaphysics will not teach us what our soul is4 ,an orthodox philosopher said to a heterodox philosopher--,how have you been able to come to the point of imagining that the soul is mortal by nature1 and eternal only by the pure wish of ,god8 ,by my own experience1 said the other4 ,how6 are you dead8 ,yes1 very often4 ,i suffered from epilepsy in my youth1 and ,i assure you that ,i was completely dead for several hours4 ,no sensation1 no remembrance even of the moment that ,i fell ill4 ,the same thing happens to me now nearly every night4 ,i never feel the precise moment that ,i go to sleep2 my sleep is absolutely dreamless4 ,i cannot imagine by conjecture how long ,i have slept4 ,i am dead regularly six hours out of the twenty-four4 ,that is a quarter of my life4 ,the orthodox then asserted that he always thought during his sleep without knowing anything about it4 ,the heterodox answered him--,i believe through revelation that ,i shall always think in the other life2 but ,i assure you ,i think rarely in this one4 ,the orthodox was not mistaken in asserting the immortality of the soul1 for faith and reason demonstrate this truth2 but he might be mistaken in asserting that a sleeping man always thinks4 ,locke admitted frankly that he did not always think while he was asleep3 another philosopher has said--,thought is characteristic of man2 but it is not his essence4 ,let us leave to each man the liberty and consolation of seeking himself1 and of losing himself in his ideas4 ,it is good1 however1 to know1 that in #agcj a philosopher#ba suffered a severe enough persecution for having confessed1 with ,locke1 that his understanding was not exercised at every moment of the day and night1 just as he did not use his arms and his legs at all moments4 ,not only did court ignorance persecute him1 but the malignant influence of a few so-called men of letters was let loose against him4 ,what in ,england had produced merely a few philosophical disputes1 produced in ,france the most cowardly atrocities2 a ,frenchman suffered by ,locke4 ,there have always been in the mud of our literature more than one of these miscreants who have sold their pens1 and intrigued against their benefactors even4 ,this remark is rather foreign to the article ,,soul2 but should one miss an opportunity of dismaying those who make themselves unworthy of the name of men of letters1 who prostitute the little mind and conscience they have to a vile self-interest1 to a fantastic policy1 who betray their friends to flatter fools1 who in secret powder the hemlock which the powerful and malicious ignoramus wants to make useful citizens drink8 ,in short1 while we worship ,god with all our soul1 let us confess always our profound ignorance of this soul1 of this faculty of feeling and thinking which we possess from ,his infinite goodness4 ,let us avow that our feeble reasonings can take nothing away from1 or add anything to revelation and faith4 ,let us conclude in fine that we should use this intelligence1 the nature of which is unknown1 for perfecting the sciences which are the object of the ,encyclopedia2 just as watchmakers use springs in their watches1 without knowing what a spring is4 ,,section ,,iv ,,about ,,the ,,soul1 ,,and ,,about ,,our ,,little ,,knowledge ,on the testimony of our acquired knowledge1 we have dared question whether the soul is created before us1 whether it comes from non-existence into our body8 at what age it came to settle between a bladder and the intestines ccum and rectum8 if it brought ideas with it or received them there1 and what are these ideas8 if after animating us for a few moments1 its essence is to live after us into eternity without the intervention of ,god ,himself8 if being spirit1 and ,god being spirit1 they are both of like nature8 ,these questions seem sublime2 what are they8 questions about light by men born blind4 ,what have all the philosophers1 ancient and modern1 taught us8 a child is wiser than they are2 he does not think about things of which he can form no conception4 ,you will say that it is sad for our insatiable curiosity1 for our inexhaustible thirst for happiness1 to be thus ignorant of ourselves6 ,i agree1 and there are still sadder things2 but ,i shall answer you3 ,sors tua mortalis1 non est mortale quod optas4 --,ovid1 ,met4 ,,ii4 #ef ,you have a man's fate1 and a god's desires4 ,once again1 it seems that the nature of every principle of things is the ,creator's secret4 ,how does the air carry sound8 how are animals formed8 how do some of our limbs constantly obey our wills8 what hand puts ideas in our memory1 keeps them there as in a register1 and pulls them out sometimes when we want them and sometimes in spite of ourselves8 ,our nature1 the nature of the universe1 the nature of the least plant1 everything for us is sunk in a shadowy pit4 ,man is an acting1 feeling1 thinking being3 that is all we know of him3 it is not given to us to know what makes us feel and think1 or what makes us act1 or what makes us exist4 ,the acting faculty is as incomprehensible for us as the thinking faculty4 ,the difficulty is less to conceive how a body of mud has feelings and ideas1 than to conceive how a being1 whatever it be1 has ideas and feelings4 ,here on one side the soul of ,archimedes1 on the other the soul of an idiot2 are they of the same nature8 ,if their essence is to think1 they think always1 and independently of the body which cannot act without them4 ,if they think by their own nature1 can the species of a soul which cannot do a sum in arithmetic be the same as that which measured the heavens8 ,if it is the organs of the body which made ,archimedes think1 why is it that my idiot1 who has a stronger constitution than ,archimedes1 who is more vigorous1 digests better and performs all his functions better1 does not think at all8 ,it is1 you say1 because his brain is not so good4 ,but you are making a supposition2 you do not know at all4 ,no difference has ever been found between healthy brains that have been dissected4 ,it is even very probable that a fool's cerebellum will be in better condition than ,archimedes'1 which has worked prodigiously1 and which might be worn out and shrivelled4 ,let us conclude therefore what we have already concluded1 that we are ignoramuses about all first principles4 ,as regards ignoramuses who pride themselves on their knowledge1 they are far inferior to monkeys4 ,now dispute1 choleric arguers3 present your petitions against each other2 proffer your insults1 pronounce your sentences1 you who do not know one word about the matter4 ,,section ,v ,,of ,,warburton',s ,,paradox ,,on ,,the ,,immortality ,,of ,,the ,,soul ,warburton1 editor and commentator of ,shakespeare and ,bishop of ,gloucester1 making use of ,english freedom1 and abuse of the custom of hurling insults at one's adversaries1 has composed four volumes to prove that the immortality of the soul was never announced in the ,pentateuch1 and to