{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1397/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1397","id":"gutenberg_1397","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1397","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Ethics","History -- Philosophy","Religions","Revolutions"],"text":"Produced by Donald Lainson\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RUINS,\n\nOR, MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES:\n\n\nAND\n\nTHE LAW OF NATURE,\n\n\nby C. F. VOLNEY,\n\nCOMTE ET PAIR DE FRANCE. COMMANDEUR DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR, MEMBRE DE\nL'ACADEMIE FRANCAISE, ET DE PLUSIEURS AUTRES SOCIETES SAVANTES.\n\nDEPUTY TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF 1789, AND AUTHOR OF \"TRAVELS IN EGYPT\nAND SYRIA,\" \"NEW RESEARCHES ON ANCIENT HISTORY,\" ETC.\n\n\nTO WHICH IS ADDED\n\nVOLNEY'S ANSWER TO DR. PRIESTLY, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE BY COUNT DARU,\nAND THE ZODIACAL SIGNS AND CONSTELLATIONS BY THE EDITOR.\n\n\nI will cherish in remembrance the love of man, I will employ myself on\nthe means of effecting good for him, and build my own happiness on the\npromotion of his.--Volney.\n\n\nNEW YORK, TWENTIETH CENTURY PUB. CO., 4 WARREN ST. 1890.\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHER'S PREFACE.\n\n\nHaving recently purchased a set of stereotyped plates of Volney's Ruins,\nwith a view of reprinting the same, I found, on examination, that they\nwere considerably worn by the many editions that had been printed\nfrom them and that they greatly needed both repairs and corrections. A\ncareful estimate showed that the amount necessary for this purpose would\ngo far towards reproducing this standard work in modern type and in an\nimproved form. After due reflection this course was at length decided\nupon, and all the more readily, as by discarding the old plates and\nresetting the entire work, the publisher was enabled to greatly enhance\nits value, by inserting the translator's preface as it appeared in the\noriginal edition, and also to restore many notes and other valuable\nmaterial which had been carelessly omitted in the American reprint.\n\nAn example of an important omission of this kind may be found on the\nfifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth pages of this volume, which may\nbe appropriately referred to, in this connection. It is there stated, in\ndescribing the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia, and the ruins of Thebes,\nher opulent metropolis, that \"There a people, now forgotten, discovered,\nwhile others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences.\nA race of men, now rejected from society for their sable skin and\nfrizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil\nand religious systems which still govern the universe.\"\n\nA voluminous note, in which standard authorities are cited, seems to\nprove that this statement is substantially correct, and that we are in\nreality indebted to the ancient Ethiopians, to the fervid imagination of\nthe persecuted and despised negro, for the various religious systems\nnow so highly revered by the different branches of both the Semitic\nand Aryan races. This fact, which is so frequently referred to in Mr.\nVolney's writings, may perhaps solve the question as to the origin of\nall religions, and may even suggest a solution to the secret so long\nconcealed beneath the flat nose, thick lips, and negro features of the\nEgyptian Sphinx. It may also confirm the statement of Dioderus, that\n\"the Ethiopians conceive themselves as the inventors of divine worship,\nof festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and of every other\nreligious practice.\"\n\nThat an imaginative and superstitious race of black men should have\ninvented and founded, in the dim obscurity of past ages, a system\nof religious belief that still enthralls the minds and clouds the\nintellects of the leading representatives of modern theology,--that\nstill clings to the thoughts, and tinges with its potential influence\nthe literature and faith of the civilized and cultured nations of Europe\nand America, is indeed a strange illustration of the mad caprice of\ndestiny, of the insignificant and apparently trivial causes that oft\nproduce the most grave and momentous results.\n\n\nThe translation here given closely follows that published in Paris by\nLevrault, Quai Malaquais, in 1802, which was under the direction and\ncareful supervision of the talented author; and whatever notes Count\nVolney then thought necessary to insert in his work, are here carefully\nreproduced without abridgment or modification.\n\n\nThe portrait, maps and illustrations are from a French edition of\nVolney's complete works, published by Bossange Freres at No. 12 Rue de\nSeine, Paris, in 1821,--one year after the death of Mr. Volney. It is a\npresentation copy \"on the part of Madame, the Countess de Volney, and\nof the nephew of the author,\" and it may therefore be taken for\ngranted that Mr. Volney's portrait, as here given, is correct, and was\nsatisfactory to his family.\n\n\nAn explanation of the figures and diagrams shown on the map of the\nAstrological Heaven of the Ancients has been added in the appendix by\nthe publisher.\n\nPETER ECKLER.\n\nNew York, January 3, 1890.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR'S PREFACE\n\nOF THE ENGLISH EDITION PUBLISHED IN PARIS.\n\n\nTo offer the public a new translation of Volney's Ruins may require some\napology in the view of those who are acquainted with the work only in\nthe English version which already exists, and which has had a general\ncirculation. But those who are conversant with the book in the author's\nown language, and have taken pains to compare it with that version,\nmust have been struck with the errors with which the English performance\nabounds. They must have regretted the loss of many original beauties,\nsome of which go far in composing the essential merits of the work.\n\nThe energy and dignity of the author's manner, the unaffected elevation\nof his style, the conciseness, perspicuity and simplicity of his\ndiction, are everywhere suited to his subject, which is solemn, novel,\nluminous, affecting,--a subject perhaps the most universally interesting\nto the human race that has ever been presented to their contemplation.\nIt takes the most liberal and comprehensive view of the social state\nof man, develops the sources of his errors in the most perspicuous and\nconvincing manner, overturns his prejudices with the greatest delicacy\nand moderation, sets the wrongs he has suffered, and the rights he ought\nto cherish, in the clearest point of view, and lays before him the true\nfoundation of morals--his only means of happiness.\n\nAs the work has already become a classical one, even in English, and as\nit must become and continue to be so regarded in all languages in which\nit shall be faithfully rendered, we wish it to suffer as little as\npossible from a change of country;--that as much of the spirit of the\noriginal be transfused and preserved as is consistent with the nature of\ntranslation.\n\nHow far we have succeeded in performing this service for the English\nreader we must not pretend to determine. We believe, however, that\nwe have made an improved translation, and this without claiming any\nparticular merit on our part, since we have had advantages which our\npredecessor had not. We have been aided by his labors; and, what is of\nstill more importance, our work has been done under the inspection of\nthe author, whose critical knowledge of both languages has given us\na great facility in avoiding such errors as might arise from hurry or\nmistake.\n\nParis, November 1, 1802.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE OF THE LONDON EDITION.*\n\n     * Published by T. Allman, 42 Holborn Hill, London, 1851.\n\nThe plan of this publication was formed nearly ten years ago; and\nallusions to it may be seen in the preface to Travels in Syria and\nEgypt, as well as at the end of that work, (published in 1787). The\nperformance was in some forwardness when the events of 1788 in France\ninterrupted it. Persuaded that a development of the theory of political\ntruth could not sufficiently acquit a citizen of his debt to society,\nthe author wished to add practice; and that particularly at a time when\na single arm was of consequence in the defence of the general cause.\n\nThe same desire of public benefit which induced him to suspend his work,\nhas since engaged him to resume it, and though it may not possess the\nsame merit as if it had appeared under the circumstances that gave rise\nto it, yet he imagines that at a time when new passions are bursting\nforth,--passions that must communicate their activity to the religious\nopinions of men,--it is of importance to disseminate such moral truths\nas are calculated to operate as a curb and restraint. It is with this\nview he has endeavored to give to these truths, hitherto treated as\nabstract, a form likely to gain them a reception.\n\nIt was found impossible not to shock the violent prejudices of some\nreaders; but the work, so far from being the fruit of a disorderly\nand perturbed spirit, has been dictated by a sincere love of order and\nhumanity.\n\nAfter reading this performance it will be asked, how it was possible in\n1784 to have had an idea of what did not take place till the year\n1790? The solution is simple. In the original plan the legislator was\na fictitious and hypothetical being: in the present, the author has\nsubstituted an existing legislator; and the reality has only made the\nsubject additionally interesting.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITION.*\n\n     * The copy from which this preface is reprinted was\n     published in Boston by Charles Gaylord, in 1833.  It was\n     given to the writer, when a mere lad, by a lady--almost a\n     stranger--who was traveling through the little hamlet on the\n     banks of the Hudson where he then resided.  This lady\n     assured me that the book was of great value, containing\n     noble and sublime truths; and the only condition she\n     attached to the gift was, that I should read it carefully\n     and endeavor to understand its meaning.  This I willingly\n     promised and faithfully performed; and all who have \"climbed\n     the heights,\" and escaped from the thraldom of superstitious\n     faith, will concede the inestimable value of such a gift--\n     rich with the peace and consolation that the truth imparts.\n     --Pub.\n\nIf books were to be judged of by their volume, the following would have\nbut little value; if appraised by their contents, it will perhaps be\nreckoned among the most instructive.\n\nIn general, nothing is more important than a good elementary book; but,\nalso, nothing is more difficult to compose and even to read: and why?\nBecause, as every thing in it should be analysis and definition, all\nshould be expressed with truth and precision. If truth and precision are\nwanting, the object has not been attained; if they exist, its very force\nrenders it abstract.\n\nThe first of these defects has been hitherto evident in all books of\nmorality. We find in them only a chaos of incoherent maxims, precepts\nwithout causes, and actions without a motive. The pedants of the human\nrace have treated it like a little child: they have prescribed to it\ngood behavior by frightening it with spirits and hobgoblins. Now that\nthe growth of the human race is rapid, it is time to speak reason to it;\nit is time to prove to men that the springs of their improvement are to\nbe found in their very organization, in the interest of their passions,\nand in all that composes their existence. It is time to demonstrate that\nmorality is a physical and geometrical science, subject to the rules\nand calculations of the other mathematical sciences: and such is the\nadvantage of the system expounded in this book, that the basis of\nmorality being laid in it on the very nature of things, it is both\nconstant and immutable; whereas, in all other theological systems,\nmorality being built upon arbritary opinions, not demonstrable and often\nabsurd, it changes, decays, expires with them, and leaves men in an\nabsolute depravation. It is true that because our system is founded\non facts and not on reveries, it will with much greater difficulty\nbe extended and adopted: but it will derive strength from this very\nstruggle, and sooner or later the eternal religion of Nature must\noverturn the transient religions of the human mind.\n\n\nThis book was published for the first time in 1793, under the title of\nThe French Citizen's Catechism. It was at first intended for a national\nwork, but as it may be equally well entitled the Catechism of men of\nsense and honor, it is to be hoped that it will become a book common\nto all Europe. It is possible that its brevity may prevent it from\nattaining the object of a popular classical work, but the author will be\nsatisfied if he has at least the merit of pointing out the way to make a\nbetter.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT OF THE AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nVOLNEY'S RUINS;\n\nOR MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES.\n\n\nThe superior merits of this work are too well known to require\ncommendation; but as it is not generally known that there are in\ncirculation three English translations of it, varying materially in\nregard to faithfulness and elegance of diction, the publisher of the\npresent edition inserts the following extracts for the information of\npurchasers and readers:\n\n\n\n\nPARIS TRANSLATION,\n\nFirst published in this Country by Dixon and Sickels.\n\n\nINVOCATION.\n\nHail, solitary ruins! holy sepulchres, and silent walls! you I invoke;\nto you I address my prayer. While your aspect averts, with secret\nterror, the vulgar regard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious\nsentiments--sublime contemplations. What useful lessons! what affecting\nand profound reflections you suggest to him who knows how to consult\nyou. When the whole earth, in chains and silence, bowed the neck before\nits tyrants, you had already proclaimed the truths which they abhor,\nand confounding the dust of the king with that of the meanest slave,\nhad announced to man the sacred dogma of Equality! Within your pale, in\nsolitary adoration of Liberty, I saw her Genius arise from the mansions\nof the dead; not such as she is painted by the impassioned multitude,\narmed with fire and sword, but under the august aspect of justice,\npoising in her hand the sacred balance, wherein are weighed the actions\nof men at the gates of eternity.\n\nO Tombs! what virtues are yours! you appal the tyrant's heart, and\npoison with secret alarm his impious joys; he flies, with coward step,\nyour incorruptible aspect, and erects afar his throne of insolence.\n\n\n\n\nLONDON TRANSLATION.\n\n\nINVOCATION.\n\nSolitary ruins, sacred tombs, ye mouldering and silent walls, all hail!\nTo you I address my invocation. While the vulgar shrink from your aspect\nwith secret terror, my heart finds in the contemplation a thousand\ndelicious sentiments, a thousand admirable recollections. Pregnant, I\nmay truly call you, with useful lessons, with pathetic and irresistible\nadvice to the man who knows how to consult you. A while ago the whole\nworld bowed the neck in silence before the tyrants that oppressed it;\nand yet in that hopeless moment you already proclaimed the truths that\ntyrants hold in abhorrence: mixing the dust of the proudest kings with\nthat of the meanest slaves, you called upon us to contemplate this\nexample of Equality. From your caverns, whither the musing and anxious\nlove of Liberty led me, I saw escape its venerable shade, and with\nunexpected felicity, direct its flight and marshal my steps the way to\nrenovated France.\n\nTombs! what virtues and potency do you exhibit! Tyrants tremble at your\naspect--you poison with secret alarm their impious pleasures--they turn\nfrom you with impatience, and, coward like, endeavor to forget you amid\nthe sumptuousness of their palaces.\n\n\n\n\nPHILADELPHIA TRANSLATION.\n\n\nINVOCATION.\n\nHail, ye solitary ruins, ye sacred tombs, and silent walls! 'Tis your\nauspicious aid that I invoke; 'tis to you my soul, wrapt in meditation,\npours forth its prayers! What though the profane and vulgar mind shrinks\nwith dismay from your august and awe-inspiring aspect; to me you unfold\nthe sublimest charms of contemplation and sentiment, and offer to my\nsenses the luxury of a thousand delicious and enchanting thoughts!\nHow sumptuous the feast to a being that has a taste to relish, and an\nunderstanding to consult you! What rich and noble admonitions;\nwhat exquisite and pathetic lessons do you read to a heart that is\nsusceptible of exalted feelings! When oppressed humanity bent in timid\nsilence throughout the globe beneath the galling yoke of slavery, it was\nyou that proclaimed aloud the birthright of those truths which tyrants\ntremble at while they detect, and which, by sinking the loftiest head of\nthe proudest potentate, with all his boasted pageantry, to the level\nof mortality with his meanest slave, confirmed and ratified by your\nunerring testimony the sacred and immortal doctrine of Equality.\n\nMusing within the precincts of your inviting scenes of philosophic\nsolitude, whither the insatiate love of true-born Liberty had led me, I\nbeheld her Genius ascending, not in the spurious character and habit of\na blood-thirsty Fury, armed with daggers and instruments of murder, and\nfollowed by a frantic and intoxicated multitude, but under the placid\nand chaste aspect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the\nsacred scales in which the actions of mortals are weighed on the brink\nof eternity.\n\n\nThe first translation was made and published in London soon after the\nappearance of the work in French, and, by a late edition, is still\nadopted without alteration. Mr. Volney, when in this country in 1797,\nexpressed his disapprobation of this translation, alleging that the\ntranslator must have been overawed by the government or clergy from\nrendering his ideas faithfully; and, accordingly, an English gentleman,\nthen in Philadelphia, volunteered to correct this edition. But by his\nendeavors to give the true and full meaning of the author with great\nprecision, he has so overloaded his composition with an exuberance\nof words, as in a great measure to dissipate the simple elegance and\nsublimity of the original. Mr. Volney, when he became better acquainted\nwith the English language, perceived this defect; and with the aid of\nour countryman, Joel Barlow, made and published in Paris a new, correct,\nand elegant translation, of which the present edition is a faithful and\ncorrect copy.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n     Publisher's Preface\n     Translator's Preface\n     Preface of London Edition\n     Preface of the American Edition\n     Advertisement of the American Edition\n     The Life of Volney\n     A List of Volney's Works\n     Invocation\n\n     Chap.\n     I.     The Journey\n     II.    The Reverie\n     III.   The Apparition\n     IV.    The Exposition\n     V.     Condition of Man in the Universe\n     VI.    The Primitive State of Man\n     VII.   Principles of Society\n     VIII.  Sources of the Evils of Societies\n     IX.    Origin of Governments and Laws\n     X.     General Causes of the Prosperity of Ancient States\n     XI.    General Causes of the Revolutions and Ruin of Ancient States\n     XII.   Lessons of Times Past repeated on the Present\n     XIII.  Will the Human Race Improve\n     XIV.   The Great Obstacle to Improvement\n     XV.    The New Age\n     XVI.   A Free and Legislative People\n     XVII.  Universal Basis of all Right and all Law\n     XVIII. Consternation and Conspiracy of Tyrants\n     XIX.   General Assembly of the Nations\n     XX.    The Search of Truth\n     XXI.   Problem of Religious Contradictions\n     XXII.  Origin and Filiation of Religious Ideas\n         I.     Origin of the Idea of God: Worship of the Elements\n                   and of the Physical Powers of Nature\n         II.    Second System.  Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism\n         III.   Third System.  Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry\n         IV.    Fourth System.  Worship of two Principles, or Dualism\n         V.     Moral and Mystical Worship, or System of a Future State\n         VI.    Sixth System.  The Animated World, or Worship of the\n                    Universe under diverse Emblems\n         VII.   Seventh System.  Worship of the Soul of the World, that\n                    is to say, the Element of Fire, Vital Principle\n                    of the Universe\n         VIII.  Eighth System.  The World Machine: Worship of the Demi-\n                   Ourgos, or Grand Artificer\n         IX.    Religion of Moses, or Worship of the Soul of the World\n                  (You-piter)\n         X.     Religion of Zoroaster\n         XI.    Budsoism, or Religion of the Samaneans\n         XII.   Brahmism, or Indian System\n         XIII.  Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun\n                   under the cabalistic names of Chrish-en or Christ\n                   and Yesus or Jesus\n     XXIII. All Religions have the same Object\n     XXIV.  Solution of the Problem of Contradictions\n\n\n     THE LAW OF NATURE.\n\n     Chap.\n     I.     Of the Law of Nature\n     II.    Characters of the Law of Nature\n     III.   Principles of the Law of Nature relating to Man\n     IV.    Basis of Morality: of Good, of Evil, of Sin, of Crime,\n               of Vice, and of Virtue\n     V.     Of Individual Virtues\n     VI.    On Temperance\n     VII.   On Continence\n     VIII.  On Courage and Activity\n     IX.    On Cleanliness\n     X.     On Domestic Virtues\n     XI.    The Social Virtues; Justice\n     XII.   Development of the Social Virtues\n\n     Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestly.\n\n     Appendix: The Zodiacal Signs and Constellations\n\n\n\n\n\nLIFE OF VOLNEY.\n\nBy Count Daru.\n\n\nConstantine Francis Chassebeuf De Volney was born in 1757 at Craon, in\nthat intermediate condition of life, which is of all the happiest, since\nit is deprived only of fortune's too dangerous favors, and can aspire to\nthe social and intellectual advantages reserved for a laudable ambition.\n\nFrom his earliest youth, he devoted himself to the search after truth,\nwithout being disheartened by the serious studies which alone can\ninitiate us into her secrets. After having become acquainted with the\nancient languages, the natural sciences and history, and being admitted\ninto the society of the most eminent literary characters, he submitted,\nat the age of twenty, to an illustrious academy, the solution of one of\nthe most difficult problems that the history of antiquity has left open\nfor discussion. This attempt received no encouragement from the learned\nmen who were appointed his judges; and the author's only appeal from\ntheir sentence was to his courage and his efforts.\n\nSoon after, a small inheritance having fallen to his lot, the difficulty\nwas how to spend it (these are his own words.) He resolved to employ\nit in acquiring, by a long voyage, a new fund of information, and\ndetermined to visit Egypt and Syria. But these countries could not be\nexplored to advantage without a knowledge of the language. Our young\ntraveller was not to be discouraged by this difficulty. Instead of\nlearning Arabic in Europe, he withdrew to a convent of Copts, until he\nhad made himself master of an idiom that is spoken by so many nations\nof the East. This resolution showed one of those undaunted spirits that\nremain unshaken amid the trials of life.\n\nAlthough, like other travellers, he might have amused us with an account\nof his hardships and the perils surmounted by his courage, he overcame\nthe temptation of interrupting his narrative by personal adventures. He\ndisdained the beaten track. He does not tell us the road he took, the\naccidents he met with, or the impressions he received. He carefully\navoids appearing upon the stage; he is an inhabitant of the country,\nwho has long and well observed it, and who describes its physical,\npolitical, and moral state. The allusion would be entire if an old\nArab could be supposed to possess all the erudition, all the European\nphilosophy, which are found united and in their maturity in a traveller\nof twenty-five.\n\nBut though a master in all those artifices by which a narration is\nrendered interesting, the young man is not to be discerned in the pomp\nof labored descriptions. Although possessed of a lively and brilliant\nimagination, he is never found unwarily explaining by conjectural\nsystems the physical or moral phenomena he describes. In his\nobservations he unites prudence with science. With these two guides he\njudges with circumspection, and sometimes confesses himself unable to\naccount for the effects he has made known to us.\n\nThus his account has all the qualities that persuade--accuracy\nand candor. And when, ten years later, a vast military enterprise\ntransported forty thousand travellers to the classic ground, which he\nhad trod unattended, unarmed and unprotected, they all recognized a sure\nguide and an enlightened observer in the writer who had, as it seemed,\nonly preceded them to remove or point out a part of the difficulties of\nthe way.\n\nThe unanimous testimony of all parties proved the accuracy of his\naccount and the justness of his observations; and his Travels in Egypt\nand Syria were, by universal suffrage, recommended to the gratitude and\nthe confidence of the public.\n\nBefore the work had undergone this trial it had obtained in the learned\nworld such a rapid and general success, that it found its way into\nRussia. The empress, then (in 1787) upon the throne, sent the author\na medal, which he received with respect, as a mark of esteem for his\ntalents, and with gratitude, as a proof of the approbation given to his\nprinciples. But when the empress declared against France, Volney sent\nback the honorable present, saying: \"If I obtained it from her esteem, I\ncan only preserve her esteem by returning it.\"\n\nThe revolution of 1789, which had drawn upon France the menaces of\nCatharine, had opened to Volney a political career. As deputy in the\nassembly of the states-general, the first words he uttered there were\nin favor of the publicity of their deliberations. He also supported\nthe organization of the national guards, and that of the communes and\ndepartments.\n\nAt the period when the question of the sale of the domain lands was\nagitated (in 1790), he published an essay in which he lays down the\nfollowing principles: \"The force of a State is in proportion to\nits population; population is in proportion to plenty; plenty is in\nproportion to tillage; and tillage, to personal and immediate interest,\nthat is to the spirit of property. Whence it follows, that the nearer\nthe cultivator approaches the passive condition of a mercenary, the less\nindustry and activity are to be expected from him; and, on the other\nhand, the nearer he is to the condition of a free and entire proprietor,\nthe more extension he gives to his own forces, to the produce of his\nlands, and the general prosperity of the State.\"\n\nThe author draws this conclusion, that a State is so much the more\npowerful as it includes a greater number of proprietors,--that is, a\ngreater division of property.\n\nConducted into Corsica by that spirit of observation which belongs only\nto men whose information is varied and extensive, he perceived at the\nfirst glance all that could be done for the improvement of agriculture\nin that country: but he knew that, for a people firmly attached to\nancient customs, there can exist no other demonstration or means of\npersuasion than example. He purchased a considerable estate, and made\nexperiments on those kinds of tillage that he hoped to naturalize\nin that climate. The sugar-cane, cotton, indigo and coffee soon\ndemonstrated the success of his efforts. This success drew upon him the\nnotice of the government. He was appointed director of agriculture and\ncommerce in that island, where, through ignorance, all new methods are\nintroduced with such difficulty.\n\nIt is impossible to calculate all the good that might have resulted from\nthis peaceable magistracy; and we know that neither instruction, zeal,\nnor a persevering courage was wanting to him who had undertaken it.\nOf this he had given convincing proofs. It was in obedience to another\nsentiment, no less respectable, that he voluntarily interrupted the\ncourse of his labors. When his fellow citizens of Angers appointed him\ntheir deputy in the constituent assembly, he resigned the employment he\nheld under government, upon the principle that no man can represent\nthe nation and be dependent for a salary upon those by whom it is\nadministered.\n\nThrough respect for the independence of his legislative functions,\nhe had ceased to occupy the place he possessed in Corsica before his\nelection, but he had not ceased to be a benefactor of that country. He\nreturned thither after the session of the constituent assembly. Invited\ninto that island by the principal inhabitants, who were anxious to put\ninto practice his lessons, he spent there a part of the years 1792 and\n1793.\n\nOn his return he published a work entitled: An Account of the Present\nState of Corsica. This was an act of courage; for it was not a physical\ndescription, but a political review of the condition of a population\ndivided into several factions and distracted by violent animosities.\nVolney unreservedly revealed the abuses, solicited the interest of\nFrance in favor of the Corsicans, without flattering them, and boldly\ndenounced their defects and vices; so that the philosopher obtained the\nonly recompense he could expect from his sincerity--he was accused by\nthe Corsicans of heresy.\n\nTo prove that he had not merited this reproach, he published soon after\na short treatise entitled: The Law of Nature, or Physical Principles of\nMorality.\n\nHe was soon exposed to a much more dangerous charge, and this, it must\nbe confessed, he did merit. This philosopher, this worthy citizen, who\nin our first National assembly had seconded with his wishes and his\ntalents the establishment of an order of things which he considered\nfavorable to the happiness of his country, was accused of not being\nsincerely attached to that liberty for which he had contended; that is\nto say, of being averse to anarchy. An imprisonment of ten months, which\nonly ended after the 9th of Thermidor, was a new trial reserved for his\ncourage.\n\nThe moment at which he recovered his liberty, was when the horror\ninspired by criminal excesses had recalled men to those noble sentiments\nwhich fortunately are one of the first necessaries of civilized life.\nThey sought for consolations in study and literature after so many\nmisfortunes, and organized a plan of public instruction.\n\nIt was in the first place necessary to insure the aptitude of those to\nwhom education should be confided; but as the systems were various, the\nbest methods and a unity of doctrine were to be determined. It was not\nenough to interrogate the masters, they were to be formed, new ones were\nto be created, and for that purpose a school was opened in 1794, wherein\nthe celebrity of the professors promised new instruction even to the\nbest informed. This was not, as was objected, beginning the edifice at\nthe roof, but creating architects, who were to superintend all the arts\nrequisite for constructing the building.\n\nThe more difficult their functions were, the greater care was to be\ntaken in the choice of the professors; but France, though then accused\nof being plunged in barbarism, possessed men of transcendent talents,\nalready enjoying the esteem of all Europe, and we may be bold to say,\nthat by their labors, our literary glory had likewise extended its\nconquests. Their names were proclaimed by the public voice, and Volney's\nwas associated with those of the men most illustrious in science and in\nliterature.*\n\n     * Lagrange, Laplace, Berthollet, Garat, Bernardin de Saint-\n     Pierre, Daubenton, Hauy, Volney, Sicard, Monge, Thouin, La\n     Harpe, Buache Mentelle.\n\nThis institution, however, did not answer the expectations that had been\nformed of it, because the two thousand students that assembled from all\nparts of France were not equally prepared to receive these transcendent\nlessons, and because it had not been sufficiently ascertained how far\nthe theory of education should be kept distinct from education itself.\n\nVolney's Lectures on History, which were attended by an immense\nconcourse of auditors, became one of his chief claims to literary glory.\nWhen forced to interrupt them, by the suppression of the Normal school,\nhe might have reasonably expected to enjoy in his retirement that\nconsideration which his recent functions had added to his name. But,\ndisgusted with the scenes he had witnessed in his native land, he felt\nthat passion revive within him which, in his youth, had led him to visit\nAfrica and Asia. America, civilized within a century, and free only\nwithin a few years, fixed his attention. There every thing was new,--the\ninhabitants, the constitution, the earth itself. These were objects\nworthy of his observation. When embarking for this voyage, however, he\nfelt emotions very different from those which formerly accompanied him\ninto Turkey. Then in the prime of life, he joyfully bid adieu to a\nland where peace and plenty reigned, to travel amongst barbarians;\nnow, mature in years, but dismayed at the spectacle and experience of\ninjustice and persecution, it was with diffidence, as we learn from\nhimself, that he went to implore from a free people an asylum for a\nsincere friend of that liberty that had been so profaned.\n\nOur traveller had gone to seek for repose beyond the seas. He there\nfound himself exposed to aggression from a celebrated philosopher, Dr.\nPriestley. Although the subject of this discussion was confined to the\ninvestigation of some speculative opinions, published by the French\nwriter in his work entitled The Ruins, the naturalist in this attack\nemployed a degree of violence which added nothing to the force of his\narguments, and an acrimony of expression not to be expected from a\nphilosopher. M. Volney, though accused of Hottentotism and ignorance,\npreserved in his defence, all the advantages that the scurrility of\nhis adversary gave over him. He replied in English, and Priestley's\ncountrymen could only recognize the Frenchman in the refinement and\npoliteness of his answer.\n\nWhilst M. Volney was travelling in America, there had been formed in\nFrance a literary body which, under the name of Institute, had attained\nin a very few years a distinguished rank amongst the learned societies\nof Europe. The name of the illustrious traveller was inscribed in it\nat its formation, and he acquired new rights to the academical\nhonors conferred on him during his absence, by the publication of his\nobservations On the Climate and Soil of the United States.\n\nThese rights were further augmented by the historical and physiological\nlabors of the Academician. An examination and justification of The\nChronology of Herodotus, with numerous and profound researches on The\nHistory of the most Ancient Nations, occupied for a long time him who\nhad observed their monuments and traces in the countries they inhabited.\nThe trial he had made of the utility of the Oriental languages inspired\nhim with an ardent desire to propagate the knowledge of them; and to be\npropagated, he felt how necessary it was to render it less difficult.\nIn this view he conceived the project of applying to the study of the\nidioms of Asia, a part of the grammatical notions we possess concerning\nthe languages of Europe. It only appertains to those conversant with\ntheir relations of dissimilitude or conformity to appreciate the\npossibility of realizing this system. The author has, however, already\nreceived the most flattering encouragement and the most unequivocal\nappreciation, by the inscription of his name amongst the members of\nthe learned and illustrious society founded by English commerce in the\nIndian peninsula.\n\nM. Volney developed his system in three works,* which prove that this\nidea of uniting nations separated by immense distances and such various\nidioms, had never ceased to occupy him for twenty-five years. Lest those\nessays, of the utility of which he was persuaded, should be interrupted\nby his death, with the clay-cold hand that corrected his last work, he\ndrew up a will which institutes a premium for the prosecution of his\nlabors. Thus he prolonged, beyond the term of a life entirely devoted to\nletters, the glorious services he had rendered to them.\n\n     * On the Simplification of Oriental Languages, 1795. The\n     European Alphabet Applied to the Languages of Asia, 1819.\n     Hebrew Simplified, 1820.\n\nThis is not the place, nor does it belong to me to appreciate the merit\nof the writings which render Volney's name illustrious. His name had\nbeen inscribed in the list of the Senate, and afterwards of the House\nof Peers. The philosopher who had travelled in the four quarters of\nthe world, and observed their social state, had other titles to his\nadmission into this body, than his literary glory. His public life, his\nconduct in the constituent assembly, his independent principles, the\nnobleness of his sentiments, the wisdom and fixity of his opinions, had\ngained him the esteem of those who can be depended upon, and with whom\nit is so agreeable to discuss political interests.\n\nAlthough no man had a better right to have an opinion, no one was more\ntolerant for the opinions of others. In State assemblies as well as\nin Academical meetings, the man whose counsels were so wise, voted\naccording to his conscience, which nothing could bias; but the\nphilosopher forgot his superiority to hear, to oppose with moderation,\nand sometimes to doubt. The extent and variety of his information,\nthe force of his reason, the austerity of his manners, and the noble\nsimplicity of his character, had procured him illustrious friends in\nboth hemispheres; and now that this erudition is extinct in the tomb,*\nwe may be allowed at least to predict that he was one of the very few\nwhose memory shall never die.\n\n     * He died in Paris on the 20th of April, 1820.\n\n\nA list of the Works Published by Count Volney.\n\n\nTRAVELS IN EGYPT AND SYRIA during the years 1783, 1784, and 1785: 2\nvols. 8vo.--1787.\n\nCHRONOLOGY OF THE TWELVE CENTURIES that preceded the entrance of Xerxes\ninto Greece.\n\nCONSIDERATIONS ON THE TURKISH WAR, in 1788.\n\nTHE RUINS, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires--1791.\n\nACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT STATE OF CORSICA--1793.\n\nTHE LAW OF NATURE, or Physical Principles of Morality--1793.\n\nON THE SIMPLIFICATION OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES--1795.\n\nA LETTER TO DR. PRIESTLEY--1797.\n\nLECTURES ON HISTORY, delivered at the Normal School in the year 3--1800.\n\nON THE CLIMATE AND SOIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, to which is\nadded an account of Florida, of the French colony of Scioto, of some\nCanadian Colonies, and of the Savages--1803.\n\nREPORT MADE TO THE CELTIC ACADEMY ON THE RUSSIAN WORK OF PROFESSOR\nPALLAS, entitled \"A Comparative Vocabulary of all the Languages in the\nWorld.\"\n\nTHE CHRONOLOGY OF HERODOTUS conformable with his Text--1808 and 1809.\n\nNEW RESEARCHES ON ANCIENT HISTORY, 3 vols. 8vo.--1814\n\nTHE EUROPEAN ALPHABET Applied to the Languages of Asia--1819.\n\nA HISTORY OF SAMUEL--1819.\n\nHEBREW SIMPLIFIED--1820.\n\n\n\nINVOCATION.\n\nHail solitary ruins, holy sepulchres and silent walls! you I invoke; to\nyou I address my prayer. While your aspect averts, with secret terror,\nthe vulgar regard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious\nsentiments--sublime contemplations. What useful lessons, what affecting\nand profound reflections you suggest to him who knows how to consult\nyou! When the whole earth, in chains and silence bowed the neck before\nits tyrants, you had already proclaimed the truths which they abhor;\nand confounding the dust of the king with that of the meanest slave,\nhad announced to man the sacred dogma of Equality. Within your pale, in\nsolitary adoration of Liberty, I saw her Genius arise from the mansions\nof the dead; not such as she is painted by the impassioned multitude,\narmed with fire and sword, but under the august aspect of Justice,\npoising in her hand the sacred balance wherein are weighed the actions\nof men at the gates of eternity!\n\nO Tombs! what virtues are yours! You appal the tyrant's heart, and\npoison with secret alarm his impious joys. He flies, with coward step,\nyour incorruptible aspect, and erects afar his throne of insolence.*\nYou punish the powerful oppressor; you wrest from avarice and extortion\ntheir ill-gotten gold, and you avenge the feeble whom they have\ndespoiled; you compensate the miseries of the poor by the anxieties of\nthe rich; you console the wretched, by opening to him a last asylum from\ndistress; and you give to the soul that just equipoise of strength and\nsensibility which constitutes wisdom--the true science of life. Aware\nthat all must return to you, the wise man loadeth not himself with the\nburdens of grandeur and of useless wealth: he restrains his desires\nwithin the limits of justice; yet, knowing that he must run his destined\ncourse of life, he fills with employment all its hours, and enjoys the\ncomforts that fortune has allotted him. You thus impose on the impetuous\nsallies of cupidity a salutary rein! you calm the feverish ardor\nof enjoyments which disturb the senses; you free the soul from the\nfatiguing conflict of the passions; elevate it above the paltry\ninterests which torment the crowd; and surveying, from your commanding\nposition, the expanse of ages and nations, the mind is only accessible\nto the great affections--to the solid ideas of virtue and of glory.\n\n     * The cathedral of St. Denis is the tomb of the kings of\n     France; and it was because the towers of that edifice are\n     seen from the Castle of St. Germain, that Louis XIV. quitted\n     that admirable residence, and established a new one in the\n     savage forests of Versailles.\n\n     (This note, like many others, has been omitted from the\n     American editions.  It seems pertinent to the subject, and\n     is explanatory of the text.--Pub.)\n\nAh! when the dream of life is over, what will then avail all its\nagitations, if not one trace of utility remains behind?\n\n\nO Ruins! to your school I will return! I will seek again the calm of\nyour solitudes; and there, far from the afflicting spectacle of the\npassions, I will cherish in remembrance the love of man, I will\nemploy myself on the means of effecting good for him, and build my own\nhappiness on the promotion of his.\n\n\n\nTHE RUINS OF EMPIRES.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE JOURNEY.\n\n\nIn the eleventh year of the reign of Abd-ul-Hamid, son of Ahmid, emperor\nof the Turks; when the Nogais-Tartars were driven from the Crimea, and a\nMussulman prince of the blood of Gengis-Kahn became the vassal and\nguard of a Christian woman and queen,* I was travelling in the Ottoman\ndominions, and through those provinces which were anciently the kingdoms\nof Egypt and Syria.\n\n     * In the eleventh year of Abd-ul-Hamid, that is 1784 of the\n     Christian era, and 1198 of the Hegira.  The emigration of\n     the Tartars took place in March, immediately on the\n     manifesto of the empress, declaring the Crimea to be\n     incorporated with Russia.  The Mussulman prince of the blood\n     of Gengis-khan was Chahin-Guerai. Gengis-Khan was borne and\n     served by the kings whom he conquered: Chahin, on the\n     contrary, after selling his country for a pension of eighty\n     thousand roubles, accepted the commission of captain of\n     guards to Catherine II.  He afterwards returned home, and\n     according to custom was strangled by the Turks.\n\nMy whole attention bent on whatever concerns the happiness of man in\na social state, I visited cities, and studied the manners of their\ninhabitants; entered palaces, and observed the conduct of those who\ngovern; wandered over fields, and examined the condition of those\nwho cultivated them: and nowhere perceiving aught but robbery and\ndevastation, tyranny and wretchedness, my heart was oppressed with\nsorrow and indignation.\n\nI saw daily on my road fields abandoned, villages deserted, and cities\nin ruin. Often I met with ancient monuments, wrecks of temples, palaces\nand fortresses, columns, aqueducts and tombs. This spectacle led me to\nmeditate on times past, and filled my mind with contemplations the most\nserious and profound.\n\nArrived at the city of Hems, on the border of the Orontes, and being\nin the neighborhood of Palmyra of the desert, I resolved to visit its\ncelebrated ruins. After three days journeying through arid deserts,\nhaving traversed the Valley of Caves and Sepulchres, on issuing into\nthe plain, I was suddenly struck with a scene of the most stupendous\nruins--a countless multitude of superb columns, stretching in avenues\nbeyond the reach of sight. Among them were magnificent edifices, some\nentire, others in ruins; the earth every where strewed with fragments\nof cornices, capitals, shafts, entablatures, pilasters, all of\nwhite marble, and of the most exquisite workmanship. After a walk of\nthree-quarters of an hour along these ruins, I entered the enclosure of\na vast edifice, formerly a temple dedicated to the Sun; and accepting\nthe hospitality of some poor Arabian peasants, who had built their\nhovels on the area of the temple, I determined to devote some days to\ncontemplate at leisure the beauty of these stupendous ruins.\n\nDaily I visited the monuments which covered the plain; and one evening,\nabsorbed in reflection, I had advanced to the Valley of Sepulchres. I\nascended the heights which surround it from whence the eye commands the\nwhole group of ruins and the immensity of the desert. The sun had sunk\nbelow the horizon: a red border of light still marked his track behind\nthe distant mountains of Syria; the full-orbed moon was rising in the\neast, on a blue ground, over the plains of the Euphrates; the sky was\nclear, the air calm and serene; the dying lamp of day still softened the\nhorrors of approaching darkness; the refreshing night breezes attempered\nthe sultry emanations from the heated earth; the herdsmen had given\ntheir camels to repose, the eye perceived no motion on the dusky and\nuniform plain; profound silence rested on the desert; the howlings only\nof the jackal,* and the solemn notes of the bird of night, were heard\nat distant intervals. Darkness now increased, and through the dusk could\nonly be discerned the pale phantasms of columns and walls. The solitude\nof the place, the tranquillity of the hour, the majesty of the scene,\nimpressed on my mind a religious pensiveness. The aspect of a great city\ndeserted, the memory of times past, compared with its present state, all\nelevated my mind to high contemplations. I sat on the shaft of a column,\nmy elbow reposing on my knee, and head reclining on my hand, my eyes\nfixed, sometimes on the desert, sometimes on the ruins, and fell into a\nprofound reverie.\n\n     * An animal resembling a dog and a fox.  It preys on other\n     small animals, and upon the bodies of the dead on the field\n     of battle. It is the Canis aureus of Linnaeus.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE REVERIE.\n\n\nHere, said I, once flourished an opulent city; here was the seat of a\npowerful empire. Yes! these places now so wild and desolate, were once\nanimated by a living multitude; a busy crowd thronged in these streets,\nnow so solitary. Within these walls, where now reigns the silence\nof death, the noise of the arts, and the shouts of joy and festivity\nincessantly resounded; these piles of marble were regular palaces; these\nfallen columns adorned the majesty of temples; these ruined galleries\nsurrounded public places. Here assembled a numerous people for the\nsacred duties of their religion, and the anxious cares of their\nsubsistence; here industry, parent of enjoyments, collected the riches\nof all climes, and the purple of Tyre was exchanged for the precious\nthread of Serica;* the soft tissues of Cassimere for the sumptuous\ntapestry of Lydia; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes\nof Arabia; the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule.\n\n     * The precious thread of Serica.