conclude from this same proof that ,moses' mission is divine4 ,here is the prcis of his book1 which he himself gives1 pages #g and #h of the first volume4 #a4 ,the doctrine of a life to come1 of rewards and punishments after death1 is necessary to all civil society4 #b4 ,the whole human race 7and this is where he is mistaken71 and especially the wisest and most learned nations of antiquity1 concurred in believing and teaching this doctrine4 #c4 ,it cannot be found in any passage of the law of ,moses2 therefore the law of ,moses is of divine origin4 ,which ,i am going to prove by the two following syllogisms3 ,first ,syllogism ,every religion1 every society that has not the immortality of the soul for its basis1 can be maintained only by an extraordinary providence2 the ,jewish religion had not the immortality of the soul for basis2 therefore the ,jewish religion was maintained by an extraordinary providence4 ,second ,syllogism ,all the ancient legislators have said that a religion which did not teach the immortality of the soul could not be maintained but by an extraordinary providence2 ,moses founded a religion which is not founded on the immortality of the soul2 therefore ,moses believed his religion maintained by an extraordinary providence4 ,what is much more extraordinary is this assertion of ,warburton's1 which he has put in big letters at the beginning of his book4 ,he has often been reproached with the extreme rashness and bad faith with which he dares to say that all the ancient legislators believed that a religion which is not founded on pains and recompenses after death1 can be maintained only by an extraordinary providence2 not one of them ever said it4 ,he does not undertake even to give any example in his huge book stuffed with a vast number of quotations1 all of which are foreign to his subject4 ,he has buried himself beneath a pile of ,greek and ,latin authors1 ancient and modern1 for fear one might see through him on the other side of a horrible multitude of envelopes4 ,when criticism finally probed to the bottom1 he was resurrected from among all these dead men in order to load all his adversaries with insults4 ,it is true that towards the end of his fourth volume1 after having walked through a hundred labyrinths1 and having fought with everybody he met on the road1 he comes at last to his great question which he had left there4 ,he lays all the blame on the ,book of ,job which passes among scholars for an ,arab work1 and he tries to prove that ,job did not believe in the immortality of the soul4 ,later he explains in his own way all the texts of ,holy ,writ by which people have tried to combat this opinion4 ,all one can say about it is that1 if he was right1 it was not for a bishop to be right in such a way4 ,he should have felt that one might draw dangerous inferences2 but everything in this world is a mass of contradiction4 ,this man1 who became accuser and persecutor1 was not made bishop by a minister of state's patronage until immediately after he had written his book4 ,at ,salamanca1 ,coimbre or ,rome1 he would have been obliged to recant and to ask pardon4 ,in ,england he became a peer of the realm with an income of a hundred thousand livres2 it was enough to modify his methods4 ,,section ,,vi ,,of ,,the ,,need ,,of ,,revelation ,the greatest benefit we owe to the ,new ,testament is that it has revealed to us the immortality of the soul4 ,it is in vain1 therefore1 that this fellow ,warburton tried to cloud over this important truth1 by continually representing in his legation of ,moses that the ancient ,jews knew nothing of this necessary dogma1 and that the ,sadducees did not admit it in the time of our ,lord ,jesus4 ,he interprets in his own way the very words that have been put into ,jesus ,christ's mouth3 444 have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by ,god1 saying1 ,i am the ,god of ,abraham1 and the ,god of ,isaac1 and the ,god of ,jacob8 ,god is not the ,god of the dead1 but of the living 7,st4 ,matt4 xxii4 #ca1 #cb74 ,he gives to the parable of the wicked rich man a sense contrary to that of all the ,churches4 ,sherlock1 ,bishop of ,london1 and twenty other scholars refuted him4 ,english philosophers even reproached him with the scandal of an ,anglican bishop manifesting an opinion so contrary to the ,anglican ,church2 and after that1 this man takes it into his head to treat these persons as impious3 like the character of ,arlequin in the comedy of the ,dvaliseur de maisons1 who1 after throwing the furniture out of the window1 sees a man carrying some of it off1 and cries with all his might ,stop thief6 ,one should bless the revelation of the immortality of the soul1 and of rewards and punishments after death1 all the more that mankind's vain philosophy has always been sceptical of it4 ,the great ,csar did not believe in it at all1 he made himself quite clear in full senate when1 in order to stop ,catalina being put to death1 he represented that death left man without sensation1 that everything died with him2 and nobody refuted this view4 ,the ,roman ,empire was divided between two principal sects3 that of ,epicurus which asserted that deity was useless to the world1 and that the soul perished with the body3 and that of the ,stoics who regarded the soul as part of the ,deity1 which after death was joined again to its origin1 to the great everything from which it emanated4 ,thus1 whether one believed the soul mortal1 or whether one believed it immortal1 all the sects were agreed in laughing at pains and punishments after death4 ,we still have a hundred monuments of this belief of the ,romans4 ,it is by virtue of this opinion graved profoundly in their hearts1 that so many simple ,roman citizens killed themselves without the least scruple2 they did not wait for a tyrant to hand them over to the executioners4 ,the most virtuous men even1 and those most persuaded of the existence of a ,god1 hoped for no reward1 and feared no punishment4 ,clement1 who later was ,pope and saint1 began by himself doubting what the early ,christians said of another life1 and consulted ,st4 ,peter at ,csarea4 ,we are far from believing that ,st4 ,clement wrote the history that is attributed to him2 but this history makes evident the need the human race had of a precise revelation4 ,all that can surprise us is that so repressive and salutary a doctrine has left a prey to so many horrible crimes men who have so little time to live1 and who see themselves squeezed between two eternities4 ,,section ,,vii ,,souls ,,of ,,fools ,,and ,,monsters ,a deformed child is born absolutely imbecile1 it has no ideas and lives without ideas2 we have seen examples of this4 ,how shall this animal be defined8 doctors have said that it is something between man and beast2 others have said that it had a sensitive soul1 but not an intellectual soul4 ,it eats1 drinks1 sleeps1 wakes1 has sensations2 but it does not think4 ,is there another life for this creature1 or is there none8 ,the question has been posed1 and has not yet been completely answered4 ,some say that this creature must have a soul1 because its father and mother had one4 ,but by this reasoning one would prove that if it came into the world without a nose it would be deemed to have one1 because its father and its mother had noses4 ,a woman gives birth to child with no chin1 its forehead is receding and rather black1 its nose is slim and pointed1 its eyes are round1 it bears not a bad resemblance to a swallow2 the rest of its body1 nevertheless1 is made like ours4 ,the parents have it baptised2 by a plurality of votes it is considered a man and possessor of an immortal soul4 ,but if this ridiculous little figure has pointed nails and beak-like mouth1 it is declared a monster1 it has no soul1 and is not baptised4 ,it is well known that in ,london in #agbf there was a woman who gave birth every week to a rabbit4 ,no difficulty was made about refusing baptism to this child1 despite the epidemic mania there was for three weeks in ,london for believing that this poor rogue was making wild rabbits4 ,the surgeon who attended her1 ,st4 ,andr by name1 swore that nothing was more true1 and people believed him4 ,but what reason did the credulous have for refusing a soul to this woman's children8 she had a soul1 her children should be provided with souls also2 whether they had hands1 whether they had paws1 whether they were born with a little snout or with a face2 cannot the ,supreme ,being bestow the gift of thought and sensation on a little ,i know not what1 born of a woman1 shaped like a rabbit1 as well as to a little ,i know not what1 shaped like a man8 ,shall the soul that was ready to lodge in this woman's foetus go back again into space8 ,locke makes the sound observation1 about monsters1 that one must not attribute immortality to the exterior of a body2 that the form has nothing to do with it4 ,this immortality1 he says1 is no more attached to the form of his face or his chest1 than to the way his beard is dressed or his coat cut4 ,he asks what is the exact measure of deformity by which you can recognize whether or no a child has a soul8 ,what is the precise degree at which it must be declared a monster and deprived of a soul8 ,one asks still further what would be a soul which never has any but fantastic ideas8 there are some which never escape from them4 ,are they worthy or unworthy8 what is to be done with their pure spirit8 ,what is one to think of a child with two heads8 without deformity apart from this8 ,some say that it has two souls because it is provided with two pineal glands1 with two corpus callosum1 with two sensorium commune4 ,others reply that one cannot have two souls when one has only one chest and one navel4#bb ,in fine1 so many questions have been asked about this poor human soul1 that if it were necessary to answer them all1 this examination of its own person would cause it the most intolerable boredom4 ,there would happen to it what happened to ,cardinal de ,polignac at a conclave4 ,his steward1 tired of never being able to make him settle his accounts1 made the journey from ,rome1 and came to the little window of his cell burdened with an immense bundle of papers4 ,he read for nearly two hours4 ,at last1 seeing that no reply was forthcoming1 he put his head forward4 ,the cardinal had departed nearly two hours before4 ,our souls will depart before their stewards have acquainted them with the facts3 but let us be exact before ,god1 whatever sort of ignoramuses we are1 we and our stewards4 ,,footnotes3 #ba ,voltaire himself4 #bb ,the ,chevalier d',angos1 learned astronomer1 has carefully observed a two-headed lizard for several days2 and he has assured himself that the lizard had two independent wills1 each of which had an almost equal power over the body4 ,when the lizard was given a piece of bread1 in such a way that it could see it with only one head1 this head wanted to go after the bread1 and the other wanted the body to remain at rest4 ,,states1 ,,governments ,the ins and outs of all governments have been closely examined recently4 ,tell me then1 you who have travelled1 in what state1 under what sort of government you would choose to be born4 ,i imagine that a great land-owning lord in ,france would not be vexed to be born in ,germany2 he would be sovereign instead of subject4 ,a peer of ,france would be very glad to have the privileges of the ,english peerage2 he would be legislator4 ,the lawyer and the financier would be better off in ,france than elsewhere4 ,but what country would a wise1 free man1 a man with a moderate fortune1 and without prejudices1 choose8 ,a member of the government of ,pondicherry1 a learned man enough1 returned to ,europe by land with a ,brahmin better educated than the ordinary ,brahmin4 ,what do you think of the government of the ,great ,mogul8 asked the councillor4 ,i think it abominable1 answered the ,brahmin4 ,how can you expect a state to be happily governed by the ,tartars8 ,our rajahs1 our omrahs1 our nabobs1 are very content1 but the citizens are hardly so2 and millions of citizens are something4 ,reasoning1 the councillor and the ,brahmin traversed the whole of ,upper ,asia4 ,i make the observation1 said the ,brahmin1 that there is not one republic in all this vast part of the world4 ,formerly there was the republic of ,tyre1 said the councillor1 but it did not last long2 there was still another one in the direction of ,arabia ,petrea1 in a little corner called ,palestine1 if one can honour with the name of republic a horde of thieves and usurers sometimes governed by judges1 sometimes by a species of kings1 sometimes by grand-pontiffs1 become slave seven or eight times1 and finally driven out of the country which it had usurped4 ,i imagine1 said the ,brahmin1 that one ought to find very few republics on the earth4 ,men are rarely worthy of governing themselves4 ,this happiness should belong only to little peoples who hide themselves in islands1 or among the mountains1 like rabbits who shun carnivorous beasts2 but in the long run they are discovered and devoured4 ,when the two travellers reached ,asia ,minor1 the councillor said to the ,brahmin3 ,would you believe that a republic was formed in a corner of ,italy1 which lasted more than five hundred years1 and which owned ,asia ,minor1 ,asia1 ,africa1 ,greece1 ,gaul1 ,spain and the whole of ,italy8 ,she soon became a monarchy1 then1 said the ,brahmin4 ,you have guessed right1 said the other4 ,but this monarchy fell1 and every day we compose beautiful dissertations in order to find the cause of its decadence and downfall4 ,you take a deal of trouble1 said the ,indian4 ,this empire fell because it existed4 ,everything has to fall4 ,i hope as much will happen to the ,grand ,mogul's empire4 ,by the way1 said the ,european1 do you consider that there should be more honour in a despotic state1 and more virtue