--That is, the silk\n     originally derived from the mountainous country where the\n     great wall terminates, and which appears to have been the\n     cradle of the Chinese empire.  The tissues of Cassimere.--\n     The shawls which Ezekiel seems to have described under the\n     appellation of Choud-choud.  The gold of Ophir.--This\n     country, which was one of the twelve Arab cantons, and which\n     has so much and so unsuccessfully been sought for by the\n     antiquarians, has left, however, some trace of itself in\n     Ofor, in the province of Oman, upon the Persian Gulf,\n     neighboring on one side to the Sabeans, who are celebrated\n     by Strabo for their abundance of gold, and on the other to\n     Aula or Hevila, where the pearl fishery was carried on.  See\n     the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, which gives a very curious and\n     extensive picture of the commerce of Asia at that period.\n\nAnd now behold what remains of this powerful city: a miserable skeleton!\nWhat of its vast domination: a doubtful and obscure remembrance! To\nthe noisy concourse which thronged under these porticoes, succeeds the\nsolitude of death. The silence of the grave is substituted for the busy\nhum of public places; the affluence of a commercial city is changed into\nwretched poverty; the palaces of kings have become a den of wild beasts;\nflocks repose in the area of temples, and savage reptiles inhabit the\nsanctuary of the gods. Ah! how has so much glory been eclipsed? how\nhave so many labors been annihilated? Do thus perish then the works of\nmen--thus vanish empires and nations?\n\nAnd the history of former times revived in my mind; I remembered those\nancient ages when many illustrious nations inhabited these countries; I\nfigured to myself the Assyrian on the banks of the Tygris, the Chaldean\non the banks of the Euphrates, the Persian reigning from the Indus to\nthe Mediterranean. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of\nJerusalem and Samaria, the warlike states of the Philistines, and\nthe commercial republics of Phoenicia. This Syria, said I, now so\ndepopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded\nwith towns, villages, and hamlets.* In all parts were seen cultivated\nfields, frequented roads, and crowded habitations. Ah! whither have\nflown those ages of life and abundance?--whither vanished those\nbrilliant creations of human industry? Where are those ramparts of\nNineveh, those walls of Babylon, those palaces of Persepolis, those\ntemples of Balbec and of Jerusalem? Where are those fleets of Tyre,\nthose dock-yards of Arad, those work-shops of Sidon, and that multitude\nof sailors, of pilots, of merchants, and of soldiers? Where those\nhusbandmen, harvests, flocks, and all the creation of living beings\nin which the face of the earth rejoiced? Alas! I have passed over this\ndesolate land! I have visited the palaces, once the scene of so much\nsplendor, and I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation. I sought the\nancient inhabitants and their works, and found nothing but a trace, like\nthe foot-prints of a traveller over the sand. The temples are fallen,\nthe palaces overthrown, the ports filled up, the cities destroyed; and\nthe earth, stripped of inhabitants, has become a place of sepulchres.\nGreat God! whence proceed such fatal revolutions? What causes have so\nchanged the fortunes of these countries? Wherefore are so many cities\ndestroyed? Why has not this ancient population been reproduced and\nperpetuated?\n\n     * According to Josephus and Strabo, there were in Syria\n     twelve millions of souls, and the traces that remain of\n     culture and habitation confirm the calculation.\n\nThus absorbed in meditation, a crowd of new reflections continually\npoured in upon my mind. Every thing, continued I, bewilders my judgment,\nand fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty. When these countries\nenjoyed what constitutes the glory and happiness of man, they were\ninhabited by infidel nations: It was the Phoenician, offering human\nsacrifices to Moloch, who gathered into his stores the riches of all\nclimates; it was the Chaldean, prostrate before his serpent-god,*\nwho subjugated opulent cities, laid waste the palaces of kings, and\ndespoiled the temples of the gods; it was the Persian, worshipper of\nfire, who received the tribute of a hundred nations; they were the\ninhabitants of this very city, adorers of the sun and stars, who erected\nso many monuments of prosperity and luxury. Numerous herds, fertile\nfields, abundant harvests--whatsoever should be the reward of piety--was\nin the hands of these idolaters. And now, when a people of saints and\nbelievers occupy these fields, all is become sterility and solitude.\nThe earth, under these holy hands, produces only thorns and briers. Man\nsoweth in anguish, and reapeth tears and cares. War, famine, pestilence,\nassail him by turns. And yet, are not these the children of the\nprophets? The Mussulman, Christian, Jew, are they not the elect children\nof God, loaded with favors and miracles? Why, then, do these privileged\nraces no longer enjoy the same advantages? Why are these fields,\nsanctified by the blood of martyrs, deprived of their ancient fertility?\nWhy have those blessings been banished hence, and transferred for so\nmany ages to other nations and different climes?\n\n     * The dragon Bell.\n\nAt these words, revolving in my mind the vicissitudes which have\ntransmitted the sceptre of the world to people so different in religion\nand manners from those in ancient Asia to the most recent of Europe,\nthis name of a natal land revived in me the sentiment of my country; and\nturning my eyes towards France, I began to reflect on the situation in\nwhich I had left her.*\n\n     * In the year 1782, at the close of the American war.\n\nI recalled her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so admirably\nconstructed, her cities inhabited by a countless people, her fleets\nspread over every sea, her ports filled with the produce of both the\nIndies: and then comparing the activity of her commerce, the extent of\nher navigation, the magnificence of her buildings, the arts and industry\nof her inhabitants, with what Egypt and Syria had once possessed, I was\ngratified to find in modern Europe the departed splendor of Asia; but\nthe charm of my reverie was soon dissolved by a last term of comparison.\nReflecting that such had once been the activity of the places I was\nthen contemplating, who knows, said I, but such may one day be the\nabandonment of our countries? Who knows if on the banks of the Seine,\nthe Thames, the Zuyder-Zee, where now, in the tumult of so many\nenjoyments, the heart and the eye suffice not for the multitude of\nsensations,--who knows if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day\nsit on their silent ruins, and weep in solitude over the ashes of their\ninhabitants, and the memory of their former greatness.\n\nAt these words, my eyes filled with tears: and covering my head with the\nfold of my mantle, I sank into gloomy meditations on all human affairs.\nAh! hapless man, said I in my grief, a blind fatality sports with thy\ndestiny!* A fatal necessity rules with the hand of chance the lot of\nmortals! But no: it is the justice of heaven fulfilling its decrees!--a\nGod of mystery exercising his incomprehensible judgments! Doubtless\nhe has pronounced a secret anathema against this land: blasting with\nmaledictions the present, for the sins of past generations. Oh! who\nshall dare to fathom the depths of the Omnipotent?\n\n     * Fatality is the universal and rooted prejudice of the\n     East.  \"It was written,\" is there the answer to every thing.\n     Hence result an unconcern and apathy, the most powerful\n     impediments to instruction and civilization.\n\nAnd sunk in profound melancholy, I remained motionless.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE APPARITION.\n\n\nWhile thus absorbed, a sound struck my ear, like the agitation of a\nflowing robe, or that of slow footsteps on dry and rustling grass.\nStartled, I opened my mantle, and looking about with fear and trembling,\nsuddenly, on my left, by the glimmering light of the moon, through\nthe columns and ruins of a neighboring temple, I thought I saw an\napparition, pale, clothed in large and flowing robes, such as spectres\nare painted rising from their tombs. I shuddered: and while agitated and\nhesitating whether to fly or to advance toward the object, a distinct\nvoice, in solemn tones, pronounced these words:\n\nHow long will man importune heaven with unjust complaint? How long, with\nvain clamors, will he accuse Fate as the author of his calamities? Will\nhe forever shut his eyes to the light, and his heart to the admonitions\nof truth and reason? The light of truth meets him everywhere; yet he\nsees it not! The voice of reason strikes his ear; and he hears it\nnot! Unjust man! if for a moment thou canst suspend the delusion which\nfascinates thy senses, if thy heart can comprehend the language of\nreason, interrogate these ruins! Read the lessons which they present to\nthee! And you, evidences of twenty centuries, holy temples! venerable\ntombs! walls once so glorious, appear in the cause of nature herself!\nApproach the tribunal of sound reason, and bear testimony against unjust\naccusations! Come and confound the declamations of a false wisdom or\nhypocritical piety, and avenge the heavens and the earth of man who\ncalumniates them both!\n\nWhat is that blind fatality, which without order and without law,\nsports with the destiny of mortals? What is that unjust necessity, which\nconfounds the effect of actions, whether of wisdom or of folly? In what\nconsist the anathemas of heaven over this land? Where is that divine\nmalediction which perpetuates the abandonment of these fields? Say,\nmonuments of past ages! have the heavens changed their laws and the\nearth its motion? Are the fires of the sun extinct in the regions of\nspace? Do the seas no longer emit their vapors? Are the rains and the\ndews suspended in the air? Do the mountains withhold their springs? Are\nthe streams dried up? And do the plants no longer bear fruit and seed?\nAnswer, generation of falsehood and iniquity, hath God deranged the\nprimitive and settled order of things which he himself assigned to\nnature? Hath heaven denied to earth, and earth to its inhabitants,\nthe blessings they formerly dispensed? If nothing hath changed in the\ncreation, if the same means now exist which before existed, why then are\nnot the present what former generations were? Ah! it is falsely that you\naccuse fate and heaven! it is unjustly that you accuse God as the cause\nof your evils! Say, perverse and hypocritical race! if these places are\ndesolate, if these powerful cities are reduced to solitude, is it God\nwho has caused their ruin? Is it his hand which has overthrown these\nwalls, destroyed these temples, mutilated these columns, or is it the\nhand of man? Is it the arm of God which has carried the sword into your\ncities, and fire into your fields, which has slaughtered the people,\nburned the harvests, rooted up trees, and ravaged the pastures, or is\nit the hand of man? And when, after the destruction of crops, famine\nhas ensued, is it the vengeance of God which has produced it, or the\nmad fury of mortals? When, sinking under famine, the people have fed\non impure aliments, if pestilence ensues, is it the wrath of God which\nsends it, or the folly of man? When war, famine and pestilence, have\nswept away the inhabitants, if the earth remains a desert, is it God\nwho has depopulated it? Is it his rapacity which robs the husbandman,\nravages the fruitful fields, and wastes the earth, or is it the rapacity\nof those who govern? Is it his pride which excites murderous wars,\nor the pride of kings and their ministers? Is it the venality of his\ndecisions which overthrows the fortunes of families, or the corruption\nof the organs of the law? Are they his passions which, under a thousand\nforms, torment individuals and nations, or are they the passions of man?\nAnd if, in the anguish of their miseries, they see not the remedies,\nis it the ignorance of God which is to blame, or their ignorance? Cease\nthen, mortals, to accuse the decrees of Fate, or the judgments of the\nDivinity! If God is good, will he be the author of your misery? If he is\njust, will he be the accomplice of your crimes? No, the caprice of which\nman complains is not the caprice of fate; the darkness that misleads his\nreason is not the darkness of God; the source of his calamities is\nnot in the distant heavens, it is beside him on the earth; it is not\nconcealed in the bosom of the divinity; it dwells within himself, he\nbears it in his own heart.\n\nThou murmurest and sayest: What! have an infidel people then enjoyed the\nblessings of heaven and earth? Are the holy people of God less fortunate\nthan the races of impiety? Deluded man! where then is the contradiction\nwhich offends thee? Where is the inconsistency which thou imputest to\nthe justice of heaven? Take into thine own hands the balance of rewards\nand punishments, of causes and effects. Say: when these infidels\nobserved the laws of the heavens and the earth, when they regulated\nwell-planned labors by the order of the seasons and the course of\nthe stars, should the Almighty have disturbed the equilibrium of the\nuniverse to defeat their prudence? When their hands cultivated these\nfields with toil and care, should he have diverted the course of the\nrains, suspended the refreshing dews, and planted crops of thorns?\nWhen, to render these arid fields productive, their industry constructed\naqueducts, dug canals, and led the distant waters across the desert,\nshould he have dried up their sources in the mountains? Should he have\nblasted the harvests which art had nourished, wasted the plains which\npeace had peopled, overthrown cities which labor had created, or\ndisturbed the order established by the wisdom of man? And what is that\ninfidelity which founded empires by its prudence, defended them by\nits valor, and strengthened them by its justice--which built powerful\ncities, formed capacious ports, drained pestilential marshes, covered\nthe ocean with ships, the earth with inhabitants; and, like the\ncreative spirit, spread life and motion throughout the world? If such\nbe infidelity, what then is the true faith? Doth sanctity consist in\ndestruction? The God who peoples the air with birds, the earth with\nanimals, the waters with fishes--the God who animates all nature--is he\nthen a God of ruins and tombs? Demands he devastation for homage, and\nconflagration for sacrifice? Requires he groans for hymns, murderers for\nvotaries, a ravaged and desolate earth for his temple? Behold then, holy\nand believing people, what are your works! behold the fruits of your\npiety! You have massacred the people, burned their cities, destroyed\ncultivation, reduced the earth to a solitude; and you ask the reward\nof your works! Miracles then must be performed! The people whom you\nextirpated must be recalled to life, the walls rebuilt which you have\noverthrown, the harvests reproduced which you have destroyed, the waters\nregathered which you have dispersed; the laws, in fine, of heaven and\nearth reversed; those laws, established by God himself, in demonstration\nof his magnificence and wisdom; those eternal laws, anterior to all\ncodes, to all the prophets those immutable laws, which neither the\npassions nor the ignorance of man can pervert. But that passion which\nmistaketh, that ignorance which observeth neither causes nor effects,\nhath said in its folly: \"All things flow from chance; a blind fatality\npoureth out good and evil upon the earth; success is not to the prudent,\nnor felicity to the wise;\" or, assuming the language of hypocrisy, she\nhath said, \"all things are from God; he taketh pleasure in deceiving\nwisdom and confounding reason.\" And Ignorance, applauding herself in her\nmalice, hath said, \"thus will I place myself on a par with that science\nwhich confounds me--thus will I excel that prudence which fatigues and\ntorments me.\" And Avarice hath added: \"I will oppress the weak, and\ndevour the fruits of his labors; and I will say, it is fate which hath\nso ordained.\" But I! I swear by the laws of heaven and earth, and by the\nlaw which is written in the heart of man, that the hypocrite shall be\ndeceived in his cunning--the oppressor in his rapacity! The sun shall\nchange his course, before folly shall prevail over wisdom and knowledge,\nor ignorance surpass prudence, in the noble and sublime art of procuring\nto man his true enjoyments, and of building his happiness on an enduring\nfoundation.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE EXPOSITION\n\n\nThus spoke the Phantom. Confused with this discourse, and my heart\nagitated with different reflections, I remained long in silence. At\nlength, taking courage, I thus addressed him: Oh, Genius of tombs and\nruins! Thy presence, thy severity, hath disordered my senses; but the\njustice of thy discourse restoreth confidence to my soul. Pardon my\nignorance. Alas, if man is blind, shall his misfortune be also his\ncrime? I may have mistaken the voice of reason; but never, knowingly,\nhave I rejected its authority. Ah! if thou readest my heart, thou\nknowest with what enthusiasm it seeketh truth. Is it not in its pursuit\nthat thou seest me in this sequestered spot? Alas! I have wandered over\nthe earth, I have visited cities and countries; and seeing everywhere\nmisery and desolation, a sense of the evils which afflict my fellow men\nhath deeply oppressed my soul. I have said, with a sigh: is man then\nborn but for sorrow and anguish? And I have meditated upon human misery\nthat I might discover a remedy. I have said, I will separate myself from\nthe corruption of society; I will retire far from palaces where the mind\nis depraved by satiety and from the hovel where it is debased by misery.\nI will go into the desert and dwell among ruins; I will interrogate\nancient monuments on the wisdom of past ages; I will invoke from the\nbosom of the tombs the spirit which once in Asia gave splendor to\nstates, and glory to nations; I will ask of the ashes of legislators,\nby what secret causes do empires rise and fall; from what sources spring\nthe Prosperity and misfortunes of nations, on what principles can the\nPeace of Society, and the happiness of man be established?\n\nI ceased, and with submissive look awaited the answer of the Genius.\n\nPeace and happiness, said he, attend those who practice justice! Since\nthy heart, O mortal, with sincerity seeketh truth; since thine eyes can\nstill recognize her through the mist of prejudice, thy prayer shall not\nbe in vain. I will unfold to thy view that truth thou invokest; I will\nteach thy reason that knowledge thou seekest; I will reveal to thee the\nscience of ages and the wisdom of the tombs.\n\nThen approaching and laying his hand on my head, he said:\n\nRise, mortal, and extricate thy senses from the dust in which thou\nmovest.\n\nSuddenly a celestial flame seemed to dissolve the bands which held us to\nthe earth; and, like a light vapor, borne on the wings of the Genius,\nI felt myself wafted to the regions above. Thence, from the aerial\nheights, looking down upon the earth, I perceived a scene altogether\nnew. Under my feet, floating in the void, a globe like that of the moon,\nbut smaller and less luminous, presented to me one of its phases; and\nthat phase* had the aspect of a disk varigated with large spots, some\nwhite and nebulous, others brown, green or gray, and while I strained my\nsight to distinguish what they were, the Genius exclaimed:\n\n     * See Plate representing half the terrestrial globe,\n     opposite page 10.\n\nDisciple of Truth, knowest thou that object?\n\nO Genius, answered I, if I did not see the moon in another quarter of\nthe heavens, I should have supposed that to be her globe. It has\nthe appearance of that planet seen through the telescope during the\nobscuration of an eclipse. These varigated spots might be mistaken for\nseas and continents.\n\nThey are seas and continents, said he, and those of the very hemisphere\nwhich you inhabit.\n\nWhat! said I, is that the earth--the habitation of man?\n\nYes, replied he, that brown space which occupies irregularly a great\nportion of the disk, and envelops it almost on every side, is what you\ncall the great ocean, which advancing from the south pole towards the\nequator, forms first the great gulf of India and Africa, then extends\neastward across the Malay islands to the confines of Tartary, while\ntowards the west it encircles the continents of Africa and of Europe,\neven to the north of Asia.\n\nThat square peninsula under our feet is the arid country of the Arabs;\nthe great continent on its left, almost as naked in its interior, with\na little verdure only towards its borders, is the parched soil inhabited\nby black-men.* To the north, beyond a long, narrow and irregular sea,**\nare the countries of Europe, rich in meadows and cultivated fields. On\nits right, from the Caspian Sea, extend the snowy and naked plains of\nTartary. Returning in this direction that white space is the vast and\nbarren desert of Cobi, which separates China from the rest of the world.\nYou see that empire in the furrowed plain which obliquely rounds itself\noff from our sight. On yonder coasts, those ragged tongues of land\nand scattered points are the peninsulas and islands of the Malays, the\nwretched possessors of the spices and perfumes. That triangle which\nadvances so far into the sea, is the too famous peninsula of India.***\nYou see the winding course of the Ganges, the rough mountains of Thibet,\nthe lovely valley of Cachemere, the briny deserts of Persia, the banks\nof the Euphrates and Tygris, the deep bed of the Jordan and the canals\nof the solitary Nile.\n\n     * Africa.\n\n     ** The Mediterranean.\n\n     *** Of what real good has been the commerce of India to the\n     mass of the people?  On the contrary, how great the evil\n     occasioned by the superstition of this country having been\n     added the general superstition!\n\nO Genius, said I, interrupting him, the sight of a mortal reaches not\nto objects at such a distance. He touched my eyes, and immediately they\nbecame piercing as those of an eagle; nevertheless the rivers still\nappeared like waving lines, the mountains winding furrows, and the\ncities little compartments like the squares of a chess-board.\n\nAnd the Genius proceeded to enumerate and point out the objects to\nme: Those piles of ruins, said he, which you see in that narrow valley\nwatered by the Nile, are the remains of opulent cities, the pride of the\nancient kingdom of Ethiopia.* Behold the wrecks of her metropolis, of\nThebes with her hundred palaces,** the parent of cities, and monument of\nthe caprice of destiny. There a people, now forgotten, discovered, while\nothers were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A\nrace of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled\nhair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and\nreligious systems which still govern the universe. Lower down, those\ndusky points are the pyramids whose masses have astonished you. Beyond\nthat, the coast, hemmed in between the sea and a narrow ridge of\nmountains, was the habitation of the Phoenicians. These were the famous\ncities of Tyre, of Sidon, of Ascalon, of Gaza, and of Berytus. That\nthread of water with no outlet, is the river Jordan; and those naked\nrocks were once the theatre of events that have resounded throughout\nthe world. Behold that desert of Horeb, and that Mount Sinai; where,\nby means beyond vulgar reach, a genius, profound and bold, established\ninstitutions which have weighed on the whole human race. On that dry\nshore which borders it, you perceive no longer any trace of splendor;\nyet there was an emporium of riches. There were those famous Ports of\nIdumea, whence the fleets of Phoenicia and Judea, coasting the Arabian\npeninsula, went into the Persian gulf, to seek there the pearls of\nHevila, the gold of Saba and of Ophir. Yes, there on that coast of Oman\nand of Barhain was the seat of that commerce of luxuries, which, by its\nmovements and revolutions, fixed the destinies of ancient nations.***\nThither came the spices and precious stones of Ceylon, the shawls of\nCassimere, the diamonds of Golconda, the amber of Maldivia, the musk of\nThibet, the aloes of Cochin, the apes and peacocks of the continent of\nIndia, the incense of Hadramaut, the myrrh, the silver, the gold dust\nand ivory of Africa; thence passing, sometimes by the Red Sea on the\nvessels of Egypt and Syria, these luxuries nourished successively the\nwealth of Thebes, of Sidon, of Memphis and of Jerusalem; sometimes,\nascending the Tygris and Euphrates, they awakened the activity of the\nAssyrians, Medes, Chaldeans, and Persians; and that wealth, according\nto the use or abuse of it, raised or reversed by turns their domination.\nHence sprung the magnificence of Persepolis, whose columns you\nstill perceive; of Ecbatana, whose sevenfold wall is destroyed; of\nBabylon,**** now leveled with the earth; of Nineveh, of which scarce\nthe name remains; of Thapsacus, of Anatho, of Gerra, and of desolated\nPalmyra. O names for ever glorious! fields of renown! countries of\nnever-dying memory! what sublime lessons doth your aspect offer! what\nprofound truths are written on the surface of your soil! remembrances of\ntimes past, return into my mind! places, witnesses of the life of man in\nso many different ages, retrace for me the revolutions of his fortune!\nsay, what were their springs and secret causes! say, from what sources\nhe derived success and disgrace! unveil to himself the causes of his\nevils! correct him by the spectacle of his errors! teach him the wisdom\nwhich belongeth to him, and let the experience of past ages become a\nmeans of instruction, and a germ of happiness to present and future\ngenerations.\n\n     * In the new Encyclopedia 3rd vol. Antiquities is published\n     a memoir, respecting the chronology of the twelve ages\n     anterior to the passing of Xerxes into Greece, in which I\n     conceive myself to have proved that upper Egypt formerly\n     composed a distinct kingdom known to the Hebrews by the name\n     of Kous and to which the appellation of Ethiopia was\n     specially given.  This kingdom preserved its independence to\n     the time of Psammeticus; at which period, being united to\n     the Lower Egypt, it lost its name of Ethiopia, which\n     thenceforth was bestowed upon the nations of Nubia and upon\n     the different tribes of blacks, including Thebes, their\n     metropolis.\n\n     ** The idea of a city with a hundred gates, in the common\n     acceptation of the word, is so absurd, that I am astonished\n     the equivoque has not before been felt.\n\n     It has ever been the custom of the East to call palaces and\n     houses of the great by the name of gates, because the\n     principal luxury of these buildings consists in the singular\n     gate leading from the street into the court, at the farthest\n     extremity of which the palace is situated.  It is under the\n     vestibule of this gate that conversation is held with\n     passengers, and a sort of audience and hospitality given.\n     All this was doubtless known to Homer; but poets make no\n     commentaries, and readers love the marvellous.\n\n     This city of Thebes, now Lougsor, reduced to the condition\n     of a miserable village, has left astonishing monuments of\n     its magnificence.  Particulars of this may be seen in the\n     plates of Norden, in Pocock, and in the recent travels of\n     Bruce.  These monuments give credibility to all that Homer\n     has related of its splendor, and lead us to infer its\n     political power and external commerce.\n\n     Its geographical position was favorable to this twofold\n     object. For, on one side, the valley of the Nile, singularly\n     fertile, must have early occasioned a numerous population;\n     and, on the other, the Red Sea, giving communication with\n     Arabia and India, and the Nile with Abyssinia and the\n     Mediterranean, Thebes was thus naturally allied to the\n     richest countries on the globe; an alliance that procured it\n     an activity so much the greater, as Lower Egypt, at first a\n     swamp, was nearly, if not totally, uninhabited.  But when at\n     length this country had been drained by the canals and dikes\n     which Sesostris constructed, population was introduced\n     there, and wars arose which proved fatal to the power of\n     Thebes.  Commerce then took another route, and descended to\n     the point of the Red Sea, to the canals of Sesostris (see\n     Strabo), and wealth and activity were transferred to\n     Memphis.  This is manifestly what Diodorus means when he\n     tells us (lib. i. sect. 2), that as soon as Memphis was\n     established and made a wholesome and delicious abode, kings\n     abandoned Thebes to fix themselves there.  Thus Thebes\n     continued to decline, and Memphis to flourish, till the time\n     of Alexander, who, building Alexandria on the border of the\n     sea, caused Memphis to fall in its turn; so that prosperity\n     and power seem to have descended historically step by step\n     along the Nile; whence it results, both physically and\n     historically, that the existence of Thebes was prior to that\n     of the other cities.  The testimony of writers is very\n     positive in this respect.  \"The Thebans,\" says Diodorus,\n     \"consider themselves as the most ancient people of the\n     earth, and assert, that with them originated philosophy and\n     the science of the stars.  Their situation, it is true, is\n     infinitely favorable to astronomical observation, and they\n     have a more accurate division of time into mouths and years\n     than other nations\" etc.\n\n     What Diodorus says of the Thebans, every author, and himself\n     elsewhere, repeat of the Ethiopians, which tends more firmly\n     to establish the identity of this place of which I have\n     spoken.  \"The Ethiopians conceive themselves,\" says he, lib.\n     iii., \"to be of greater antiquity than any other nation: and\n     it is probable that, born under the sun's path, its warmth\n     may have ripened them earlier than other men.  They suppose\n     themselves also to be the inventors of divine worship, of\n     festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and every\n     other religious practice.  They affirm that the Egyptians\n     are one of their colonies, and that the Delta, which was\n     formerly sea, became land by the conglomeration of the earth\n     of the higher country which was washed down by the Nile.\n     They have, like the Egyptians, two species of letters,\n     hieroglyphics, and the alphabet; but among the Egyptians the\n     first was known only to the priests, and by them transmitted\n     from father to son, whereas both species were common among\n     the Ethiopians.\"\n\n     \"The Ethiopians,\" says Lucian, page 985, \"were the first who\n     invented the science of the stars, and gave names to the\n     planets, not at random and without meaning, but descriptive\n     of the qualities which they conceived them to possess; and\n     it was from them that this art passed, still in an imperfect\n     state, to the Egyptians.\"\n\n     It would be easy to multiply citations upon this subject;\n     from all which it follows, that we have the strongest\n     reasons to believe that the country neighboring to the\n     tropic was the cradle of the sciences, and of consequence\n     that the first learned nation was a nation of Blacks; for it\n     is incontrovertible, that, by the term Ethiopians, the\n     ancients meant to represent a people of black complexion,\n     thick lips, and woolly hair.  I am therefore inclined to\n     believe, that the inhabitants of Lower Egypt were originally\n     a foreign colony imported from Syria and Arabia, a medley of\n     different tribes of savages, originally shepherds and\n     fishermen, who, by degrees formed themselves into a nation,\n     and who, by nature and descent, were enemies of the Thebans,\n     by whom they were no doubt despised and treated as\n     barbarians.\n\n     I have suggested the same ideas in my Travels into Syria,\n     founded upon the black complexion of the Sphinx.  I have\n     since ascertained that the antique images of Thebias have\n     the same characteristic; and Mr. Bruce has offered a\n     multitude of analogous facts; but this traveller, of whom I\n     heard some mention at Cairo, has so interwoven these facts\n     with certain systematic opinions, that we should have\n     recourse to his narratives with caution.\n\n     It is singular that Africa, situated so near us, should be\n     the least known country on the earth.  The English are at\n     this moment making explorations, the success of which ought\n     to excite our emulation.\n\n     *** Ailah (Eloth), and Atsiom-Gaber (Hesien-Geber.)  The\n     name of the first of these towns still subsists in its\n     ruins, at the point of the gulf of the Red Sea, and in the\n     route which the pilgrims take to Mecca.  Hesion has at\n     present no trace, any more than Quolzoum and Faran: it was,\n     however, the harbor for the fleets of Solomon.  The vessels\n     of this prince conducted by the Tyrians, sailed along the\n     coast of Arabia to Ophir, in the Persian Gulf, thus opening\n     a communication with the merchants of India and Ceylon.\n     That this navigation was entirely of Tyrian invention,\n     appears both from the pilots and shipbuilders employed by\n     the Jews, and the names that were given to the trading\n     islands, viz. Tyrus and Aradus, now Barhain.  The voyage was\n     performed in two different modes, either in canoes of osier\n     and rushes, covered on the outside with skins done over with\n     pitch: (these vessels were unable to quit the Red Sea, or so\n     much as to leave the shore.)  The second mode of carrying on\n     the trade was by means of vessels with decks of the size of\n     our river boats, which were able to pass the strait and to\n     weather the dangers of time ocean; but for this purpose it\n     was necessary to bring the wood from Mount Libanus and\n     Cilicia, where it is very fine and in great abundance.  This\n     wood was first conveyed in floats from Tarsus to Phoenicia,\n     for which reason the vessels were called ships of Tarsus;\n     from whence it has been ridiculously inferred, that they\n     went round the promontory of Africa as far as Tortosa in\n     Spain.  From Phoenicia it was transported on the backs of\n     camels to the Red Sea, which practice still continues,\n     because the shores of this sea are absolutely unprovided\n     with wood even for fuel.  These vessels spent a complete\n     year in their voyage, that is, sailed one year, sojourned\n     another, and did not return till the third.  This\n     tediousness was owing first to their cruising from port to\n     port, as they do at present; secondly, to their being\n     detained by the Monsoon currents; and thirdly, because,\n     according to the calculations of Pliny and Strabo, it was\n     the ordinary practice among the ancients to spend three\n     years in a voyage of twelve hundred leagues.  Such a\n     commerce must have been very expensive, particularly as they\n     were obliged to carry with them their provisions, and even\n     fresh water.  For this reason Solomon made himself master of\n     Palmyra, which was at that time inhabited, and was already\n     the magazine and high road of merchants by the way of the\n     Euphrates.  This conquest brought Solomon much nearer to the\n     country of gold and pearls.  This alternative of a route\n     either by the Red Sea or by the river Euphrates was to the\n     ancients, what in later times has been the alternative in a\n     voyage to the Indies, either by crossing the isthmus of Suez\n     or doubling the cape of Good Hope.  It appears that till the\n     time of Moses, this trade was carried on across the desert\n     of Syria and Thebais; that afterwards it fell into the hands\n     of the Phoenicians, who fixed its site upon the Red Sea; and\n     that it was mutual jealousy that induced the kings of\n     Nineveh and Babylon to undertake the destruction of Tyre and\n     Jerusalem.  I insist the more upon these facts, because I\n     have never seen any thing reasonable upon the subject.\n\n     **** It appears that Babylon occupied on the eastern banks\n     of the Euphrates a space of ground six leagues in length.\n     Throughout this space bricks are found by means of which\n     daily additions are made to the town of Helle.  Upon many of\n     these are characters written with a nail similar to those of\n     Persepolis.  I am indebted for these facts to M. de\n     Beauchamp, grand vicar of Babylon, a traveller equally\n     distinguished for his knowledge of astronomy and for his\n     veracity.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nCONDITION OF MAN IN THE UNIVERSE.\n\n\nThe Genius, after some moments of silence, resumed in these words:\n\nI have told thee already, O friend of truth! that man vainly ascribes\nhis misfortunes to obscure and imaginary agents; in vain he seeks as the\nsource of his evils mysterious and remote causes. In the general order\nof the universe his condition is, doubtless, subject to inconveniences,\nand his existence governed by superior powers; but those powers are\nneither the decrees of a blind fatality, nor the caprices of whimsical\nand fantastic beings. Like the world of which he forms a part, man is\ngoverned by natural laws, regular in their course, uniform in their\neffects, immutable in their essence; and those laws,--the common source\nof good and evil,--are not written among the distant stars, nor hidden\nin codes of mystery; inherent in the nature of terrestrial beings,\ninterwoven with their existence, at all times and in all places,\nthey are present to man; they act upon his senses, they warn his\nunderstanding, and give to every action its reward or punishment. Let\nman then know these laws! let him comprehend the nature of the elements\nwhich surround him, and also his own nature, and he will know the\nregulators of his destiny; he will know the causes of his evils and the\nremedies he should apply.\n\nWhen the hidden power which animates the universe, formed the globe\nwhich man inhabits, he implanted in the beings composing it, essential\nproperties which became the law of their individual motion, the bond of\ntheir reciprocal relations, the cause of the harmony of the whole; he\nthereby established a regular order of causes and effects, of principles\nand consequences, which, under an appearance of chance, governs the\nuniverse, and maintains the equilibrium of the world. Thus, he gave to\nfire, motion and activity; to air, elasticity; weight and density to\nmatter; he made air lighter than water, metal heavier than earth, wood\nless cohesive than steel; he decreed flame to ascend, stones to fall,\nplants to vegetate; to man, who was to be exposed to the action of so\nmany different beings, and still to preserve his frail life, he gave\nthe faculty of sensation. By this faculty all action hurtful to his\nexistence gives him a feeling of pain and evil, and all which is\nsalutary, of pleasure and happiness. By these sensations, man, sometimes\naverted from that which wounds his senses, sometimes allured towards\nthat which soothes them, has been obliged to cherish and preserve his\nown life; thus, self-love, the desire of happiness, aversion to\npain, become the essential and primary laws imposed on man by nature\nherself--the laws which the directing power, whatever it be, has\nestablished for his government--and which laws, like those of motion in\nthe physical world, are the simple and fruitful principle of whatever\nhappens in the moral world.\n\nSuch, then, is the condition of man: on one side, exposed to the action\nof the elements which surround him, he is subject to many inevitable\nevils; and if, in this decree, nature has been severe, on the other\nhand, just and even indulgent she has not only tempered the evils with\nequivalent good, she has also enabled him to increase the good and\nalleviate the evil. She seems to say:\n\n\"Feeble work of my hands, I owe thee nothing, and I give thee life; the\nworld wherein I placed thee was not made for thee, yet I give thee the\nuse of it; thou wilt find in it a mixture of good and evil; it is for\nthee to distinguish them; for thee to guide thy footsteps in a path\ncontaining thorns as well as roses. Be the arbiter of thine own fate; I\nput thy destiny into thine own hands!\"\n\nYes, man is made the architect of his own destiny; he, himself, hath\nbeen the cause of the successes or reverses of his own fortune; and if,\non a review of all the pains with which he has tormented his own\nlife, he finds reason to weep over his own weakness or imprudence\nyet, considering the beginnings from which he sat out, and the height\nattained, he has, perhaps, still reason to presume on his strength, and\nto pride himself on his genius.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN.\n\n\nFormed naked in body and in mind, man at first found himself thrown, as\nit were by chance, on a rough and savage land: an orphan, abandoned by\nthe unknown power which had produced him, he saw not by his side beings\ndescended from heaven to warn him of those wants which arise only from\nhis senses, nor to instruct him in those duties which spring only\nfrom his wants. Like to other animals, without experience of the past,\nwithout foresight of the future, he wandered in the bosom of the forest,\nguided only and governed by the affections of his nature. By the pain of\nhunger, he was led to seek food and provide for his subsistence; by the\ninclemency of the air, he was urged to cover his body, and he made him\nclothes; by the attraction of a powerful pleasure, he approached a being\nlike himself, and he perpetuated his kind.\n\nThus the impressions which he received from every object, awakening his\nfaculties, developed by degrees his understanding, and began to instruct\nhis profound ignorance: his wants excited industry, dangers formed his\ncourage; he learned to distinguish useful from noxious plants, to\ncombat the elements, to seize his prey, to defend his life; and thus he\nalleviated its miseries.\n\nThus self-love, aversion to pain, the desire of happiness, were the\nsimple and powerful excitements which drew man from the savage and\nbarbarous condition in which nature had placed him. And now, when his\nlife is replete with enjoyments, when he may count each day by the\ncomforts it brings, he may applaud himself and say:\n\n\"It is I who have produced the comforts which surround me; it is I who\nam the author of my own happiness; a safe dwelling, convenient clothing,\nabundant and wholesome nourishment, smiling fields, fertile hills,\npopulous empires, all is my work; without me this earth, given up\nto disorder, would have been but a filthy fen, a wild wood, a dreary\ndesert.\"\n\nYes, creative man, receive my homage! Thou hast measured the span of the\nheavens, calculated the volume of the stars, arrested the lightning in\nits clouds, subdued seas and storms, subjected all the elements. Ah! how\nare so many sublime energies allied to so many errors?\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nPRINCIPLES OF SOCIETY.\n\n\nWandering in the woods and on the banks of rivers in pursuit of game and\nfish, the first men, beset with dangers, assailed by enemies, tormented\nby hunger, by reptiles, by ravenous beasts, felt their own individual\nweakness; and, urged by a common need of safety, and a reciprocal\nsentiment of like evils, they united their resources and their strength;\nand when one incurred a danger, many aided and succored him; when\none wanted subsistence, another shared his food with him. Thus men\nassociated to secure their existence, to augment their powers, to\nprotect their enjoyments; and self-love thus became the principle of\nsociety.\n\nInstructed afterwards by the experience of various and repeated\naccidents, by the fatigues of a wandering life, by the distress of\nfrequent scarcity, men reasoned with themselves and said:\n\n\"Why consume our days in seeking scattered fruits from a parsimonious\nsoil? why exhaust ourselves in pursuing prey which eludes us in the\nwoods or waters? why not collect under our hands the animals that\nnourish us? why not apply our cares in multiplying and preserving them?\nWe will feed on their increase, be clothed in their skins, and live\nexempt from the fatigues of the day and solicitude for the morrow.\"\n\nAnd men, aiding one another, seized the nimble goat, the timid sheep;\nthey tamed the patient camel, the fierce bull, the impetuous horse; and,\napplauding their own industry, they sat down in the joy of their souls,\nand began to taste repose and comfort: and self-love, the principle of\nall reasoning, became the incitement to every art, and every enjoyment.\n\nWhen, therefore, men could pass long days in leisure, and in\ncommunication of their thoughts, they began to contemplate the earth,\nthe heavens, and their own existence as objects of curiosity and\nreflection; they remarked the course of the seasons, the action of\nthe elements, the properties of fruits and plants; and applied their\nthoughts to the multiplication of their enjoyments. And in some\ncountries, having observed that certain seeds contained a wholesome\nnourishment in a small volume, convenient for transportation and\npreservation, they imitated the process of nature; they confided to the\nearth rice, barley, and corn, which multiplied to the full measure\nof their hope; and having found the means of obtaining within a small\ncompass and without removal, plentiful subsistence and durable stores,\nthey established themselves in fixed habitations; they built houses,\nvillages, and towns; formed societies and nations; and self-love\nproduced all the developments of genius and of power.\n\nThus by the aid of his own faculties, man has raised himself to the\nastonishing height of his present fortune. Too happy if, observing\nscrupulously the law of his being, he had faithfully fulfilled its\nonly and true object! But, by a fatal imprudence, sometimes mistaking,\nsometimes transgressing its limits, he has launched forth into a\nlabyrinth of errors and misfortunes; and self-love, sometimes unruly,\nsometimes blind, became a principle fruitful in calamities.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nSOURCES OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY.\n\n\nIn truth, scarcely were the faculties of men developed, when, inveigled\nby objects which gratify the senses, they gave themselves up to\nunbridled desires. The sweet sensations which nature had attached to\ntheir real wants, to endear to them their existence, no longer satisfied\nthem. Not content with the abundance offered by the earth or produced\nby industry, they wished to accumulate enjoyments and coveted those\npossessed by their fellow men. The strong man rose up against the\nfeeble, to take from him the fruit of his labor; the feeble invoked\nanother feeble one to repel the violence. Two strong ones then said:\n\n\"Why fatigue ourselves to produce enjoyments which we may find in the\nhands of the weak? Let us join and despoil them; they shall labor for\nus, and we will enjoy without labor.\"\n\nAnd the strong associating for oppression and the weak for resistance,\nmen mutually afflicted each other; and a general and fatal discord\nspread over the earth, in which the passions, assuming a thousand new\nforms, have generated a continued chain of misfortunes.\n\nThus the same self-love which, moderate and prudent, was a principle of\nhappiness and perfection, becoming blind and disordered, was transformed\ninto a corrupting poison; and cupidity, offspring and companion of\nignorance, became the cause of all the evils that have desolated the\nearth.\n\nYes, ignorance and cupidity! these are the twin sources of all the\ntorments of man! Biased by these into false ideas of happiness, he has\nmistaken or broken the laws of nature in his own relation with external\nobjects; and injuring his own existence, has violated individual\nmorality; shutting through these his heart to compassion, and his mind\nto justice, he has injured and afflicted his equal, and violated social\nmorality. From ignorance and cupidity, man has armed against man, family\nagainst family, tribe against tribe; and the earth is become a theatre\nof blood, of discord, and of rapine. By ignorance and cupidity, a secret\nwar, fermenting in the bosom of every state, has separated citizen from\ncitizen; and the same society has divided itself into oppressors and\noppressed, into masters and slaves; by these, the heads of a nation,\nsometimes insolent and audacious, have forged its chains within its\nown bowels; and mercenary avarice has founded political despotism.\nSometimes, hypocritical and cunning, they have called from heaven a\nlying power, and a sacrilegious yoke; and credulous cupidity has founded\nreligious despotism. By these have been perverted the ideas of good and\nevil, just and unjust, vice and virtue; and nations have wandered in a\nlabyrinth of errors and calamities.\n\nThe cupidity of man and his ignorance,--these are the evil genii\nwhich have wasted the earth! These are the decrees of fate which have\noverthrown empires! These are the celestial anathemas which have smitten\nthese walls once so glorious, and converted the splendor of a populous\ncity into a solitude of mourning and of ruins! But as in the bosom of\nman have sprung all the evils which have afflicted his life, there he\nalso is to seek and to find their remedies.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT AND LAWS.\n\n\nIn fact, it soon happened that men, fatigued with the evils they\nreciprocally inflicted, began to sigh for peace; and reflecting on their\nmisfortunes and the causes of them, they said:\n\n\"We are mutually injuring each other by our passions; and, aiming to\ngrasp every thing, we hold nothing. What one seizes to-day, another\ntakes to-morrow, and our cupidity reacts upon ourselves. Let us\nestablish judges, who shall arbitrate our rights, and settle our\ndifferences! When the strong shall rise against the weak, the judge\nshall restrain him, and dispose of our force to suppress violence;\nand the life and property of each shall be under the guarantee and\nprotection of all; and all shall enjoy the good things of nature.\"\n\nConventions were thus formed in society, sometimes express, sometimes\ntacit, which became the rule for the action of individuals, the measure\nof their rights, the law of their reciprocal relations; and persons were\nappointed to superintend their observance, to whom the people confided\nthe balance to weigh rights, and the sword to punish transgressions.\n\nThus was established among individuals a happy equilibrium of force and\naction, which constituted the common security. The name of equity and of\njustice was recognized and revered over the earth; every one, assured\nof enjoying in peace, the fruits of his toil, pursued with energy the\nobjects of his attention; and industry, excited and maintained by the\nreality or the hope of enjoyment, developed, all the riches of art\nand of nature. The fields were covered with harvests, the valleys with\nflocks, the hills with fruits, the sea with vessels, and man became\nhappy and powerful on the earth. Thus did his own wisdom repair the\ndisorder which his imprudence had occasioned; and that wisdom was only\nthe effect of his own organization. He respected the enjoyments of\nothers in order to secure his own; and cupidity found its corrective in\nthe enlightened love of self.\n\nThus the love of self, the moving principle of every individual, becomes\nthe necessary foundation of every association; and on the observance\nof that law of our nature has depended the fate of nations. Have the\nfactitious and conventional laws tended to that object and accomplished\nthat aim? Every one, urged by a powerful instinct, has displayed all\nthe faculties of his being; and the sum of individual felicities has\nconstituted the general felicity. Have these laws, on the contrary,\nrestrained the effort of man toward his own happiness? His heart,\ndeprived of its exciting principle, has languished in inactivity, and\nfrom the oppression of individuals has resulted the weakness of the\nstate.\n\nAs self-love, impetuous and improvident, is ever urging man against\nhis equal, and consequently tends to dissolve society, the art of\nlegislation and the merit of administrators consists in attempering\nthe conflict of individual cupidities, in maintaining an equilibrium of\npowers, and securing to every one his happiness, in order that, in the\nshock of society against society, all the members may have a common\ninterest in the preservation and defence of the public welfare.\n\nThe internal splendor and prosperity of empires then, have had for\ntheir efficient cause the equity of their laws and government; and their\nrespective external powers have been in proportion to the number of\npersons interested, and their degree of interest in the public welfare.\n\nOn the other hand, the multiplication of men, by complicating their\nrelations, having rendered the precise limitation of their rights\ndifficult, the perpetual play of the passions having produced incidents\nnot foreseen--their conventions having been vicious, inadequate, or\nnugatory--in fine, the authors of the laws having sometimes mistaken,\nsometimes disguised their objects; and their ministers, instead of\nrestraining the cupidity of others, having given themselves up to\ntheir own; all these causes have introduced disorder and trouble into\nsocieties; and the viciousness of laws and the injustice of governments,\nflowing from cupidity and ignorance, have become the causes of the\nmisfortunes of nations, and the subversion of states.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nGENERAL CAUSES OF THE PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT STATES.\n\n\nSuch, O man who seekest wisdom, such have been the causes of revolution\nin the ancient states of which thou contemplatest the ruins! To whatever\nspot I direct my view, to whatever period my thoughts recur, the same\nprinciples of growth or destruction, of rise or fall, present themselves\nto my mind. Wherever a people is powerful, or an empire prosperous,\nthere the conventional laws are conformable with the laws of nature--the\ngovernment there procures for its citizens a free use of their\nfaculties, equal security for their persons and property. If, on the\ncontrary, an empire goes to ruin, or dissolves, it is because its laws\nhave been vicious, or imperfect, or trodden under foot by a corrupt\ngovernment. If the laws and government, at first wise and just, become\nafterwards depraved, it is because the alternation of good and evil is\ninherent to the heart of man, to a change in his propensities, to his\nprogress in knowledge, to a combination of circumstances and events; as\nis proved by the history of the species.\n\nIn the infancy of nations, when men yet lived in the forest, subject to\nthe same wants, endowed with the same faculties, all were nearly equal\nin strength; and that equality was a circumstance highly advantageous\nin the composition of society: as every individual, thus feeling himself\nsufficiently independent of every other, no one was the slave, none\nthought of being the master of another. Man, then a novice, knew neither\nservitude nor tyranny; furnished with resources sufficient for his\nexistence, he thought not of borrowing from others; owning nothing,\nrequiring nothing, he judged the rights of others by his own, and formed\nideas of justice sufficiently exact. Ignorant, moreover, in the art\nof enjoyments, unable to produce more than his necessaries, possessing\nnothing superfluous, cupidity remained dormant; or if excited, man,\nattacked in his real wants, resisted it with energy, and the foresight\nof such resistance ensured a happy balance.\n\nThus original equality, in default of compact, maintained freedom of\nperson, security of property, good manners, and order. Every one\nlabored by himself and for himself; and the mind of man, being occupied,\nwandered not to culpable desires. He had few enjoyments, but his wants\nwere satisfied; and as indulgent nature had made them less than his\nresources, the labor of his hands soon produced abundance--abundance,\npopulation; the arts unfolded, culture extended, and the earth, covered\nwith numerous inhabitants, was divided into different dominions.\n\nThe relations of man becoming complicated, the internal order of\nsocieties became more difficult to maintain. Time and industry having\ngenerated riches, cupidity became more active; and because equality,\npracticable among individuals, could not subsist among families, the\nnatural equilibrium was broken; it became necessary to supply it by a\nfactitious equilibrium; to set up chiefs, to establish laws; and in\nthe primitive inexperience, it necessarily happened that these\nlaws, occasioned by cupidity, assumed its character. But different\ncircumstances concurred to correct the disorder, and oblige governments\nto be just.\n\nStates, in fact, being weak at first, and having foreign enemies to\nfear, the chiefs found it their interest not to oppress their subjects;\nfor, by lessening the confidence of the citizens in their government,\nthey would diminish their means of resistance--they would facilitate\nforeign invasion, and by exercising arbitrary power, have endangered\ntheir very existence.\n\nIn the interior, the firmness of the people repelled tyranny; men had\ncontracted too long habits of independence; they had too few wants, and\ntoo much consciousness of their own strength.\n\nStates being of a moderate size, it was difficult to divide their\ncitizens so as to make use of some for the oppression of others. Their\ncommunications were too easy, their interest too clear and simple:\nbesides, every one being a proprietor and cultivator, no one needed to\nsell himself, and the despot could find no mercenaries.\n\nIf, then, dissensions arose, they were between family and family,\nfaction and faction, and they interested a great number. The troubles,\nindeed, were warmer; but fears from abroad pacified discord at home. If\nthe oppression of a party prevailed, the earth being still unoccupied,\nand man, still in a state of simplicity, finding every where the same\nadvantages, the oppressed party emigrated, and carried elsewhere their\nindependence.\n\nThe ancient states then enjoyed within themselves numerous means of\nprosperity and power. Every one finding his own well-being in the\nconstitution of his country, took a lively interest in its preservation.\nIf a stranger attacked it, having to defend his own field, his own\nhouse, he carried into combat all the passions of a personal quarrel;\nand, devoted to his own interests, he was devoted to his country.\n\nAs every action useful to the public attracted its esteem and gratitude,\nevery one became eager to be useful; and self-love multiplied talents\nand civic virtues.\n\nEvery citizen contributing equally by his talents and person, armies\nand funds were inexhaustible, and nations displayed formidable masses of\npower.\n\nThe earth being free, and its possession secure and easy, every one\nwas a proprietor; and the division of property preserved morals, and\nrendered luxury impossible.\n\nEvery one cultivating for himself, culture was more active, produce more\nabundant; and individual riches became public wealth.\n\nThe abundance of produce rendering subsistence easy, population was\nrapid and numerous, and states attained quickly the term of their\nplenitude.\n\nProductions increasing beyond consumption, the necessity of commerce\narose; and exchanges took place between people and people; which\naugmented their activity and reciprocal advantages.\n\nIn fine, certain countries, at certain times, uniting the advantages\nof good government with a position on the route of the most active\ncirculation, they became emporiums of flourishing commerce and seats of\npowerful domination. And on the shores of the Nile and Mediterranean, of\nthe Tygris and Euphrates, the accumulated riches of India and of Europe\nraised in successive splendor a hundred different cities.\n\nThe people, growing rich, applied their superfluity to works of common\nand public use; and this was in every state, the epoch of those works\nwhose grandeur astonishes the mind; of those wells of Tyre, of those\ndykes of the Euphrates, of those subterranean conduits of Media,* of\nthose fortresses of the desert, of those aqueducts of Palmyra, of those\ntemples, of those porticoes. And such labors might be immense, without\noppressing the nations; because they were the effect of an equal and\ncommon contribution of the force of individuals animated and free.\n\n     * See respecting these monuments my Travels into Syria, vol.\n     ii. p. 214.\n\nFrom the town or village of Samouat the course of the Euphrates is\naccompanied with a double bank, which descends as far as its junction\nwith the Tygris, and from thence to the sea, being a length of about a\nhundred leagues, French measure. The height of these artificial banks\nis not uniform, but increases as you advance from the sea; it may be\nestimated at from twelve to fifteen feet. But for them, the inundation\nof the river would bury the country around, which is flat, to an extent\nof twenty or twenty-five leagues and even notwithstanding these banks,\nthere has been in modern times an overflow, which has covered the whole\ntriangle formed by the junction of this river to the Tygris, being\na space of country of one hundred and thirty square leagues. By the\nstagnation of these waters an epidemical disease of the most fatal\nnature was occasioned. It follows from hence, 1. That all the flat\ncountry bordering upon these rivers, was originally a marsh; 2. That\nthis marsh could not have been inhabited previously to the construction\nof the banks in question; 3. That these banks could not have been the\nwork but of a population prior as to date; and the elevation of Babylon,\ntherefore, must have been posterior to that of Nineveh, as I think\nI have chronologically demonstrated in the memoir above cited. See\nEncyclopedia, vol. xiii, of Antiquities.\n\nThe modern Aderbidjan, which was a part of Medea, the mountains of\nKoulderstan, and those of Diarbekr, abound with subterranean canals, by\nmeans of which the ancient inhabitants conveyed water to their parched\nsoil in order to fertilize it. It was regarded as a meritorious act\nand a religious duty prescribed by Zoroaster, who, instead of preaching\ncelibacy, mortifications, and other pretended virtues of the monkish\nsort, repeats continually in the passages that are preserved respecting\nhim in the Sad-der and the Zend-avesta:\n\n\"That the action most pleasing to God is to plough and cultivate the\nearth, to water it with running streams, to multiply vegetation and\nliving beings, to have numerous flocks, young and fruitful virgins, a\nmultitude of children,\" etc., etc.\n\nAmong the aqueducts of Palmyra it appears certain, that, besides those\nwhich conducted water from the neighboring hills, there was one which\nbrought it even from the mountains of Syria. It is to be traced a long\nway into the Desert where it escapes our search by going under ground.\n\n\nThus ancient states prospered, because their social institutions\nconformed to the true laws of nature; and because men, enjoying liberty\nand security for their persons and their property, might display all the\nextent of their faculties,--all the energies of their self-love.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nGENERAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN OF ANCIENT STATES.\n\n\nCupidity had nevertheless excited among men a constant and universal\nconflict, which incessantly prompting individuals and societies to\nreciprocal invasions, occasioned successive revolutions, and returning\nagitations.\n\nAnd first, in the savage and barbarous state of the first men, this\naudacious and fierce cupidity produced rapine, violence, and murder, and\nretarded for a long time the progress of civilization.\n\nWhen afterwards societies began to be formed, the effect of bad habits,\ncommunicated to laws and governments, corrupted their institutions and\nobjects, and established arbitrary and factitious rights, which depraved\nthe ideas of justice, and the morality of the people.\n\nThus one man being stronger than another, their inequality--an accident\nof nature--was taken for her law;* and the strong being able to take\nthe life of the weak, and yet sparing him, arrogated over his person an\nabusive right of property; and the slavery of individuals prepared the\nway for the slavery of nations.\n\n\n*Almost all the ancient philosophers and politicians have laid it down\nas a principle that men are born unequal, that nature his created some\nto be free, and others to be slaves. Expressions of this kind are to be\nfound in Aristotle, and even in Plato, called the divine, doubtless in\nthe same sense as the mythological reveries which he promulgated. With\nall the people of antiquity, the Gauls, the Romans, the Athenians,\nthe right of the strongest was the right of nations; and from the same\nprinciple are derived all the political disorders and public national\ncrimes that at present exist.\n\n\nBecause the head of a family could be absolute in his house, he made his\nown affections and desires the rule of his conduct; he gave or resumed\nhis goods without equality, without justice; and paternal despotism laid\nthe foundation of despotism in government.*\n\n     * Upon this single expression it would be easy to write a\n     long and important chapter.  We might prove in it, beyond\n     contradiction, that all the abuses of national governments,\n     have sprung from those of domestic government, from that\n     government called patriarchal, which superficial minds have\n     extolled without having analyzed it. Numberless facts\n     demonstrate, that with every infant people, in every savage\n     and barbarous state, the father, the chief of the family, is\n     a despot, and a cruel and insolent despot.  The wife is his\n     slave, the children his servants.  This king sleeps or\n     smokes his pipe, while his wife and daughters perform all\n     the drudgery of the house, and even that of tillage and\n     cultivation, as far as occupations of this nature are\n     practised in such societies; and no sooner have the boys\n     acquired strength then they are allowed to beat the females\n     and make them serve and wait upon them as they do upon their\n     fathers.  Similar to this is the state of our own\n     uncivilized peasants.  In proportion as civilization\n     spreads, the manners become milder, and the condition of the\n     women improves, till, by a contrary excess, they arrive at\n     dominion, and then a nation becomes effeminate and corrupt.\n     It is remarkable that parental authority is great in\n     proportion as the government is despotic.  China, India, and\n     Turkey are striking examples of this. One would suppose that\n     tyrants gave themselves accomplices and interested subaltern\n     despots to maintain their authority.  In opposition to this\n     the Romans will be cited, but it remains to be proved that\n     the Romans were men truly free and their quick passage from\n     their republican despotism to their abject servility under\n     the emperors, gives room at least for considerable doubt as\n     to that freedom.\n\nIn societies formed on such foundations, when time and labor had\ndeveloped riches, cupidity restrained by the laws, became more artful,\nbut not less active. Under the mask of union and civil peace, it\nfomented in the bosom of every state an intestine war, in which the\ncitizens, divided into contending corps of orders, classes, families,\nunremittingly struggled to appropriate to themselves, under the name\nof supreme power, the ability to plunder every thing, and render every\nthing subservient to the dictates of their passions; and this spirit of\nencroachment, disguised under all possible forms, but always the same in\nits object and motives, has never ceased to torment the nations.\n\nSometimes, opposing itself to all social compact, or breaking that\nwhich already existed, it committed the inhabitants of a country to the\ntumultuous shock of all their discords; and states thus dissolved, and\nreduced to the condition of anarchy, were tormented by the passions of\nall their members.\n\nSometimes a nation, jealous of its liberty, having appointed agents to\nadminister its government, these agents appropriated the powers of which\nthey had only the guardianship: they employed the public treasures in\ncorrupting elections, gaining partisans, in dividing the people among\nthemselves. By these means, from being temporary they became perpetual;\nfrom elective, hereditary; and the state, agitated by the intrigues of\nthe ambitious, by largesses from the rich and factious, by the venality\nof the poor and idle, by the influence of orators, by the boldness of\nthe wicked, and the weakness of the virtuous, was convulsed with all the\ninconveniences of democracy.\n\nThe chiefs of some countries, equal in strength and mutually fearing\neach other, formed impious pacts, nefarious associations; and,\napportioning among themselves all power, rank, and honor, unjustly\narrogated privileges and immunities; erected themselves into separate\norders and distinct classes; reduced the people to their control; and,\nunder the name of aristocracy, the state was tormented by the passions\nof the wealthy and the great.\n\nSacred impostors, in other countries, tending by other means to the\nsame object, abused the credulity of the ignorant. In the gloom of their\ntemples, behind the curtain of the altar, they made their gods act and\nspeak; gave forth oracles, worked miracles, ordered sacrifices, levied\nofferings, prescribed endowments; and, under the names of theocracy and\nof religion, the state became tormented by the passions of the priests.\n\nSometimes a nation, weary of its dissensions or of its tyrants, to\nlessen the sources of evil, submitted to a single master; but if it\nlimited his powers, his sole aim was to enlarge them; if it left them\nindefinite, he abused the trust confided to him; and, under the name of\nmonarchy, the state was tormented by the passions of kings and princes.\n\nThen the factions, availing themselves of the general discontent,\nflattered the people with the hope of a better master; dealt out gifts\nand promises, deposed the despot to take his place; and their contests\nfor the succession, or its partition, tormented the state with the\ndisorders and devastations of civil war.\n\nIn fine, among these rivals, one more adroit, or more fortunate, gained\nthe ascendency, and concentrated all power within himself. By a strange\nphenomenon, a single individual mastered millions of his equals, against\ntheir will and without their consent; and the art of tyranny sprung also\nfrom cupidity.\n\nIn fact, observing the spirit of egotism which incessantly divides\nmankind, the ambitious man fomented it with dexterity, flattered the\nvanity of one, excited the jealousy of another, favored the avarice of\nthis, inflamed the resentment of that, and irritated the passions of\nall; then, placing in opposition their interests and prejudices, he\nsowed divisions and hatreds, promised to the poor the spoils of the\nrich, to the rich the subjection of the poor; threatened one man by\nanother, this class by that; and insulating all by distrust, created his\nstrength out of their weakness, and imposed the yoke of opinion,\nwhich they mutually riveted on each other. With the army he levied\ncontributions, and with contributions he disposed of the army: dealing\nout wealth and office on these principles, he enchained a whole people\nin indissoluble bonds, and they languished under the slow consumption of\ndespotism.\n\nThus the same principle, varying its action under every possible form,\nwas forever attenuating the consistence of states, and an eternal circle\nof vicissitudes flowed from an eternal circle of passions.\n\nAnd this spirit of egotism and usurpation produced two effects equally\noperative and fatal: the one a division and subdivision of societies\ninto their smallest fractions, inducing a debility which facilitated\ntheir dissolution; the other, a preserving tendency to concentrate power\nin a single hand,* which, engulfing successively societies and states,\nwas fatal to their peace and social existence.\n\n     * It is remarkable that this has in all instances been the\n     constant progress of societies; beginning with a state of\n     anarchy or democracy, that is, with a great division of\n     power they have passed to aristocracy, and from aristocracy\n     to monarchy.  Does it not hence follow that those who\n     constitute states under the democratic form, destine them to\n     undergo all the intervening troubles between that and\n     monarchy; but it should at the same time be proved that\n     social experience is already exhausted for the human race,\n     and that this spontaneous movement is not solely the effect\n     of ignorance.\n\nThus, as in a state, a party absorbed the nation, a family the party,\nand an individual the family; so a movement of absorption took place\nbetween state and state, and exhibited on a larger scale in the\npolitical order, all the particular evils of the civil order. Thus a\nstate having subdued a state, held it in subjection in the form of a\nprovince; and two provinces being joined together formed a kingdom; two\nkingdoms being united by conquest, gave birth to empires of gigantic\nsize; and in this conglomeration, the internal strength of states,\ninstead of increasing, diminished; and the condition of the people,\ninstead of ameliorating, became daily more abject and wretched, for\ncauses derived from the nature of things.\n\nBecause, in proportion as states increased in extent, their\nadministration becoming more difficult and complicated, greater energies\nof power were necessary to move such masses; and there was no longer any\nproportion between the duties of sovereigns and their ability to perform\ntheir duties:\n\nBecause despots, feeling their weakness, feared whatever might develop\nthe strength of nations, and studied only how to enfeeble them:\n\nBecause nations, divided by the prejudices of ignorance and hatred,\nseconded the wickedness of their governments; and availing themselves\nreciprocally of subordinate agents, aggravated their mutual slavery:\n\nBecause, the balance between states being destroyed, the strong more\neasily oppressed the weak.\n\nFinally, because in proportion as states were concentrated, the people,\ndespoiled of their laws, of their usages, and of the government of\ntheir choice, lost that spirit of personal identification with their\ngovernment, which had caused their energy.\n\nAnd despots, considering empires as their private domains and the people\nas their property, gave themselves up to depredations, and to all the\nlicentiousness of the most arbitrary authority.\n\nAnd all the strength and wealth of nations were diverted to private\nexpense and personal caprice; and kings, fatigued with gratification,\nabandoned themselves to all the extravagancies of factitious and\ndepraved taste.* They must have gardens mounted on arcades, rivers\nraised over mountains, fertile fields converted into haunts for wild\nbeasts; lakes scooped in dry lands, rocks erected in lakes, palaces\nbuilt of marble and porphyry, furniture of gold and diamonds. Under\nthe cloak of religion, their pride founded temples, endowed indolent\npriests, built, for vain skeletons, extravagant tombs, mausoleums and\npyramids;** millions of hands were employed in sterile labors; and the\nluxury of princes, imitated by their parasites, and transmitted\nfrom grade to grade to the lowest ranks, became a general source of\ncorruption and impoverishment.\n\n     * It is equally worthy of remark, that the conduct and\n     manners of princes and kings of every country and every age,\n     are found to be precisely the same at similar periods,\n     whether of the formation or dissolution of empires.  History\n     every where presents the same pictures of luxury and folly;\n     of parks, gardens, lakes, rocks, palaces, furniture, excess\n     of the table, wine, women, concluding with brutality.\n\n     The absurd rock in the garden of Versailles has alone cost\n     three millions.  I have sometimes calculated what might have\n     been done with the expense of the three pyramids of Gizah,\n     and I have found that it would easily have constructed from\n     the Red Sea to Alexandria, a canal one hundred and fifty\n     feet wide and thirty deep, completely covered in with cut\n     stones and a parapet, together with a fortified and\n     commercial town, consisting of four hundred houses,\n     furnished with cisterns.  What a difference in point of\n     utility between such a canal and these pyramids!\n\n     ** The learned Dupuis could not be persuaded that the\n     pyramids were tombs; but besides the positive testimony of\n     historians, read what Diodorus says of the religious and\n     superstitious importance every Egyptian attached to building\n     his dwelling eternal, b. 1.\n\n     During twenty years, says Herodotus, a hundred thousand men\n     labored every day to build the pyramid of the Egyptian\n     Cheops.  Supposing only three hundred days a year, on\n     account of the sabbath, there will be 30 millions of days'\n     work in a year, and 600 millions in twenty years; at 15 sous\n     a day, this makes 450 millions of francs lost, without any\n     further benefit.  With this sum, if the king had shut the\n     isthmus of Suez by a strong wall, like that of China, the\n     destinies of Egypt might have been entirely changed.\n     Foreign invasions would have been prevented, and the Arabs\n     of the desert would neither have conquered nor harassed that\n     country.  Sterile labors! how many millions lost in putting\n     one stone upon another, under the forms of temples and\n     churches!  Alchymists convert stones into gold; but\n     architects change gold into stone.  Woe to the kings (as\n     well as subjects) who trust their purse to these two classes\n     of empirics!\n\nAnd in the insatiable thirst of enjoyment, the ordinary revenues no\nlonger sufficing, they were augmented; the cultivator, seeing his\nlabors increase without compensation, lost all courage; the merchant,\ndespoiled, was disgusted with industry; the multitude, condemned to\nperpetual poverty, restrained their labor to simple necessaries; and all\nproductive industry vanished.\n\nThe surcharge of taxes rendering lands a burdensome possession, the poor\nproprietor abandoned his field, or sold it to the powerful; and fortune\nbecame concentrated in a few hands. All the laws and institutions\nfavoring this accumulation, the nation became divided into a group\nof wealthy drones, and a multitude of mercenary poor; the people were\ndegraded with indigence, the great with satiety, and the number of those\ninterested in the preservation of the state decreasing, its strength and\nexistence became proportionally precarious.\n\nOn the other hand, emulation finding no object, science no\nencouragement, the mind sunk into profound ignorance.\n\nThe administration being secret and mysterious, there existed no means\nof reform or amelioration. The chiefs governing by force or fraud,\nthe people viewed them as a faction of public enemies; and all harmony\nceased between the governors and governed.\n\nAnd these vices having enervated the states of the wealthy part of Asia,\nthe vagrant and indigent people of the adjacent deserts and mountains\ncoveted the enjoyments of the fertile plains; and, urged by a cupidity\ncommon to all, attacked the polished empires, and overturned the thrones\nof their despots. These revolutions were rapid and easy; because the\npolicy of tyrants had enfeebled the subjects, razed the fortresses,\ndestroyed the warriors; and because the oppressed subjects remained\nwithout personal interest, and the mercenary soldiers without courage.\n\nAnd hordes of barbarians having reduced entire nations to slavery, the\nempires, formed of conquerors and conquered, united in their bosom two\nclasses essentially opposite and hostile. All the principles of society\nwere dissolved: there was no longer any common interest, no longer any\npublic spirit; and there arose a distinction of casts and races, which\nreduced to a regular system the maintenance of disorder; and he who was\nborn of this or that blood, was born a slave or a tyrant--property or\nproprietor.\n\nThe oppressors being less numerous than the oppressed it was necessary\nto perfect the science of oppression, in order to support this false\nequilibrium. The art of governing became the art of subjecting the\nmany to the few. To enforce an obedience so contrary to instinct, the\nseverest punishments were established, and the cruelty of the laws\nrendered manners atrocious. The distinction of persons establishing in\nthe state two codes, two orders of criminal justice, two sets of laws,\nthe people, placed between the propensities of the heart and the oath\nuttered from the mouth, had two consciences in contradiction with\neach other; and the ideas of justice and injustice had no longer any\nfoundation in the understanding.\n\nUnder such a system, the people fell into dejection and despair; and the\naccidents of nature were added to the other evils which assailed them.\nProstrated by so many calamities, they attributed their causes to\nsuperior and hidden powers; and, because they had tyrants on earth, they\nfancied others in heaven; and superstition aggravated the misfortunes of\nnations.\n\nFatal doctrines and gloomy and misanthropic systems of religion arose,\nwhich painted their gods, like their despots, wicked and envious. To\nappease them, man offered up the sacrifice of all his enjoyments. He\nenvironed himself in privations, and reversed the order of nature.\nConceiving his pleasures to be crimes, his sufferings expiations, he\nendeavored to love pain, and to abjure the love of self. He persecuted\nhis senses, hated his life; and a self-denying and anti-social morality\nplunged nations into the apathy of death.\n\nBut provident nature having endowed the heart of man with hope\ninexhaustible, when his desires of happiness were baffled on this earth,\nhe pursued it into another world. By a sweet illusion he created for\nhimself another country--an asylum where, far from tyrants, he should\nrecover the rights of nature, and thence resulted new disorders. Smitten\nwith an imaginary world, man despised that of nature. For chimerical\nhopes, he neglected realities. His life began to appear a troublesome\njourney--a painful dream; his body a prison, the obstacle to his\nfelicity; and the earth, a place of exile and of pilgrimage, not worthy\nof culture. Then a holy indolence spread over the political world;\nthe fields were deserted, empires depopulated, monuments neglected and\ndeserts multiplied; ignorance, superstition and fanaticism, combining\ntheir operations, overwhelmed the earth with devastation and ruin.\n\nThus agitated by their own passions, men, whether collectively or\nindividually taken, always greedy and improvident, passing from slavery\nto tyranny, from pride to baseness, from presumption to despondency,\nhave made themselves the perpetual instruments of their own misfortunes.\n\nThese, then, are the principles, simple and natural, which regulated\nthe destiny of ancient states. By this regular and connected series of\ncauses and effects, they rose or fell, in proportion as the physical\nlaws of the human heart were respected or violated; and in the course\nof their successive changes, a hundred different nations, a hundred\ndifferent empires, by turns humbled, elevated, conquered, overthrown,\nhave repeated for the earth their instructive lessons. Yet these lessons\nwere lost for the generations which have followed! The disorders in\ntimes past have reappeared in the present age! The chiefs of the nations\nhave continued to walk in the paths of falsehood and tyranny!--the\npeople to wander in the darkness of superstition and ignorance!\n\nSince then, continued the Genius, with renewed energy, since the\nexperience of past ages is lost for the living--since the errors of\nprogenitors have not instructed their descendants, the ancient examples\nare about to reappear; the earth will see renewed the tremendous scenes\nit has forgotten. New revolutions will agitate nations and empires;\npowerful thrones will again be overturned, and terrible catastrophes\nwill again teach mankind that the laws of nature and the precepts of\nwisdom and truth cannot be infringed with impunity.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nLESSONS OF TIMES PAST REPEATED ON THE PRESENT.\n\n\nThus spoke the Genius. Struck with the justice and coherence of his\ndiscourse, assailed with a crowd of ideas, repugnant to my habits yet\nconvincing to my reason, I remained absorbed in profound silence. At\nlength, while with serious and pensive mien, I kept my eyes fixed on\nAsia, suddenly in the north, on the shores of the Black sea, and in the\nfields of the Crimea, clouds of smoke and flame attracted my attention.\nThey appeared to rise at the same time from all parts of the peninsula;\nand passing by the isthmus into the continent, they ran, as if driven\nby a westerly wind, along the oozy lake of Azof, and disappeared in the\ngrassy plains of Couban; and following more attentively the course of\nthese clouds, I observed that they were preceded or followed by swarms\nof moving creatures, which, like ants or grasshoppers disturbed by the\nfoot of a passenger, agitated themselves with vivacity. Sometimes these\nswarms appeared to advance and rush against each other; and numbers,\nafter the concussion, remained motionless. While disquieted at this\nspectacle, I strained my sight to distinguish the objects.\n\nDo you see, said the Genius, those flames which spread over the earth,\nand do you comprehend their causes and effects?\n\nOh! Genius, I answered, I see those columns of flame and smoke, and\nsomething like insects, accompanying them; but, when I can scarcely\ndiscern the great masses of cities and monuments, how should I discover,\nsuch little creatures? I can just perceive that these insects mimic\nbattle, for they advance, retreat, attack and pursue.\n\nIt is no mimicry, said the Genius, these are real battles.\n\nAnd what, said I, are those mad animalculae, which destroy each other?\nBeings of a day! will they not perish soon enough?\n\nThen the Genius, touching my sight and hearing, again directed my eyes\ntowards the same object. Look, said he, and listen!\n\nAh! wretches, cried I, oppressed with grief, these columns of flame!\nthese insects! oh! Genius, they are men. These are the ravages of\nwar! These torrents of flame rise from towns and villages! I see the\nsquadrons who kindle them, and who, sword in hand overrun the country:\nthey drive before them crowds of old men, women, and children, fugitive\nand desolate: I perceive other horsemen, who with shouldered lances,\naccompany and guide them. I even recognize them to be Tartars by their\nled horses,* their kalpacks, and tufts of hair: and, doubtless, they who\npursue, in triangular hats and green uniforms, are Muscovites. Ah! I now\ncomprehend, a war is kindled between the empire of the Czars and that of\nthe Sultans.\n\n     * A Tartar horseman has always two horses, of which he leads\n     one in hand.  The Kalpeck is a bonnet made of the skin of a\n     sheep or other animal.  The part of the head covered by this\n     bonnet is shaved, with the exception of a tuft, about the\n     size of a crown piece, and which is suffered to grow to the\n     length of seven or eight inches, precisely where our priests\n     place their tonsure.  It is by this tuft of hair, worn by\n     the majority of Mussulmen, that the angel of the tomb is to\n     take the elect and carry them into paradise.\n\nNot yet, replied the Genius; this is only a preliminary. These Tartars\nhave been, and might still he troublesome neighbors. The Muscovites are\ndriving them off, finding their country would be a convenient extension\nof their own limits; and as a prelude to another revolution, the throne\nof the Guerais is destroyed.\n\nAnd in fact, I saw the Russian standards floating over the Crimea: and\nsoon after their flag waving on the Euxine.\n\nMeanwhile, at the cry of the flying Tartars, the Mussulman empire was\nin commotion. They are driving off our brethren, cried the children\nof Mahomet: the people of the prophet are outraged! infidels occupy a\nconsecrated land and profane the temples of Islamism.* Let us arm; let\nus rush to combat, to avenge the glory of God and our own cause.\n\n     * It is not in the power of the Sultan to cede to a foreign\n     power a province inhabited by true believers.  The people,\n     instigated by the lawyers, would not fail to revolt.  This\n     is one reason which has led those who know the Turks, to\n     regard as chimerical the ceding of Candia, Cyprus, and\n     Egypt, projected by certain European potentates.\n\nAnd a general movement of war took place in both empires. In every part\narmed men assembled. Provisions, stores, and all the murderous apparatus\nof battle were displayed. The temples of both nations, besieged by an\nimmense multitude, presented a spectacle which fixed all my attention.\n\nOn one side, the Mussulmen gathered before their mosques, washed\ntheir hands and feet, pared their nails, and combed their beards; then\nspreading carpets upon the ground, and turning towards the south,\nwith their arms sometimes crossed and sometimes extended, they made\ngenuflexions and prostrations, and recollecting the disasters of the\nlate war, they exclaimed:\n\nGod of mercy and clemency! hast thou then abandoned thy faithful people?\nThou who hast promised to thy Prophet dominion over nations, and stamped\nhis religion by so many triumphs, dost thou deliver thy true believers\nto the swords of infidels?\n\nAnd the Imans and the Santons said to the people:\n\nIt is in chastisement of your sins. You eat pork; you drink wine; you\ntouch unclean things. God hath punished you. Do penance therefore;\npurify; repeat the profession of faith;* fast from the rising to the\nsetting sun; give the tenth of your goods to the mosques; go to Mecca;\nand God will render you victorious.\n\n     * There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet.\n\nAnd the people, recovering courage, uttered loud cries:\n\nThere is but one God, said they transported with fury, and Mahomet is\nhis prophet! Accursed be he who believeth not!\n\nGod of goodness, grant us to exterminate these Christians; it is for\nthy glory we fight, and our death is a martyrdom for thy name. And then,\noffering victims, they prepared for battle.\n\nOn the other side, the Russians, kneeling, said:\n\nWe render thanks to God, and celebrate his power. He hath strengthened\nour arm to humble his enemies. Hear our prayers, thou God of mercy! To\nplease thee, we will pass three days without eating either meat or eggs.\nGrant us to extirpate these impious Mahometans, and to overturn their\nempire. To thee we will consecrate the tenth of our spoil; to thee we\nwill raise new temples.\n\nAnd the priests filled the churches with clouds of smoke, and said to\nthe people:\n\nWe pray for you, God accepteth our incense, and blesseth your arms.\nContinue to fast and to fight; confess to us your secret sins; give\nyour wealth to the church; we will absolve you from your crimes, and you\nshall die in a state of grace.\n\nAnd they sprinkled water upon the people, dealt out to them, as amulets\nand charms, small relics of the dead, and the people breathed war and\ncombat.\n\nStruck with this contrast of the same passions, and grieving for their\nfatal consequences, I was considering the difficulty with which the\ncommon judge could yield to prayers so contradictory; when the Genius,\nglowing with anger, spoke with vehemence:\n\nWhat accents of madness strike my ear? What blind and perverse delirium\ndisorders the spirits of the nations? Sacrilegious prayers rise not from\nthe earth! and you, oh Heavens, reject their homicidal vows and impious\nthanksgivings! Deluded mortals! is it thus you revere the Divinity?\nSay then; how should he, whom you style your common father, receive the\nhomage of his children murdering one another? Ye victors! with what eye\nshould he view your hands reeking in the blood he hath created? And,\nwhat do you expect, oh vanquished, from useless groans? Hath God\nthe heart of a mortal, with passions ever changing? Is he, like you,\nagitated with vengeance or compassion, with wrath or repentance? What\nbase conception of the most sublime of beings! According to them, it\nwould seem, that God whimsical and capricious, is angered or appeased as\na man: that he loves and hates alternately; that he punishes or favors;\nthat, weak or wicked, he broods over his hatred; that, contradictory\nor perfidious, he lays snares to entrap; that he punishes the evils he\npermits; that he foresees but hinders not crimes; that, like a corrupt\njudge, he is bribed by offerings; like an ignorant despot, he makes\nlaws and revokes them; that, like a savage tyrant, he grants or resumes\nfavors without reason, and can only be appeased by servility. Ah! now\nI know the lying spirit of man! Contemplating the picture which he hath\ndrawn of the Divinity: No, said I, it is not God who hath made man after\nthe image of God; but man hath made God after the image of man; he hath\ngiven him his own mind, clothed him with his own propensities;\nascribed to him his own judgments. And when in this medley he finds\nthe contradiction of his own principles, with hypocritical humility,\nhe imputes weakness to his reason, and names the absurdities of his own\nmind the mysteries of God.\n\nHe hath said, God is immutable, yet he offers prayers to change him;\nhe hath pronounced him incomprehensible, yet he interprets him without\nceasing.\n\nImposters have arisen on the earth who have called themselves the\nconfidants of God; and, erecting themselves into teachers of the people,\nhave opened the ways of falsehood and iniquity; they have ascribed merit\nto practices indifferent or ridiculous; they have supposed a virtue,\nin certain postures, in pronouncing certain words, articulating certain\nnames; they have transformed into a crime the eating of certain meats,\nthe drinking of certain liquors, on one day rather than another. The\nJew would rather die than labor on the sabbath; the Persian would endure\nsuffocation, before he would blow the fire with his breath; the Indian\nplaces supreme perfection in besmearing himself with cow-dung, and\npronouncing mysteriously the word Aum;* the Mussulman believes he has\nexpiated everything in washing his head and arms; and disputes, sword\nin hand, whether the ablution should commence at the elbow, or finger\nends;** the Christian would think himself damned, if he ate flesh\ninstead of milk or butter. Oh sublime doctrines! Doctrines truly from\nheaven! Oh perfect morals, and worthy of martyrdom or the apostolate!\nI will cross the seas to teach these admirable laws to the savage\npeople--to distant nations; I will say unto them:\n\n     * This word is, in the religion of the Hindoos, a sacred\n     emblem of the Divinity.  It is only to be pronounced in\n     secret, without being heard by any one.  It is formed of\n     three letters, of which the first, a, signifies the\n     principal of all, the creator, Brama; the second, u, the\n     conservator, Vichenou; and the last, m, the destroyer, who\n     puts an end to all, Chiven.  It is pronounced like the\n     monosyllable om, and expresses the unity of those three\n     Gods. The idea is precisely that of the Alpha and Omega\n     mentioned in the New Testament.\n\n     ** This is one of the grand points of schism between the\n     partisans of Omar and those of Ali.  Suppose two Mahometans\n     to meet on a journey, and to accost each other with\n     brotherly affection: the hour of prayer arrives; one begins\n     his ablution at his fingers, the other at the elbow, and\n     instantly they are mortal enemies.  O sublime importance of\n     religious opinions!  O profound philosophy of the authors of\n     them!\n\nChildren of nature, how long will you walk in the paths of ignorance?\nhow long will you mistake the true principles of morality and religion?\nCome and learn its lessons from nations truly pious and learned, in\ncivilized countries. They will inform you how, to gratify God, you must\nin certain months of the year, languish the whole day with hunger and\nthirst; how you may shed your neighbor's blood, and purify yourself from\nit by professions of faith and methodical ablutions; how you may steal\nhis property and be absolved on sharing it with certain persons, who\ndevote themselves to its consumption.