in a republic8 ,the ,indian1 having had explained to him what we mean by honour1 answered that honour was more necessary in a republic1 and that one had more need of virtue in a monarchical state4 ,for1 said he1 a man who claims to be elected by the people1 will not be if he is dishonoured2 whereas at the court he could easily obtain a place1 in accordance with a great prince's maxim1 that in order to succeed a courtier should have neither honour nor character4 ,as regards virtue1 one must be prodigiously virtuous to dare to say the truth4 ,the virtuous man is much more at his ease in a republic2 he has no one to flatter4 ,do you think1 said the man from ,europe1 that laws and religions are made for climates1 just as one has to have furs in ,moscow1 and gauzy stuffs in ,delhi8 ,without a doubt1 answered the ,brahmin4 ,all the laws which concern material things are calculated for the meridian one lives in4 ,a ,german needs only one wife1 and a ,persian three or four4 ,the rites of religion are of the same nature4 ,how1 if ,i were ,christian1 should ,i say mass in my province where there is neither bread nor wine8 ,as regards dogmas1 that is another matter2 the climate has nothing to do with them4 ,did not your religion begin in ,asia1 whence it was driven out8 does it not exist near the ,baltic ,sea1 where it was unknown8 ,in what state1 under what domination1 would you like best to live8 asked the councillor4 ,anywhere but where ,i do live1 answered his companion4 ,and ,i have met many ,siamese1 ,tonkinese1 ,persians and ,turks who said as much4 ,but1 once again1 persisted the ,european1 what state would you choose8 ,the ,brahmin answered3 ,the state where only the laws are obeyed4 ,that is an old answer1 said the councillor4 ,it is none the worse for that1 said the ,brahmin4 ,where is that country8 asked the councillor4 ,we must look for it1 answered the ,brahmin4 ,,superstition ,the superstitious man is to the rogue what the slave is to the tyrant4 ,further1 the superstitious man is governed by the fanatic and becomes fanatic4 ,superstition born in ,paganism1 adopted by ,judaism1 infested the ,christian ,church from the earliest times4 ,all the fathers of the ,church1 without exception1 believed in the power of magic4 ,the ,church always condemned magic1 but she always believed in it3 she did not excommunicate sorcerers as madmen who were mistaken1 but as men who were really in communication with the devil4 ,to-day one half of ,europe thinks that the other half has long been and still is superstitious4 ,the ,protestants regard the relics1 the indulgences1 the mortifications1 the prayers for the dead1 the holy water1 and almost all the rites of the ,roman ,church1 as a superstitious dementia4 ,superstition1 according to them1 consists in taking useless practices for necessary practices4 ,among the ,roman ,catholics there are some more enlightened than their ancestors1 who have renounced many of these usages formerly considered sacred2 and they defend themselves against the others who have retained them1 by saying3 ,they are indifferent1 and what is merely indifferent cannot be an evil4 ,it is difficult to mark the limits of superstition4 ,a ,frenchman travelling in ,italy finds almost everything superstitious1 and is hardly mistaken4 ,the ,archbishop of ,canterbury maintains that the ,archbishop of ,paris is superstitious2 the ,presbyterians make the same reproach against ,his ,grace of ,canterbury1 and are in their turn treated as superstitious by the ,quakers1 who are the most superstitious of all in the eyes of other ,christians4 ,in ,christian societies1 therefore1 no one agrees as to what superstition is4 ,the sect which seems to be the least attacked by this malady of the intelligence is that which has the fewest rites4 ,but if with few ceremonies it is still strongly attached to an absurd belief1 this absurd belief is equivalent alone to all the superstitious practices observed from the time of ,simon the magician to that of ,father ,gauffridi4 ,it is therefore clear that it is the fundamentals of the religion of one sect which is considered as superstition by another sect4 ,the ,moslems accuse all ,christian societies of it1 and are themselves accused4 ,who will judge this great matter8 ,will it be reason8 ,but each sect claims to have reason on its side4 ,it will therefore be force which will judge1 while awaiting the time when reason will penetrate a sufficient number of heads to disarm force4 ,up to what point does statecraft permit superstition to be destroyed8 ,this is a very thorny question2 it is like asking up to what point one should make an incision in a dropsical person1 who may die under the operation4 ,it is a matter for the doctor's discretion4 ,can there exist a people free from all superstitious prejudices8 ,that is to ask--,can there exist a nation of philosophers8 ,it is said that there is no superstition in the magistrature of ,china4 ,it is probable that none will remain in the magistrature of a few towns of ,europe4 ,then the magistrates will stop the superstition of the people from being dangerous4 ,these magistrates' example will not enlighten the mob1 but the principal persons of the middle-classes will hold the mob in check4 ,there is not perhaps a single riot1 a single religious outrage in which the middle-classes were not formerly imbrued1 because these middle classes were then the mob2 but reason and time will have changed them4 ,their softened manners will soften those of the lowest and most savage populace2 it is a thing of which we have striking examples in more than one country4 ,in a word1 less superstition1 less fanaticism2 and less fanaticism1 less misery4 ,,tears ,tears are the mute language of sorrow4 ,but why8 ,what connection is there between a sad idea and this limpid1 salt liquid1 filtered through a little gland at the external corner of the eye1 which moistens the conjunctiva and the small lachrymal points1 whence it descends into the nose and mouth through the reservoir called the lachrymal sack and its ducts8 ,why in women and children1 whose organs are part of a frail and delicate network1 are tears more easily excited by sorrow than in grown men1 whose tissue is firmer8 ,did nature wish compassion to be born in us at sight of these tears which soften us1 and lead us to help those who shed them8 ,the woman of a savage race is as firmly determined to help the child that cries as would be a woman of the court1 and maybe more1 because she has fewer distractions and passions4 ,in the animal body everything has an object without a doubt4 ,the eyes especially bear such evident1 such proven1 such admirable relation to the rays of light2 this mechanism is so divine1 that ,i should be tempted to take for a delirium of burning fever the audacity which denies the final causes of the structure of our eyes4 ,the use of tears does not seem to have so well determined and striking an object2 but