\n\nSovereign and invisible power of the universe! mysterious mover of\nnature! universal soul of beings! thou who art unknown, yet revered by\nmortals under so many names! being incomprehensible and infinite! God,\nwho in the immensity of the heavens directest the movement of worlds,\nand peoplest the abyss of space with millions of suns! say what do these\nhuman insects, which my sight no longer discerns on the earth, appear in\nthy eyes? To thee, who art guiding stars in their orbits, what are\nthose wormlings writhing themselves in the dust? Of what import to thy\nimmensity, their distinctions of parties and sects? And of what concern\nthe subtleties with which their folly torments itself?\n\nAnd you, credulous men, show me the effect of your practices! In so many\ncenturies, during which you have been following or altering them, what\nchanges have your prescriptions wrought in the laws of nature? Is the\nsun brighter? Is the course of the seasons varied? Is the earth more\nfruitful, or its inhabitants more happy? If God be good, can your\npenances please him? If infinite, can your homage add to his glory? If\nhis decrees have been formed on foresight of every circumstance, can\nyour prayers change them? Answer, O inconsistent mortals!\n\nYe conquerors of the earth, who pretend you serve God! doth he need your\naid? If he wishes to punish, hath he not earthquakes, volcanoes, and\nthunder? And cannot a merciful God correct without extermination?\n\nYe Mussulmans, if God chastiseth you for violating the five precepts,\nhow hath he raised up the Franks who ridicule them? If he governeth\nthe earth by the Koran, by what did he govern it before the days of the\nprophet, when it was covered with so many nations who drank wine, ate\npork, and went not to Mecca, whom he nevertheless permitted to raise\npowerful empires? How did he judge the Sabeans of Nineveh and of\nBabylon; the Persian, worshipper of fire; the Greek and Roman idolators;\nthe ancient kingdoms of the Nile; and your own ancestors, the Arabians\nand Tartars? How doth he yet judge so many nations who deny, or know\nnot your worship--the numerous castes of Indians, the vast empire of\nthe Chinese, the sable race of Africa, the islanders of the ocean, the\ntribes of America?\n\nPresumptuous and ignorant men, who arrogate the earth to yourselves! if\nGod were to gather all the generations past and present, what would be,\nin their ocean, the sects calling themselves universal, of Christians\nand Mussulmans? What would be the judgments of his equal and common\njustice over the real universality of mankind? Therein it is that your\nknowledge loseth itself in incoherent systems; it is there that truth\nshines with evidence; and there are manifested the powerful and simple\nlaws of nature and reason--laws of a common and general mover--of a God\nimpartial and just, who sheds rain on a country without asking who is\nits prophet; who causeth his sun to shine alike on all the races of\nmen, on the white as on the black, on the Jew, on the Mussulman, the\nChristian, and the Idolater; who reareth the harvest wherever cultivated\nwith diligence; who multiplieth every nation where industry and order\nprevaileth; who prospereth every empire where justice is practised,\nwhere the powerful are restrained, and the poor protected by the laws;\nwhere the weak live in safety, and all enjoy the rights given by nature\nand a compact formed in justice.\n\nThese are the principles by which people are judged! this the true\nreligion which regulates the destiny of empires, and which, O Ottomans,\nhath governed yours! Interrogate your ancestors, ask of them by what\nmeans they rose to greatness; when few, poor and idolaters, they came\nfrom the deserts of Tartary and encamped in these fertile countries; ask\nif it was by Islamism, till then unknown to them, that they conquered\nthe Greeks and the Arabs, or was it by their courage, their prudence,\nmoderation, spirit of union--the true powers of the social state? Then\nthe Sultan himself dispensed justice, and maintained discipline. The\nprevaricating judge, the extortionate governor, were punished, and the\nmultitude lived at ease. The cultivator was protected from the rapine\nof the janissary, and the fields prospered; the highways were safe, and\ncommerce caused abundance. You were a band of plunderers, but just among\nyourselves. You subdued nations, but did not oppress them. Harassed by\ntheir own princes, they preferred being your tributaries. What matters\nit, said the Christian, whether my ruler breaks or adores images, if\nhe renders justice to me? God will judge his doctrines in the heavens\nabove.\n\nYou were sober and hardy; your enemies timid and enervated; you\nwere expert in battle, your enemies unskillful; your leaders were\nexperienced, your soldiers warlike and disciplined. Booty excited ardor,\nbravery was rewarded, cowardice and insubordination punished, and all\nthe springs of the human heart were in action. Thus you vanquished\na hundred nations, and of a mass of conquered kingdoms compounded an\nimmense empire.\n\nBut other customs have succeeded; and in the reverses attending them,\nthe laws of nature have still exerted their force. After devouring your\nenemies, your cupidity, still insatiable, has reacted on itself, and,\nconcentrated in your own bowels, has consumed you.\n\nHaving become rich, you have quarrelled for partition and enjoyment, and\ndisorder hath arisen in every class of society.\n\nThe Sultan, intoxicated with grandeur, has mistaken the object of his\nfunctions; and all the vices of arbitrary power have been developed.\nMeeting no obstacle to his appetites, he has become a depraved being;\nweak and arrogant, he has kept the people at a distance; and their\nvoice has no longer instructed and guided him. Ignorant, yet flattered,\nneglecting all instruction, all study, he has fallen into imbecility;\nunfit for business, he has thrown its burdens on hirelings, and they\nhave deceived him. To satisfy their own passions, they have stimulated\nand nourished his; they have multiplied his wants, and his enormous\nluxury has consumed everything. The frugal table, plain clothing, simple\ndwelling of his ancestors no longer sufficed. To supply his pomp, earth\nand sea have been exhausted. The rarest furs have been brought from the\npoles; the most costly tissues from the equator. He has devoured at\na meal the tribute of a city, and in a day that of a province. He has\nsurrounded himself with an army of women, eunuchs, and satellites. They\nhave instilled into him that the virtue of kings is to be liberal, and\nthe munificence and treasures of the people have been delivered into\nthe hands of flatterers. In imitation of their master, his servants\nmust also have splendid houses, the most exquisite furniture; carpets\nembroidered at great cost, vases of gold and silver for the lowest uses,\nand all the riches of the empire have been swallowed up in the Serai.\n\nTo supply this inordinate luxury, the slaves and women have sold their\ninfluence, and venality has introduced a general depravation. The favor\nof the sovereign has been sold to his vizier, and the vizier has sold\nthe empire. The law has been sold to the cadi, and the cadi has made\nsale of justice. The altar has been sold to the priest, and the priest\nhas sold the kingdom of heaven. And gold obtaining everything, they\nhave sacrificed everything to obtain gold. For gold, friend has betrayed\nfriend, the child his parent, the servant his master, the wife her\nhonor, the merchant his conscience; and good faith, morals, concord, and\nstrength were banished from the state.\n\nThe pacha, who had purchased the government of his province, farmed\nit out to others, who exercised every extortion. He sold in turn the\ncollection of the taxes, the command of the troops, the administration\nof the villages; and as every employ has been transient, rapine, spread\nfrom rank to rank, has been greedy and implacable. The revenue officer\nhas fleeced the merchant, and commerce was annihilated; the aga has\nplundered the husbandman, and culture has degenerated. The laborer,\ndeprived of his stock, has been unable to sow; the tax was augmented,\nand he could not pay it; the bastinado has been threatened, and he\nhas borrowed. Money, from want of security, being locked up from\ncirculation, interest was therefore enormous, and the usury of the rich\nhas aggravated the misery of the laborer.\n\nWhen excessive droughts and accidents of seasons have blasted the\nharvest, the government has admitted no delay, no indulgence for the\ntax; and distress bearing hard on the village, a part of its inhabitants\nhave taken refuge in the cities; and their burdens falling on those who\nremained, has completed their ruin, and depopulated the country.\n\nIf driven to extremity by tyranny and outrage, the villages have\nrevolted, the pacha rejoices. He wages war on them, assails their homes,\npillages their property, carries off their stock; and when the fields\nhave become a desert, he exclaims:\n\n\"What care I? I leave these fields to-morrow.\"\n\nThe earth wanting laborers, the rain of heaven and overflowing of\ntorrents have stagnated in marshes; and their putrid exhalations in a\nwarm climate, have caused epidemics, plagues, and maladies of all sorts,\nwhence have flowed additional suffering, penury, and ruin.\n\nOh! who can enumerate all the calamities of tyrannical government?\n\nSometimes the pachas declare war against each other, and for their\npersonal quarrels the provinces of the same state are laid waste.\nSometimes, fearing their masters, they attempt independence, and draw\non their subjects the chastisement of their revolt. Sometimes dreading\ntheir subjects, they invite and subsidize strangers, and to insure their\nfidelity set no bounds to their depredations. Here they persecute the\nrich and despoil them under false pretences; there they suborn false\nwitnesses, and impose penalties for suppositious offences; everywhere\nthey excite the hatred of parties, encourage informations to\nobtain amercements, extort property, seize persons; and when their\nshort-sighted avarice has accumulated into one mass all the riches of\na country, the government, by an execrable perfidy, under pretence of\navenging its oppressed people, takes to itself all their spoils, as if\nthey were the culprits, and uselessly sheds the blood of its agents for\na crime of which it is the accomplice.\n\nOh wretches, monarchs or ministers, who sport with the lives and\nfortunes of the people! Is it you who gave breath to man, that you dare\ntake it from him? Do you give growth to the plants of the earth, that\nyou may waste them? Do you toil to furrow the field? Do you endure the\nardor of the sun, and the torment of thirst, to reap the harvest or\nthrash the grain? Do you, like the shepherd, watch through the dews of\nthe night? Do you traverse deserts, like the merchant? Ah! on beholding\nthe pride and cruelty of the powerful, I have been transported with\nindignation, and have said in my wrath, will there never then arise on\nthe earth men who will avenge the people and punish tyrants? A handful\nof brigands devour the multitude, and the multitude submits to be\ndevoured! Oh! degenerate people! Know you not your rights? All authority\nis from you, all power is yours. Unlawfully do kings command you on the\nauthority of God and of their lance--Soldiers be still; if God supports\nthe Sultan he needs not your aid; if his sword suffices, he needs not\nyours; let us see what he can do alone. The soldiers grounded their\narms; and behold these masters of the world, feeble as the meanest of\ntheir subjects! People! know that those who govern are your chiefs, not\nyour masters; your agents, not your owners; that they have no authority\nover you, but by you, and for you; that your wealth is yours and they\naccountable for it; that, kings or subjects, God has made all men equal,\nand no mortal has the right to oppress his fellow-creatures.\n\nBut this nation and its chiefs have mistaken these holy truths. They\nmust abide then the consequences of their blindness. The decree is past;\nthe day approaches when this colossus of power shall be crushed and\ncrumbled under its own mass. Yes, I swear it, by the ruins of so many\nempires destroyed. The empire of the Crescent shall follow the fate\nof the despotism it has copied. A nation of strangers shall drive the\nSultan from his metropolis. The throne of Orkhan shall be overturned.\nThe last shoot of his trunk shall be broken off; and the horde of\nOguzians,* deprived of their chief, shall disperse like that of the\nNagois. In this dissolution, the people of the empire, loosened from the\nyoke which united them, shall resume their ancient distinctions, and a\ngeneral anarchy shall follow, as happened in the empire of the Sophis;**\nuntil there shall arise among the Arabians, Armenians, or Greeks,\nlegislators who may compose new states.\n\n     * Before the Turks took the name of their chief, Othman I.,\n     they bore that of Oguzians; and it was under this\n     appellation that they were driven out of Tartary by Gengis,\n     and came from the borders of Giboun to settle themselves in\n     Anatolia.\n\n     ** In Persia, after the death of Thamas-Koulikan, each\n     province had its chief, and for forty years these chiefs\n     were in a constant state of war.  In this view the Turks do\n     not say without reason: \"Ten years of a tyrant are less\n     destructive than a single night of anarchy.\"\n\nOh! if there were on earth men profound and bold! what elements for\ngrandeur and glory! But the hour of destiny has already come; the cry of\nwar strikes my ear; and the catastrophe begins. In vain the Sultan leads\nforth his armies; his ignorant warriors are beaten and dispersed. In\nvain he calls his subjects; their hearts are ice. Is it not written? say\nthey, what matters who is our master? We cannot lose by the change.\n\nIn vain the true believers invoke heaven and the prophet. The prophet is\ndead; and heaven without pity answers:\n\nCease to invoke me. You have caused your own misfortunes; cure them\nyourselves. Nature has established laws; your part is to obey them.\nObserve, reason, and profit by experience. It is the folly of man which\nruins him; let his wisdom save him. The people are ignorant; let them\ngain instruction. Their chiefs are wicked; let them correct and amend;\nfor such is Nature's decree. Since the evils of society spring from\ncupidity and ignorance, men will never cease to be persecuted, till they\nbecome enlightened and wise; till they practise justice, founded on a\nknowledge of their relations and of the laws of their organization.*\n\n     * A singular moral phenomenon made its appearance in Europe\n     in the year 1788.  A great nation, jealous of its liberty,\n     contracted a fondness for a nation the enemy of liberty; a\n     nation friendly to the arts, for a nation that detests them;\n     a mild and tolerant nation, for a persecuting and fanatic\n     one; a social and gay nation, for a nation whose\n     characteristics are gloom and misanthropy; in a word, the\n     French were smitten with a passion for the Turks: they were\n     desirous of engaging in a war for them, and that at a time\n     when revolution in their own country was just at its\n     commencement. A man, who perceived the true nature of the\n     situation, wrote a book to dissuade them from the war: it\n     was immediately pretended that he was paid by the\n     government, which in reality wished the war, and which was\n     upon the point of shutting him up in a state prison. Another\n     man wrote to recommend the war: he was applauded, and his\n     word taken for the science, the politeness, and importance\n     of the Turks.  It is true that he believed in his own\n     thesis, for he has found among them people who cast a\n     nativity, and alchymists who ruined his fortune; as he found\n     Martinists at Paris, who enabled him to sup with Sesostris,\n     and Magnetizers who concluded with destroying his existence.\n     Notwithstanding this, the Turks were beaten by the Russians,\n     and the man who then predicted the fall of their empire,\n     persists in the prediction.  The result of this fall will be\n     a complete change of the political system, as far as it\n     relates to the coast of the Mediterranean.  If, however, the\n     French become important in proportion as they become free,\n     and if they make use of the advantage they will obtain,\n     their progress may easily prove of the most honorable sort;\n     inasmuch as, by the wise decrees of fate, the true interest\n     of mankind evermore accords with their true morality.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nWILL THE HUMAN RACE IMPROVE?\n\n\nAt these words, oppressed with the painful sentiment with which their\nseverity overwhelmed me: Woe to the nations! cried I, melting in tears;\nwoe to myself! Ah! now it is that I despair of the happiness of man!\nSince his miseries proceed from his heart; since the remedy is in his\nown power, woe for ever to his existence! Who, indeed will ever be\nable to restrain the lust of wealth in the strong and powerful? Who can\nenlighten the ignorance of the weak? Who can teach the multitude to know\ntheir rights, and force their chiefs to perform their duties? Thus the\nrace of man is always doomed to suffer! Thus the individual will not\ncease to oppress the individual, a nation to attack a nation; and days\nof prosperity, of glory, for these regions, shall never return. Alas!\nconquerors will come; they will drive out the oppressors, and fix\nthemselves in their place; but, inheriting their power, they will\ninherit their rapacity; and the earth will have changed tyrants, without\nchanging the tyranny.\n\nThen, turning to the Genius, I exclaimed:\n\nO Genius, despair hath settled on my soul. Knowing the nature of\nman, the perversity of those who govern, and the debasement of the\ngoverned--this knowledge hath disgusted me with life; and since there\nis no choice but to be the accomplice or the victim of oppression, what\nremains to the man of virtue but to mingle his ashes with those of the\ntomb?\n\nThe Genius then gave me a look of severity, mingled with compassion; and\nafter a few moments of silence, he replied:\n\nVirtue, then, consists in dying! The wicked man is indefatigable in\nconsummating his crime, and the just is discouraged from doing good at\nthe first obstacle he encounters! But such is the human heart. A\nlittle success intoxicates man with confidence; a reverse overturns and\nconfounds him. Always given up to the sensation of the moment, he seldom\njudges things from their nature, but from the impulse of his passion.\n\nMortal, who despairest of the human race, on what profound combination\nof facts hast thou established thy conclusion? Hast thou scrutinized the\norganization of sentient beings, to determine with precision whether the\ninstinctive force which moves them on to happiness is essentially weaker\nthan that which repels them from it? or, embracing in one glance the\nhistory of the species, and judging the future by the past, hast thou\nshown that all improvement is impossible? Say! hath human society, since\nits origin, made no progress toward knowledge and a better state? Are\nmen still in their forests, destitute of everything, ignorant, stupid\nand ferocious? Are all the nations still in that age when nothing was\nseen upon the globe but brutal robbers and brutal slaves? If at any\ntime, in any place, individuals have ameliorated, why shall not the\nwhole mass ameliorate? If partial societies have made improvements, what\nshall hinder the improvement of society in general? And if the first\nobstacles are overcome, why should the others be insurmountable?\n\nArt thou disposed to think that the human race degenerates? Guard\nagainst the illusion and paradoxes of the misanthrope. Man, discontented\nwith the present, imagines for the past a perfection which never\nexisted, and which only serves to cover his chagrin. He praises the dead\nout of hatred to the living, and beats the children with the bones of\ntheir ancestors.\n\nTo prove this pretended retrograde progress from perfection we must\ncontradict the testimony of reason and of fact; and if the facts of\nhistory are in any measure uncertain, we must contradict the living\nfact of the organization of man; we must prove that he is born with\nthe enlightened use of his senses; that, without experience, he can\ndistinguish aliment from poison; that the child is wiser than the old\nman; that the blind walks with more safety than the clear-sighted; that\nthe civilized man is more miserable than the savage; and, indeed, that\nthere is no ascending scale in experience and instruction.\n\nBelieve, young man, the testimony of monuments, and the voice of the\ntombs. Some countries have doubtless fallen from what they were at\ncertain epochs; but if we weigh the wisdom and happiness of their\ninhabitants, even in those times, we shall find more of splendor than of\nreality in their glory; we shall find, in the most celebrated of ancient\nstates, enormous vices and cruel abuses, the true causes of their\ndecay; we shall find in general that the principles of government\nwere atrocious; that insolent robberies, barbarous wars and implacable\nhatreds were raging from nation to nation;* that natural right was\nunknown; that morality was perverted by senseless fanaticism and\ndeplorable superstition; that a dream, a vision, an oracle, were\nconstantly the causes of vast commotions. Perhaps the nations are not\nyet entirely cured of all these evils; but their intensity at least is\ndiminished, and the experience of the past has not been wholly lost. For\nthe last three centuries, especially, knowledge has increased and been\nextended; civilization, favored by happy circumstances, has made a\nsensible progress; inconveniences and abuses have even turned to its\nadvantage; for if states have been too much extended by conquest,\nthe people, by uniting under the same yoke, have lost the spirit of\nestrangement and division which made them all enemies one to the other.\nIf the powers of government have been more concentrated, there has been\nmore system and harmony in their exercise. If wars have become more\nextensive in the mass, they are less bloody in detail. If men have gone\nto battle with less personality, less energy, their struggles have been\nless sanguinary and less ferocious; they have been less free, but less\nturbulent; more effeminate, but more pacific. Despotism itself has\nrendered them some service; for if governments have been more absolute,\nthey have been more quiet and less tempestuous. If thrones have become\na property and hereditary, they have excited less dissensions, and the\npeople have suffered fewer convulsions; finally, if the despots, jealous\nand mysterious, have interdicted all knowledge of their administration,\nall concurrence in the management of public affairs, the passions\nof men, drawn aside from politics, have fixed upon the arts, and the\nsciences of nature; and the sphere of ideas in every direction has been\nenlarged; man, devoted to abstract studies, has better understood his\nplace in the system of nature, and his relations in society; principles\nhave been better discussed, final causes better explained, knowledge\nmore extended, individuals better instructed, manners more social, and\nlife more happy. The species at large, especially in certain countries,\nhas gained considerably; and this amelioration cannot but increase in\nfuture, because its two principal obstacles, those even which, till\nthen, had rendered it slow and sometimes retrograde,--the difficulty of\ntransmitting ideas and of communicating them rapidly,--have been at last\nremoved.\n\n     * Read the history of the wars of Rome and Carthage, of\n     Sparta and Messina, of Athens and Syracuse, of the Hebrews\n     and the Phoenicians: yet these are the nations of which\n     antiquity boasts as being most polished!\n\nIndeed, among the ancients, each canton, each city, being isolated\nfrom all others by the difference of its language, the consequence was\nfavorable to ignorance and anarchy. There was no communication of ideas,\nno participation of discoveries, no harmony of interests or of wills, no\nunity of action or design; besides, the only means of transmitting and\nof propagating ideas being that of speech, fugitive and limited,\nand that of writing, tedious of execution, expensive and scarce, the\nconsequence was a hindrance of present instruction, loss of experience\nfrom one generation to another, instability, retrogression of knowledge,\nand a perpetuity of confusion and childhood.\n\nBut in the modern world, especially in Europe, great nations having\nallied themselves in language, and established vast communities of\nopinions, the minds of men are assimilated, and their affections\nextended; there is a sympathy of opinion and a unity of action; then\nthat gift of heavenly Genius, the holy art of printing, having furnished\nthe means of communicating in an instant the same idea to millions of\nmen, and of fixing it in a durable manner, beyond the power of tyrants\nto arrest or annihilate, there arose a mass of progressive instruction,\nan expanding atmosphere of science, which assures to future ages a solid\namelioration. This amelioration is a necessary effect of the laws of\nnature; for, by the law of sensibility, man as invincibly tends to\nrender himself happy as the flame to mount, the stone to descend, or the\nwater to find its level. His obstacle is his ignorance, which misleads\nhim in the means, and deceives him in causes and effects. He will\nenlighten himself by experience; he will become right by dint of errors;\nhe will grow wise and good because it is his interest so to be.\nIdeas being communicated through the nation, whole classes will gain\ninstruction; science will become a vulgar possession, and all men will\nknow what are the principles of individual happiness and of public\nprosperity. They will know the relations they bear to society, their\nduties and their rights; they will learn to guard against the illusions\nof the lust of gain; they will perceive that the science of morals is\na physical science, composed, indeed, of elements complicated in their\noperation, but simple and invariable in their nature, since they\nare only the elements of the organization of man. They will see the\npropriety of being moderate and just, because in that is found the\nadvantage and security of each; they will perceive that the wish to\nenjoy at the expense of another is a false calculation of ignorance,\nbecause it gives rise to reprisal, hatred, and vengeance, and that\ndishonesty is the never-failing offspring of folly.\n\nIndividuals will feel that private happiness is allied to public good:\n\nThe weak, that instead of dividing their interests, they ought to unite\nthem, because equality constitutes their force:\n\nThe rich, that the measure of enjoyment is bounded by the constitution\nof the organs, and that lassitude follows satiety:\n\nThe poor, that the employment of time, and the peace of the heart,\ncompose the highest happiness of man. And public opinion, reaching kings\non their thrones, will force them to confine themselves to the limits of\nregular authority.\n\nEven chance itself, serving the cause of nations, will sometimes give\nthem feeble chiefs, who, through weakness, will suffer them to become\nfree; and sometimes enlightened chiefs, who, from a principle of virtue,\nwill free them.\n\nAnd when nations, free and enlightened, shall become like great\nindividuals, the whole species will have the same facilities as\nparticular portions now have; the communication of knowledge will extend\nfrom one to another, and thus reach the whole. By the law of imitation,\nthe example of one people will be followed by others, who will adopt its\nspirit and its laws. Even despots, perceiving that they can no longer\nmaintain their authority without justice and beneficence, will soften\ntheir sway from necessity, from rivalship; and civilization will become\nuniversal.\n\nThere will be established among the several nations an equilibrium of\nforce, which, restraining them all within the bounds of the respect due\nto their reciprocal rights, shall put an end to the barbarous practice\nof war, and submit their disputes to civil arbitration.* The human race\nwill become one great society, one individual family, governed by the\nsame spirit, by common laws, and enjoying all the happiness of which\ntheir nature is susceptible.\n\n     * What is a people?  An individual of the society at large.\n     What a war?  A duel between two individual people.  In what\n     manner ought a society to act when two of its members fight?\n     Interfere and reconcile, or repress them.  In the days of\n     the Abbe de Saint Pierre this was treated as a dream, but\n     happily for the human race it begins to be realized.\n\nDoubtless this great work will be long accomplishing; because the\nsame movement must be given to an immense body; the same leaven must\nassimilate an enormous mass of heterogeneous parts. But this movement\nshall be effected; its presages are already to be seen. Already the\ngreat society, assuming in its course the same characters as partial\nsocieties have done, is evidently tending to a like result. At first\ndisconnected in all its parts, it saw its members for a long time\nwithout cohesion; and this general solitude of nations formed its\nfirst age of anarchy and childhood; divided afterwards by chance into\nirregular sections, called states and kingdoms, it has experienced\nthe fatal effects of an extreme inequality of wealth and rank; and the\naristocracy of great empires has formed its second age; then, these\nlordly states disputing for preeminence, have exhibited the period of\nthe shock of factions.\n\nAt present the contending parties, wearied with discord, feel the want\nof laws, and sigh for the age of order and of peace. Let but a virtuous\nchief arise! a just, a powerful people appear! and the earth will raise\nthem to supreme power. The world is waiting for a legislative people; it\nwishes and demands it; and my heart attends the cry.\n\nThen turning towards the west: Yes, continued he, a hollow sound already\nstrikes my ear; a cry of liberty, proceeding from far distant shores,\nresounds on the ancient continent. At this cry, a secret murmur against\noppression is raised in a powerful nation; a salutary inquietude alarms\nher respecting her situation; she enquires what she is, and what she\nought to be; while, surprised at her own weakness, she interrogates her\nrights, her resources, and what has been the conduct of her chiefs.\n\nYet another day--a little more reflection--and an immense agitation will\nbegin; a new-born age will open! an age of astonishment to vulgar minds,\nof terror to tyrants, of freedom to a great nation, and of hope to the\nhuman race!\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE GREAT OBSTACLE TO IMPROVEMENT.\n\n\nThe Genius ceased. But preoccupied with melancholy thoughts, my mind\nresisted persuasion; fearing, however, to shock him by my resistance, I\nremained silent. After a while, turning to me with a look which pierced\nmy soul, he said:\n\nThou art silent, and thy heart is agitated with thoughts which it dares\nnot utter.\n\nAt last, troubled and terrified, I replied:\n\nO Genius, pardon my weakness. Doubtless thy mouth can utter nothing but\ntruth; but thy celestial intelligence can seize its rays, where my gross\nfaculties can discern nothing but clouds. I confess it; conviction has\nnot penetrated my soul, and I feared that my doubts might offend thee.\n\nAnd what is doubt, replied he, that it should be a crime? Can man\nfeel otherwise than as he is affected? If a truth be palpable, and\nof importance in practice, let us pity him that misconceives it.\nHis punishment will arise from his blindness. If it be uncertain or\nequivocal, how is he to find in it what it has not? To believe without\nevidence or proof, is an act of ignorance and folly. The credulous\nman loses himself in a labyrinth of contradictions; the man of sense\nexamines and discusses, that he may be consistent in his opinions. The\nhonest man will bear contradiction; because it gives rise to evidence.\nViolence is the argument of falsehood; and to impose a creed by\nauthority is the act and indication of a tyrant.\n\nO Genius, said I, encouraged by these words, since my reason is free, I\nstrive in vain to entertain the flattering hope with which you endeavor\nto console me. The sensible and virtuous soul is easily caught with\ndreams of happiness; but a cruel reality constantly awakens it to\nsuffering and wretchedness. The more I meditate on the nature of man,\nthe more I examine the present state of societies, the less possible it\nappears to realize a world of wisdom and felicity. I cast my eye over\nthe whole of our hemisphere; I perceive in no place the germ, nor do\nI foresee the instinctive energy of a happy revolution. All Asia lies\nburied in profound darkness. The Chinese, governed by an insolent\ndespotism,* by strokes of the bamboo and the cast of lots, restrained\nby an immutable code of gestures, and by the radical vices of an\nill-constructed language,** appear to be in their abortive civilization\nnothing but a race of automatons. The Indian, borne down by prejudices,\nand enchained in the sacred fetters of his castes, vegetates in an\nincurable apathy. The Tartar, wandering or fixed, always ignorant and\nferocious, lives in the savageness of his ancestors. The Arab, endowed\nwith a happy genius, loses its force and the fruits of his virtue in\nthe anarchy of his tribes and the jealousy of his families. The African,\ndegraded from the rank of man, seems irrevocably doomed to servitude.\nIn the North I see nothing but vilified serfs, herds of men with which\nlandlords stock their estates. Ignorance, tyranny, and wretchedness\nhave everywhere stupified the nations; and vicious habits, depraving\nthe natural senses, have destroyed the very instinct of happiness and of\ntruth.\n\n     * The emperor of China calls himself the son of heaven; that\n     is, of God: for in the opinion of the Chinese, the material\n     of heaven, the arbiter of fatality, is the Deity himself.\n     \"The emperor only shows himself once in ten months, lest the\n     people, accustomed to see him, might lose their respect; for\n     he holds it as a maxim that power can only be supported by\n     force, that the people have no idea of justice, and are not\n     to be governed but by coercion.\"  Narrative of two Mahometan\n     travellers in 851 and 877, translated by the Abbe Renaudot\n     in 1718.\n\n     Notwithstanding what is asserted by the missionaries, this\n     situation has undergone no change.  The bamboo still reigns\n     in China, and the son of heaven bastinades, for the most\n     trivial fault, the Mandarin, who in his turn bastinades the\n     people.  The Jesuits may tell us that this is the best\n     governed country in the world, and its inhabitants the\n     happiest of men: but a single letter from Amyot has\n     convinced me that China is a truly Turkish government, and\n     the account of Sonnerat confirms it.  See Vol. II. of Voyage\n     aux Indes, in 4to.\n\n     ** As long as the Chinese shall in writing make use of their\n     present characters, they can be expected to make no progress\n     in civilization.  The necessary introductory step must be\n     the giving them an alphabet like our own, or of substituting\n     in the room of their language that of the Tartars.  The\n     improvement made in the latter by M. de Lengles, is\n     calculated to introduce this change. See the Mantchou\n     alphabet, the production of a mind truly learned in the\n     formation of language.\n\nIn some parts of Europe, indeed, reason has begun to dawn, but even\nthere, do nations partake of the knowledge of individuals? Are the\ntalents and genius of governors turned to the benefit of the people? And\nthose nations which call themselves polished, are they not the same that\nfor the last three centuries have filled the earth with their injustice?\nAre they not those who, under the pretext of commerce, have desolated\nIndia, depopulated a new continent, and, at present, subject Africa\nto the most barbarous slavery? Can liberty be born from the bosom\nof despots? and shall justice be rendered by the hands of piracy and\navarice? O Genius, I have seen the civilized countries; and the mockery\nof their wisdom has vanished before my sight. I saw wealth accumulated\nin the hands of a few, and the multitude poor and destitute. I have seen\nall rights, all powers concentered in certain classes, and the mass of\nthe people passive and dependent. I have seen families of princes, but\nno families of the nation. I have seen government interests, but\nno public interests or spirit. I have seen that all the science of\ngovernment was to oppress prudently; and the refined servitude of\npolished nations appeared to me only the more irremediable.\n\nOne obstacle above all has profoundly struck my mind. On looking over\nthe world, I have seen it divided into twenty different systems of\nreligion. Every nation has received, or formed, opposite opinions; and\nevery one ascribing to itself the exclusive possession of the truth,\nmust believe the other to be wrong. Now if, as must be the fact in this\ndiscordance of opinion, the greater part are in error, and are honest in\nit, then it follows that our mind embraces falsehood as it does truth;\nand if so, how is it to be enlightened? When prejudice has once seized\nthe mind, how is it to be dissipated? How shall we remove the bandage\nfrom our eyes, when the first article in every creed, the first dogma in\nall religion, is the absolute proscription of doubt, the interdiction of\nexamination, and the rejection of our own judgment? How is truth to make\nherself known?--If she resorts to arguments and proofs, the timid man\nstifles the voice of his own conscience; if she invokes the authority\nof celestial powers, he opposes it with another authority of the same\norigin, with which he is preoccupied; and he treats all innovation as\nblasphemy. Thus man in his blindness, has riveted his own chains,\nand surrendered himself forever, without defence, to the sport of his\nignorance and his passions.\n\nTo dissolve such fatal chains, a miraculous concurrence of happy\nevents would be necessary. A whole nation, cured of the delirium of\nsuperstition, must be inaccessible to the impulse of fanaticism. Freed\nfrom the yoke of false doctrine, a whole people must impose upon itself\nthat of true morality and reason. This people should be courageous and\nprudent, wise and docile. Each individual, knowing his rights, should\nnot transgress them. The poor should know how to resist seduction,\nand the rich the allurements of avarice. There should be found leaders\ndisinterested and just, and their tyrants should be seized with a spirit\nof madness and folly. This people, recovering its rights, should\nfeel its inability to exercise them in person, and should name its\nrepresentatives. Creator of its magistrates, it should know at once to\nrespect them and to judge them. In the sudden reform of a whole nation,\naccustomed to live by abuses, each individual displaced should bear with\npatience his privations, and submit to a change of habits. This nation\nshould have the courage to conquer its liberty; the power to defend it,\nthe wisdom to establish it, and the generosity to extend it to others.\nAnd can we ever expect the union of so many circumstances? But suppose\nthat chance in its infinite combinations should produce them, shall I\nsee those fortunate days. Will not my ashes long ere then be mouldering\nin the tomb?\n\nHere, sunk in sorrow, my oppressed heart no longer found utterance. The\nGenius answered not, but I heard him whisper to himself:\n\nLet us revive the hope of this man; for if he who loves his fellow\ncreatures be suffered to despair, what will become of nations? The past\nis perhaps too discouraging; I must anticipate futurity, and disclose to\nthe eye of virtue the astonishing age that is ready to begin; that, on\nviewing the object she desires, she may be animated with new ardor, and\nredouble her efforts to attain it.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nTHE NEW AGE.\n\n\nScarcely had he finished these words, when a great tumult arose in the\nwest; and turning to that quarter, I perceived, at the extremity of\nthe Mediterranean, in one of the nations of Europe, a prodigious\nmovement--such as when a violent sedition arises in a vast city--a\nnumberless people, rushing in all directions, pour through the streets\nand fluctuate like waves in the public places. My ear, struck with the\ncries which resounded to the heavens, distinguished these words:\n\nWhat is this new prodigy? What cruel and mysterious scourge is this? We\nare a numerous people and we want hands! We have an excellent soil, and\nwe are in want of subsistence? We are active and laborious, and we live\nin indigence! We pay enormous tributes, and we are told they are not\nsufficient! We are at peace without, and our persons and property are\nnot safe within. Who, then, is the secret enemy that devours us?\n\nSome voices from the midst of the multitude replied:\n\nRaise a discriminating standard; and let all those who maintain and\nnourish mankind by useful labors gather round it; and you will discover\nthe enemy that preys upon you.\n\nThe standard being raised, this nation divided itself at once into\ntwo bodies of unequal magnitude and contrasted appearance. The one,\ninnumerable, and almost total, exhibited in the poverty of its clothing,\nin its emaciated appearance and sun-burnt faces, the marks of misery and\nlabor; the other, a little group, an insignificant faction, presented in\nits rich attire embroidered with gold and silver, and in its sleek and\nruddy faces, the signs of leisure and abundance.\n\nConsidering these men more attentively, I found that the great body was\ncomposed of farmers, artificers, merchants, all professions useful\nto society; and that the little group was made up of priests of every\norder, of financiers, of nobles, of men in livery, of commanders of\narmies; in a word, of the civil, military, and religious agents of\ngovernment.\n\nThese two bodies being assembled face to face, and regarding each other\nwith astonishment, I saw indignation and rage arising in one side, and\na sort of panic in the other. And the large body said to the little one:\nWhy are you separated from us? Are you not of our number?\n\nNo, replied the group; you are the people; we are a privileged class,\nwho have our laws, customs, and rights, peculiar to ourselves.\n\nPEOPLE.--And what labor do you perform in our society?\n\nPRIVILEGED CLASS.--None; we are not made to work.\n\nPEOPLE.--How, then, have you acquired these riches?\n\nPRIVILEGED CLASS.--By taking the pains to govern you.\n\nPEOPLE.--What! is this what you call governing? We toil and you enjoy!\nwe produce and you dissipate! Wealth proceeds from us, and you absorb\nit. Privileged men! class who are not the people; form a nation apart,\nand govern yourselves.*\n\n     * This dialogue between the people and the indolent classes,\n     is applicable to every society; it contains the seeds of all\n     the political vices and disorders that prevail, and which\n     may thus be defined: Men who do nothing, and who devour the\n     substance of others; and men who arrogate to themselves\n     particular rights and exclusive privileges of wealth and\n     indolence.  Compare the Mamlouks of Egypt, the nobility of\n     Europe, the Nairs of India, the Emirs of Arabia, the\n     patricians of Rome, the Christian clergy, the Imans, the\n     Bramins, the Bonzes, the Lamas, etc., etc., and you will\n     find in all the same characteristic feature:--Men living in\n     idleness at the expense of those who labor.\n\nThen the little group, deliberating on this new state of things, some of\nthe most honorable among them said: We must join the people and partake\nof their labors and burdens, for they are men like us, and our riches\ncome from them; but others arrogantly exclaimed: It would be a shame, an\ninfamy, for us to mingle with the crowd; they are born to serve us.\nAre we not men of another race--the noble and pure descendants of the\nconquerors of this empire? This multitude must be reminded of our rights\nand its own origin.\n\nTHE NOBLES.--People! know you not that our ancestors conquered this\nland, and that your race was spared only on condition of serving us?\nThis is our social compact! this the government constituted by custom\nand prescribed by time.\n\nPEOPLE.--O conquerors, pure of blood! show us your genealogies! we\nshall then see if what in an individual is robbery and plunder, can be\nvirtuous in a nation.\n\nAnd forthwith, voices were heard in every quarter calling out the nobles\nby their names; and relating their origin and parentage, they told how\nthe grandfather, great-grandfather, or even father, born traders and\nmechanics, after acquiring wealth in every way, had purchased their\nnobility for money: so that but very few families were really of the\noriginal stock. See, said these voices, see these purse-proud commoners\nwho deny their parents! see these plebian recruits who look upon\nthemselves as illustrious veterans! and peals of laughter were heard.\n\nAnd the civil governors said: these people are mild, and naturally\nservile; speak to them of the king and of the law, and they will return\nto their duty. People! the king wills, the sovereign ordains!\n\nPEOPLE.--The king can will nothing but the good of the people; the\nsovereign can only ordain according to law.\n\nCIVIL GOVERNORS.--The law commands you to be submissive.\n\nPEOPLE.--The law is the general will; and we will a new order of things.\n\nCIVIL GOVERNORS.--You are then a rebel people.\n\nPEOPLE.--A nation cannot revolt; tyrants only are rebels.\n\nCIVIL GOVERNORS.--The king is on our side; he commands you to submit.\n\nPEOPLE.--Kings are inseparable from their nations. Our king cannot be\nwith you; you possess only his phantom.\n\nAnd the military governors came forward. The people are timorous, said\nthey; we must threaten them; they will submit only to force. Soldiers,\nchastise this insolent multitude.\n\nPEOPLE.--Soldiers, you are of our blood! Will you strike your brothers,\nyour relatives? If the people perish who will nourish the army?\n\nAnd the soldiers, grounding their arms, said to the chiefs:\n\nWe are likewise the people; show us the enemy!\n\nThen the ecclesiastical governors said: There is but one resource left.\nThe people are superstitious; we must frighten them with the names of\nGod and religion.\n\nOur dear brethren! our children! God has ordained us to govern you.\n\nPEOPLE.--Show us your credentials from God!\n\nPRIESTS.--You must have faith; reason leads astray.\n\nPEOPLE.--Do you govern without reason?\n\nPRIESTS.--God commands peace! Religion prescribes obedience.\n\nPEOPLE.--Peace supposes justice. Obedience implies conviction of a duty.\n\nPRIESTS.--Suffering is the business of this world.\n\nPEOPLE.--Show us the example.\n\nPRIESTS.--Would you live without gods or kings?\n\nPEOPLE.--We would live without oppressors.\n\nPRIESTS.--You must have mediators, intercessors.\n\nPEOPLE.--Mediators with God and with the king! courtiers and priests,\nyour services are too expensive: we will henceforth manage our own\naffairs.\n\nAnd the little group said: We are lost! the multitude are enlightened.\n\nAnd the people answered: You are safe; since we are enlightened we will\ncommit no violence; we only claim our rights. We feel resentments, but\nwe will forget them. We were slaves, we might command; but we only wish\nto be free, and liberty is but justice.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nA FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE.\n\n\nConsidering that all public power was now suspended, and that the\nhabitual restraint of the people had suddenly ceased, I shuddered with\nthe apprehension that they would fall into the dissolution of anarchy.\nBut, taking their affairs into immediate deliberation, they said:\n\nIt is not enough that we have freed ourselves from tyrants and\nparasites; we must prevent their return. We are men, and experience\nhas abundantly taught us that every man is fond of power, and wishes\nto enjoy it at the expense of others. It is necessary, then, to guard\nagainst a propensity which is the source of discord; we must establish\ncertain rules of duty and of right. But the knowledge of our rights,\nand the estimation of our duties, are so abstract and difficult as to\nrequire all the time and all the faculties of a man. Occupied in our\nown affairs, we have not leisure for these studies; nor can we\nexercise these functions in our own persons. Let us choose, then, among\nourselves, such persons as are capable of this employment. To them we\nwill delegate our powers to institute our government and laws. They\nshall be the representatives of our wills and of our interests. And in\norder to attain the fairest representation possible of our wills and our\ninterests, let it be numerous, and composed of men resembling ourselves.