it would be beautiful that nature made them flow in order to stir us to pity4 ,there are women who are accused of weeping when they wish4 ,i am not at all surprised at their talent4 ,a live1 sensitive1 tender imagination can fix itself on some object1 on some sorrowful memory1 and picture it in such dominating colours that they wring tears from it4 ,it is what happens to many actors1 and principally to actresses1 on the stage4 ,the women who imitate them in their own homes add to this talent the petty fraud of appearing to weep for their husbands1 whereas in fact they are weeping for their lovers4 ,their tears are true1 but the object of them is false4 ,one asks why the same man who has watched the most atrocious events dry-eyed1 who even has committed cold-blooded crimes1 will weep at the theatre at the representation of these events and crimes8 ,it is that he does not see them with the same eyes1 he sees them with the eyes of the author and the actor4 ,he is no longer the same man2 he was a barbarian1 he was agitated by furious passions when he saw an innocent woman killed1 when he stained himself with his friend's blood4 ,his soul was filled with stormy tumult2 it is tranquil1 it is empty2 nature returns to it2 he sheds virtuous tears4 ,that is the true merit1 the great good of the theatres2 there is achieved what can never be achieved by the frigid declamations of an orator paid to bore the whole of an audience for an hour4 ,david the capitoul1 who1 without emotion1 caused and saw the death of innocent ,calas on the wheel1 would have shed tears at the sight of his own crime in a well-written and well-spoken tragedy4 ,it is thus that ,pope has said in the prologue to ,addison's ,cato3-- ,tyrants no more their savage nature kept2 ,and foes to virtue wondered how they wept4 ,,theist ,the theist is a man firmly persuaded of the existence of a ,supreme ,being as good as ,he is powerful1 who has formed all beings with extension1 vegetating1 sentient and reflecting2 who perpetuates their species1 who punishes crimes without cruelty1 and rewards virtuous actions with kindness4 ,the theist does not know how ,god punishes1 how he protects1 how he pardons1 for he is not reckless enough to flatter himself that he knows how ,god acts1 but he knows that ,god acts and that ,he is just4 ,difficulties against ,providence do not shake him in his faith1 because they are merely great difficulties1 and not proofs4 ,he submits to this ,providence1 although he perceives but a few effects and a few signs of this ,providence3 and1 judging of the things he does not see by the things he sees1 he considers that this ,providence reaches all places and all centuries4 ,reconciled in this principle with the rest of the universe1 he does not embrace any of the sects1 all of which contradict each other2 his religion is the most ancient and the most widespread2 for the simple worship of a ,god has preceded all the systems of the world4 ,he speaks a language that all peoples understand1 while they do not understand one another4 ,he has brothers from ,pekin to ,cayenne1 and he counts all wise men as his brethren4 ,he believes that religion does not consist either in the opinions of an unintelligible metaphysic1 or in vain display1 but in worship and justice4 ,the doing of good1 there is his service2 being submissive to ,god1 there is his doctrine4 ,the ,mahometan cries to him--,have a care if you do not make the pilgrimage to ,mecca6 ,woe unto you1 says a ,recollet1 if you do not make a journey to ,notre-,dame de ,lorette6 ,he laughs at ,lorette and at ,mecca2 but he succours the needy and defends the oppressed4 ,,tolerance ,what is tolerance8 it is the consequence of humanity4 ,we are all formed of frailty and error2 let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly--that is the first law of nature4 ,it is clear that the individual who persecutes a man1 his brother1 because he is not of the same opinion1 is a monster4 ,that admits of no difficulty4 ,but the government6 but the magistrates6 but the princes6 how do they treat those who have another worship than theirs8 ,if they are powerful strangers1 it is certain that a prince will make an alliance with them4 ,franois ,i41 very ,christian1 will unite with ,mussulmans against ,charles ,v41 very ,catholic4 ,franois ,i4 will give money to the ,lutherans of ,germany to support them in their revolt against the emperor2 but1 in accordance with custom1 he will start by having ,lutherans burned at home4 ,for political reasons he pays them in ,saxony2 for political reasons he burns them in ,paris4 ,but what will happen8 ,persecutions make proselytes8 ,soon ,france will be full of new ,protestants4 ,at first they will let themselves be hanged1 later they in their turn will hang4 ,there will be civil wars1 then will come the ,st4 ,bartholomew2 and this corner of the world will be worse than all that the ancients and moderns have ever told of hell4 ,madmen1 who have never been able to give worship to the ,god who made you6 ,miscreants1 whom the example of the ,noachides1 the learned ,chinese1 the ,parsees and all the sages1 has never been able to lead6 ,monsters1 who need superstitions as crows' gizzards need carrion6 you have been told it already1 and there is nothing else to tell you--if you have two religions in your countries1 they will cut each other's throat2 if you have thirty religions1 they will dwell in peace4 ,look at the great ,turk1 he governs ,guebres1 ,banians1 ,greek ,christians1 ,nestorians1 ,romans4 ,the first who tried to stir up tumult would be impaled2 and everyone is tranquil4 ,of all religions1 the ,christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most1 although up to now the ,christians have been the most intolerant of all men4 ,the ,christian ,church was divided in its cradle1 and was divided even in the persecutions which under the first emperors it sometimes endured4 ,often the martyr was regarded as an apostate by his brethren1 and the ,carpocratian ,christian expired beneath the sword of the ,roman executioners1 excommunicated by the ,ebionite ,christian1 the which ,ebionite was anathema to the ,sabellian4 ,this horrible discord1 which has lasted for so many centuries1 is a very striking lesson that we should pardon each other's errors2 discord is the great ill of mankind2 and tolerance is the only remedy for it4 ,there is nobody who is not in agreement with this truth1 whether he meditates soberly in his study1 or peaceably examines the truth with his friends4 ,why then do the same men who admit in private indulgence1 kindness1 justice1 rise in public with so much fury against these virtues8 ,why8 it is that their own interest is their god1 and that they sacrifice everything to this monster that they worship4 ,i possess a dignity and a power founded on ignorance and credulity2 ,i walk on the heads of the men who lie prostrate at my feet2 if they should rise and look me in the face1 ,i am lost2 ,i must bind them to the ground1 therefore1 with iron chains4 ,thus have reasoned the men whom centuries of bigotry have made powerful4 ,they have other powerful men beneath them1 and these have still others1 who all enrich themselves with the spoils of the poor1 grow fat on their blood1 and laugh at their stupidity4 ,they all detest tolerance1 as partisans grown rich at the public expense fear to render their accounts1 and as tyrants dread the word liberty4 ,and then1 to crown everything1 they hire fanatics to cry at the top of their voices3 ,respect my master's absurdities1 tremble1 pay1 and keep your mouths shut4 ,it is thus that a great part of the world long was treated2 but to-day when so many sects make a balance of power1 what course to take with them8 ,every sect1 as one knows1 is a ground of error2 there are no sects of geometers1 algebraists1 arithmeticians1 because all the propositions of geometry1 algebra and arithmetic are true4 ,in every other science one may be deceived4 ,what ,thomist or ,scotist theologian would dare say seriously that he is sure of his case8 ,if it were permitted to reason consistently in religious matters1 it is clear that we all ought to become ,jews1 because ,jesus ,christ our ,saviour was born a ,jew1 lived a ,jew1 died a ,jew1 and that he said expressly that he was accomplishing1 that he was fulfilling the ,jewish religion4 ,but it is clearer still that we ought to be tolerant of one another1 because we are all weak1 inconsistent1 liable to fickleness and error4 ,shall a reed laid low in the mud by the wind say to a fellow reed fallen in the opposite direction3 ,crawl as ,i crawl1 wretch1 or ,i shall petition that you be torn up by the roots and burned8 ,,truth ,pilate therefore said unto him1 ,art thou a king then8 ,jesus answered1 ,thou sayest that ,i am a king4 ,to this end was ,i born1 and for this cause came ,i into the world1 that ,i should bear witness unto the truth4 ,everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice4 ,pilate saith unto ,him1 ,what is truth8 ,and when he had said this he went out1 etc4 7,st4 ,john xviii4 #cg47 ,it is a sad thing for the human race that ,pilate went out without waiting for the answer2 we should know what truth is4 ,pilate had very little curiosity4 ,the accused led before him1 says he is king1 that he was to be king2 and ,pilate does not inquire how that can be4 ,he is supreme judge in ,csar's name1 he has power of life and death2 his duty was to probe the sense of these words4 ,he ought to say--,tell me what you understand by being king4 ,how were you born to be king and to bear witness to the truth8 ,it is maintained that truth reaches but with difficulty to the ear of kings4 ,i am judge1 ,i have always had great trouble in finding it4 ,while your enemies are howling against you without1 give me some information on the point2 you will be doing me the greatest service that has ever been done a judge2 and ,i much prefer to learn to recognize truth1 than to accede to the ,jews' clamorous demand to have you hanged4 ,we shall not dare1 to be sure1 seek what the author of all truth would have been able to reply to ,pilate4 ,would he have said3 ,truth is an abstract word which most men use indifferently in their books and judgments1 for error and falsehood8 ,this definition would have been marvellously appropriate to all makers of systems4 ,similarly is the word wisdom taken often for folly1 and wit for nonsense4 ,humanly speaking1 let us define truth1 while waiting for a better definition1 as--a statement of the facts as they are4 ,i suppose that if one had given only six months to teaching ,pilate the truths of logic1 he would assuredly have made this conclusive syllogism4 ,one must not take away the life of a man who has only preached good morality3 well1 the man who has been impeached has1 on the showing of his enemies even1 often preached excellent morality2 therefore he should not be punished with death4 ,he might have drawn this further argument4 ,my duty is to disperse the riotous assemblage of a seditious people who demand a man's death1 unreasonably and without legal form2 well1 that is the position of the ,jews in this instance2 therefore ,i must drive them away and break up their meeting4 ,we suppose that ,pilate knew arithmetic2 hence we will not speak of those forms of truth4 ,as regards mathematical truths1 ,i think it would have taken at least three years before he could have learned higher geometry4 ,the truths of physics combined with those of geometry would have demanded more than four years4 ,we spend six1 ordinarily1 in studying theology2 ,i ask twelve for ,pilate1 seeing that he was pagan1 and that six years would not have been too much for eradicating all his old errors1 and six years more for making him fit to receive a doctor's hood4 ,if ,pilate had had a well-balanced mind1 ,i should have asked only two years to teach him metaphysical truth2 and as metaphysical truth is necessarily allied to moral truth1 ,i flatter myself that in less than nine years he would have become a real scholar and a perfectly honest man4 ,i should then have said to ,pilate3--,historical truths are merely probabilities4 ,if you had fought at the battle of ,philippi1 that is for you a truth which you know by intuition1 by perception4 ,but for us who dwell near the ,syrian desert1 it is merely a very probable thing1 which we know by hearsay4 ,how much hearsay is necessary to form a conviction equal to that of a man who1 having seen the thing1 can flatter himself that he has a sort of certainty8 ,he who has heard the thing told by twelve thousand eyewitnesses1 has only twelve thousand probabilities1 equal to one strong probability1 which is not equal to certainty4 ,if you have the thing from only one of these witnesses1 you know nothing2 you should be sceptical4 ,if the witness is dead1 you should be still more sceptical1 for you cannot enlighten yourself4 ,if from several witnesses who are dead1 you are in the same plight4 ,if from those to whom the witnesses have spoken1 your scepticism should increase still more4 ,from generation to generation scepticism increases1 and probability diminishes2 and soon probability is reduced to zero4 ,,tyranny ,one gives the name of tyrant to the sovereign who knows no laws but those of his caprice1 who takes his subjects' property1 and who afterwards enrols them to go to take the property of his neighbours4 ,there are none of these tyrants in ,europe4 ,one distinguishes between the tyranny of one man and that of many4 ,the tyranny of many would be that of a body which invaded the rights of other bodies1 and which exercised despotism in favour of the laws corrupted by it4 ,nor are there any tyrants of this sort in ,europe4 ,under which tyranny would you like to live8 ,under neither2 but if ,i had to choose1 ,i should detest the tyranny of one man less than that of many4 ,a despot always has his good moments2 