\n\nHaving made the election of a numerous body of delegates, the people\nthus addressed them:\n\nWe have hitherto lived in a society formed by chance, without fixed\nagreements, without free conventions, without a stipulation of rights,\nwithout reciprocal engagements,--and a multitude of disorders and evils\nhave arisen from this precarious state. We are now determined on forming\na regular compact; and we have chosen you to adjust the articles.\nExamine, then, with care what ought to be its basis and its conditions;\nconsider what is the end and the principles of every association;\nrecognize the rights which every member brings, the powers which he\ndelegates, and those which he reserves to himself. Point out to us the\nrules of conduct--the basis of just and equitable laws. Prepare for us a\nnew system of government; for we realize that the one which has\nhitherto guided us is corrupt. Our fathers have wandered in the paths\nof ignorance, and habit has taught us to follow in their footsteps.\nEverything has been done by fraud, violence, and delusion; and the true\nlaws of morality and reason are still obscure. Clear up, then, their\nchaos; trace out their connection; publish their code, and we will adopt\nit.\n\nAnd the people raised a large throne, in the form of a pyramid, and\nseating on it the men they had chosen, said to them:\n\nWe raise you to-day above us, that you may better discover the whole of\nour relations, and be above the reach of our passions. But remember that\nyou are our fellow-citizens; that the power we confer on you is our own;\nthat we deposit it with you, but not as a property or a heritage; that\nyou must be the first to obey the laws you make; that to-morrow you\nredescend among us, and that you will have acquired no other right but\nthat of our esteem and gratitude. And consider what a tribute of glory\nthe world, which reveres so many apostles of error, will bestow on the\nfirst assembly of rational men, who shall have declared the unchangeable\nprinciples of justice, and consecrated, in the face of tyrants, the\nrights of nations.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nUNIVERSAL BASIS OF ALL RIGHT AND ALL LAW.\n\n\nThe men chosen by the people to investigate the true principles of\nmorals and of reason then proceeded in the sacred object of their\nmission; and, after a long examination, having discovered a fundamental\nand universal principle, a legislator arose and said to the people:\n\nHere is the primordial basis, the physical origin of all justice and of\nall right.\n\nWhatever be the active power, the moving cause, that governs the\nuniverse, since it has given to all men the same organs, the same\nsensations, and the same wants, it has thereby declared that it has\ngiven to all the same right to the use of its treasures, and that all\nmen are equal in the order of nature.\n\nAnd, since this power has given to each man the necessary means of\npreserving his own existence, it is evident that it has constituted them\nall independent one of another; that it has created them free; that no\none is subject to another; that each one is absolute proprietor of his\nown person.\n\nEquality and liberty are, therefore, two essential attributes of man,\ntwo laws of the Divinity, constitutional and unchangeable, like the\nphysical properties of matter.\n\nNow, every individual being absolute master of his own person, it\nfollows that a full and free consent is a condition indispensable to all\ncontracts and all engagements.\n\nAgain, since each individual is equal to another, it follows that the\nbalance of what is received and of what is given, should be strictly in\nequilibrium; so that the idea of justice, of equity, necessarily imports\nthat of equality.*\n\n     * The etymology of the words themselves trace out to us this\n     connection: equilibrium, equalitas, equitas, are all of one\n     family, and the physical idea of equality, in the scales of\n     a balance, is the source and type of all the rest.\n\nEquality and liberty are therefore the physical and unalterable basis\nof every union of men in society, and of course the necessary and\ngenerating principle of every law and of every system of regular\ngovernment.*\n\n     * In the Declaration of Rights, there is an inversion of\n     ideas in the first article, liberty being placed before\n     equality, from which it in reality springs.  This defect is\n     not to be wondered at; the science of the rights of man is a\n     new science: it was invented yesterday by the Americans,\n     to-day the French are perfecting it, but there yet remains a\n     great deal to be done.  In the ideas that constitute it\n     there is a genealogical order which, from us basis, physical\n     equality, to the minutest and most remote branches of\n     government, ought to proceed in an uninterrupted series of\n     inferences.\n\nA disregard of this basis has introduced in your nation, and in every\nother, those disorders which have finally roused you. It is by returning\nto this rule that you may reform them, and reorganize a happy order of\nsociety.\n\nBut observe, this reorganization will occasion a violent shock in\nyour habits, your fortunes, and your prejudices. Vicious contracts and\nabusive claims must be dissolved, unjust distinctions and ill founded\nproperty renounced; you must indeed recur for a moment to a state of\nnature. Consider whether you can consent to so many sacrifices.\n\nThen, reflecting on the cupidity inherent in the heart of man, I thought\nthat this people would renounce all ideas of amelioration.\n\nBut, in a moment, a great number of men, advancing toward the pyramid,\nmade a solemn abjuration of all their distinctions and all their riches.\n\nEstablish for us, said they, the laws of equality and liberty; we will\npossess nothing in future but on the title of justice.\n\nEquality, liberty, justice,--these shall be our code, and shall be\nwritten on our standards.\n\nAnd the people immediately raised a great standard, inscribed with\nthese three words, in three different colors. They displayed it over the\npyramid of the legislators, and for the first time the flag of universal\njustice floated on the face of the earth.\n\nAnd the people raised before the pyramid a new altar, on which they\nplaced a golden balance, a sword, and a book with this inscription:\n\n\nTO EQUAL LAW, WHICH JUDGES AND PROTECTS.\n\n\nAnd having surrounded the pyramid and the altar with a vast\namphitheatre, all the people took their seats to hear the publication\nof the law. And millions of men, raising at once their hands to heaven,\ntook the solemn oath to live equal, free, and just; to respect their\nreciprocal properties and rights; to obey the law and its regularly\nchosen representatives.\n\n\nA spectacle so impressive and sublime, so replete with generous\nemotions, moved me to tears; and addressing myself to the Genius, I\nexclaimed: Let me now live, for in future I have everything to hope.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nCONSTERNATION AND CONSPIRACY OF TYRANTS.\n\n\nBut scarcely had the solemn voice of liberty and equality resounded\nthrough the earth, when a movement of confusion, of astonishment, arose\nin different nations. On the one hand, the people, warmed with desire,\nbut wavering between hope and fear, between the sentiment of right and\nthe habit of obedience, began to be in motion. The kings, on the other\nhand, suddenly awakened from the sleep of indolence and despotism, were\nalarmed for the safety of their thrones; while, on all sides, those\nclans of civil and religious tyrants, who deceive kings and oppress the\npeople, were seized with rage and consternation; and, concerting their\nperfidious plans, they said: Woe to us, if this fatal cry of liberty\ncomes to the ears of the multitude! Woe to us, if this pernicious spirit\nof justice be propagated!\n\nAnd, pointing to the floating banner, they continued:\n\nConsider what a swarm of evils are included in these three words! If all\nmen are equal, where is our exclusive right to honors and to power? If\nall men are to be free, what becomes of our slaves, our vassals, our\nproperty? If all are equal in the civil state, where is our prerogative\nof birth, of inheritance? and what becomes of nobility? If they are\nall equal in the sight of God, what need of mediators?--where is the\npriesthood? Let us hasten, then, to destroy a germ so prolific, and so\ncontagious. We must employ all our cunning against this innovation. We\nmust frighten the kings, that they may join us in the cause. We\nmust divide the people by national jealousies, and occupy them with\ncommotions, wars, and conquests. They must be alarmed at the power\nof this free nation. Let us form a league against the common enemy,\ndemolish that sacrilegious standard, overturn that throne of rebellion,\nand stifle in its birth the flame of revolution.\n\nAnd, indeed, the civil and religious tyrants of nations formed a general\ncombination; and, multiplying their followers by force and seduction,\nthey marched in hostile array against the free nation; and, surrounding\nthe altar and the pyramid of natural law, they demanded with loud cries:\n\nWhat is this new and heretical doctrine? what this impious altar, this\nsacrilegious worship? True believers and loyal subjects! can you suppose\nthat truth has been first discovered to-day, and that hitherto you have\nbeen walking in error? that those men, more fortunate than you, have the\nsole privilege of wisdom? And you, rebel and misguided nation, perceive\nyou not that your new leaders are misleading you? that they destroy the\nprinciples of your faith, and overturn the religion of your ancestors?\nAh, tremble! lest the wrath of heaven should kindle against you; and\nhasten by speedy repentance to retrieve your error.\n\nBut, inaccessible to seduction as well as to fear, the free nation kept\nsilence, and rising universally in arms, assumed an imposing attitude.\n\nAnd the legislator said to the chiefs of nations:\n\nIf while we walked with a bandage on our eyes the light guided our\nsteps, why, since we are no longer blindfold, should it fly from our\nsearch? If guides, who teach mankind to see for themselves, mislead and\ndeceive them, what can be expected from those who profess to keep them\nin darkness?\n\nBut hark, ye leaders of nations! If you possess the truth, show it to\nus, and we will receive it with gratitude, for we seek it with ardor,\nand have a great interest in finding it. We are men, and liable to be\ndeceived; but you are also men, and equally fallible. Aid us then in\nthis labyrinth, where the human race has wandered for so many ages; help\nus to dissipate the illusion of so many prejudices and vicious habits.\nAmid the shock of so many opinions which dispute for our acceptance,\nassist us in discovering the proper and distinctive character of truth.\nLet us this day terminate the long combat with error. Let us establish\nbetween it and truth a solemn contest, to which we will invite the\nopinions of men of all nations. Let us convoke a general assembly of the\nnations. Let them be judges in their own cause; and in the debate of all\nsystems, let no champion, no argument, be wanting, either on the side\nof prejudice or of reason; and let the sentiment of a general and common\nmass of evidence give birth to a universal concord of opinions and of\nhearts.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nGENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE NATIONS.\n\n\nThus spoke the legislator; and the multitude, seized with those emotions\nwhich a reasonable proposition always inspires, expressed its applause;\nwhile the tyrants, left without support, were overwhelmed with\nconfusion.\n\nA scene of a new and astonishing nature then opened to my view. All that\nthe earth contains of people and of nations; men of every race and of\nevery region, converging from their various climates, seemed to assemble\nin one allotted place; where, forming an immense congress, distinguished\nin groups by the vast variety of their dresses, features, and\ncomplexion, the numberless multitude presented a most unusual and\naffecting sight.\n\nOn one side I saw the European, with his short close coat, pointed\ntriangular hat, smooth chin, and powdered hair; on the other side the\nAsiatic, with a flowing robe, long beard, shaved head, and round turban.\nHere stood the nations of Africa, with their ebony skins, their woolly\nhair, their body girt with white and blue tissues of bark, adorned with\nbracelets and necklaces of coral, shells, and glass; there the tribes\nof the north, enveloped in their leathern bags; the Laplander, with his\npointed bonnet and his snow-shoes; the Samoyede, with his feverish body\nand strong odor; the Tongouse, with his horned cap, and carrying his\nidols pendant from his neck; the Yakoute, with his freckled face; the\nKalmuc, with his flat nose and little retorted eyes. Farther distant\nwere the Chinese, attired in silk, with their hair hanging in tresses;\nthe Japanese, of mingled race; the Malays, with wide-spreading ears,\nrings in their noses, and palm-leaf hats of vast circumference;* and the\ntattooed races of the isles of the southern ocean and of the continent\nof the antipodes.** The view of so many varieties of the same species,\nof so many extravagant inventions of the same understanding, and of so\nmany modifications of the same organization, affected me with a thousand\nfeelings and a thousand thoughts.*** I contemplated with astonishment\nthis gradation of color, which, passing from a bright carnation to a\nlight brown, a deeper brown, dusky, bronze, olive, leaden, copper, ends\nin the black of ebony and of jet. And finding the Cassimerian, with his\nrosy cheek, next to the sun-burnt Hindoo, and the Georgian by the side\nof the Tartar, I reflected on the effects of climate hot or cold, of\nsoil high or low, marshy or dry, open or shaded. I compared the dwarf of\nthe pole with the giant of the temperate zones, the slender body of\nthe Arab with the ample chest of the Hollander; the squat figure of\nthe Samoyede with the elegant form of the Greek and the Sclavonian; the\ngreasy black wool of the Negro with the bright silken locks of the Dane;\nthe broad face of the Kalmuc, his little angular eyes and flattened\nnose, with the oval prominent visage, large blue eyes, and aquiline nose\nof the Circassian and Abazan. I contrasted the brilliant calicoes of the\nIndian, the well-wrought stuffs of the European, the rich furs of the\nSiberian, with the tissues of bark, of osiers, leaves and feathers of\nsavage nations; and the blue figures of serpents, flowers, and\nstars, with which they painted their bodies. Sometimes the variegated\nappearance of this multitude reminded me of the enamelled meadows of the\nNile and the Euphrates, when, after rains or inundations, millions of\nflowers are rising on every side. Sometimes their murmurs and their\nmotions called to mind the numberless swarms of locusts which, issuing\nfrom the desert, cover in the spring the plains of Hauran.\n\n     * This species of the palm-tree is called Latanier.  Its\n     leaf, similar to a fan-mount, grows upon a stalk issuing\n     directly from the earth.  A specimen may be seen in the\n     botanic garden.\n\n     ** The country of the Papons of New Guinea.\n\n     *** A hall of costumes in one of the galleries of the Louvre\n     would, in every point of view, be an interesting\n     establishment.  It would furnish an admirable treat to the\n     curiosity of a great number of persons, excellent models to\n     the artist, and useful subjects of meditation to the\n     physician, the philosopher and the legislator.\n\n     Picture to yourself a collection of the various faces and\n     figures of every country and nation, exhibiting accurately,\n     color, features and form; what a field for investigation and\n     enquiry as to the influence of climate, customs, food, etc.\n     It might truly be called the science of man!  Buffon has\n     attempted a chapter of this nature, but it only serves to\n     exhibit more strikingly our actual ignorance. Such a\n     collection is said to have been begun at St. Petersburg, but\n     it is also said at the same time to be as imperfect as the\n     vocabulary of the three hundred languages.  The enterprise\n     would be worthy of the French nation.\n\nAt the sight of so many rational beings, considering on the one hand the\nimmensity of thoughts and sensations assembled in this place, and on the\nother hand, reflecting on the opposition of so many opinions, and the\nshock of so many passions of men so capricious, I struggled between\nastonishment, admiration, and secret dread--when the legislator\ncommanded silence, and attracted all my attention.\n\nInhabitants of earth! a free and powerful nation addresses you with\nwords of justice and peace, and she offers you the sure pledges of her\nintentions in her own conviction and experience. Long afflicted with the\nsame evils as yourselves, we sought for their source, and found them\nall derived from violence and injustice, erected into law by the\ninexperience of past ages, and maintained by the prejudices of the\npresent. Then abolishing our artificial and arbitrary institutions,\nand recurring to the origin of all right and reason, we have found\nthat there existed in the very order of nature and in the physical\nconstitution of man, eternal and immutable laws, which only waited his\nobservance to render him happy.\n\nO men! cast your eyes on the heavens that give you light, and on the\nearth that gives you bread! Since they offer the same bounties to you\nall--since from the power that gives them motion you have all received\nthe same life, the same organs, have you not likewise all received the\nsame right to enjoy its benefits? Has it not hereby declared you all\nequal and free? What mortal shall dare refuse to his fellow that which\nnature gives him?\n\nO nations! let us banish all tyranny and all discord; let us form but\none society, one great family; and, since human nature has but one\nconstitution, let there exist in future but one law, that of nature--but\none code, that of reason--but one throne, that of justice--but one\naltar, that of union.\n\nHe ceased; and an immense acclamation resounded to the skies. Ten\nthousand benedictions announced the transports of the multitude; and\nthey made the earth re-echo JUSTICE, EQUALITY and UNION.\n\nBut different emotions soon succeeded; soon the doctors and the chiefs\nof nations exciting a spirit of dispute, there was heard a sullen\nmurmur, which growing louder, and spreading from group to group, became\na vast disorder; and each nation setting up exclusive pretensions,\nclaimed a preference for its own code and opinion.\n\nYou are in error, said the parties, pointing one to the other. We alone\nare in possession of reason and truth. We alone have the true law,\nthe real rule of right and justice, the only means of happiness and\nperfection. All other men are either blind or rebellious.\n\nAnd great agitation prevailed.\n\nThen the legislator, after enforcing silence, loudly exclaimed:\n\nWhat, O people! is this passionate emotion? Whither will this quarrel\nconduct you? What can you expect from this dissension? The earth has\nbeen for ages a field of disputation, and you have shed torrents of\nblood in your controversies. What have you gained by so many battles\nand tears? When the strong has subjected the weak to his opinion, has he\nthereby aided the cause of truth?\n\nO nations! take counsel of your own wisdom. When among yourselves\ndisputes arise between families and individuals, how do you reconcile\nthem? Do you not give them arbitrators?\n\nYes, cried the whole multitude.\n\nDo so then to the authors of your present dissensions. Order those who\ncall themselves your instructors, and who force their creeds upon\nyou, to discuss before you their reasons. Since they appeal to your\ninterests, inform yourselves how they support them.\n\nAnd you, chiefs and governors of the people! before dragging the masses\ninto the quarrels resulting from your diverse opinions, let the reasons\nfor and against your views be given. Let us establish one solemn\ncontroversy, one public scrutiny of truth--not before the tribunal of a\ncorruptible individual, or of a prejudiced party, but in the grand forum\nof mankind--guarded by all their information and all their interests.\nLet the natural sense of the whole human race be our arbiter and judge.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nTHE SEARCH OF TRUTH.\n\n\nThe people expressed their applause, and the legislator continued: To\nproceed with order, and avoid all confusion, let a spacious semicircle\nbe left vacant in front of the altar of peace and union; let each system\nof religion, and each particular sect, erect its proper distinctive\nstandard on the line of this semicircle; let its chiefs and doctors\nplace themselves around the standard, and their followers form a column\nbehind them.\n\nThe semicircle being traced, and the order published, there instantly\nrose an innumerable multitude of standards, of all colors and of every\nform, like what we see in a great commercial port, when, on a day of\nrejoicing, a thousand different flags and streamers are floating from a\nforest of masts.\n\nAt the sight of this prodigious diversity, I turned towards the Genius\nand said:\n\nI thought that the earth was divided only into eight or ten systems of\nfaith, and I then despaired of a reconciliation; I now behold thousands\nof different sects, and how can I hope for concord?\n\nBut these, replied the Genius, are not all; and yet they will be\nintolerant!\n\nThen, as the groups advanced to take their stations, he pointed out to\nme their distinctive marks, and thus began to explain their characters:\n\nThat first group, said he, with a green banner bearing a crescent, a\nbandage, and a sabre, are the followers of the Arabian prophet. To say\nthere is a God, without knowing what he is; to believe the words of a\nman, without understanding his language; to go into the desert to pray\nto God, who is everywhere; to wash the hands with water, and not abstain\nfrom blood; to fast all day, and eat all night; to give alms of their\nown goods, and to plunder those of others; such are the means of\nperfection instituted by Mahomet--such are the symbols of his followers;\nand whoever does not bear them is a reprobate, stricken with anathema,\nand devoted to the sword.\n\nA God of clemency, the author of life, has instituted these laws of\noppression and murder: he made them for all the world, but has revealed\nthem only to one man; he established them from all eternity, though he\nmade them known but yesterday. These laws are abundantly sufficient\nfor all purposes, and yet a volume is added to them. This volume was\nto diffuse light, to exhibit evidence, to lead men to perfection and\nhappiness; and yet every page was so full of obscurities, ambiguities,\nand contradictions, that commentaries and explanations became necessary,\neven in the life-time of its apostle. Its interpreters, differing in\nopinion, divided into opposite and hostile sects. One maintains that Ali\nis the true successor; the other contends for Omar and Aboubekre. This\ndenies the eternity of the Koran; that the necessity of ablutions and\nprayers. The Carmite forbids pilgrimages, and allows the use of wine;\nthe Hakemite preaches the transmigration of souls. Thus they make up\nthe number of seventy-two sects, whose banners are before you.* In this\ncontestation, every one attributing the evidence of truth exclusively to\nhimself, and taxing all others with heresy and rebellion, turns against\nthem its sanguinary zeal. And their religion, which celebrates a mild\nand merciful God, the common father of all men,--changed to a torch of\ndiscord, a signal for war and murder, has not ceased for twelve hundred\nyears to deluge the earth in blood, and to ravage and desolate the\nancient hemisphere from centre to circumference.**\n\n     * The Mussulmen enumerate in common seventy-two sects, but I\n     read, while I resided among them, a work which gave an\n     account of more than eighty,--all equally wise and\n     important.\n\n     ** Read the history of Islamism by its own writers, and you\n     will be convinced that one of the principal causes of the\n     wars which have desolated Asia and Africa, since the days of\n     Mahomet, has been the apostolical fanaticism of its\n     doctrine.  Caesar has been supposed to have destroyed three\n     millions of men: it would be interesting to make a similar\n     calculation respecting every founder of a religious system.\n\nThose men, distinguished by their enormous white turbans, their broad\nsleeves, and their long rosaries, are the Imans, the Mollas, and the\nMuftis; and near them are the Dervishes with pointed bonnets, and the\nSantons with dishevelled hair. Behold with what vehemence they recite\ntheir professions of faith! They are now beginning a dispute about\nthe greater and lesser impurities--about the matter and the manner of\nablutions,--about the attributes of God and his perfections--about the\nChaitan, and the good and wicked angels,--about death, the resurrection,\nthe interrogatory in the tomb, the judgment, the passage of the narrow\nbridge not broader than a hair, the balance of works, the pains of hell,\nand the joys of paradise.\n\n\nNext to these, that second more numerous group, with white banners\nintersected with crosses, are the followers of Jesus. Acknowledging the\nsame God with the Mussulmans, founding their belief on the same books,\nadmitting, like them, a first man who lost the human race by eating an\napple, they hold them, however, in a holy abhorrence; and, out of pure\npiety, they call each other impious blasphemers.\n\nThe great point of their dissension consists in this, that after\nadmitting a God one and indivisible the Christian divides him into three\npersons, each of which he believes to be a complete and entire God,\nwithout ceasing to constitute an identical whole, by the indivisibility\nof the three. And he adds, that this being, who fills the universe,\nhas reduced himself to the body of a man; and has assumed material,\nperishable, and limited organs, without ceasing to be immaterial,\ninfinite, and eternal. The Mussulman who does not comprehend these\nmysteries, rejects them as follies, and the visions of a distempered\nbrain; though he conceives perfectly well the eternity of the Koran, and\nthe mission of the prophet: hence their implacable hatreds.\n\nAgain, the Christians, divided among themselves on many points, have\nformed parties not less violent than the Mussulmans; and their quarrels\nare so much the more obstinate, as the objects of them are inaccessible\nto the senses and incapable of demonstration: their opinions, therefore,\nhave no other basis but the will and caprice of the parties. Thus,\nwhile they agree that God is a being incomprehensible and unknown, they\ndispute, nevertheless, about his essence, his mode of acting, and his\nattributes. While they agree that his pretended transformation into man\nis an enigma above the human understanding, they dispute on the junction\nor distinction of his two wills and his two natures, on his change\nof substance, on the real or fictitious presence, on the mode of\nincarnation, etc.\n\nHence those innumerable sects, of which two or three hundred have\nalready perished, and three or four hundred others, which still subsist,\ndisplay those numberless banners which here distract your sight.\n\nThe first in order, surrounded by a group in varied and fantastic\ndress, that confused mixture of violet, red, white, black and speckled\ngarments--with heads shaved, or with tonsures, or with short hair--with\nred hats, square bonnets, pointed mitres, or long beards, is the\nstandard of the Roman pontiff, who, uniting the civil government to\nthe priesthood, has erected the supremacy of his city into a point of\nreligion, and made of his pride an article of faith.\n\nOn his right you see the Greek pontiff, who, proud of the rivalship of\nhis metropolis, sets up equal pretensions, and supports them against the\nWestern church by the priority of that of the East. On the left are the\nstandards of two recent chiefs,* who, shaking off a yoke that had become\ntyrannical, have raised altar against altar in their reform, and wrested\nhalf of Europe from the pope. Behind these are the subaltern sects,\nsubdivided from the principal divisions, the Nestorians, the Eutycheans,\nthe Jacobites, the Iconoclasts, the Anabaptists, the Presbyterians,\nthe Wicliffites, the Osiandrians, the Manicheans, the Pietists, the\nAdamites, the Contemplatives, the Quakers, the Weepers, and a hundred\nothers,** all of distinct parties, persecuting when strong, tolerant\nwhen weak, hating each other in the name of a God of peace, forming each\nan exclusive heaven in a religion of universal charity, dooming each\nother to pains without end in a future state, and realizing in this\nworld the imaginary hell of the other.\n\n     * Luther and Calvin.\n\n     ** Consult upon this subject Dictionnaire des Herseies par\n     l'Abbe Pluquet, in two volumes 8vo.: a work admirably\n     calculated to inspire the mind with philosophy, in the sense\n     that the Lacedemonians taught the children temperance by\n     showing to them the drunken Helots.\n\nAfter this group, observing a lonely standard of the color of hyacinth,\nround which were assembled men clad in all the different dresses of\nEurope and Asia:\n\nAt least, said I, to the Genius, we shall find unanimity here.\n\nYes, said he, at first sight and by a momentary accident. Dost thou not\nknow that system of worship?\n\nThen, perceiving in Hebrew letters the monogram of the name of God, and\nthe palms which the Rabbins held in their hands:\n\nTrue, said I, these are the children of Moses, dispersed even to this\nday, abhorring every nation, and abhorred and persecuted by all.\n\nYes, he replied, and for this reason, that, having neither the time nor\nliberty to dispute, they have the appearance of unanimity. But no sooner\nwill they come together, compare their principles, and reason on\ntheir opinions, than they will separate as formerly, at least into two\nprincipal sects;* one of which, taking advantage of the silence of their\nlegislator, and adhering to the literal sense of his books, will deny\neverything that is not clearly expressed therein; and on this principle\nwill reject as profane inventions, the immortality of the soul, its\ntransmigration to places of pain or pleasure, its resurrection, the\nfinal judgment, the good and bad angels, the revolt of the evil Genius,\nand all the poetical belief of a world to come. And this highly-favored\npeople, whose perfection consists in a slight mutilation of their\npersons,--this atom of a people, which forms but a small wave in the\nocean of mankind, and which insists that God has made nothing but for\nthem, will by its schism reduce to one-half, its present trifling weight\nin the scale of the universe.\n\n     * The Sadducees and Pharisees.\n\nHe then showed me a neighboring group, composed of men dressed in white\nrobes, wearing a veil over their mouths, and ranged around a banner of\nthe color of the morning sky, on which was painted a globe cleft in two\nhemispheres, black and white: The same thing will happen, said he, to\nthese children of Zoroaster,* the obscure remnant of a people once so\npowerful. At present, persecuted like the Jews, and dispersed among\nall nations, they receive without discussion the precepts of the\nrepresentative of their prophet. But as soon as the Mobed and the\nDestours** shall assemble, they will renew the controversy about the\ngood and the bad principle; on the combats of Ormuzd, God of light, and\nAhrimanes, God of darkness; on the direct and allegorical sense; on\nthe good and evil Genii; on the worship of fire and the elements; on\nimpurities and ablutions; on the resurrection of the soul and body, or\nonly of the soul;*** on the renovation of the present world, and on that\nwhich is to take its place. And the Parses will divide into sects, so\nmuch the more numerous, as their families will have contracted, during\ntheir dispersion, the manners and opinions of different nations.\n\n     * They are the Parses, better known by the opprobrious name\n     of Gaures or Guebres, another word for infidels.  They are\n     in Asia what the Jews are in Europe.  The name of their pope\n     or high priest is Mobed.\n\n     ** That is to say, their priests.  See, respecting the rites\n     of this religion, Henry Lord Hyde, and the Zendavesta.\n     Their costume is a robe with a belt of four knots, and a\n     veil over their mouth for fear of polluting the fire with\n     their breath.\n\n     *** The Zoroastrians are divided between two opinions; one\n     party believing that both soul and body will rise, the other\n     that it will be the soul only.  The Christians and\n     Mahometans have embraced the most solid of the two.\n\nNext to these, remark those banners of an azure ground, painted with\nmonstrous figures of human bodies, double, triple, and quadruple, with\nheads of lions, boars, and elephants, and tails of fishes and tortoises;\nthese are the ensigns of the sects of India, who find their gods in\nvarious animals, and the souls of their fathers in reptiles and insects.\nThese men support hospitals for hawks, serpents, and rats, and they\nabhor their fellow creatures! They purify themselves with the dung and\nurine of cows, and think themselves defiled by the touch of a man! They\nwear a net over the mouth, lest, in a fly, they should swallow a soul\nin a state of penance,* and they can see a Pariah** perish with hunger!\nThey acknowledge the same gods, but they separate into hostile bands.\n\n     * According to the system of the Metempsychosis, a soul, to\n     undergo purification, passes into the body of some insect or\n     animal.  It is of importance not to disturb this penance, as\n     the work must in that case begin afresh.\n\n     ** This is the name of a cast or tribe reputed unclean,\n     because they eat of what has enjoyed life.\n\nThe first standard, retired from the rest, bearing a figure with four\nheads, is that of Brama, who, though the creator of the universe, is\nwithout temples or followers; but, reduced to serve as a pedestal to the\nLingam,* he contents himself with a little water which the Bramin throws\nevery morning on his shoulder, reciting meanwhile an idle canticle in\nhis praise.\n\n     * See Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, vol. 1.\n\nThe second, bearing a kite with a scarlet body and a white head, is that\nof Vichenou, who, though preserver of the world, has passed part of his\nlife in wicked actions. You sometimes see him under the hideous form\nof a boar or a lion, tearing human entrails, or under that of a horse,*\nshortly to come armed with a sword to destroy the human race, blot out\nthe stars, annihilate the planets, shake the earth, and force the great\nserpent to vomit a fire which shall consume the spheres.\n\n     * These are the incarnations of Vichenou, or metamorphoses\n     of the sun.  He is to come at the end of the world, that is,\n     at the expiration of the great period, in the form of a\n     horse, like the four horses of the Apocalypse.\n\nThe third is that of Chiven, God of destruction and desolation, who has,\nhowever, for his emblem the symbol of generation. He is the most wicked\nof the three, and he has the most followers. These men, proud of his\ncharacter, express in their devotions to him their contempt for\nthe other gods,* his equals and brothers; and, in imitation of his\ninconsistencies, while they profess great modesty and chastity, they\npublicly crown with flowers, and sprinkle with milk and honey, the\nobscene image of the Lingam.\n\n     * When a sectary of Chiven hears the name of Vichenou\n     pronounced, he stops his ears, runs, and purifies himself.\n\nIn the rear of these, approach the smaller standards of a multitude of\ngods--male, female, and hermaphrodite. These are friends and relations\nof the principal gods, who have passed their lives in wars among\nthemselves, and their followers imitate them. These gods have need of\nnothing, and they are constantly receiving presents; they are omnipotent\nand omnipresent, and a priest, by muttering a few words, shuts them up\nin an idol or a pitcher, to sell their favors for his own benefit.\n\n\nBeyond these, that cloud of standards, which, on a yellow ground, common\nto them all, bear various emblems, are those of the same god, who reins\nunder different names in the nations of the East. The Chinese adores him\nin Fot,* the Japanese in Budso, the Ceylonese in Bedhou, the people of\nLaos in Chekia, of Pegu in Phta, of Siam in Sommona-Kodom, of Thibet\nin Budd and in La. Agreeing in some points of his history, they all\ncelebrate his life of penitence, his mortifications, his fastings, his\nfunctions of mediator and expiator, the enmity between him and another\ngod, his adversary, their battles, and his ascendency. But as they\ndisagree on the means of pleasing him, they dispute about rites and\nceremonies, and about the dogmas of interior doctrine and of public\ndoctrine. That Japanese Bonze, with a yellow robe and naked head,\npreaches the eternity of souls, and their successive transmigrations\ninto various bodies; near him, the Sintoist denies that souls can exist\nseparate from the senses,** and maintains that they are only the effect\nof the organs to which they belong, and with which they must perish, as\nthe sound of the flute perishes with the flute. Near him, the Siamese,\nwith his eyebrows shaved, and a talipat screen*** in his hand,\nrecommends alms, offerings, and expiations, at the same time that he\npreaches blind necessity and inexorable fate. The Chinese vo-chung\nsacrifices to the souls of his ancestors; and next him, the follower of\nConfucius interrogates his destiny in the cast of dice and the movement\nof the stars.**** That child, surrounded by a swarm of priests in yellow\nrobes and hats, is the Grand Lama, in whom the god of Thibet has just\nbecome incarnate.*5 But a rival has arisen who partakes this benefit\nwith him; and the Kalmouc on the banks of the Baikal, has a God similar\nto the inhabitant of Lasa. And they agree, also, in one important\npoint--that god can inhabit only a human body. They both laugh at\nthe stupidity of the Indian who pays homage to cow-dung, though they\nthemselves consecrate the excrements of their high-priest.*6\n\n     * The original name of this god is Baits, which in Hebrew\n     signifies an egg.  The Arabs pronounce it Baidh, giving to\n     the dh an emphatic sound which makes it approach to dz.\n     Kempfer, an acurate traveler, writes it Budso, which must be\n     pronounced Boudso, whence is derived the name of Budsoist\n     and of Bonze, applied to the priests.  Clement of\n     Alexandria, in his Stromata, writes it Bedou, as it is\n     pronounced also by the Chingulais; and Saint Jerome, Boudda\n     and Boutta.  At Thibet they call it Budd; and hence the name\n     of the country called Boud-tan and Ti-budd: it was in this\n     province that this system of religion was first inculcated\n     in Upper Asia; La is a corruption of Allah, the name of God\n     in the Syriac language, from which many of the eastern\n     dialects appear to be derived.  The Chinese having neither b\n     nor d, have supplied their place by f and t, and have\n     therefore said Fout.\n\n     ** See in Kempfer the doctrine of the Sintoists, which is a\n     mixture of that of Epicurus and of the Stoics.\n\n     *** It is a leaf of the Latanier species of the palm-tree.\n     Hence the bonzes of Siam take the appellation of Talapoin.\n     The use of this screen is an exclusive privilege.\n\n     **** The sectaries of Confucius are no less addicted to\n     astrology than the bonzes.  It is indeed the malady of every\n     eastern nation.\n\n     *5 The Delai-La-Ma, or immense high priest of La, is the\n     same person whom we find mentioned in our old books of\n     travels, by the name of Prester John, from a corruption of\n     the Persian word Djehan, which signifies the world, to which\n     has been prefixed the French word prestre or pretre, priest.\n     Thus the priest world, and the god world are in the Persian\n     idiom the same.\n\n     *6 In a recent expedition the English have found certain\n     idols of the Lamas filled in the inside with sacred pastils\n     from the close stool of the high priest.  Mr. Hastings, and\n     Colonel Pollier, who is now at Lausanne, are living\n     witnesses of this fact, and undoubtedly worthy of credit.\n     It will be very extraordinary to observe, that this\n     disgusting ceremony is connected with a profound\n     philosophical system, to wit, that of the metempsychosis,\n     admitted by the Lamas.  When the Tartars swallow, the sacred\n     relics, which they are accustomed to do, they imitate the\n     laws of the universe, the parts of which are incessantly\n     absorbed and pass into the substance of each other.  It is\n     upon the model of the serpent who devours his tail, and this\n     serpent is Budd and the world.\n\nAfter these, a crowd of other banners, which no man could number, came\nforward into sight; and the genius exclaimed:\n\nI should never finish the detail of all the systems of faith which\ndivide these nations. Here the hordes of Tartars adore, in the forms\nof beasts, birds, and insects, the good and evil Genii; who, under a\nprincipal, but indolent god, govern the universe. In their idolatry\nthey call to mind the ancient paganism of the West. You observe the\nfantastical dress of the Chamans; who, under a robe of leather, hung\nround with bells and rattles, idols of iron, claws of birds, skins of\nsnakes and heads of owls, invoke, with frantic cries and factitious\nconvulsions, the dead to deceive the living. There, the black tribes of\nAfrica exhibit the same opinions in the worship of their fetiches. See\nthe inhabitant of Juida worship god in a great snake, which, unluckily,\nthe swine delight to eat.* The Teleutean attires his god in a coat of\nseveral colors, like a Russian soldier.** The Kamchadale, observing that\neverything goes wrong in his frozen country, considers god as an old\nill-natured man, smoking his pipe and hunting foxes and martins in his\nsledge.***\n\n     * It frequently happens that the swine devour the very\n     species of serpents the negroes adore, which is a source of\n     great desolation in the country.  President de Brosses has\n     given us, in his History of the Fetiche, a curious\n     collection of absurdities of this nature.\n\n     ** The Teleuteans, a Tartar nation, paint God as wearing a\n     vesture of all colors, particularly red and green; and as\n     these constitute the uniform of the Russian dragoons, they\n     compare him to this description of soldiers.  The Egyptians\n     also dress the God World in a garment of every color.\n     Eusebius Proep. Evang. p 115.  The Teleuteans call God Bou,\n     which is only an alteration of Boudd, the God Egg and World.\n\n     *** Consult upon this subject a work entitled, Description\n     des Peuples, soumis a la Russie, and it will be found that\n     the picture is not overcharged.\n\nBut you may still behold a hundred savage nations who have none of the\nideas of civilized people respecting God, the soul, another world, and a\nfuture life; who have formed no system of worship; and who nevertheless\nenjoy the rich gifts of nature in the irreligion in which she has\ncreated them.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nPROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS CONTRADICTIONS.\n\n\nThe various groups having taken their places, an unbounded silence\nsucceeded to the murmurs of the multitude; and the legislator said:\n\nChiefs and doctors of mankind! You remark how the nations, living apart,\nhave hitherto followed different paths, each believing its own to be\nthat of truth. If, however, truth is one, and opinions are various, it\nis evident that some are in error. If, then, such vast numbers of us\nare in the wrong, who shall dare to say, \"I am in the right?\" Begin,\ntherefore, by being indulgent in your dissensions. Let us all seek truth\nas if no one possessed it. The opinions which to this day have governed\nthe world, originating from chance, propagated in obscurity, admitted\nwithout discussion, accredited by a love of novelty and imitation, have\nusurped their empire in a clandestine manner. It is time, if they are\nwell founded, to give a solemn stamp to their certainty, and legitimize\ntheir existence. Let us summon them this day to a general scrutiny, let\neach propound his creed, let the whole assembly be the judge, and let\nthat alone be acknowledged as true which is so for the whole human race.\n\nThen, by order of position, the representative of the first standard on\nthe left was allowed to speak:\n\n\"You are not permitted to doubt,\" said their chief, \"that our doctrine\nis the only true and infallible one. FIRST, it is revealed by God\nhimself--\"\n\n\"So is ours,\" cried all the other standards, \"and you are not permitted\nto doubt it.\"\n\n\"But at least,\" said the legislator, \"you must prove it, for we cannot\nbelieve what we do not know.\"\n\n\"Our doctrine is proved,\" replied the first standard, \"by numerous\nfacts, by a multitude of miracles, by resurrections of the dead, by\nrivers dried up, by mountains removed--\"\n\n\"And we also have numberless miracles,\" cried all the others, and each\nbegan to recount the most incredible things.\n\n\"THEIR miracles,\" said the first standard, \"are imaginary, or the\nfictions of the evil spirit, who has deluded them.\"\n\n\"They are yours,\" said the others, \"that are imaginary;\" and each group,\nspeaking of itself, cried out:\n\n\"None but ours are true, all the others are false.\"\n\nThe legislator then asked: \"Have you living witnesses of the facts?\"\n\n\"No,\" replied they all; \"the facts are ancient, the witnesses are dead,\nbut their writings remain.\"\n\n\"Be it so,\" replied the legislator; \"but if they contradict each other,\nwho shall reconcile them?\"\n\n\"Just judge!\" cried one of the standards, \"the proof that our witnesses\nhave seen the truth is, that they died to confirm it; and our faith is\nsealed by the blood of martyrs.\"\n\n\"And ours too,\" said the other standards; \"we have thousands of martyrs\nwho have died in the most excruciating torments, without ever denying\nthe truth.\"\n\nThen the Christians of every sect, the Mussulmans, the Indians, the\nJapanese, recited endless legends of confessors, martyrs, penitents,\netc.\n\nAnd one of these parties, having denied the martyrology of the others:\n\"Well,\" said they, \"we will then die ourselves to prove the truth of our\nbelief.\"\n\nAnd instantly a crowd of men, of every religion and of every sect,\npresented themselves to suffer the torments of death. Many even began\nto tear their arms, and to beat their heads and breasts, without\ndiscovering any symptom of pain.\n\nBut the legislator, preventing them--\"O men!\" said he, \"hear my words\nwith patience. If you die to prove that two and two make four, will your\ndeath add any thing to this truth?\"\n\n\"No!\" answered all.\n\n\"And if you die to prove that they make five, will that make them five?\"\n\nAgain they all answered, \"No.\"\n\n\"What, then, is your persuasion to prove, if it changes not the\nexistence of things? Truth is one--your persuasions are various; many of\nyou, therefore, are in error. Now, if man, as is evident, can persuade\nhimself of error, what is the persuasion of man to prove?\n\n\"If error has its martyrs, what is the sure criterion of truth?\n\n\"If the evil spirit works miracles, what is the distinctive character of\nGod?\n\n\"Besides, why resort forever to incomplete and insufficient miracles?\nInstead of changing the course of nature, why not rather change\nopinions? Why murder and terrify men, instead of instructing and\ncorrecting them?\n\n\"O credulous, but opinionated mortals! none of us know what was done\nyesterday, what is doing to-day even under our eyes; and we swear to\nwhat was done two thousand years ago!\n\n\"Oh, the weakness and yet the pride of men! The laws of nature\nare unchangeable and profound--our minds are full of illusion and\nfrivolity--and yet we would comprehend every thing--determine every\nthing! Forgetting that it is easier for the whole human race to be in\nerror, than to change the nature of the smallest atom.\"\n\n\"Well, then,\" said one of the doctors, \"let us lay aside the evidence\nof fact, since it is uncertain; let us come to argument--to the proofs\ninherent in the doctrine.