an assembly of despots never4 ,if a tyrant does me an injustice1 ,i can disarm him through his mistress1 his confessor or his page2 but a company of grave tyrants is inaccessible to all seductions4 ,when it is not unjust1 it is at the least hard1 and never does it bestow favours4 ,if ,i have only one despot1 ,i am quit of him by drawing myself up against a wall when ,i see him pass1 or by bowing low1 or by striking the ground with my forehead1 according to the custom of the country2 but if there is a company of a hundred despots1 ,i am exposed to repeating this ceremony a hundred times a day1 which in the long run is very annoying if one's hocks are not supple4 ,if ,i have a farm in the neighbourhood of one of our lords1 ,i am crushed2 if ,i plead against a relation of the relations of one of our lords1 ,i am ruined4 ,what is to be done8 ,i fear that in this world one is reduced to being either hammer or anvil2 lucky the man who escapes these alternatives6 ,,virtue ,,section ,i ,it is said of ,marcus ,brutus that1 before killing himself1 he uttered these words3 ,o virtue6 ,i thought you were something2 but you are only an empty phantom6 ,you were right1 ,brutus1 if you considered virtue as being head of a faction1 and assassin of your benefactor2 but if you had considered virtue as consisting only of doing good to those dependent on you1 you would not have called it a phantom1 and you would not have killed yourself in despair4 ,i am very virtuous says this excrement of theology1 for ,i have the four cardinal virtues1 and the three divine4 ,an honest man asks him--,what is the cardinal virtue8 ,the other answers--,strength1 prudence1 temperance and justice4 ,,the ,,honest ,,man3 ,if you are just1 you have said everything2 your strength1 your prudence1 your temperance1 are useful qualities4 ,if you have them1 so much the better for you2 but if you are just1 so much the better for the others4 ,but it is not enough to be just1 you must do good2 that is what is really cardinal4 ,and your divine virtues1 which are they8 ,,the ,,excrement3 ,faith1 hope1 charity4 ,,the ,,honest ,,man3 ,is it a virtue to believe8 either what you believe seems true to you1 and in this case there is no merit in believing2 or it seems false to you1 and then it is impossible for you to believe4 ,hope cannot be a virtue any more than fear2 one fears and one hopes1 according as one receives a promise or a threat4 ,as for charity1 is it not what the ,greeks and the ,romans understood by humanity1 love of one's neighbour8 this love is nothing if it be not active2 doing good1 therefore1 is the sole true virtue4 ,,the ,,excrement3 ,one would be a fool6 ,really1 ,i am to give myself a deal of torment in order to serve mankind1 and ,i shall get no return6 all work deserves payment4 ,i do not mean to do the least honest action1 unless ,i am certain of paradise4 ,,the ,,honest ,,man3 ,ah1 master6 that is to say that1 if you did not hope for paradise1 and if you did not fear hell1 you would never do any good action4 ,believe me1 master1 there are two things worthy of being loved for themselves1 ,god and virtue4 ,,the ,,excrement3 ,i see1 sir1 you are a disciple of ,fnlon4 ,,the ,,honest ,,man3 ,yes1 master4 ,,the ,,excrement3 ,i shall denounce you to the judge of the ecclesiastical court at ,meaux4 ,,the ,,honest ,,man3 ,go along1 denounce6 ,,section ,,ii ,what is virtue8 ,beneficence towards the fellow-creature4 ,can ,i call virtue things other than those which do me good8 ,i am needy1 you are generous4 ,i am in danger1 you help me4 ,i am deceived1 you tell me the truth4 ,i am neglected1 you console me4 ,i am ignorant1 you teach me4 ,without difficulty ,i shall call you virtuous4 ,but what will become of the cardinal and divine virtues8 ,some of them will remain in the schools4 ,what does it matter to me that you are temperate8 you observe a precept of health2 you will have better health1 and ,i am happy to hear it4 ,you have faith and hope1 and ,i am happy still2 they will procure you eternal life4 ,your divine virtues are celestial gifts2 your cardinal virtues are excellent qualities which serve to guide you3 but they are not virtues as regards your fellow-creature4 ,the prudent man does good to himself1 the virtuous man does good to mankind4 ,st4 ,paul was right to tell you that charity prevails over faith and hope4 ,but shall only those that are useful to one's fellow-creature be admitted as virtues8 ,how can ,i admit any others8 ,we live in society2 really1 therefore1 the only things that are good for us are those that are good for society4 ,a recluse will be sober1 pious2 he will be clad in hair-cloth2 he will be a saint3 but ,i shall not call him virtuous until he has done some act of virtue by which other men have profited4 ,so long as he is alone1 he is doing neither good nor evil2 for us he is nothing4 ,if ,st4 ,bruno brought peace to families1 if he succoured want1 he was virtuous2 if he fasted1 prayed in solitude1 he was a saint4 ,virtue among men is an interchange of kindness2 he who has no part in this interchange should not be counted4 ,if this saint were in the world1 he would doubtless do good2 but so long as he is not in the world1 the world will be right in refusing him the title of virtuous2 he will be good for himself and not for us4 ,but1 you say to me1 if a recluse is a glutton1 a drunkard1 given to secret debauches with himself1 he is vicious2 he is virtuous1 therefore1 if he has the opposite qualities4 ,that is what ,i cannot agree3 he is a very disagreeable fellow if he has the faults you mention2 but he is not vicious1 wicked1 punishable as regards society to whom these infamies do no harm4 ,it is to be presumed that were he to return to society he would do harm there1 that he would be very vicious2 and it is even more probable that he would be a wicked man1 than it is sure that the other temperate and chaste recluse would be a virtuous man1 for in society faults increase1 and good qualities diminish4 ,a much stronger objection is made2 ,nero1 ,pope ,alexander ,,vi41 and other monsters of this species1 have bestowed kindnesses2 ,i answer hardily that on that day they were virtuous4 ,a few theologians say that the divine emperor ,antonine was not virtuous2 that he was a stubborn ,stoic who1 not content with commanding men1 wished further to be esteemed by them2 that he attributed to himself the good he did to the human race2 that all his life he was just1 laborious1 beneficent through vanity1 and that he only deceived men through his virtues4 ,my ,god6 ,i exclaim4 ,give us often rogues like him6 ,,why8 ,why does one hardly ever do the tenth part of the good one might do8 ,why in half ,europe do girls pray to ,god in ,latin1 which they do not understand8 ,why in antiquity was there never a theological quarrel1 and why were no people ever distinguished by the name of a sect8 ,the ,egyptians were not called ,isiacs or ,osiriacs2 the peoples of ,syria