\"\n\nThen came forward, with a look of confidence, an Iman of the law of\nMahomet; and, having advanced into the circle, turned towards Mecca, and\nrecited with great fervor his confession of faith. \"Praise be to God,\"\nsaid he, with a solemn and imposing voice, \"the light shines with full\nevidence, and the truth has no need of examination.\" Then, showing the\nKoran, he exclaimed: \"Here is the light of truth in its proper essence.\nThere is no doubt in this book. It conducts with safety him who walks\nin darkness, and who receives without discussion the divine word which\ndescended on the prophet, to save the simple and confound the wise.\nGod has established Mahomet his minister on earth; he has given him the\nworld, that he may subdue with the sword whoever shall refuse to receive\nhis law. Infidels dispute, and will not believe; their obduracy comes\nfrom God, who has hardened their hearts to deliver them to dreadful\npunishments.\"*\n\n     * This passage contains the sense and nearly the very words\n     of the first chapter of the Koran; and the reader will\n     observe in general, that, in the pictures that follow, the\n     writer has endeavored to give as accurately as possible the\n     letter and spirit of the opinions of each party.\n\nAt these words a violent murmur arose on all sides, and silenced the\nspeaker. \"Who is this man,\" cried all the groups, \"who thus insults\nus without a cause? What right has he to impose his creed on us as\nconqueror and tyrant? Has not God endowed us, as well as him, with eyes,\nunderstanding, and reason? And have we not an equal right to use them,\nin choosing what to believe and what to reject? If he attacks us, shall\nwe not defend ourselves? If he likes to believe without examination,\nmust we therefore not examine before we believe?\n\n\"And what is this luminous doctrine that fears the light? What is\nthis apostle of a God of clemency, who preaches nothing but murder and\ncarnage? What is this God of justice, who punishes blindness which\nhe himself has made? If violence and persecution are the arguments of\ntruth, are gentleness and charity the signs of falsehood?\"\n\nA man then advancing from a neighboring group, said to the Iman:\n\n\"Admitting that Mahomet is the apostle of the best doctrine,--the\nprophet of the true religion,--have the goodness at least to tell\nus whether, in the practice of his doctrine, we are to follow his\nson-in-law Ali, or his vicars Omar and Aboubekre?\"*\n\n     * These are the two grand parties into which the Mussulmans\n     are divided.  The Turks have embraced the second, the\n     Persians the first.\n\nAt the sound of these names a terrible schism arose among the Mussulmans\nthemselves. The partisans of Ali and those of Omar, calling out heretics\nand blasphemers, loaded each other with execrations. The quarrel became\nso violent that neighboring groups were obliged to interfere, to prevent\ntheir coming to blows. At length, tranquillity being somewhat restored,\nthe legislator said to the Imans:\n\n\"See the consequences of your principles! If you yourselves were to\ncarry them into practice, you would destroy each other to the last man.\nIs it not the first law of God that man should live?\"\n\nThen, addressing himself to the other groups, he continued:\n\n\"Doubtless this intolerant and exclusive spirit shocks every idea of\njustice, and overturns the whole foundation of morals and society; but\nbefore we totally reject this code of doctrine, is it not proper to hear\nsome of its dogmas? Let us not pronounce on the forms, without having\nsome knowledge of the substance.\"\n\nThe groups having consented, the Iman began to expound how God, having\nsent to the nations lost in idolatry twenty-four thousand prophets, had\nfinally sent the last, the seal and perfection of all, Mahomet; on whom\nbe the salvation of peace: how, to prevent the divine word from being\nany longer perverted by infidels, the supreme goodness had itself\nwritten the pages of the Koran. Then, explaining the particular dogmas\nof Islamism, the Iman unfolded how the Koran, partaking of the divine\nnature, was uncreated and eternal, like its author: how it had been sent\nleaf by leaf, in twenty-four thousand nocturnal apparitions of the angel\nGabriel: how the angel announced himself by a gentle knocking, which\nthrew the prophet into a cold sweat: how in the vision of one night\nhe had travelled over ninety heavens, riding on the beast Borack, half\nhorse and half woman: how, endowed with the gift of miracles, he walked\nin the sunshine without a shadow, turned dry trees to green, filled\nwells and cisterns with water, and split in two the body of the moon:\nhow, by divine command, Mahomet had propagated, sword in hand, the\nreligion the most worthy of God by its sublimity, and the most proper\nfor men by the simplicity of its practice; since it consisted in only\neight or ten points:--To profess the unity of God; to acknowledge\nMahomet as his only prophet; to pray five times a day; to fast one month\nin the year; to go to Mecca once in our life; to pay the tenth of all\nwe possess; to drink no wine; to eat no pork; and to make war upon\nthe infidels.* He taught that by these means every Mussulman becoming\nhimself an apostle and martyr, should enjoy in this world many\nblessings; and at his death, his soul, weighed in the balance of works,\nand absolved by the two black angels, should pass the infernal pit on\nthe bridge as narrow as a hair and as sharp as the edge of a sword, and\nshould finally be received to a region of delight, which is watered with\nrivers of milk and honey, and embalmed in all the perfumes of India\nand Arabia; and where the celestial Houris--virgins always chaste--are\neternally crowning with repeated favors the elect of God, who preserve\nan eternal youth.\n\n     * Whatever the advocates for the philosophy and civilization\n     of the Turks may assert, to make war upon infidels is\n     considered by them as an obligatory precept and an act of\n     religion.  See Reland de Relig. Mahom.\n\nAt these words an involuntary smile was seen on all their lips; and the\nvarious groups, reasoning on these articles of faith, exclaimed with one\nvoice:\n\n\"Is it possible that reasonable beings can admit such reveries? Would\nyou not think it a chapter from The Thousand and One Nights?\"\n\nA Samoyede advanced into the circle: \"The paradise of Mahomet,\" said\nhe, \"appears to me very good; but one of the means of gaining it is\nembarrassing: for if we must neither eat nor drink between the rising\nand setting sun, as he has ordered, how are we to practise that fast in\nmy country, where the sun continues above the horizon six months without\nsetting?\"\n\n\"That is impossible,\" cried all the Mussulman doctors, to support the\nteaching of the prophet; but a hundred nations having attested the fact,\nthe infallibility of Mahomet could not but receive a severe shock.\n\n\"It is singular,\" said an European, \"that God should be constantly\nrevealing what takes place in heaven, without ever instructing us what\nis doing on the earth.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" said an American, \"I find a great difficulty in the\npilgrimage. For suppose twenty-five years to a generation, and only a\nhundred millions of males on the globe,--each being obliged to go to\nMecca once in his life,--there must be four millions a year on the\njourney; and as it would be impracticable for them to return the same\nyear, the numbers would be doubled--that is, eight millions: where\nwould you find provisions, lodgings, water, vessels, for this universal\nprocession? Here must be miracles indeed!\"\n\n\"The proof,\" said a catholic doctor, \"that the religion of Mahomet is\nnot revealed, is that the greater part of the ideas which serve for its\nbasis existed a long time before, and that it is only a confused mixture\nof truths disfigured and taken from our holy religion and from that\nof the Jews; which an ambitious man has made to serve his projects of\ndomination, and his worldly views. Look through his book; you will see\nnothing there but the histories of the Bible and the Gospel travestied\ninto absurd fables--into a tissue of vague and contradictory\ndeclamations, and ridiculous or dangerous precepts.\n\n\"Analyze the spirit of these precepts, and the conduct of their apostle;\nyou will find there an artful and audacious character, which, to obtain\nits end, works ably it is true, on the passions of the people it had\nto govern. It is speaking to simple men, and it entertains them with\nmiracles; they are ignorant and jealous, and it flatters their vanity\nby despising science; they are poor and rapacious, and it excites their\ncupidity by the hope of pillage; having nothing at first to give them on\nearth, it tells them of treasures in heaven; it teaches them to desire\ndeath as a supreme good; it threatens cowards with hell; it rewards the\nbrave with paradise; it sustains the weak with the opinion of fatality;\nin short, it produces the attachment it wants by all the allurements of\nsense, and all the power of the passions.\n\n\"How different is the character of our religion! and how completely does\nits empire, founded on the counteraction of the natural temper, and the\nmortification of all our passions, prove its divine origin! How forcibly\ndoes its mild and compassionate morality, its affections altogether\nspiritual, attest its emanation from God! Many of its doctrines, it is\ntrue, soar above the reach of the understanding, and impose on reason\na respectful silence; but this more fully demonstrates its revelation,\nsince the human mind could never have imagined such mysteries.\"\n\nThen, holding the Bible in one hand and the four Gospels in the other,\nthe doctor began to relate that, in the beginning, God, after passing an\neternity in idleness, took the resolution, without any known cause, of\nmaking the world out of nothing; that having created the whole universe\nin six days, he found himself fatigued on the seventh; that having\nplaced the first human pair in a garden of delights, to make them\ncompletely happy, he forbade their tasting a particular fruit which he\nplaced within their reach; that these first parents, having yielded\nto the temptation, all their race (which were not yet born) had been\ncondemned to bear the penalty of a fault which they had not committed;\nthat, after having left the human race to damn themselves for four or\nfive thousand years, this God of mercy ordered a well beloved son, whom\nhe had engendered without a mother, and who was as old as himself, to go\nand be put to death on the earth; and this for the salvation of\nmankind; of whom much the greater portion, nevertheless, have ever since\ncontinued in the way of perdition; that to remedy this new difficulty,\nthis same God, born of a virgin, having died and risen from the dead,\nassumes a new existence every day, and in the form of a piece of bread,\nmultiplies himself by millions at the voice of one of the basest of\nmen. Then, passing on to the doctrine of the sacraments, he was going to\ntreat at large on the power of absolution and reprobation, of the means\nof purging all sins by a little water and a few words, when, uttering\nthe words indulgence, power of the pope, sufficient grace, and\nefficacious grace, he was interrupted by a thousand cries.\n\n\"It is a horrible abuse,\" cried the Lutherans, \"to pretend to remit sins\nfor money.\"\n\n\"The notion of the real presence,\" cried the Calvinists, \"is contrary to\nthe text of the Gospel.\"\n\n\"The pope has no right to decide anything of himself,\" cried the\nJansenists; and thirty other sects rising up, and accusing each other\nof heresies and errors, it was no longer possible to hear anything\ndistinctly.\n\nSilence being at last restored, the Mussulmans observed to the\nlegislator:\n\n\"Since you have rejected our doctrine as containing things incredible,\ncan you admit that of the Christians? Is not theirs still more contrary\nto common sense and justice? A God, immaterial and infinite, to become\na man! to have a son as old as himself! This god-man to become bread,\nto be eaten and digested! Have we any thing equal to that? Have the\nChristians an exclusive right of setting up a blind faith? And will you\ngrant them privileges of belief to our detriment?\"\n\nSome savage tribes then advanced: \"What!\" said they, \"because a man\nand woman ate an apple six thousand years ago, all the human race\nare damned? And you call God just? What tyrant ever rendered children\nresponsible for the faults of their fathers? What man can answer for the\nactions of another? Does not this overturn every idea of justice and of\nreason?\"\n\nOthers exclaimed: \"Where are the proofs, the witnesses of these\npretended facts? Can we receive them without examining the evidence? The\nleast action in a court of justice requires two witnesses; and we are\nordered to believe all this on mere tradition and hearsay!\"\n\nA Jewish Rabbin then addressing the assembly, said: \"As to the\nfundamental facts, we are sureties; but with regard to their form and\ntheir application, the case is different, and the Christians are here\ncondemned by their own arguments. For they cannot deny that we are the\noriginal source from which they are derived--the primitive stock on\nwhich they are grafted; and hence the reasoning is very short: Either\nour law is from God, and then theirs is a heresy, since it differs from\nours, or our law is not from God, and then theirs falls at the same\ntime.\"\n\n\"But you must make this distinction,\" replied the Christian: \"Your law\nis from God as typical and preparative, but not as final and absolute:\nyou are the image of which we are the substance.\"\n\n\"We know,\" replied the Rabbin, \"that such are your pretensions; but they\nare absolutely gratuitous and false. Your system turns altogether on\nmystical meanings, visionary and allegorical interpretations.* With\nviolent distortions on the letter of our books, you substitute the most\nchimerical ideas for the true ones, and find in them whatever pleases\nyou; as a roving imagination will find figures in the clouds. Thus\nyou have made a spiritual Messiah of that which, in the spirit of our\nprophets, is only a temporal king. You have made a redemption of the\nhuman race out of the simple re-establishment of our nation. Your\nconception of the Virgin is founded on a single phrase, of which you\nhave changed the meaning. Thus you make from our Scriptures whatever\nyour fancy dictates; you even find there your trinity; though there is\nnot a word that has the most distant allusion to such a thing; and it is\nan invention of profane writers, admitted into your system with a host\nof other opinions, of every religion and of every sect, during the\nanarchy of the first three centuries of your era.\"\n\n     * When we read the Fathers of the church, and see upon what\n     arguments they have built the edifice of religion, we are\n     inexpressibly astonished with their credulity or their\n     knavery: but allegory was the rage of that period; the\n     Pagans employed it to explain the actions of their gods, and\n     the Christians acted in the same spirit when they employed\n     it after their fashion.\n\nAt these words, the Christian doctors, crying sacrilege and blasphemy,\nsprang forward in a transport of fury to fall upon the Jew; and a troop\nof monks, in motley dresses of black and white, advanced with a standard\non which were painted pincers, gridirons, lighted fagots, and the words\nJustice, Charity, Mercy.* \"It is necessary,\" said they, \"to make an\nexample of these impious wretches, and burn them for the glory of God.\"\nThey began even to prepare the pile, when a Mussulman answered in a\nstrain of irony:\n\n\"This, then, is that religion of peace, that meek and beneficent system\nwhich you so much extol! This is that evangelical charity which combats\ninfidelity with persuasive mildness, and repays injuries with patience!\nYe hypocrites! It is thus that you deceive mankind--thus that you\npropagate your accursed errors! When you were weak, you preached\nliberty, toleration, peace; when you are strong, you practise\npersecution and violence--\"\n\n     * This description answers exactly to the banner of the\n     Inquisition of Spanish Jacobins.\n\nAnd he was going to begin the history of the wars and slaughters of\nChristianity, when the legislator, demanding silence, suspended this\nscene of discord.\n\nThe monks, affecting a tone of meekness and humility, exclaimed: \"It is\nnot ourselves that we would avenge; it is the cause of God; it is the\nglory of God that we defend.\"\n\n\"And what right have you, more than we,\" said the Imans, \"to constitute\nyourselves the representatives of God? Have you privileges that we have\nnot? Are you not men like us?\"\n\n\"To defend God,\" said another group, \"to pretend to avenge him, is to\ninsult his wisdom and his power. Does he not know, better than men, what\nbefits his dignity?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied the monks, \"but his ways are secret.\"\n\n\"And it remains for you to prove,\" said the Rabbins, \"that you have the\nexclusive privilege of understanding them.\"\n\nThen, proud of finding supporters to their cause, the Jews thought that\nthe books of Moses were going to be triumphant, when the Mobed (high\npriest) of the Parses obtained leave to speak.\n\n\"We have heard,\" said he, \"the account of the Jews and Christians of the\norigin of the world; and, though greatly mutilated, we find in it some\nfacts which we admit. But we deny that they are to be attributed to the\nlegislator of the Hebrews. It was not he who made known to men these\nsublime truths, these celestial events. It was not to him that God\nrevealed them, but to our holy prophet Zoroaster: and the proof of this\nis in the very books that they refer to. Examine with attention the\nlaws, the ceremonies, the precepts established by Moses in those\nbooks; you will not find the slightest indication, either expressed or\nunderstood, of what constitutes the basis of the Jewish and Christian\ntheology. You nowhere find the least trace of the immortality of the\nsoul, or of a future life, or of heaven, or of hell, or of the revolt of\nthe principal angel, author of the evils of the human race. These ideas\nwere not known to Moses, and the reason is very obvious: it was not\ntill four centuries afterwards that Zoroaster first evangelized them in\nAsia.*\n\n     * See the Chronology of the Twelve Ages, in which I conceive\n     myself to have clearly proved that Moses lived about 1,400\n     years before Jesus Christ, and Zoroaster about a thousand.\n\n\"Thus,\" continued the Mobed, turning to the Rabbins, \"it was not till\nafter that epoch, that is to say, in the time of your first kings, that\nthese ideas began to appear in your writers; and then their appearance\nwas obscure and gradual, according to the progress of the political\nrelations between your ancestors and ours. It was especially when,\nhaving been conquered by the kings of Nineveh and Babylon and\ntransported to the banks of the Tygris and the Euphrates, where they\nresided for three successive generations, that they imbibed manners and\nopinions which had been rejected as contrary to their law. When our\nking Cyrus had delivered them from slavery, their heart was won to us\nby gratitude; they became our disciples and imitators; and they admitted\nour dogmas in the revision of their books;* for your Genesis, in\nparticular, was never the work of Moses, but a compilation drawn up\nafter the return from the Babylonian captivity, in which are inserted\nthe Chaldean opinions of the origin of the world.\n\n     * In the first periods of the Christian church, not only the\n     most learned of those who have since been denominated\n     heretics, but many of the orthodox conceived Moses to have\n     written neither the law nor the Pentateuch, but that the\n     work was a compilation made by the elders of the people and\n     the Seventy, who, after the death of Moses, collected his\n     scattered ordinances, and mixed with them things that were\n     extraneous; similar to what happened as to the Koran of\n     Mahomet.  See Les Clementines, Homel. 2. sect. 51. and\n     Homel. 3. sect. 42.\n\n     Modern critics, more enlightened or more attentive than the\n     ancients, have found in Genesis in particular, marks of its\n     having been composed on the return from the captivity; but\n     the principal proofs have escaped them.  These I mean to\n     exhibit in an analysis of the book of Genesis, in which I\n     shall demonstrate that the tenth chapter, among others,\n     which treats of the pretended generations of the man called\n     Noah, is a real geographical picture of the world, as it was\n     known to the Hebrews at the epoch of the captivity, which\n     was bounded by Greece or Hellas at the West, mount Caucasus\n     at the North, Persia at the East, and Arabia and Upper Egypt\n     at the South. All the pretended personages from Adam to\n     Abraham, or his father Terah, are mythological beings,\n     stars, constellations, countries. Adam is Bootes: Noah is\n     Osiris: Xisuthrus Janus, Saturn; that is to say Capricorn,\n     or the celestial Genius that opened the year.  The\n     Alexandrian Chronicle says expressly, page 85, that Nimrod\n     was supposed by the Persians to be their first king, as\n     having invented the art of hunting, and that he was\n     translated into heaven, where he appears under the name of\n     Orion.\n\n\"At first the pure followers of the law, opposing to the emigrants the\nletter of the text and the absolute silence of the prophet, endeavored\nto repel these innovations; but they ultimately prevailed, and our\ndoctrine, modified by your ideas, gave rise to a new sect.\n\n\"You expected a king to restore your political independence; we\nannounced a God to regenerate and save mankind. From this combination of\nideas, your Essenians laid the foundation of Christianity: and whatever\nyour pretensions may be, Jews, Christians, Mussulmans, you are, in your\nsystem of spiritual beings, only the blundering followers of Zoroaster.\"\n\nThe Mobed, then passing on to the details of his religion, quoting from\nthe Zadder and the Zendavesta, recounted, in the same order as they are\nfound in the book of Genesis, the creation of the world in six gahans,*\nthe formation of a first man and a first woman, in a divine place, under\nthe reign of perfect good; the introduction of evil into the world by\nthe great snake, emblem of Ahrimanes; the revolt and battles of the\nGenius of evil and darkness against Ormuzd, God of good and of light;\nthe division of the angels into white and black, or good and bad; their\nhierarchal orders, cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, etc.; the end\nof the world at the close of six thousand years; the coming of the\nlamb, the regenerator of nature; the new world; the future life, and the\nregions of happiness and misery; the passage of souls over the bridge\nof the bottomless pit; the celebration of the mysteries of Mithras;\nthe unleavened bread which the initiated eat; the baptism of new-born\nchildren; the unction of the dead; the confession of sins; and, in\na word, he recited so many things analagous to those of the three\npreceding religions, that his discourse seemed like a commentary or a\ncontinuation of the Koran or the Apocalypse.**\n\n     * Or periods, or in six gahan-bars, that is six periods of\n     time. These periods are what Zoroaster calls the thousands\n     of God or of light, meaning the six summer months.  In the\n     first, say the Persians, God created (arranged in order) the\n     heavens; in the second the waters; in the third the earth;\n     in the fourth trees; in the fifth animals; and in the sixth\n     man; corresponding with the account in Genesis.  For\n     particulars see Hyde, ch. 9, and Henry Lord, ch. 2, on the\n     religion of the ancient Persians.  It is remarkable that the\n     same tradition is found in the sacred books of the\n     Etrurians, which relate that the fabricator of all things\n     had comprised the duration of his work in a period of twelve\n     thousand years, which period was distributed to the twelve\n     houses of the sun.  In the first thousand, God made heaven\n     and earth; in the second the firmament; in the third the sea\n     and the waters; in the fourth the sun, moon and stars; in\n     the fifth the souls of animals, birds, and reptiles; in the\n     sixth man.  See Suidas, at the word Tyrrhena; which shows\n     first the identity of their theological and astrological\n     opinions; and, secondly, the identity, or rather confusion\n     of ideas, between absolute and systematical creation; that\n     is, the periods assigned for renewing the face of nature,\n     which were at first the period of the year, and afterwards\n     periods of 60, of 600, of 25,000, of 36,000 and of 432,000\n     years.\n\n     ** The modern Parses and the ancient Mithriacs, who are the\n     same sect, observe all the Christian sacraments, even the\n     laying on of hands in confirmation.  The priest of Mithra,\n     says Tertullian, (de Proescriptione, ch. 40) promises\n     absolution from sin on confession and baptism; and, if I\n     rightly remember, Mithra marks his soldiers in the forehead,\n     with the chrism called in the Egyptian Kouphi; he celebrates\n     the sacrifice of bread, which is the resurrection, and\n     presents the crown to his followers, menacing them at the\n     same time with the sword, etc.\n\n     In these mysteries they tried the courage of the initiated\n     with a thousand terrors, presenting fire to his face, a\n     sword to his breast, etc.; they also offered him a crown,\n     which he refused, saying, God is my crown: and this crown is\n     to be seen in the celestial sphere by the side of Bootes.\n     The personages in these mysteries were distinguished by the\n     names of the animal constellations.  The ceremony of mass is\n     nothing more than an imitation of these mysteries and those\n     of Eleusis.  The benediction, the Lord be with you, is a\n     literal translation of the formula of admission chou-k, am,\n     p-ka.  See Beausob. Hist. Du Manicheisme, vol. ii.\n\nBut the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan doctors, crying out against\nthis recital, and treating the Parses as idolaters and worshippers of\nfire, charged them with falsehood, interpolations, falsification of\nfacts; and there arose a violent dispute as to the dates of the\nevents, their order and succession, the origin of the doctrines, their\ntransmission from nation to nation, the authenticity of the books on\nwhich they are founded, the epoch of their composition, the character\nof their compilers, and the validity of their testimony. And the various\nparties, pointing out reciprocally to each other, the contradictions,\nimprobabilities, and forgeries, accused one another of having\nestablished their belief on popular rumors, vague traditions, and absurd\nfables, invented without discernment, and admitted without examination\nby unknown, partial, or ignorant writers, at uncertain or unknown\nepochs.\n\nA great murmur now arose from under the standards of the various Indian\nsects; and the Bramins, protesting against the pretensions of the Jews\nand the Parses, said:\n\n\"What are these new and almost unheard of nations, who arrogantly set\nthemselves up as the sources of the human race, and the depositaries of\nits archives? To hear their calculations of five or six thousand years,\nit would seem that the world was of yesterday; whereas our monuments\nprove a duration of many thousands of centuries. And for what reason are\ntheir books to be preferred to ours? Are then the Vedes, the Chastres,\nand the Pourans inferior to the Bibles, the Zendavestas, and the\nZadders?* And is not the testimony of our fathers and our gods as\nvalid as that of the fathers and the gods of the West? Ah! if it were\npermitted to reveal our mysteries to profane men! if a sacred veil did\nnot justly conceal them from every eye!\"\n\n\nThese are the sacred volumes of the Hindoos; they are sometimes written\nVedams, Pouranams, Chastrans, because the Hindoos, like the Persians,\nare accustomed to give a nasal sound to the terminations of their words,\nwhich we represent by the affixes on and an, and the Portuguese by the\naffixes om and am. Many of these books have been translated, thanks\nto the liberal spirit of Mr. Hastings, who has founded at Calcutta a\nliterary society, and a printing press. At the same time, however,\nthat we express our gratitude to this society, we must be permitted to\ncomplain of its exclusive spirit; the number of copies printed of each\nbook being such as it is impossible to purchase them even in England;\nthey are wholly in the hands of the East India proprietors. Scarcely\neven is the Asiatic Miscellany known in Europe; and a man must be very\nlearned in oriental antiquity before he so much as hears of the Jones's,\nthe Wilkins's, and the Halhed's, etc. As to the sacred books of the\nHindoos, all that are yet in our hands are the Bhagvat Geeta, the\nEzour-Vedam, the Bagavadam, and certain fragments of the Chastres\nprinted at the end of the Bhagvat Geeta. These books are in Indostan\nwhat the Old and New Testament are in Christendom, the Koran in Turkey,\nthe Zadder and the Zendavesta among the Parses, etc. When I have taken\nan extensive survey of their contents, I have sometimes asked myself,\nwhat would be the loss to the human race if a new Omar condemned them\nto the flames; and, unable to discover any mischief that would ensue, I\ncall the imaginary chest that contains them, the box of Pandora.\n\n\nThe Bramins stopping short at these words: \"How can we admit your\ndoctrine,\" said the legislator, \"if you will not make it known? And how\ndid its first authors propagate it, when, being alone possessed of it,\ntheir own people were to them profane? Did heaven reveal it to be kept a\nsecret?\"*\n\n     * The Vedas or Vedams are the sacred volumes of the Hindoos,\n     as the Bibles with us.  They are three in number; the Rick\n     Veda, the Yadjour Veda, and the Sama Veda; they are so\n     scarce in India, that the English could with great\n     difficulty find an original one, of which a copy is\n     deposited in the British Museum; they who reckon four Vedas,\n     include among them the Attar Veda, concerning ceremonies,\n     but which is lost.  There are besides commentaries named\n     Upanishada, one of which was published by Anquetil du Peron,\n     and entitled Oupnekhat, a curious work.  The date of these\n     books is more than twenty-five centuries prior to our era;\n     their contents prove that all the reveries of the Greek\n     metaphysicians come from India and Egypt.  Since the year\n     1788, the learned men of England are working in India a mine\n     of literature totally unknown in Europe, and which proves\n     that the civilization of India ascends to a very remote\n     antiquity.  After the Vedas come the Chastras amounting to\n     six.  They treat of theology and the Sciences. Afterwards\n     eighteen Pouranas, treating of Mythology and History. See\n     the Bahgouet-guita, the Baga Vadam, and the Ezour-Vedam,\n     etc.\n\nBut the Bramins persisting in their silence: \"Let them have the honor of\nthe secret,\" said a European: \"Their doctrine is now divulged; we have\ntheir books, and I can give you the substance of them.\"\n\nThen beginning with an abstract of the four Vedes, the eighteen Pourans,\nand the five or six Chastres, he recounted how a being, infinite,\neternal, immaterial and round, after having passed an eternity in\nself-contemplation, and determining at last to manifest himself,\nseparated the male and female faculties which were in him, and performed\nan act of generation, of which the Lingam remains an emblem; how that\nfirst act gave birth to three divine powers, Brama, Bichen or Vichenou,\nand Chib or Chiven;* whose functions were--the first to create, the\nsecond to preserve, and the third to destroy, or change the form of\nthe universe. Then, detailing the history of their operations and\nadventures, he explained how Brama, proud of having created the world\nand the eight bobouns, or spheres of probation, thought himself superior\nto Chib, his equal; how his pride brought on a battle between them, in\nwhich these celestial globes were crushed like a basket of eggs; how\nBrama, vanquished in this conflict, was reduced to serve as a pedestal\nto Chib, metamorphosed into a Lingam; how Vichenou, the god mediator,\nhas taken at different times to preserve the world, nine mortal forms\nof animals; how first, in shape of a fish, he saved from the universal\ndeluge a family who repeopled the earth; how afterwards, in the form of\na tortoise,** he drew from the sea of milk the mountain Mandreguiri\n(the pole); then, becoming a boar, he tore the belly of the giant\nEreuniachessen, who was drowning the earth in the abyss of Djole, from\nwhence he drew it out with his tusks; how, becoming incarnate in a black\nshepherd, and under the name of Christ-en, he delivered the world of the\nenormous serpent Calengem, and then crushed his head, after having been\nwounded by him in the heel.\n\n     * These names are differently pronounced according to the\n     different dialects; thus they say Birmah, Bremma, Brouma.\n     Bichen has been turned into Vichen by the easy exchange of a\n     B for a V, and into Vichenou by means of a grammatical\n     affix.  In the same manner Chib, which is synonymous with\n     Satan, and signifies adversary, is frequently written Chiba\n     and Chiv-en; he is called also Rouder and Routr-en, that is,\n     the destroyer.\n\n     ** This is the constellation testudo, or the lyre, which was\n     at first a tortoise, on account of its slow motion round the\n     Pole; then a lyre, because it is the shell of this reptile\n     on which the strings of the lyre are mounted.  See an\n     excellent memoir of M. Dupuis sur l'Origine des\n     Constellations.\n\nThen, passing on to the history of the secondary Genii, he related how\nthe Eternal, to display his own glory, created various orders of angels,\nwhose business it was to sing his praises and to direct the universe;\nhow a part of these angels revolted under the guidance of an ambitious\nchief, who strove to usurp the power of God, and to govern all; how God\nplunged them into a world of darkness, there to undergo the punishment\nfor their crimes; how at last, touched with compassion, he consented to\nrelease them, to receive them into favor, after they should undergo a\nlong series of probations; how, after creating for this purpose fifteen\norbits or regions of planets, and peopling them with bodies, he ordered\nthese rebel angels to undergo in them eighty-seven transmigrations; he\nthen explained how souls, thus purified, returned to the first source,\nto the ocean of life and animation from which they had proceeded; and\nsince all living creatures contain portions of this universal soul,\nhe taught how criminal it was to deprive them of it. He was finally\nproceeding to explain the rites and ceremonies, when, speaking of\nofferings and libations of milk and butter made to gods of copper and\nwood, and then of purifications by the dung and urine of cows,\nthere arose a universal murmur, mixed with peals of laughter, which\ninterrupted the orator.\n\nEach of the different groups began to reason on that religion: \"They are\nidolators,\" said the Mussulmans; \"and should be exterminated.\" \"They are\nderanged in their intellect,\" said the followers of Confucius; \"we\nmust try to cure them.\" \"What ridiculous gods,\" said others, \"are these\npuppets, besmeared with grease and smoke! Are gods to be washed\nlike dirty children, from whom you must brush away the flies, which,\nattracted by honey, are fouling them with their excrements!\"\n\nBut a Bramin exclaimed with indignation: \"These are profound\nmysteries,--emblems of truth, which you are not worthy to hear.\"\n\n\"And in what respect are you more worthy than we?\" exclaimed a Lama of\nTibet. \"Is it because you pretend to have issued from the head of Brama,\nand the rest of the human race from the less noble parts of his body?\nBut to support the pride of your distinctions of origin and castes,\nprove to us in the first place that you are different from other men;\nestablish, in the next place, as historical facts, the allegories\nwhich you relate; show us, indeed, that you are the authors of all this\ndoctrine; for we will demonstrate, if necessary, that you have only\nstolen and disfigured it; that you are only the imitators of the ancient\npaganism of the West; to which, by an ill assorted mixture, you have\nallied the pure and spiritual doctrine of our gods--a doctrine totally\ndetached from the senses, and entirely unknown on earth till Beddou\ntaught it to the nations.\"*\n\n     * All the ancient opinions of the Egyptian and Grecian\n     theologians are to be found in India, and they appear to\n     have been introduced, by means of the commerce of Arabia and\n     the vicinity of Persia, time immemorial.\n\nA number of groups having asked what was this doctrine, and who was this\ngod, of whom the greater part had never heard the name, the Lama resumed\nand said:\n\n\"In the beginning, a sole-existent and self-existent God, having passed\nan eternity in the contemplation of his own being, resolved to manifest\nhis perfections out of himself, and created the matter of the world.\nThe four elements being produced, but still in a state of confusion, he\nbreathed on the face of the waters, which swelled like an immense bubble\nin form of an egg, which unfolding, became the vault or orb of heaven,\nenclosing the world.* Having made the earth, and the bodies of animals,\nthis God, essence of motion, imparted to them a part of his own being\nto animate them; for this reason, the soul of everything that breathes\nbeing a portion of the universal soul, no one of them can perish; they\nonly change their form and mould in passing successively into different\nbodies. Of all these forms, the one most pleasing to God is that of\nman, as most resembling his own perfections. When a man, by an absolute\ndisengagement from his senses, is wholly absorbed in self-contemplation,\nhe then discovers the divinity, and becomes himself God. Of all the\nincarnations of this kind that God has hitherto taken, the greatest\nand most solemn was that in which he appeared thirty centuries ago in\nKachemire, under the name of Fot or Beddou, to preach the doctrines of\nself-denial and self-annihilation.\"\n\n     * This cosmogony of the Lamas, the Bonzes, and even the\n     Bramins, as Henry Lord asserts, is literally that of the\n     ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians, says Porphyry, call Kneph,\n     intelligence, or efficient cause of the universe.  They\n     relate that this God vomited an egg, from which was produced\n     another God named Phtha or Vulcan, (igneous principle or the\n     sun) and they add, that this egg is the world.  Euseb.\n     Proep. Evang. p. 115.\n\n     They represent, says the same author in another place, the\n     God Kneph, or efficient cause, under the form of a man in\n     deep blue (the color of the sky) having in his hand a\n     sceptre, a belt round his body, and a small bonnet royal of\n     light feathers on his head, to denote how very subtile and\n     fugacious the idea of that being is. Upon which I shall\n     observe that Kneph in Hebrew signifies a wing, a feather,\n     and that this color of sky-blue is to be found in the\n     majority of the Indian Gods, and is, under the name of\n     Narayan, one of their most distinguishing epithets.\n\nThen, pursuing the history of Fot, the Lama continued:\n\n\"He was born from the right flank of a virgin of royal blood, who did\nnot cease to be a virgin for having become a mother; that the king of\nthe country, uneasy at his birth, wished to destroy him, and for this\npurpose ordered a massacre of all the males born at that period, that\nbeing saved by shepherds, Beddou lived in the desert till the age of\nthirty years, at which time he began his mission to enlighten men and\ncast out devils; that he performed a multitude of the most astonishing\nmiracles; that he spent his life in fasting and severe penitence, and at\nhis death, bequeathed to his disciples a book containing his doctrines.\"\n\nAnd the Lama began to read:\n\n\"He that leaveth his father and mother to follow me,\" says Fot, \"becomes\na perfect Samanean (a heavenly man).\n\n\"He that practices my precepts to the fourth degree of perfection,\nacquires the faculty of flying in the air, of moving heaven and earth,\nof prolonging or shortening his life (rising from the dead).\n\n\"The Samanean despises riches, and uses only what is strictly necessary;\nhe mortifies his body, silences his passions, desires nothing, forms no\nattachments, meditates my doctrines without ceasing, endures injuries\nwith patience, and bears no malice to his neighbor.\n\n\"Heaven and earth shall perish,\" says Fot: \"despise therefore your\nbodies, which are composed of the four perishable elements, and think\nonly of your immortal soul.\n\n\"Listen not to the flesh: fear and sorrow spring from the passions:\nstifle the passions and you destroy fear and sorrow.\n\n\"Whoever dies without having embraced my religion,\" says Fot, \"returns\namong men, until he embraces it.\"\n\nThe Lama was going on with his reading, when the Christians interrupted\nhim, crying out that this was their own religion adulterated--that Fot\nwas no other than Jesus himself disfigured, and that the Lamas were the\nNestorians and the Manicheans disguised and bastardized.*\n\n     * This is asserted by our missionaries, and among others by\n     Georgi in his unfinished work of the Thibetan alphabet: but\n     if it can be proved that the Manicheans were but\n     plagiarists, and the ignorant echo of a doctrine that\n     existed fifteen hundred years before them, what becomes of\n     the declarations of Georgi?  See upon this subject, Beausob.\n     Hist. du Manicheisme.\n\nBut the Lama, supported by the Chamans, Bonzes, Gonnis, Talapoins of\nSiam, of Ceylon, of Japan, and of China, proved to the Christians, even\nfrom their own authors, that the doctrine of the Samaneans was known\nthrough the East more than a thousand years before the Christian era;\nthat their name was cited before the time of Alexander, and that Boutta,\nor Beddou, was known before Jesus.*\n\n     * The eastern writers in general agree in placing the birth\n     of Beddou 1027 years before Jesus Christ, which makes him\n     the contemporary of Zoroaster, with whom, in my opinion,\n     they confound him.  It is certain that his doctrine\n     notoriously existed at that epoch; it is found entire in\n     that of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and the Indian gymnosophists.\n     But the gymnosophists are cited at the time of Alexander as\n     an ancient sect already divided into Brachmans and\n     Samaneans.  See Bardesanes en Saint Jerome, Epitre a Jovien.\n     Pythagoras lived in the ninth century before Jesus Christ;\n     See chronology of the twelve ages; and Orpheus is of still\n     greater antiquity.  If, as is the case, the doctrine of\n     Pythagoras and that of Orpheus are of Egyptian origin, that\n     of Beddou goes back to the common source; and in reality the\n     Egyptian priests recite, that Hermes as he was dying said:\n     \"I have hitherto lived an exile from my country, to which I\n     now return.  Weep not for me, I ascend to the celestial\n     abode where each of you will follow in his turn: there God\n     is: this life is only death.\"--Chalcidius in Thinaeum.\n\n     Such was the profession of faith of the Samaneans, the\n     sectaries of Orpheus, and the Pythagoreans.  Farther, Hermes\n     is no other than Beddou himself; for among the Indians,\n     Chinese, Lamas, etc., the planet Mercury and the\n     corresponding day of the week (Wednesday) bear the name of\n     Beddou, and this accounts for his being placed in the rank\n     of mythological beings, and discovers the illusion of his\n     pretended existence as a man; since it is evident that\n     Mercury was not a human being, but the Genius or Decan, who,\n     placed at the summer solstice, opened the Egyptian year;\n     hence his attributes taken from the constellation Syrius,\n     and his name of Anubis, as well as that of Esculapius,\n     having the figure of a man and the head of a dog: hence his\n     serpent, which is the Hydra, emblem of the Nile (Hydor,\n     humidity); and from this serpent he seems to have derived\n     his name of Hermes, as Remes (with a schin) in the oriental\n     languages, signifies serpent.  Now Beddou and Hermes being\n     the same names, it is manifest of what antiquity is the\n     system ascribed to the former.  As to the name of Samanean,\n     it is precisely that of Chaman, still preserved in Tartary,\n     China, and India.  The interpretation given to it is, man of\n     the woods, a hermit mortifying the flesh, such being the\n     characteristic of this sect; but its literal meaning is,\n     celestial (Samaoui) and explains the system of those who are\n     called by it.--The system is the same as that of the\n     sectaries of Orpheus, of the Essenians, of the ancient\n     Anchorets of Persia, and the whole eastern country.  See\n     Porphyry, de Abstin. Animal.\n\n     These celestial and penitent men carried in India their\n     insanity to such an extreme as to wish not to touch the\n     earth, and they accordingly lived in cages suspended from\n     the trees, where the people, whose admiration was not less\n     absurd, brought them provisions.  During the night there\n     were frequent robberies, rapes and murders, and it was at\n     length discovered that they were committed by those men,\n     who, descending from their cages, thus indemnified\n     themselves for their restraint during the day.  The Bramins,\n     their rivals, embraced the opportunity of exterminating\n     them; and from that time their name in India has been\n     synonymous with hypocrite.  See Hist. de la Chine, in 5\n     vols. quarto, at the note page 30; Hist. de Huns, 2 vols.\n     and preface to the Ezour-Vedam.\n\nThen, retorting the pretensions of the Christians against themselves:\n\"Prove to us,\" said the Lama, \"that you are not Samaneans degenerated,\nand that the man you make the author of your sect is not Fot himself\ndisguised. Prove to us by historical facts that he even existed at the\nepoch you pretend; for, it being destitute of authentic testimony,* we\nabsolutely deny it; and we maintain that your very gospels are only the\nbooks of some Mithriacs of Persia, and the Essenians of Syria, who were\na branch of reformed Samaneans.\"**\n\n     * There are absolutely no other monuments of the existence\n     of Jesus Christ as a human being, than a passage in Josephus\n     (Antiq. Jud. lib. 18, c.3,) a single phrase in Tacitus\n     (Annal. lib. 15, c. 44), and the Gospels.  But the passage\n     in Josephus is unanimously acknowledged to be apocryphal,\n     and to have been interpolated towards the close of the third\n     century, (See Trad. de joseph, par M. Gillet); and that of\n     Tacitus in so vague and so evidently taken from the\n     deposition of the Christians before the tribunals, that it\n     may be ranked in the class of evangelical records.  It\n     remains to enquire of what authority are these records.\n     \"All the world knows,\" says Faustus, who, though a\n     Manichean, was one of the most learned men of the third\n     century, \"All the world knows that the gospels were neither\n     written by Jesus Christ, nor his apostles, but by certain\n     unknown persons, who rightly judging that they should not\n     obtain belief respecting things which they had not seen,\n     placed at the head of their recitals the names of\n     contemporary apostles.\" See Beausob. vol. i. and Hist. des\n     Apologistes de la Relig. Chret. par Burigni, a sagacious\n     writer, who has demonstrated the absolute uncertainty of\n     those foundations of the Christian religion; so that the\n     existence of Jesus is no better proved than that of Osiris\n     and Hercules, or that of Fot or Beddou, with whom, says M.\n     de Guignes, the Chinese continually confound him, for they\n     never call Jesus by any other name than Fot.  Hist. de Huns.\n\n     ** That is to say, from the pious romances formed out of the\n     sacred legends of the mysteries of Mithra, Ceres, Isis,\n     etc., from whence are equally derived the books of the\n     Hindoos and the Bonzes.  Our missionaries have long remarked\n     a striking resemblance between those books and the gospels.\n     M. Wilkins expressly mentions it in a note in the Bhagvat\n     Geeta.  All agree that Krisna, Fot, and Jesus have the same\n     characteristic features: but religious prejudice has stood\n     in the way of drawing from this circumstance the proper and\n     natural inference.  To time and reason must it be left to\n     display the truth.\n\n\nAt these words, the Christians set up a general cry, and a new dispute\nwas about to begin; when a number of Chinese Chamans, and Talapoins of\nSiam, came forward and said that they would settle the whole\ncontroversy.  And one of them speaking for the whole exclaimed: \"It is\ntime to put an end to these frivolous contests by drawing aside the veil\nfrom the interior doctrine that Fot himself revealed to his disciples on\nhis death bed.*\n\n     * The Budsoists have two doctrines, the one public and\n     ostensible, the other interior and secret, precisely like\n     the Egyptian priests. It may be asked, why this distinction?\n     It is, that as the public doctrine recommends offerings,\n     expiations, endowments, etc., the priests find their profit\n     in preaching it to the people; whereas the other, teaching\n     the vanity of worldly things, and attended with no lucre, it\n     is thought proper to make it known only to adepts. Can the\n     teachers and followers of this religion be better classed\n     than under the heads of knavery and credulity?\n\n\"All these theological opinions,\" continued he, \"are but chimeras. All\nthe stories of the nature of the gods, of their actions and their lives,\nare but allegories and mythological emblems, under which are enveloped\ningenious ideas of morals, and the knowledge of the operations of nature\nin the action of the elements and the movement of the planets.\n\n\"The truth is, that all is reduced to nothing--that all is illusion,\nappearance, dream; that the moral metempsychosis is only the figurative\nsense of the physical metempsychosis, or the successive movement of\nthe elements of bodies which perish not, but which, having composed one\nbody, pass when that is dissolved, into other mediums and form other\ncombinations. The soul is but the vital principle which results from\nthe properties of matter, and from the action of the elements in those\nbodies where they create a spontaneous movement. To suppose that this\nproduct of the play of the organs, born with them, matured with them,\nand which sleeps with them, can subsist when they cease, is the romance\nof a wandering imagination, perhaps agreeable enough, but really\nchimerical.\n\n\"God itself is nothing more than the moving principle, the occult force\ninherent in all beings--the sum of their laws and properties--the\nanimating principle; in a word, the soul of the universe; which on\naccount of the infinite variety of its connections and its operations,\nsometimes simple, sometimes multiple, sometimes active, sometimes\npassive, has always presented to the human mind an unsolvable enigma.\nAll that man can comprehend with certainty is, that matter does not\nperish; that it possesses essentially those properties by which the\nworld is held together like a living and organized being; that the\nknowledge of these laws with respect to man is what constitutes wisdom;\nthat virtue and merit consist in their observance; and evil, sin, and\nvice, in the ignorance and violation of them; that happiness and misery\nresult from these by the same necessity which makes heavy bodies descend\nand light ones rise, and by a fatality of causes and effects, whose\nchain extends from the smallest atom to the greatest of the heavenly\nbodies.\"*\n\n     * These are the very expressions of La Loubre, in his\n     description of the kingdom of Siam and the theology of the\n     Bronzes.  Their dogmas, compared with those of the ancient\n     philosophers of Greece and Italy, give a complete\n     representation of the whole system of the Stoics and\n     Epicureans, mixed with astrological superstitious, and some\n     traits of Pythagorism.\n\nAt these words, a crowd of theologians of every sect cried out that this\ndoctrine was materialism, and that those who profess it were impious\natheists, enemies to God and man, who must be exterminated. \"Very well,\"\nreplied the Chamans, \"suppose we are in error, which is not impossible,\nsince the first attribute of the human mind is to be subject to\nillusion; but what right have you to take away from men like yourselves,\nthe life which Heaven has given them? If Heaven holds us guilty and in\nabhorrence, why does it impart to us the same blessings as to you? And\nif it treats us with forbearance, what authority have you to be less\nindulgent? Pious men! who speak of God with so much certainty and\nconfidence, be so good as to tell us what it is; give us to comprehend\nwhat those abstract and metaphysical beings are, which you call God and\nsoul, substance without matter, existence without body, life without\norgans or sensation. If you know those beings by your senses or their\nreflections, render them in like manner perceptible to us; or if you\nspeak of them on testimony and tradition, show us a uniform account, and\ngive a determinate basis to our creed.\"\n\nThere now arose among the theologians a great controversy respecting God\nand his nature, his manner of acting, and of manifesting himself; on the\nnature of the soul and its union with the body; whether it exists before\nthe organs, or only after they are formed; on the future life, and the\nother world. And every sect, every school, every individual, differing\non all these points, and each assigning plausible reasons, and\nrespectable though opposite authorities for his opinion, they fell into\nan inextricable labyrinth of contradictions.\n\nThen the legislator, having commanded silence and recalled the dispute\nto its true object, said: \"Chiefs and instructors of nations; you came\ntogether in search of truth. At first, every one of you, thinking he\npossessed it, demanded of the others an implicit faith; but perceiving\nthe contrariety of your opinions, you found it necessary to submit them\nto a common rule of evidence, and to bring them to one general term of\ncomparison; and you agreed that each should exhibit the proofs of his\ndoctrine. You began by alleging facts; but each religion and every sect,\nbeing equally furnished with miracles and martyrs, each producing an\nequal number of witnesses, and offering to support them by a voluntary\ndeath, the balance on this first point, by right of parity, remained\nequal.\n\n\"You then passed to the trial of reasoning; but the same arguments\napplying equally to contrary positions--the same assertions, equally\ngratuitous, being advanced and repelled with equal force, and all having\nan equal right to refuse his assent, nothing was demonstrated. What\nis more, the confrontation of your systems has brought up more and\nextraordinary difficulties; for amid the apparent or adventitious\ndiversities, you have discovered a fundamental resemblance, a common\ngroundwork; and each of you pretending to be the inventor, and first\ndepositary, have taxed each other with adulterations and plagiarisms;\nand thence arises a difficult question concerning the transmission of\nreligious ideas from people to people.\n\n\"Finally, to complete your embarrassment: when you endeavored to explain\nyour doctrines to each other, they appeared confused and foreign, even\nto their adherents; they were founded on ideas inaccessible to your\nsenses; you consequently had no means of judging of them, and you\nconfessed yourselves in this respect to be only the echoes of your\nfathers. Hence follows this other question: how came they to the\nknowledge of your fathers, who themselves had no other means than you to\nconceive them? So that, on the one hand, the succession of these ideas\nbeing unknown, and on the other, their origin and existence being\na mystery, all the edifice of your religious opinions becomes a\ncomplicated problem of metaphysics and history.\n\n\"Since, however, these opinions, extraordinary as they may be, must have\nhad some origin; since even the most abstract and fantastical ideas\nhave some physical model, it may be useful to recur to this origin, and\ndiscover this model--in a word, to find out from what source the human\nunderstanding has drawn these ideas, at present so obscure, of God,\nof the soul, of all immaterial beings, which make the basis of so many\nsystems; to unfold the filiation which they have followed, and the\nalterations which they have undergone in their transmissions and\nramifications. If, then, there are any persons present who have made a\nstudy of these objects, let them come forward, and endeavor, in the face\nof nations, to dissipate the obscurity in which their opinions have so\nlong remained.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nORIGIN AND FILIATION OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS.\n\n\nAt these words, a new group, formed in an instant by men from various\nstandards, but not distinguished by any, came forward into the circle;\nand one of them spoke in the name of the whole:\n\n\"Delegates, friends of evidence and virtue! It is not surprising that\nthe subject in question should be enveloped in so many clouds, since,\nbesides its inherent difficulties, thought itself has always been\nencumbered with superadded obstacles peculiar to this study, where all\nfree enquiry and discussion have been interdicted by the intolerance of\nevery system. But now that our views are permitted to expand, we will\nexpose to open day, and submit to the judgment of nations, that which\nunprejudiced minds, after long researches, have found to be the most\nreasonable; and we do this, not with the pretension of imposing a new\ncreed, but with the hope of provoking new lights, and obtaining better\ninformation.\n\n\"Doctors and instructors of nations! You know what thick darkness covers\nthe nature, the origin, the history of the dogmas which you teach.\nImposed by authority, inculcated by education, and maintained by\nexample, they pass from age to age, and strengthen their empire from\nhabit and inattention. But if man, enlightened by reflection and\nexperience, brings to mature examination the prejudices of his\nchildhood, he soon discovers a multitude of incongruities and\ncontradictions which awaken his sagacity and excite his reasoning\npowers.\n\n\"At first, remarking the diversity and opposition of the creeds which\ndivide the nations, he takes courage to question the infallibility\nwhich each of them claims, and arming himself with their reciprocal\npretensions, he conceives that his senses and his reason, derived\nimmediately from God, are a law not less holy, a guide not less sure,\nthan the mediate and contradictory codes of the prophets.\n\n\"If he then examines the texture of these codes themselves, he observes\nthat their laws, pretended to be divine, that is, immutable and eternal,\nhave arisen from circumstances of times, places, and persons; that\nthey have issued one from the other, in a kind of genealogical order,\nborrowing from each other reciprocally a common and similar fund of\nideas, which every lawgiver modifies according to his fancy.\n\n\"If he ascends to the source of these ideas, he finds it involved in\nthe night of time, in the infancy of nations, even to the origin of the\nworld, to which they claim alliance; and there, placed in the darkness\nof chaos, in the empire of fables and traditions, they present\nthemselves, accompanied with a state of things so full of prodigies,\nthat it seems to forbid all access to the judgment: but this state\nitself excites a first effort of reason, which resolves the difficulty;\nfor if the prodigies, found in the theological systems, have really\nexisted--if, for instance, the metamorphoses, the apparitions, the\nconversations with one or many gods, recorded in the books of the\nIndians, the Hebrews, the Parses, are historical events, he must agree\nthat nature in those times was totally different from what it is at\npresent; that the present race of men are quite another species from\nthose who then existed; and, therefore, he ought not to trouble his head\nabout them.\n\n\"If, on the contrary, these miraculous events have really not existed\nin the physical order of things, then he readily conceives that they are\ncreatures of the human intellect; and this faculty being still capable\nof the most fantastical combinations, explains at once the phenomenon\nof these monsters in history. It only remains, then, to find how and\nwherefore they have been formed in the imagination. Now, if we examine\nwith care the subjects of these intellectual creations, analyze the\nideas which they combine and associate, and carefully weigh all the\ncircumstances which they allege, we shall find that this first obscure\nand incredible state of things is explained by the laws of nature.\nWe find that these stories of a fabulous kind have a figurative sense\ndifferent from the apparent one; that these events, pretended to be\nmarvellous, are simple and physical facts, which, being misconceived or\nmisrepresented, have been disfigured by accidental causes dependent\non the human mind, by the confusion of signs employed to represent\nthe ideas, the want of precision in words, permanence in language,\nand perfection in writing; we find that these gods, for instance, who\ndisplay such singular characters in every system, are only the physical\nagents of nature, the elements, the winds, the stars, and the meteors,\nwhich have been personified by the necessary mechanism of language\nand of the human understanding; that their lives, their manners, their\nactions, are only their mechanical operations and connections; and that\nall their pretended history is only the description of these phenomena,\nformed by the first naturalists who observed them, and misconceived by\nthe vulgar who did not understand them, or by succeeding generations who\nforgot them. In a word, all the theological dogmas on the origin of the\nworld, the nature of God, the revelation of his laws, the manifestation\nof his person, are known to be only the recital of astronomical facts,\nonly figurative and emblematical accounts of the motion of the heavenly\nbodies. We are convinced that the very idea of a God, that idea at\npresent so obscure, is, in its first origin, nothing but that of the\nphysical powers of the universe, considered sometimes as a plurality by\nreason of their agencies and phenomena, sometimes as one simple and only\nbeing by reason of the universality of the machine and the connection of\nits parts; so that the being called God has been sometimes the wind,\nthe fire, the water, all the elements; sometimes the sun, the stars, the\nplanets, and their influence; sometimes the matter of the visible\nworld, the totality of the universe; sometimes abstract and metaphysical\nqualities, such as space, duration, motion, intelligence; and we\neverywhere see this conclusion, that the idea of God has not been a\nmiraculous revelation of invisible beings, but a natural offspring of\nthe human intellect--an operation of the mind, whose progress it has\nfollowed and whose revolutions it has undergone, in all the progress\nthat has been made in the knowledge of the physical world and its\nagents.\n\n\"It is then in vain that nations attribute their religion to heavenly\ninspirations; it is in vain that their dogmas pretend to a primeval\nstate of supernatural events: the original barbarity of the human race,\nattested by their own monuments,* belies these assertions at once.\nBut there is one constant and indubitable fact which refutes beyond\ncontradiction all these doubtful accounts of past ages. From this\nposition, that man acquires and receives no ideas but through the medium\nof his senses,** it follows with certainty that every notion which\nclaims to itself any other origin than that of sensation and experience,\nis the erroneous supposition of a posterior reasoning: now, it is\nsufficient to cast an eye upon the sacred systems of the origin of the\nworld, and of the actions of the gods, to discover in every idea, in\nevery word, the anticipation of an order of things which could not exist\ntill a long time after. Reason, strengthened by these contradictions,\nrejecting everything that is not in the order of nature, and admitting\nno historical facts but those founded on probabilities, lays open its\nown system, and pronounces itself with assurance.\n\n     * It is the unanimous testimony of history, and even of\n     legends, that the first human beings were every where\n     savages, and that it was to civilize them, and teach them to\n     make bread, that the Gods manifested themselves.\n\n     ** The rock on which all the ancients have split, and which\n     has occasioned all their errors, has been their supposing\n     the idea of God to be innate and co-eternal with the soul;\n     and hence all the reveries developed in Plato and Jamblicus.\n     See the Timoeus, the Phedon, and De Mysteriis Egyptiorum,\n     sect. I, c. 3.\n\n\"Before one nation had received from another nation dogmas already\ninvented; before one generation had inherited ideas acquired by a\npreceding generation, none of these complicated systems could have\nexisted in the world. The first men, being children of nature, anterior\nto all events, ignorant of all science, were born without any idea of\nthe dogmas arising from scholastic disputes; of rites founded on\nthe practice of arts not then known; of precepts framed after the\ndevelopment of passions; or of laws which suppose a language, a state\nof society not then in being; or of God, whose attributes all refer to\nphysical objects, and his actions to a despotic state of government; or\nof the soul, or of any of those metaphysical beings, which we are told\nare not the objects of sense, and for which, however, there can be\nno other means of access to the understanding. To arrive at so many\nresults, the necessary circle of preceding facts must have been\nobserved; slow experience and repeated trials must have taught the\nrude man the use of his organs; the accumulated knowledge of successive\ngenerations must have invented and improved the means of living; and\nthe mind, freed from the cares of the first wants of nature, must have\nraised itself to the complicated art of comparing ideas, of digesting\narguments, and seizing abstract similitudes.\"\n\n\nI. Origin of the idea of God: Worship of the elements and of the\nphysical powers of nature.\n\n\n\"It was not till after having overcome these obstacles, and gone through\na long career in the night of history, that man, reflecting on his\ncondition, began to perceive that he was subjected to forces superior\nto his own, and independent of his will. The sun enlightened and warmed\nhim, the fire burned him, the thunder terrified him, the wind beat upon\nhim, the water overwhelmed him. All beings acted upon him powerfully and\nirresistibly. He sustained this action for a long time, like a machine,\nwithout enquiring the cause; but the moment he began his enquiries,\nhe fell into astonishment; and, passing from the surprise of his first\nreflections to the reverie of curiosity, he began a chain of reasoning.\n\n\"First, considering the action of the elements on him, he conceived an\nidea of weakness and subjection on his part, and of power and domination\non theirs; and this idea of power was the primitive and fundamental type\nof every idea of God.\n\n\"Secondly, the action of these natural existences excited in him\nsensations of pleasure or pain, of good or evil; and by a natural effect\nof his organization, he conceived for them love or aversion; he desired\nor dreaded their presence; and fear or hope gave rise to the first idea\nof religion.\n\n\"Then, judging everything by comparison, and remarking in these beings a\nspontaneous movement like his own, he supposed this movement directed\nby a will,--an intelligence of the nature of his own; and hence, by\ninduction, he formed a new reasoning. Having experienced that certain\npractices towards his fellow creatures had the effect to modify their\naffections and direct their conduct to his advantage, he resorted to\nthe same practices towards these powerful beings of the universe. He\nreasoned thus with himself: When my fellow creature, stronger than I, is\ndisposed to do me injury, I abase myself before him, and my prayer has\nthe art to calm him. I will pray to these powerful beings who strike me.\nI will supplicate the intelligences of the winds, of the stars, of the\nwaters, and they will hear me. I will conjure them to avert the evil\nand give me the good that is at their disposal; I will move them by my\ntears, I will soften them by offerings, and I shall be happy.\n\n\"Thus simple man, in the infancy of his reason, spoke to the sun and to\nthe moon; he animated with his own understanding and passions the great\nagents of nature; he thought by vain sounds, and vain actions, to change\ntheir inflexible laws. Fatal error! He prayed the stone to ascend,\nthe water to mount above its level, the mountains to remove, and\nsubstituting a fantastical world for the real one, he peopled it with\nimaginary beings, to the terror of his mind and the torment of his race.\n\n\"In this manner the ideas of God and religion have sprung, like all\nothers, from physical objects; they were produced in the mind of man\nfrom his sensations, from his wants, from the circumstances of his life,\nand the progressive state of his knowledge.\n\n\"Now, as the ideas of God had their first models in physical agents, it\nfollowed that God was at first varied and manifold, like the form under\nwhich he appeared to act. Every being was a Power, a Genius; and the\nfirst men conceived the universe filled with innumerable gods.\n\n\"Again the ideas of God have been created by the affections of the human\nheart; they became necessarily divided into two classes, according to\nthe sensations of pleasure or pain, love or hatred, which they inspired.\n\n\"The forces of nature, the gods and genii, were divided into beneficent\nand malignant, good and evil powers; and hence the universality of these\ntwo characters in all the systems of religion.\n\n\"These ideas, analogous to the condition of their inventors, were for a\nlong time confused and ill-digested. Savage men, wandering in the woods,\nbeset with wants and destitute of resources, had not the leisure to\ncombine principles and draw conclusions; affected with more evils than\nthey found pleasures, their most habitual sentiment was that of fear,\ntheir theology terror; their worship was confined to a few salutations\nand offerings to beings whom they conceived as greedy and ferocious as\nthemselves. In their state of equality and independence, no man offered\nhimself as mediator between men and gods as insubordinate and poor as\nhimself. No one having superfluities to give, there existed no parasite\nby the name of priest, no tribute by the name of victim, no empire by\nthe name of altar. Their dogmas and their morals were the same thing, it\nwas only self-preservation; and religion, that arbitrary idea, without\ninfluence on the mutual relations of men, was a vain homage rendered to\nthe visible powers of nature.\n\n\"Such was the necessary and original idea of God.\"\n\nAnd the orator, addressing himself to the savage nations, continued:\n\n\"We appeal to you, men who have received no foreign and factitious\nideas; tell us, have you ever gone beyond what I have described? And\nyou, learned doctors, we call you to witness; is not this the unanimous\ntestimony of all ancient monuments?*\n\n     * It clearly results, says Plutarch, from the verses of\n     Orpheus and the sacred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians,\n     that the ancient theology, not only of the Greeks, but of\n     all nations, was nothing more than a system of physics, a\n     picture of the operations of nature, wrapped up in\n     mysterious allegories and enigmatical symbols, in a manner\n     that the ignorant multitude attended rather to their\n     apparent than to their hidden meaning, and even in what they\n     understood of the latter, supposed there to be something\n     more deep than what they perceived.  Fragment of a work of\n     Plutarch now lost, quoted by Eusebius, Proepar. Evang. lib.\n     3, ch. 1, p. 83.\n\n     The majority of philosophers, says Porphyry, and among\n     others Haeremon (who lived in Egypt in the first age of\n     Christianity), imagine there never to have been any other\n     world than the one we see, and acknowledged no other Gods of\n     all those recognized by the Egyptians, than such as are\n     commonly called planets, signs of the Zodiac, and\n     constellations; whose aspects, that is, rising and setting,\n     are supposed to influence the fortunes of men; to which they\n     add their divisions of the signs into decans and dispensers\n     of time, whom they style lords of the ascendant, whose\n     names, virtues in relieving distempers, rising, setting, and\n     presages of future events, are the subjects of almanacs (for\n     be it observed, that the Egyptian priests had almanacs the\n     exact counterpart of Matthew Lansberg's); for when the\n     priests affirmed that the sun was the architect of the\n     universe, Chaeremon presently concludes that all their\n     narratives respecting Isis and Osiris, together with their\n     other sacred fables, referred in part to the planets, the\n     phases of the moon, and the revolution of the sun, and in\n     part to the stars of the daily and nightly hemispheres and\n     the river Nile; in a word, in all cases to physical and\n     natural existences and never to such as might be immaterial\n     and incorporeal. . . .\n\n     All these philosophers believe that the acts of our will and\n     the motion of our bodies depend on those of the stars to\n     which they are subjected, and they refer every thing to the\n     laws of physical necessity, which they call destiny or\n     Fatum, supposing a chain of causes and effects which binds,\n     by I know not what connection, all beings together, from the\n     meanest atom to the supremest power and primary influence of\n     the Gods; so that, whether in their temples or in their\n     idols, the only subject of worship is the power of destiny.\n     Porphyr. Epist. ad Janebonem.\n\nII. Second system: Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism.\n\n\n\"But those same monuments present us likewise a system more methodical\nand more complicated--that of the worship of all the stars; adored\nsometimes in their proper forms, sometimes under figurative emblems\nand symbols; and this worship was the effect of the knowledge men had\nacquired in physics, and was derived immediately from the first causes\nof the social state; that is, from the necessities and arts of the first\ndegree, which are among the elements of society.\n\n\"Indeed, as soon as men began to unite in society, it became necessary\nfor them to multiply the means of subsistence, and consequently to\nattend to agriculture: agriculture, to be carried on with success,\nrequires the observation and knowledge of the heavens. It was necessary\nto know the periodical return of the same operations of nature, and the\nsame phenomena in the skies; indeed to go so far as to ascertain the\nduration and succession of the seasons and the months of the year. It\nwas indispensable to know, in the first place, the course of the sun,\nwho, in his zodiacal revolution, shows himself the supreme agent of\nthe whole creation; then, of the moon, who, by her phases and periods,\nregulates and distributes time; then, of the stars, and even of the\nplanets, which by their appearance and disappearance on the horizon and\nnocturnal hemisphere, marked the minutest divisions. Finally, it was\nnecessary to form a whole system of astronomy,* or a calendar; and from\nthese works there naturally followed a new manner of considering these\npredominant and governing powers. Having observed that the productions\nof the earth had a regular and constant relation with the heavenly\nbodies; that the rise, growth, and decline of each plant kept pace with\nthe appearance, elevation, and declination of the same star or the same\ngroup of stars; in short, that the languor or activity of vegetation\nseemed to depend on celestial influences, men drew from thence an idea\nof action, of power, in those beings, superior to earthly bodies; and\nthe stars, dispensing plenty or scarcity, became powers, genii,** gods,\nauthors of good and evil.\n\n     * It continues to be repeated every day, on the indirect\n     authority of the book of Genesis, that astronomy was the\n     invention of the children of Noah.  It has been gravely\n     said, that while wandering shepherds in the plains of\n     Shinar, they employed their leisure in composing a planetary\n     system: as if shepherds had occasion to know more than the\n     polar star; and if necessity was not the sole motive of\n     every invention!  If the ancient shepherds were so studious\n     and sagacious, how does it happen that the modern ones are\n     so stupid, ignorant, and inattentive?  And it is a fact that\n     the Arabs of the desert know not so many as six\n     constellations, and understand not a word of astronomy.\n\n     ** It appears that by the word genius, the ancients denoted\n     a quality, a generative power; for the following words,\n     which are all of one family, convey this meaning: generare,\n     genos, genesis, genus, gens.\n\n\"As the state of society had already introduced a regular hierarchy\nof ranks, employments and conditions, men, continuing to reason by\ncomparison, carried their new notions into their theology, and formed a\ncomplicated system of divinities by gradation of rank, in which the sun,\nas first god,* was a military chief or a political king: the moon was\nhis wife and queen; the planets were servants, bearers of commands,\nmessengers; and the multitude of stars were a nation, an army of heroes,\ngenii, whose office was to govern the world under the orders of their\nchiefs. All the individuals had names, functions, attributes, drawn from\ntheir relations and influences; and even sexes, from the gender of their\nappellations.**\n\n     * The Sabeans, ancient and modern, says Maimonides,\n     acknowledge a principal God, the maker and inhabitant of\n     heaven; but on account of his great distance they conceive\n     him to be inaccessible; and in imitation of the conduct of\n     people towards their kings, they employ as mediators with\n     him, the planets and their angels, whom they call princes\n     and potentates, and whom they suppose to reside in those\n     luminous bodies as in palaces or tabernacles, etc.  More-\n     Nebuchim.\n\n     ** According as the gender of the object was in the language\n     of the nation masculine or feminine, the Divinity who bore\n     its name was male or female.  Thus the Cappadocians called\n     the moon God, and the sun Goddess: a circumstance which\n     gives to the same beings a perpetual variety in ancient\n     mythology.\n\n\"And as the social state had introduced certain usages and ceremonies,\nreligion, keeping pace with the social state, adopted similar ones;\nthese ceremonies, at first simple and private, became public and\nsolemn; the offerings became rich and more numerous, and the rites more\nmethodical; they assigned certain places for the assemblies, and began\nto have chapels and temples; they instituted officers to administer\nthem, and these became priests and pontiffs: they established liturgies,\nand sanctified certain days, and religion became a civil act, a\npolitical tie.\n\n\"But in this arrangement, religion did not change its first principles;\nthe idea of God was always that of physical beings, operating good or\nevil, that is, impressing sensations of pleasure or pain: the dogma was\nthe knowledge of their laws, or their manner of acting; virtue and sin,\nthe observance or infraction of these laws; and morality, in its native\nsimplicity, was the judicious practice of whatever contributes to the\npreservation of existence, the well-being of one's self and his fellow\ncreatures.*\n\n     * We may add, says Plutarch, that these Egyptian priests\n     always regarded the preservation of health as a point of the\n     first importance, and as indispensably necessary to the\n     practice of piety and the service of the gods.  See his\n     account of Isis and Osiris, towards the end.\n\n\"Should it be asked at what epoch this system took its birth, we shall\nanswer on the testimony of the monuments of astronomy itself; that\nits principles appear with certainty to have been established about\nseventeen thousand years ago,* and if it be asked to what people it is\nto be attributed, we shall answer that the same monuments, supported\nby unanimous traditions, attribute it to the first tribes of Egypt; and\nwhen reason finds in that country all the circumstances which could lead\nto such a system; when it finds there a zone of sky, bordering on the\ntropic, equally free from the rains of the equator and the fogs of\nthe North;** when it finds there a central point of the sphere of the\nancients, a salubrious climate, a great, but manageable river, a soil\nfertile without art or labor, inundated without morbid exhalations, and\nplaced between two seas which communicate with the richest countries, it\nconceives that the inhabitant of the Nile, addicted to agriculture\nfrom the nature of his soil, to geometry from the annual necessity of\nmeasuring his lands, to commerce from the facility of communications,\nto astronomy from the state of his sky, always open to observation, must\nhave been the first to pass from the savage to the social state; and\nconsequently to attain the physical and moral sciences necessary to\ncivilized life.\n\n     * The historical orator follows here the opinion of M.\n     Dupuis, who, in his learned memoirs concerning the Origin of\n     the Constellations and Origin of all Worship, has assigned\n     many plausible reasons to prove that Libra was formerly the\n     sign of the vernal, and Aries of the autumnal equinox; that\n     is, that since the origin of the actual astronomical system,\n     the precession of the equinoxes has carried forward by seven\n     signs the primitive order of the zodiac.  Now estimating the\n     precession at about seventy years and a half to a degree,\n     that is, 2,115 years to each sign; and observing that Aries\n     was in its fifteenth degree, 1,447 years before Christ, it\n     follows that the first degree of Libra could not have\n     coincided with the vernal equinox more lately than 15,194\n     years before Christ; now, if you add 1790 years since\n     Christ, it appears that 16,984 years have elapsed since the\n     origin of the Zodiac.  The vernal equinox coincided with the\n     first degree of Aries, 2,504 years before Christ, and with\n     the first degree of Taurus 4,619 years before Christ.  Now\n     it is to be observed, that the worship of the Bull is the\n     principal article in the theological creed of the Egyptians,\n     Persians, Japanese, etc.; from whence it clearly follows,\n     that some general revolution took place among these nations\n     at that time. The chronology of five or six thousand years\n     in Genesis is little agreeable to this hypothesis; but as\n     the book of Genesis cannot claim to be considered as a\n     history farther back than Abraham, we are at liberty to make\n     what arrangements we please in the eternity that preceded.\n     See on this subject the analysis of Genesis, in the first\n     volume of New Researches on Ancient History; see also Origin\n     of Constellatians, by Dupuis, 1781; the Origin of Worship,\n     in 3 vols. 1794, and the Chronological Zodiac, 1806.\n\n     ** M. Balli, in placing the first astronomers at\n     Selingenakoy, near the Bailkal paid no attention to this\n     twofold circumstance: it equally argues against their being\n     placed at Axoum on account of the rains, and the Zimb fly of\n     which Mr. Bruce speaks.\n\n\"It was, then, on the borders of the upper Nile, among a black race of\nmen, that was organized the complicated system of the worship of the\nstars, considered in relation to the productions of the earth and the\nlabors of agriculture; and this first worship, characterized by their\nadoration under their own forms and natural attributes, was a simple\nproceeding of the human mind. But in a short time, the multiplicity of\nthe objects of their relations, and their reciprocal influence, having\ncomplicated the ideas, and the signs that represented them, there\nfollowed a confusion as singular in its cause as pernicious in its\neffects.\"\n\n\nIII. Third system. Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry.\n\n\n\"As soon as this agricultural people began to observe the stars with\nattention, they found it necessary to individualize or group them; and\nto assign to each a proper name, in order to understand each other in\ntheir designation. A great difficulty must have presented itself in\nthis business: First, the heavenly bodies, similar in form, offered\nno distinguishing characteristics by which to denominate them; and,\nsecondly, the language in its infancy and poverty, had no expressions\nfor so many new and metaphysical ideas. Necessity, the usual stimulus\nof genius, surmounted everything. Having remarked that in the annual\nrevolution, the renewal and periodical appearance of terrestrial\nproductions were constantly associated with the rising and setting\nof certain stars, and to their position as relative to the sun, the\nfundamental term of all comparison, the mind by a natural operation\nconnected in thought these terrestrial and celestial objects, which were\nconnected in fact; and applying to them a common sign, it gave to the\nstars, and their groups, the names of the terrestrial objects to which\nthey answered.*\n\n     * \"The ancients,\" says Maimonides, \"directing all their\n     attention to agriculture, gave names to the stars derived\n     from their occupation during the year.\"  More Neb. pars 3.\n\n\"Thus the Ethopian of Thebes named stars of inundation, or Aquarius,\nthose stars under which the Nile began to overflow;* stars of the ox or\nthe bull, those under which they began to plow; stars of the lion, those\nunder which that animal, driven from the desert by thirst, appeared on\nthe banks of the Nile; stars of the sheaf, or of the harvest virgin,\nthose of the reaping season; stars of the lamb, stars of the two kids,\nthose under which these precious animals were brought forth: and thus\nwas resolved the first part of the difficulty.\n\n     * This must have been June.\n\n\"Moreover, man having remarked in the beings which surrounded him\ncertain qualities distinctive and proper to each species, and having\nthence derived a name by which to designate them, he found in the same\nsource an ingenious mode of generalizing his ideas; and transferring\nthe name already invented to every thing which bore any resemblance or\nanalogy, he enriched his language with a perpetual round of metaphors.\n\n\"Thus the same Ethiopian having observed that the return of the\ninundation always corresponded with the rising of a beautiful star\nwhich appeared towards the source of the Nile, and seemed to warn the\nhusbandman against the coming waters, he compared this action to that\nof the animal who, by his barking, gives notice of danger, and he called\nthis star the dog, the barker (Sirius). In the same manner he named the\nstars of the crab, those where the sun, having arrived at the tropic,\nretreated by a slow retrograde motion like the crab or cancer. He\nnamed stars of the wild goat, or Capricorn, those where the sun, having\nreached the highest point in his annuary tract, rests at the summit\nof the horary gnomon, and imitates the goat, who delights to climb the\nsummit of the rocks. He named stars of the balance, or libra, those\nwhere the days and nights, being equal, seemed in equilibrium, like that\ninstrument; and stars of the scorpion, those where certain periodical\nwinds bring vapors, burning like the venom of the scorpion. In the same\nmanner he called by the name of rings and serpents the figured traces of\nthe orbits of the stars and the planets, and such was the general mode\nof naming all the stars and even the planets, taken by groups or as\nindividuals, according to their relations with husbandry and terrestrial\nobjects, and according to the analogies which each nation found between\nthem and the objects of its particular soil and climate.*\n\n     * The ancients had verbs from the substantives crab, goat,\n     tortoise, as the French have at present the verbs serpenter,\n     coquetter.  The history of all languages is nearly the same.\n\n\"From this it appeared that abject and terrestrial beings became\nassociated with the superior and powerful inhabitants of heaven; and\nthis association became stronger every day by the mechanism of language\nand the constitution of the human mind. Men would say by a natural\nmetaphor: The bull spreads over the earth the germs of fecundity (in\nspring) he restores vegetation and plenty: the lamb (or ram) delivers\nthe skies from the maleficent powers of winter; he saves the world from\nthe serpent (emblem of the humid season) and restores the empire of\ngoodness (summer, joyful season): the scorpion pours out his poison\non the earth, and scatters diseases and death. The same of all similar\neffects.\n\n\"This language, understood by every one, was attended at first with no\ninconvenience; but in the course of time, when the calendar had been\nregulated, the people, who had no longer any need of observing the\nheavens, lost sight of the original meaning of these expressions; and\nthe allegories remaining in common use became a fatal stumbling block to\nthe understanding and to reason. Habituated to associate to the symbols\nthe ideas of their archetypes, the mind at last confounded them: then\nthe same animals, whom fancy had transported to the skies, returned\nagain to the earth; but being thus returned, clothed in the livery of\nthe stars, they claimed the stellary attributes, and imposed on their\nown authors. Then it was that the people, believing that they saw their\ngods among them, could pray to them with more convenience: they demanded\nfrom the ram of their flock the influences which might be expected from\nthe heavenly ram; they prayed the scorpion not to pour out his venom\nupon nature; they revered the crab of the sea, the scarabeus of the\nmud, the fish of the river; and by a series of corrupt but inseparable\nanalogies, they lost themselves in a labyrinth of well connected\nabsurdities.\n\n\"Such was the origin of that ancient whimsical worship of the animals;\nsuch is the train of ideas by which the character of the divinity became\ncommon to the vilest of brutes, and by which was formed that theological\nsystem, extremely comprehensive, complicated, and learned, which,\nrising on the borders of the Nile, propagated from country to country by\ncommerce, war, and conquest, overspread the whole of the ancient world;\nand which, modified by time, circumstances and prejudices, is still seen\nentire among a hundred nations, and remains as the essential and secret\nbasis of the theology of those even who despise and reject it.\"\n\nSome murmurs at these words being heard from various groups: \"Yes!\"\ncontinued the orator, \"hence arose, for instance, among you, nations of\nAfrica, the adoration of your fetiches, plants, animals, pebbles, pieces\nof wood, before which your ancestors would not have had the folly to\nbow, if they had not seen in them talismans endowed with the virtue of\nthe stars.*\n\n     * The ancient astrologers, says the most learned of the Jews\n     (Maimonides), having sacredly assigned to each planet a\n     color, an animal, a tree, a metal, a fruit, a plant, formed\n     from them all a figure or representation of the star, taking\n     care to select for the purpose a proper moment, a fortunate\n     day, such as the conjunction of the star, or some other\n     favorable aspect.  They conceived that by their magic\n     ceremonies they could introduce into those figures or idols\n     the influences of the superior beings after which they were\n     modeled.  These were the idols that the Chaldean-Sabeans\n     adored; and in the performance of their worship they were\n     obliged to be dressed in the proper color.  The astrologers,\n     by their practices, thus introduced idolatry, desirous of\n     being regarded as the dispensers of the favors of heaven;\n     and as agriculture was the sole employment of the ancients,\n     they succeeded in persuading them that the rain and other\n     blessings of the seasons were at their disposal.  Thus the\n     whole art of agriculture was exercised by rules of\n     astrology, and the priests made talismans or charms which\n     were to drive away locusts, flies, etc.  See Maimonides,\n     More Nebuchim, pars 3, c. 29.\n\n     The priests of Egypt, Persia, India, etc., pretended to bind\n     the Gods to their idols, and to make them come from heaven\n     at their pleasure.  They threatened the sun and moon, if\n     they were disobedient, to reveal the secret mysteries, to\n     shake the skies, etc., etc.  Euseb. Proecep. Evang. p. 198,\n     and Jamblicus de Mysteriis Aegypt.\n\n\"Here, ye nations of Tartary, is the origin of your marmosets, and of\nall that train of animals with which your chamans ornament their magical\nrobes. This is the origin of those figures of birds and of snakes which\nsavage nations imprint upon their skins with sacred and mysterious\nceremonies.\n\n\"Ye inhabitants of India! in vain you cover yourselves with the veil\nof mystery: the hawk of your god Vichenou is but one of the thousand\nemblems of the sun in Egypt; and your incarnations of a god in the fish,\nthe boar, the lion, the tortoise, and all his monstrous adventures, are\nonly the metamorphoses of the sun, who, passing through the signs of the\ntwelve animals (or the zodiac), was supposed to assume their figures,\nand perform their astronomical functions.*\n\n     * These are the very words of Jamblicus de Symbolis\n     Aegyptiorum, c. 2, sect. 7.  The sun was the grand Proteus,\n     the universal metamorphist.\n\n\"People of Japan, your bull, which breaks the mundane egg, is only the\nbull of the zodiac, which in former times opened the seasons, the age\nof creation, the vernal equinox. It is the same bull Apis which Egypt\nadored, and which your ancestors, Jewish Rabbins, worshipped in the\ngolden calf. This is still your bull, followers of Zoroaster, which,\nsacrificed in the symbolic mysteries of Mithra, poured out his blood\nwhich fertilized the earth. And ye Christians, your bull of the\nApocalypse, with his wings, symbol of the air, has no other origin; and\nyour lamb of God, sacrificed, like the bull of Mithra, for the salvation\nof the world, is only the same sun, in the sign of the celestial ram,\nwhich, in a later age, opening the equinox in his turn, was supposed to\ndeliver the world from evil, that is to say, from the constellation of\nthe serpent, from that great snake, the parent of winter, the emblem of\nthe Ahrimanes, or Satan of the Persians, your school masters. Yes, in\nvain does your imprudent zeal consign idolaters to the torments of the\nTartarus which they invented; the whole basis of your system is only\nthe worship of the sun, with whose attributes you have decorated your\nprincipal personage. It is the sun which, under the name of Horus,\nwas born, like your God, at the winter solstice, in the arms of the\ncelestial virgin, and who passed a childhood of obscurity, indigence,\nand want, answering to the season of cold and frost. It is he that,\nunder the name of Osiris, persecuted by Typhon and by the tyrants of the\nair, was put to death, shut up in a dark tomb, emblem of the hemisphere\nof winter, and afterwards, ascending from the inferior zone towards the\nzenith of heaven, arose again from the dead triumphant over the giants\nand the angels of destruction.\n\n\"Ye priests! who murmur at this relation, you wear his emblems all over\nyour bodies; your tonsure is the disk of the sun; your stole is his\nzodiac;* your rosaries are symbols of the stars and planets. Ye pontiffs\nand prelates! your mitre, your crozier, your mantle are those of Osiris;\nand that cross whose mystery you extol without comprehending it, is the\ncross of Serapis, traced by the hands of Egyptian priests on the plan\nof the figurative world; which, passing through the equinoxes and the\ntropics, became the emblem of the future life and of the resurrection,\nbecause it touched the gates of ivory and of horn, through which the\nsoul passed to heaven.\"\n\n     * \"The Arabs,\" says Herodotus, \"shave their heads in a\n     circle and about the temples, in imitation of Bacchus (that\n     is the sun), who shaves himself is this manner.