did not have the name of ,cybelians4 ,the ,cretans had a particular devotion to ,jupiter1 and were never entitled ,jupiterians4 ,the ancient ,latins were very attached to ,saturn2 there was not a village in ,latium called ,saturnian3 on the contrary1 the disciples of the ,god of truth taking their master's title1 and calling themselves anointed like ,him1 declared1 as soon as they could1 an eternal war on all the peoples who were not anointed1 and made war among themselves for fourteen hundred years1 taking the names of ,arians1 ,manicheans1 ,donatists1 ,hussites1 ,papists1 ,lutherans1 ,calvinists4 ,and lastly1 the ,jansenists and the ,molinists have had no more poignant mortification than that of not having been able to slaughter each other in pitched battle4 ,whence does this come8 ,why is the great number of hard-working1 innocent men who till the land every day of the year that you may eat all its fruits1 scorned1 vilified1 oppressed1 robbed2 and why is it that the useless and often very wicked man who lives only by their work1 and who is rich only through their poverty1 is on the contrary respected1 courted1 considered8 ,why is it that1 the fruits of the earth being so necessary for the conservation of men and animals1 one yet sees so many years and so many countries where there is entire lack of these fruits8 ,why is the half of ,africa and ,america covered with poisons8 ,why is there no land where insects are not far in excess of men8 ,why does a little whitish1 evil-smelling secretion form a being which has hard bones1 desires and thoughts8 and why do these beings always persecute each other8 ,why does so much evil exist1 seeing that everything is formed by a ,god whom all theists are agreed in naming good8 ,why1 since we complain ceaselessly of our ills1 do we spend all our time in increasing them8 ,why1 as we are so miserable1 have we imagined that not to be is a great ill1 when it is clear that it was not an ill not to be before we were born8 ,why and how does one have dreams during sleep1 if one has no soul2 and how is it that these dreams are always so incoherent1 so extravagant1 if one has a soul8 ,why do the stars move from west to east rather than from east to west8 ,why do we exist8 why is there anything8 ,,declaration ,,of ,,the ,,admirers1 ,,questioners ,,and ,,doubters ,,who ,,have ,,amused ,,themselves ,,by ,,propounding ,,to ,,the ,,scholars ,,the ,,above ,,questions ,,in ,,nine ,,volumes4#bc ,we declare to the scholars that1 being like them prodigiously ignorant about the first principles of all things1 and about the natural1 typical1 mystic1 allegorical sense of many things1 we refer these things to the infallible judgment of the ,holy ,inquisition of ,rome1 ,florence1 ,madrid1 ,lisbon1 and to the decrees of the ,sorbonne of ,paris1 perpetual council of the ,gauls4 ,our errors springing in no wise from malice1 but being the natural consequence of human frailty1 we hope that they will be pardoned to us in this world and the other4 ,we beseech the small number of heavenly spirits who are still shut up in ,france in mortal bodies1 and who1 from there1 enlighten the universe at thirty sous the sheet1 to communicate their luminousness to us for the tenth volume which we reckon on publishing at the end of ,lent #aggb1 or in ,advent #aggc2 and for their luminousness we will pay forty sous4 ,this tenth volume will contain some very curious articles1 which1 if ,god favours us1 will give new point to the salt which we shall endeavour to bestow in the thanks we shall give to these gentlemen4 ,executed on ,mount ,krapack1 the thirtieth day of the month of ,janus1 the year of the world according to ,scaliger #egbb according to ,riccioli #eief according to ,eusebius #figb according to the ,alphonsine ,tables #hgjg according to the ,egyptians #cgjjjj according to the ,chaldeans #dfeajb according to the ,brahmins #ghjjjj according to the philosophers infinity ,,footnotes3 #bc ,the ,philosophical ,dictionary was first published as ,questions on the ,encyclopedia1 then reprinted as ,reason by ,alphabet1 and then finally1 with many additions1 became the ,philosophical ,dictionary4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,this text had three occurrences of ,franois ,i followed by a superscripted er4 ,these have be rendered as ,franois ,ier in this text4 ,the following words used an oe ligature in the original3 foetus manoeuvre oesophagus ,phoenicia ,phoenicians subpoenaed ,variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original4 ,there is one occurrence of ,vistnou and one of ,vitsnou4 ,one of these is clearly an error1 but each has been left as in the original4 ,the symbol representing infinity has been replaced with the word infinity on page #caf1 the last line of the text4 ,the following corrections have been made to the original text3 page #ag3 ,nestor1 in the ,iliad1 wishing to insinuate himself as a wise conciliator into the minds of ,achilles and ,agamemnonoriginal had ,agamamemnon1 page #dj3 ,atheism is the vice of a few intelligent persons1 and superstitionoriginal had superstitution is the vice of fools4 page #db3 if it is a greater crime not to believe in the ,deityoriginal had ,diety than to have unworthy opinions thereof3 page #ed3 ,they will say as much of the great moral maxims1 of ,zarathustra's--,in doubt if anoriginal had in action be just1 abstain4442 page #eh3 ,what time and what trouble for copying correctly in ,greek and ,latin the works of ,origenoriginal had ,origin1 of ,clement of ,alexandria1 and of all those other authors called fathers4 page #aja3 we shall be convinced that we must not be vain about anything1 and yet we shall alwaysoriginal had aways have vanity4 page #abh3 ,all that certain tyrantsoriginal had tryants of the souls desire is that the men they teach shall have false judgment4 page #aff3 and to surround him with little chubby1 flushed faces accompaniedoriginal had accompained by two wings2 ,i laugh and ,i pardon them with all my heart4 page #aga3 ,and an unfortunateoriginal had unforunate idiot1 who had had enough courage to render very great services to the king page #bbj3 ,try to retake from the ,mohammedans all that they usurped2 but it is easier to calumniateoriginal had calcumniate them4 pafe #bbd3 ,it was allowed among the ,egyptiansoriginal had ,egyptains1 the ,athenians and even among the ,jews1 to marry one's sister on the father's side4 page #bea3 ,your parents have told you that you should bow before this man2 you respect him before knowing whether he merits your respect2original had colon you grow in years and in knowledge2 page #bhj3 7,corporalitas anim in ipso ,evangelio relucescit1 ,de ,anima1original had period cap4 vii47 page #bie3 ,she soon became a monarchy1 then1original had period said the ,brahmin4 page #cae3 we refer these things to the infallibleoriginal had infallable judgment of the ,holy ,inquisition of ,rome1 ,florence1 ,madrid1 ,lisbon1