\"  Jeremiah\n     speaks also of this custom.  The tuft of hair which the\n     Mahometans preserve, is taken also from the sun, who was\n     painted by the Egyptians at the winter solstice, as having\n     but a single hair upon his head. . . .\n\n     The robes of the goddess of Syria and of Diana of Ephesus,\n     from whence are borrowed the dress of the priests; have the\n     twelve animals of the zodiac painted on them. . . .\n\n     Rosaries are found upon all the Indian idols, constructed\n     more than four thousand years ago, and their use in the East\n     has been universal from time immemorial. . . .\n\n     The crozier is precisely the staff of Bootes or Osiris.\n     (See plate.)\n\n     All the Lamas wear the mitre or cap in the shape of a cone,\n     which was an emblem of the sun.\n\nAt these words, the doctors of all the groups began to look at each\nother with astonishment; but no one breaking silence, the orator\nproceeded:\n\n\"Three principal causes concur to produce this confusion of ideas:\nFirst, the figurative expressions under which an infant language was\nobliged to describe the relations of objects; expressions which, passing\nafterwards from a limited to a general sense, and from a physical to a\nmoral one, caused, by their ambiguities and synonymes, a great number of\nmistakes.\n\n\"Thus, it being first said that the sun had surmounted, or finished,\ntwelve animals, it was thought afterwards that he had killed them,\nfought them, conquered them; and of this was composed the historical\nlife of Hercules.*\n\n     * See the memoir of Dupuis on the Origin of the\n     Constellations, before cited.\n\n\"It being said that he regulated the periods of rural labor, the seed\ntime and the harvest, that he distributed the seasons and occupations,\nran through the climates and ruled the earth, etc., he was taken for a\nlegislative king, a conquering warrior; and they framed from this the\nhistory of Osiris, of Bacchus, and others of that description.\n\n\"Having said that a planet entered into a sign, they made of this\nconjunction a marriage, an adultery, an incest.* Having said that the\nplanet was hid or buried, when it came back to light, and ascended to\nits exaltation, they said that it had died, risen again, was carried\ninto heaven, etc.\n\n     * These are the very words of Plutarch in his account of\n     Isis and Osiris.  The Hebrews say, in speaking of the\n     generations of the Patriarchs, et ingressus est in eam.\n     From this continual equivoke of ancient language, proceeds\n     every mistake.\n\n\"A second cause of confusion was the material figures themselves,\nby which men first painted thoughts; and which, under the name of\nhieroglyphics, or sacred characters, were the first invention of the\nmind. Thus, to give warning of the inundation, and of the necessity of\nguarding against it, they painted a boat, the ship Argo; to express the\nwind, they painted the wing of a bird; to designate the season, or the\nmonth, they painted the bird of passage, the insect, or the animal which\nmade its appearance at that period; to describe the winter, they painted\na hog or a serpent, which delight in humid places, and the combination\nof these figures carried the known sense of words and phrases.* But as\nthis sense could not be fixed with precision, as the number of these\nfigures and their combinations became excessive, and overburdened\nthe memory, the immediate consequence was confusion and false\ninterpretations. Genius afterwards having invented the more simple\nart of applying signs to sounds, of which the number is limited, and\npainting words, instead of thoughts, alphabetical writing thus threw\ninto disuetude hieroglyphical painting; and its signification, falling\ndaily into oblivion, gave rise to a multitude of illusions, ambiguities,\nand errors.\n\n     * The reader will doubtless see with pleasure some examples\n     of ancient hieroglyphics.\n\n     \"The Egyptians (says Hor-appolo) represent eternity by the\n     figures of the sun and moon.  They designate the world by\n     the blue serpent with yellow scales (stars, it is the\n     Chinese Dragon).  If they were desirous of expressing the\n     year, they drew a picture of Isis, who is also in their\n     language called Sothis, or dog-star, one of the first\n     constellations, by the rising of which the year commences;\n     its inscription at Sais was, It is I that rise in the\n     constellation of the Dog.\n\n     \"They also represent the year by a palm tree, and the month\n     by one of its branches, because it is the nature of this\n     tree to produce a branch every month.  They farther\n     represent it by the fourth part of an acre of land.\"  The\n     whole acre divided into four denotes the bissextile period\n     of four years.  The abbreviation of this figure of a field\n     in four divisions, is manifestly the letter ha or het, the\n     seventh in the Samaritan alphabet; and in general all the\n     letters of the alphabet are merely astronomical\n     hieroglyphics; and it is for this reason that the mode of\n     writing is from right to left, like the march of the stars.\n     --\"They denote a prophet by the image of a dog, because the\n     dog star (Anoubis) by its rising gives notice of the\n     inundation.  Noubi, in Hebrew signifies prophet--They\n     represent inundation by a lion, because it takes place under\n     that sign: and hence, says Plutarch, the custom of placing\n     at the gates of temples figures of lions with water issuing\n     from their mouths.--They express the idea of God and destiny\n     by a star.  They also represent God, says Porphyry, by a\n     black stone, because his nature is dark and obscure.  All\n     white things express the celestial and luminous Gods: all\n     circular ones the world, the moon, the sun, the orbits; all\n     semicircular ones, as bows and crescents are descriptive of\n     the moon.  Fire and the Gods of Olympus they represent by\n     pyramids and obelisks (the name of the sun, Baal, is found\n     in this latter word): the sun by a cone (the mitre of\n     Osiris): the earth, by a cylinder (which revolves): the\n     generative power of the air by the phalus, and that of the\n     earth by a triangle, emblem of the female organ.  Euseb.\n     Proecep.  Evang. p. 98.\n\n     \"Clay, says Jamblicus de Symbolis, sect. 7, c. 2. denotes\n     matter, the generative and nutrimental power, every thing\n     which receives the warmth and fermentation of life.\"\n\n     \"A man sitting upon the Lotos or Nenuphar, represents the\n     moving spirit (the sun) which, in like manner as that plant\n     lives in the water without any communication with clay,\n     exists equally distinct from matter, swimming in empty\n     space, resting on itself: it is round also in all its parts,\n     like the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit of the Lotos.\n     (Brama has the eyes of the Lotos, says Chasler Nesdirsen, to\n     denote his intelligence: his eye swims over every thing,\n     like the flower of the Lotos on the waters.)  A man at the\n     helm of a ship, adds Jamblicus, is descriptive of the sun\n     which governs all.  And Porphyry tells us that the sun is\n     also represented by a man in a ship resting upon an\n     amphibious crocodile (emblem of air and water).\n\n     \"At Elephantine they worshipped the figure of a man in a\n     sitting posture, painted blue, having the head of a ram, and\n     the horns of a goat which encompassed a disk; all which\n     represented the sun and moon's conjunction at the sign of\n     the ram; the blue color denoting the power of the moon, at\n     the period of junction, to raise water into the clouds.\n     Euseb. Proecep. Evang. p. 116.\n\n     \"The hawk is an emblem of the sun and of light, on account\n     of his rapid flight and his soaring into the highest regions\n     of the air where light abounds.\n\n     A fish is the emblem of aversion, and the Hippopotamus of\n     violence, because it is said to kill its father and to\n     ravish its mother. Hence, says Plutarch, the emblematical\n     inscription of the temple of Sais, where we see painted on\n     the vestibule, 1. A child, 2. An old man, 3. A hawk, 4. A\n     fish, 5. A hippopotamus: which signify, 1. Entrance, into\n     life, 2. Departure, 3. God, 4. Hates, 5.  Injustice. See\n     Isis and Osiris.\n\n     \"The Egyptians, adds he, represent the world by a Scarabeus,\n     because this insect pushes, in a direction contrary to that\n     in which it proceeds, a ball containing its eggs, just as\n     the heaven of the fixed stars causes the revolution of the\n     sun, (the yolk of an egg) in an opposite direction to its\n     own.\n\n     \"They represent the world also by the number five, being\n     that of the elements, which, says Diodorus, are earth,\n     water, air, fire, and ether, or spiritus.  The Indians have\n     the same number of elements, and according to Macrobius's\n     mystics, they are the supreme God, or primum mobile, the\n     intelligence, or mens, born of him, the soul of the world\n     which proceeds from him, the celestial spheres, and all\n     things terrestrial.  Hence, adds Plutarch, the analogy\n     between the Greek pente, five, and pan all.\n\n     \"The ass,\" says he again, \"is the emblem of Typhon, because\n     like that animal he is of a reddish color.  Now Typhon\n     signifies whatever is of a mirey or clayey nature; (and in\n     Hebrew I find the three words clay, red, and ass to be\n     formed from the same root hamr).  Jamblicus has farther told\n     us that clay was the emblem of matter and he elsewhere adds,\n     that all evil and corruption proceeded from matter; which\n     compared with the phrase of Macrobius, all is perishable,\n     liable to change in the celestial sphere, gives us the\n     theory, first physical, then moral, of the system of good\n     and evil of the ancients.\"\n\n\"Finally, a third cause of confusion was the civil organization\nof ancient states. When the people began to apply themselves to\nagriculture, the formation of a rural calendar, requiring a continued\nseries of astronomical observations, it became necessary to appoint\ncertain individuals charged with the functions of watching the\nappearance and disappearance of certain stars, to foretell the return of\nthe inundation, of certain winds, of the rainy season, the proper time\nto sow every kind of grain. These men, on account of their service,\nwere exempt from common labor, and the society provided for their\nmaintenance. With this provision, and wholly employed in their\nobservations, they soon became acquainted with the great phenomena\nof nature, and even learned to penetrate the secret of many of her\noperations. They discovered the movement of the stars and planets, the\ncoincidence of their phases and returns with the productions of\nthe earth and the action of vegetation; the medicinal and nutritive\nproperties of plants and fruits; the action of the elements, and\ntheir reciprocal affinities. Now, as there was no other method of\ncommunicating the knowledge of these discoveries but the laborious one\nof oral instruction, they transmitted it only to their relations and\nfriends, it followed therefore that all science and instruction were\nconfined to a few families, who, arrogating it to themselves as an\nexclusive privilege, assumed a professional distinction, a corporation\nspirit, fatal to the public welfare. This continued succession of the\nsame researches and the same labors, hastened, it is true, the progress\nof knowledge; but by the mystery which accompanied it, the people were\ndaily plunged in deeper shades, and became more superstitious and\nmore enslaved. Seeing their fellow mortals produce certain phenomena,\nannounce, as at pleasure, eclipses and comets, heal diseases, and handle\nvenomous serpents, they thought them in alliance with celestial powers;\nand, to obtain the blessings and avert the evils which they expected\nfrom above, they took them for mediators and interpreters; and thus\nbecame established in the bosom of every state sacrilegious corporations\nof hypocritical and deceitful men, who centered all powers in\nthemselves; and the priests, being at once astronomers, theologians,\nnaturalists, physicians, magicians, interpreters of the gods, oracles of\nmen, and rivals of kings, or their accomplices, established, under the\nname of religion, an empire of mystery and a monopoly of instruction,\nwhich to this day have ruined every nation. . . .\"\n\nHere the priests of all the groups interrupted the orator, and with loud\ncries accused him of impiety, irreligion, blasphemy; and endeavored to\ncut short his discourse; but the legislator observing that this was only\nan exposition of historical facts, which, if false or forged, would be\neasily refuted; that hitherto the declaration of every opinion had been\nfree, and without this it would be impossible to discover the truth, the\norator proceeded:\n\n\"Now, from all these causes, and from the continual associations of\nill-assorted ideas, arose a mass of disorders in theology, in morals,\nand in traditions; first, because the animals represented the stars,\nthe characters of the animals, their appetites, their sympathies,\ntheir aversions, passed over to the gods, and were supposed to be their\nactions; thus, the god Ichneumon made war against the god Crocodile;\nthe god Wolf liked to eat the god Sheep; the god Ibis devoured the\ngod Serpent; and the deity became a strange, capricious, and ferocious\nbeing, whose idea deranged the judgment of man, and corrupted his morals\nand his reason.\n\n\"Again, because in the spirit of their worship every family, every\nnation, took for its special patron a star or a constellation, the\naffections or antipathies of the symbolic animal were transferred to its\nsectaries; and the partisans of the god Dog were enemies to those of the\ngod Wolf;* those who adored the god Ox had an abhorrence to those who\nate him; and religion became the source of hatred and hostility,--the\nsenseless cause of frenzy and superstition.\n\n     * These are properly the words of Plutarch, who relates that\n     those various worships were given by a king of Egypt to the\n     different towns to disunite and enslave them, and these\n     kings had been taken from the cast of priests.  See Isis and\n     Osiris.\n\n\"Besides, the names of those animal-stars having, for this same reason\nof patronage, been conferred on countries, nations, mountains, and\nrivers, these objects were taken for gods, and hence followed a mixture\nof geographical, historical, and mythological beings, which confounded\nall traditions.\n\n\"Finally, by the analogy of actions which were ascribed to them, the\ngod-stars, having been taken for men, for heroes, for kings, kings\nand heroes took in their turn the actions of gods for models, and by\nimitation became warriors, conquerors, proud, lascivious, indolent,\nsanguinary; and religion consecrated the crimes of despots, and\nperverted the principles of government.\"\n\n\nIV. Fourth system. Worship of two Principles, or Dualism.\n\n\n\"In the mean time, the astronomical priests, enjoying peace and\nabundance in their temples, made every day new progress in the sciences,\nand the system of the world unfolding gradually to their view, they\nraised successively various hypotheses as to its agents and effects,\nwhich became so many theological systems.\n\n\"The voyages of the maritime nations and the caravans of the nomads of\nAsia and Africa, having given them a knowledge of the earth from the\nFortunate Islands to Serica, and from the Baltic to the sources of the\nNile, the comparison of the phenomena of the various zones taught them\nthe rotundity of the earth, and gave birth to a new theory. Having\nremarked that all the operations of nature during the annual period\nwere reducible to two principal ones, that of producing and that of\ndestroying; that on the greater part of the globe these two operations\nwere performed in the intervals of the two equinoxes; that is to\nsay, during the six months of summer every thing was procreating and\nmultiplying, and that during winter everything languished and almost\ndied; they supposed in Nature two contrary powers, which were in\na continual state of contention and exertion; and considering the\ncelestial sphere in this view, they divided the images which\nthey figured upon it into two halves or hemispheres; so that the\nconstellations which were on the summer heaven formed a direct and\nsuperior empire; and those which were on the winter heaven composed an\nantipode and inferior empire. Therefore, as the constellations of summer\naccompanied the season of long, warm, and unclouded days, and that\nof fruits and harvests, they were considered as the powers of light,\nfecundity, and creation; and, by a transition from a physical to a moral\nsense, they became genii, angels of science, of beneficence, of purity\nand virtue. And as the constellations of winter were connected with long\nnights and polar fogs, they were the genii of darkness, of destruction,\nof death; and by transition, angels of ignorance, of wickedness, of sin\nand vice. By this arrangement the heaven was divided into two domains,\ntwo factions; and the analogy of human ideas already opened a vast field\nto the errors of imagination; but the mistake and the illusion were\ndetermined, if not occasioned by a particular circumstance. (Observe\nplate Astrological Heaven of the Ancients.)\n\n\"In the projection of the celestial sphere, as traced by the\nastronomical priests,* the zodiac and the constellations, disposed in\ncircular order, presented their halves in diametrical opposition; the\nhemisphere of winter, antipode of that of summer, was adverse, contrary,\nopposed to it. By a continual metaphor, these words acquired a moral\nsense; and the adverse genii, or angels, became revolted enemies.**\nFrom that moment all the astronomical history of the constellations was\nchanged into a political history; the heavens became a human state,\nwhere things happened as on the earth. Now, as the earthly states, the\ngreater part despotic, had already their monarchs, and as the sun was\napparently the monarch of the skies, the summer hemisphere (empire of\nlight) and its constellations (a nation of white angels) had for king\nan enlightened God, a creator intelligent and good. And as every rebel\nfaction must have its chief, the heaven of winter, the subterranean\nempire of darkness and woe, and its stars, a nation of black angels,\ngiants and demons, had for their chief a malignant genius, whose\ncharacter was applied by different people to the constellation which\nto them was the most remarkable. In Egypt it was at first the Scorpion,\nfirst zodiacal sign after Libra, and for a long time chief of the winter\nsigns ; then it was the Bear, or the polar Ass, called Typhon, that is\nto say, deluge,** on account of the rains which deluge the earth during\nthe dominion of that star. At a later period,*** in Persia,**** it was\nthe Serpent, who, under the name of Abrimanes, formed the basis of the\nsystem of Zoroaster; and it is the same, O Christians and Jews! that\nhas become your serpent of Eve (the celestial virgin,) and that of the\ncross; in both cases it is the emblem of Satan, the enemy and great\nadversary of the Ancient of Days, sung by Daniel.\n\n     * The ancient priests had three kinds of spheres, which it\n     may be useful to make known to the reader.\n\n     \"We read in Eusebius,\" says Porphyry, \"that Zoroaster was\n     the first who, having fixed upon a cavern pleasantly\n     situated in the mountains adjacent to Persia, formed the\n     idea of consecrating it to Mithra (the sun) creator and\n     father of all things: that is to say, having made in this\n     cavern several geometrical divisions, representing the\n     seasons and the elements, he imitated on a small scale the\n     order and disposition of the universe by Mithra.  After\n     Zoroaster, it became a custom to consecrate caverns for the\n     celebration of mysteries: so that in like manner as temples\n     were dedicated to the Gods, rural altars to heroes and\n     terrestrial deities, etc., subterranean abodes to infernal\n     deities, so caverns and grottoes were consecrated to the\n     world, to the universe, and to the nymphs: and from hence\n     Pythagoras and Plato borrowed the idea of calling the earth\n     a cavern, a cave, de Antro Nympharum.\n\n     Such was the first projection of the sphere in relief;\n     though the Persians give the honor of the invention to\n     Zoroaster, it is doubtless due to the Egyptians; for we may\n     suppose from this projection being the most simple that it\n     was the most ancient; the caverns of Thebes, full of similar\n     pictures, tend to strengthen this opinion.\n\n     The following was the second projection: \"The prophets or\n     hierophants,\" says Bishop Synnesius, \"who had been initiated\n     in the mysteries, do not permit the common workmen to form\n     idols or images of the Gods; but they descend themselves\n     into the sacred caves, where they have concealed coffers\n     containing certain spheres upon which they construct those\n     images secretly and without the knowledge of the people, who\n     despise simple and natural things and wish for prodigies and\n     fables.\"  (Syn. in Calvit.)  That is, the ancient priests\n     had armillary spheres like ours; and this passage, which so\n     well agrees with that of Chaeremon, gives us the key to all\n     their theological astrology.\n\n     Lastly, they had flat models of the nature of Plate V. with\n     the difference that they were of a very complicated nature,\n     having every fictitious division of decan and subdecan, with\n     the hieroglyphic signs of their influence.  Kircher has\n     given us a copy of one of them in his Egyptian Oedipus, and\n     Gybelin a figured fragment in his book of the calendar\n     (under the name of the Egyptian Zodiac).  The ancient\n     Egyptians, says the astrologer Julius Firmicus, (Astron.\n     lib. ii. and lib. iv., c. 16), divide each sign of the\n     Zodiac into three sections; and each section was under the\n     direction of an imaginary being whom they called decan or\n     chief of ten; so that there were three decans a month, and\n     thirty-six a year.  Now these decans, who were also called\n     Gods (Theoi), regulated the destinies of mankind--and they\n     were placed particularly in certain stars.  They afterwards\n     imagined in every ten three other Gods, whom they called\n     arbiters; so that there were nine for every month, and these\n     were farther divided into an infinite number of powers.  The\n     Persians and Indians made their spheres on similar plans;\n     and if a picture thereof were to be drawn from the\n     description given by Scaliger at the end of Manilius, we\n     should find in it a complete explanation of their\n     hieroglyphics, for every article forms one.\n\n     ** If it was for this reason the Persians always wrote the\n     name of Ahrimanes inverted thus: ['Ahrimanes' upside down\n     and backwards].\n\n     *** Typhon, pronounced Touphon by the Greeks, is precisely\n     the touphan of the Arabs, which signifies deluge; and these\n     deluges in mythology are nothing more than winter and the\n     rains, or the overflowing of the Nile: as their pretended\n     fires which are to destroy the world, are simply the summer\n     season.  And it is for this reason that Aristotle (De\n     Meteor, lib. I. c. xiv), says, that the winter of the great\n     cyclic year is a deluge; and its summer a conflagration.\n     \"The Egyptians,\" says Porphyry, \"employ every year a\n     talisman in remembrance of the world: at the summer solstice\n     they mark their houses, flocks and trees with red, supposing\n     that on that day the whole world had been set on fire.  It\n     was also at the same period that they celebrated the pyrric\n     or fire dance.\"  And this illustrates the origin of\n     purification by fire and by water; for having denominated\n     the tropic of Cancer the gate of heaven, and the genial heat\n     of celestial fire, and that of Capricorn the gate of deluge\n     or of water, it was imagined that the spirit or souls who\n     passed through these gates in their way to and from heaven,\n     were roasted or bathed: hence the baptism of Mithra; and the\n     passage through flames, observed throughout the East long\n     before Moses.\n\n     **** That is when the ram became the equinoctial sign, or\n     rather when the alteration of the skies showed that it was\n     no longer the bull.\n\n\"In Syria, it was the hog or wild boar, enemy of Adonis; because in that\ncountry the functions of the Northern Bear were performed by the animal\nwhose inclination for mire and dirt was emblematic of winter. And this\nis the reason, followers of Moses and Mahomet! that you hold him in\nhorror, in imitation of the priests of Memphis and Balbec, who detested\nhim as the murderer of their God, the sun. This likewise, O Indians!\nis the type of your Chib-en; and it has been likewise the Pluto of your\nbrethren, the Romans and Greeks; in like manner, your Brama, God the\ncreator, is only the Persian Ormuzd, and the Egyptian Osiris, whose\nvery name expresses creative power, producer of forms. And these gods\nreceived a worship analogous to their attributes, real or imaginary;\nwhich worship was divided into two branches, according to their\ncharacters. The good god receives a worship of love and joy, from which\nare derived all religious acts of gaiety, such as festivals, dances,\nbanquets, offerings of flowers, milk, honey, perfumes; in a word,\neverything grateful to the senses and to the soul.* The evil god, on\nthe contrary, received a worship of fear and pain; whence originated\nall religious acts of the gloomy sort,** tears, desolations, mournings,\nself-denials, bloody offerings, and cruel sacrifices.\n\n     * All the ancient festivals respecting the return and\n     exaltation of the sun were of this description: hence the\n     hilaria of the Roman calendar at the period of the passage,\n     Pascha, of the vernal equinox.  The dances were imitations\n     of the march of the planets. Those of the Dervises still\n     represent it to this day.\n\n     ** \"Sacrifices of blood,\" says Porphyry, \"were only offered\n     to Demons and evil Genii to avert their wrath.  Demons are\n     fond of blood, humidity, stench.\"  Apud. Euseb. Proep. Ev.,\n     p. 173.\n\n     \"The Egyptians,\" says Plutarch, \"only offer bloody victims\n     to Typhon.  They sacrifice to him a red ox, and the animal\n     immolated is held in execration and loaded with all the sins\n     of the people.\" The goat of Moses.  See Isis and Osiris.\n\n     Strabo says, speaking of Moses, and the Jews, \"Circumcision\n     and the prohibition of certain kinds of meat sprung from\n     superstition.\" And I observe, respecting the ceremony of\n     circumcision, that its object was to take from the symbol of\n     Osiris, (Phallus) the pretended obstacle to fecundity: an\n     obstacle which bore the seal of Typhon, \"whose nature,\" says\n     Plutarch, \"is made up of all that hinders, opposes, causes\n     obstruction.\"\n\n\"Hence arose that distinction of terrestrial beings into pure and\nimpure, sacred and abominable, according as their species were of the\nnumber of the constellations of one of these two gods, and made part\nof his domain; and this produced, on the one hand, the superstitions\nconcerning pollutions and purifications; and, on the other, the\npretended efficacious virtues of amulets and talismans.\n\n\"You conceive now,\" continued the orator, addressing himself to the\nPersians, the Indians, the Jews, the Christians, the Mussulmans, \"you\nconceive the origin of those ideas of battles and rebellions, which\nequally abound in all your mythologies. You see what is meant by white\nand black angels, your cherubim and seraphim, with heads of eagles, of\nlions, or of bulls; your deus, devils, demons, with horns of goats and\ntails of serpents; your thrones and dominions, ranged in seven orders or\ngradations, like the seven spheres of the planets; all beings acting the\nsame parts, and endowed with the same attributes in your Vedas, Bibles,\nand Zend-avestas, whether they have for chiefs Ormuzd or Brama, Typhon\nor Chiven, Michael or Satan;--whether they appear under the form\nof giants with a hundred arms and feet of serpents, or that of gods\nmetamorphosed into lions, storks, bulls or cats, as they are in the\nsacred fables of the Greeks and Egyptians. You perceive the successive\nfiliation of these ideas, and how, in proportion to their remoteness\nfrom their source, and as the minds of men became refined, their gross\nforms have been polished, and rendered less disgusting.\n\n\"But in the same manner as you have seen the system of two opposite\nprinciples or gods arise from that of symbols, interwoven into its\ntexture, your attention shall now be called to a new system which has\ngrown out of this, and to which this has served in its turn as the basis\nand support.\n\n\nV. Moral and Mystical Worship, or System of a Future State.\n\n\n\"Indeed, when the vulgar heard speak of a new heaven and another world,\nthey soon gave a body to these fictions; they erected therein a real\ntheatre of action, and their notions of astronomy and geography served\nto strengthen, if not to originate, this illusion.\n\n\"On the one hand, the Phoenician navigators who passed the pillars of\nHercules, to fetch the tin of Thule and the amber of the Baltic,\nrelated that at the extremity of the world, the end of the ocean (the\nMediterranean), where the sun sets for the countries of Asia, were the\nFortunate Islands, the abode of eternal spring; and beyond were the\nhyperborean regions, placed under the earth (relatively to the tropics)\nwhere reigned an eternal night.* From these stories, misunderstood, and\nno doubt confusedly related, the imagination of the people composed the\nElysian fields,** regions of delight, placed in a world below, having\ntheir heaven, their sun, and their stars; and Tartarus, a place of\ndarkness, humidity, mire, and frost. Now, as man, inquisitive of that\nwhich he knows not, and desirous of protracting his existence, had\nalready interrogated himself concerning what was to become of him after\nhis death, as he had early reasoned on the principle of life which\nanimates his body, and which leaves it without deforming it, and as he\nhad imagined airy substances, phantoms, and shades, he fondly believed\nthat he should continue, in the subterranean world, that life which\nit was too painful for him to lose; and these lower regions seemed\ncommodious for the reception of the beloved objects which he could not\nwillingly resign.\n\n     * Nights of six months duration.\n\n     ** Aliz, in the Phoenician or Hebrew language signifies\n     dancing and joyous.\n\n\"On the other hand, the astrological and geological priests told\nsuch stories and made such descriptions of their heavens, as accorded\nperfectly well with these fictions. Having, in their metaphorical\nlanguage, called the equinoxes and solstices the gates of heaven, the\nentrance of the seasons, they explained these terrestrial phenomena by\nsaying, that through the gate of horn (first the bull, afterwards the\nram) and through the gate of Cancer, descended the vivifying fires which\ngive life to vegetation in the spring, and the aqueous spirits which\nbring, at the solstice, the inundation of the Nile; that through the\ngate of ivory (Libra, formerly Sagittarius, or the bowman) and that\nof Capricorn, or the urn, the emanations or influences of the heavens\nreturned to their source, and reascended to their origin; and the Milky\nWay, which passed through the gates of the solstices, seemed to be\nplaced there to serve them as a road or vehicle.* Besides, in their\natlas, the celestial scene presented a river (the Nile, designated by\nthe windings of the hydra), a boat, (the ship Argo) and the dog Sirius,\nboth relative to this river, whose inundation they foretold. These\ncircumstances, added to the preceding, and still further explaining\nthem, increased their probability, and to arrive at Tartarus or Elysium,\nsouls were obliged to cross the rivers Styx and Acheron in the boat of\nthe ferryman Charon, and to pass through the gates of horn or ivory,\nguarded by the dog Cerberus. Finally, these inventions were applied to a\ncivil use, and thence received a further consistency.\n\n     *See Macrob. Som. Scrip. c. 12.\n\n\"Having remarked that in their burning climate the putrefaction of dead\nbodies was a cause of pestilential diseases, the Egyptians, in many of\ntheir towns, had adopted the practice of burying their dead beyond the\nlimits of the inhabited country, in the desert of the West. To go there,\nit was necessary to pass the channels of the river, and consequently\nto be received into a boat, and pay something to the ferryman, without\nwhich the body, deprived of sepulture, must have been the prey of wild\nbeasts. This custom suggested to the civil and religious legislators the\nmeans of a powerful influence on manners; and, addressing uncultivated\nand ferocious men with the motives of filial piety and a reverence for\nthe dead, they established, as a necessary condition, their undergoing\na previous trial, which should decide whether the deceased merited to\nbe admitted to the rank of the family in the black city. Such an idea\naccorded too well with all the others, not to be incorporated with them:\nthe people soon adopted it; and hell had its Minos and its Rhadamanthus,\nwith the wand, the bench, the ushers, and the urn, as in the earthly and\ncivil state. It was then that God became a moral and political being,\na lawgiver to men, and so much the more to be dreaded, as this supreme\nlegislator, this final judge, was inaccessible and invisible. Then it\nwas that this fabulous and mythological world, composed of such odd\nmaterials and disjointed parts, became a place of punishments and of\nrewards, where divine justice was supposed to correct what was vicious\nand erroneous in the judgment of men. This spiritual and mystical\nsystem acquired the more credit, as it took possession of man by all his\nnatural inclinations. The oppressed found in it the hope of indemnity,\nand the consolation of future vengeance; the oppressor, expecting by\nrich offerings to purchase his impunity, formed out of the errors of the\nvulgar an additional weapon of oppression; the chiefs of nations, the\nkings and priests, found in this a new instrument of domination by the\nprivilege which they reserved to themselves of distributing the favors\nand punishments of the great judge, according to the merit or demerit\nof actions, which they took care to characterize as best suited their\nsystem.\n\n\"This, then, is the manner in which an invisible and imaginary world\nhas been introduced into the real and visible one; this is the origin of\nthose regions of pleasure and pain, of which you Persians have made your\nregenerated earth, your city of resurrection, placed under the equator,\nwith this singular attribute, that in it the blessed cast no shade.* Of\nthese materials, Jews and Christians, disciples of the Persians, have\nyou formed your New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse, your paradise, your\nheaven, copied in all its parts from the astrological heaven of Hermes:\nand your hell, ye Mussulmans, your bottomless pit, surmounted by a\nbridge, your balance for weighing souls and good works, your last\njudgment by the angels Monkir and Nekir, are likewise modeled from the\nmysterious ceremonies of the cave of Mithras** and your heaven differs\nnot in the least from that of Osiris, of Ormuzd, and of Brama.\n\n     * There is on this subject a passage in Plutarch, so\n     interesting and explanatory of the whole of this system,\n     that we shall cite it entire.  Having observed that the\n     theory of good and evil had at all times occupied the\n     attention of philosophers and theologians, he adds: \"Many\n     suppose there to be two gods of opposite inclinations, one\n     delighting in good, the other in evil; the first of these is\n     called particularly by the name of God, the second by that\n     of Genius or Demon.  Zoroaster has denominated them Oromaze\n     and Ahrimanes, and has said that of whatever falls under the\n     cognizance of our senses, light is the best representation\n     of the one, and darkness and ignorance of the other.  He\n     adds, that Mithra is an intermediate being, and it is for\n     this reason the Persians call Mithra the mediator or\n     intermediator.  Each of these Gods has distinct plants and\n     animals consecrated to him: for example, dogs, birds and\n     hedge-hogs belong to the good Genius, and all aquatic\n     animals to the evil one.\n\n     \"The Persians also say, that Oromaze was born or formed out\n     of the purest light; Ahrimanes, on the contrary, out of the\n     thickest darkness: that Oromaze made six gods as good as\n     himself, and Ahrimanes opposed to them six wicked ones: that\n     Oromaze afterwards multiplied himself threefold (Hermes\n     trismegistus) and removed to a distance as remote from the\n     sun as the sun is remote from the earth that he there formed\n     stars, and, among others, Sirius, which he placed in the\n     heavens as a guard and sentinel.  He made also twenty-four\n     other Gods, which he inclosed in an egg; but Ahrimanes\n     created an equal number on his part, who broke the egg, and\n     from that moment good and evil were mixed (in the universe).\n     But Ahrimanes is one day to be conquered, and the earth to\n     be made equal and smooth, that all men may live happy.\n\n     \"Theopompus adds, from the books of the Magi, that one of\n     these Gods reigns in turn every three thousand years during\n     which the other is kept in subjection; that they afterwards\n     contend with equal weapons during a similar portion of time,\n     but that in the end the evil Genius will fall (never to rise\n     again).  Then men will become happy, and their bodies cast\n     no shade.  The God who mediates all these things reclines at\n     present in repose, waiting till he shall be pleased to\n     execute them.\"  See Isis and Osiris.\n\n     There is an apparent allegory through the whole of this\n     passage. The egg is the fixed sphere, the world: the six\n     Gods of Oromaze are the six signs of summer, those of\n     Ahrimanes the six signs of winter.  The forty-eight other\n     Gods are the forty-eight constellations of the ancient\n     sphere, divided equally between Ahrimanes and Oronmze.  The\n     office of Sirius, as guard and sentinel, tells us that the\n     origin of these ideas was Egyptian: finally, the expression\n     that the earth is to become equal and smooth, and that the\n     bodies of happy beings are to cast no shade, proves that the\n     equator was considered as their true paradise.\n\n     ** In the caves which priests every where constructed, they\n     celebrated mysteries which consisted (says Origen against\n     Celsus) in imitating the motion of the stars, the planets\n     and the heavens. The initiated took the name of\n     constellations, and assumed the figures of animals.  One was\n     a lion, another a raven, and a third a ram.  Hence the use\n     of masks in the first representation of the drama.  See Ant.\n     Devoile, vol. iii., p. 244.  \"In the mysteries of Ceres the\n     chief in the procession called himself the creator; the\n     bearer of the torch was denominated the sun; the person\n     nearest to the altar, the moon; the herald or deacon,\n     Mercury.  In Egypt there was a festival in which the men and\n     women represented the year, the age, the seasons, the\n     different parts of the day, and they walked in precession\n     after Bacchus.  Athen. lib. v., ch. 7.  In the cave of\n     Mithra was a ladder with seven steps, representing the seven\n     spheres of the planets, by means of which souls ascended and\n     descended.  This is precisely the ladder in Jacob's vision,\n     which shows that at that epoch a the whole system was\n     formed.  There is in the French king's library a superb\n     volume of pictures of the Indian Gods, in which the ladder\n     is represented with the souls of men mounting it.\"\n\nVI. Sixth System. The Animated World, or Worship of the Universe under\ndiverse Emblems.\n\n\n\"While the nations were wandering in the dark labyrinth of mythology and\nfables, the physical priests, pursuing their studies and enquiries into\nthe order and disposition of the universe, came to new conclusions, and\nformed new systems concerning powers and first causes.\n\n\"Long confined to simple appearances, they saw nothing in the movement\nof the stars but an unknown play of luminous bodies rolling round the\nearth, which they believed the central point of all the spheres; but as\nsoon as they discovered the rotundity of our planet, the consequences\nof this first fact led them to new considerations; and from induction to\ninduction they rose to the highest conceptions in astronomy and physics.\n\n\"Indeed, after having conceived this luminous idea, that the terrestrial\nglobe is a little circle inscribed in the greater circle of the heavens,\nthe theory of concentric circles came naturally into their hypothesis,\nto determine the unknown circle of the terrestrial globe by certain\nknown portions of the celestial circle; and the measurement of one\nor more degrees of the meridian gave with precision the whole\ncircumference. Then, taking for a compass the known diameter of\nthe earth, some fortunate genius applied it with a bold hand to the\nboundless orbits of the heavens; and man, the inhabitant of a grain of\nsand, embracing the infinite distances of the stars, launches into the\nimmensity of space and the eternity of time: there he is presented with\na new order of the universe of which the atom-globe which he inhabited\nappeared no longer to be the centre; this important post was reserved to\nthe enormous mass of the sun; and that body became the flaming pivot of\neight surrounding spheres, whose movements were henceforth subjected to\nprecise calculations.\n\n\"It was indeed a great effort for the human mind to have undertaken to\ndetermine the disposition and order of the great engines of nature; but\nnot content with this first effort, it still endeavored to develop the\nmechanism, and discover the origin and the instinctive principle. Hence,\nengaged in the abstract and metaphysical nature of motion and its\nfirst cause, of the inherent or incidental properties of matter, its\nsuccessive forms and its extension, that is to say, of time and space\nunbounded, the physical theologians lost themselves in a chaos of\nsubtile reasoning and scholastic controversy.*\n\n     * Consult the Ancient Astronomy of M. Bailly, and you will\n     find our assertions respecting the knowledge of the priests\n     amply proved.\n\n\"In the first place, the action of the sun on terrestrial bodies,\nteaching them to regard his substance as a pure and elementary fire,\nthey made it the focus and reservoir of an ocean of igneous and luminous\nfluid, which, under the name of ether, filled the universe and nourished\nall beings. Afterwards, having discovered, by a physical and attentive\nanalysis, this same fire, or another perfectly resembling it, in the\ncomposition of all bodies, and having perceived it to be the essential\nagent of that spontaneous movement which is called life in animals and\nvegetation in plants, they conceived the mechanism and harmony of the\nuniverse, as of a homogeneous whole, of one identical body, whose parts,\nthough distant, had nevertheless an intimate relation;* and the world\nwas a living being, animated by the organic circulation of an igneous\nand even electrical fluid,** which, by a term of comparison borrowed\nfirst from men and animals, had the sun for a heart and a focus.***\n\n     * These are the very words of Jamblicus.  De Myst. Egypt.\n\n     ** The more I consider what the ancients understood by ether\n     and spirit, and what the Indians call akache, the stronger\n     do I find the analogy between it and the electrial fluid.  A\n     luminous fluid, principle of warmth and motion, pervading\n     the universe, forming the matter of the stars, having small\n     round particles, which insinuate themselves into bodies, and\n     fill them by dilating itself, be their extent what it will.\n     What can more strongly resemble electricity?\n\n     *** Natural philosophers, says Macrobius, call the sun the\n     heart of the world.  Som. Scrip. c. 20.  The Egyptians, says\n     Plutarch, call the East the face, the North the right side,\n     and the South the left side of the world, because there the\n     heart is placed.  They continually compare the universe to a\n     man; and hence the celebrated microcosm of the Alchymists.\n     We observe, by the bye, that the Alchymists, Cabalists,\n     Free-masons, Magnetisers, Martinists, and every other such\n     sort of visionaries, are but the mistaken disciples of this\n     ancient school: we say mistaken, because, in spite of their\n     pretensions, the thread of the occult science is broken.\n\n\"From this time the physical theologians seem to have divided into\nseveral classes; one class, grounding itself on these principles\nresulting from observation; that nothing can be annihilated in the\nworld; that the elements are indestructible; that they change their\ncombinations but not their nature; that the life and death of beings are\nbut the different modifications of the same atoms; that matter itself\npossesses properties which give rise to all its modes of existence; that\nthe world is eternal,* or unlimited in space and duration; said that the\nwhole universe was God; and, according to them, God was a being, effect\nand cause, agent and patient, moving principle and thing moved, having\nfor laws the invariable properties that constitute fatality; and this\nclass conveyed their idea by the emblem of Pan (the great whole); or of\nJupiter, with a forehead of stars, body of planets, and feet of animals;\nor of the Orphic Egg,** whose yolk, suspended in the center of a liquid,\nsurrounded by a vault, represented the globe of the sun, swimming in\nether in the midst of the vault of heaven;*** sometimes by a great\nround serpent, representing the heavens where they placed the moving\nprinciple, and for that reason of an azure color, studded with spots\nof gold, (the stars) devouring his tail--that is, folding and unfolding\nhimself eternally, like the revolutions of the spheres; sometimes by\nthat of a man, having his feet joined together and tied, to signify\nimmutable existence, wrapped in a cloak of all colors, like the face\nof nature, and bearing on his head a sphere of gold,**** emblem of the\nsphere of the stars; or by that of another man, sometimes seated on the\nflower of the lotos borne on the abyss of waters, sometimes lying on a\npile of twelve cushions, denoting the twelve celestial signs. And here,\nIndians, Japanese, Siamese, Tibetans, and Chinese, is the theology,\nwhich, founded by the Egyptians and transmitted to you, is preserved in\nthe pictures which you compose of Brama, of Beddou, of Somona-Kodom of\nOmito. This, ye Jews and Christians, is likewise the opinion of which\nyou have preserved a part in your God moving on the face of the waters,\nby an allusion to the wind*5 which, at the beginning of the world, that\nis, the departure of the sun from the sign of Cancer, announced the\ninundation of the Nile, and seemed to prepare the creation.\"\n\n     * See the Pythagorean, Ocellus Lacunus.\n\n     ** Vide Oedip. Aegypt. Tome II., page 205.\n\n     *** This comparison of the sun with the yolk of an egg\n     refers: 1. To its round and yellow figure; 2. To its central\n     situation; 3. To the germ or principle of life contained in\n     the yolk.  May not the oval form of the egg allude to the\n     elipsis of the orbs?  I am inclined to this opinion.  The\n     word Orphic offers a farther observation.  Macrobius says\n     (Som. Scrip. c. 14. and c. 20), that the sun is the brain of\n     the universe, and that it is from analogy that the skull of\n     a human being is round, like the planet, the seat of\n     intelligence.  Now the word Oerph signifies in Hebrew the\n     brain and its seat (cervix): Orpheus, then, is the same as\n     Bedou or Baits; and the Bonzes are those very Orphics which\n     Plutarch represents as quacks, who ate no meat, vended\n     talismans and little stones, and deceived individuals, and\n     even governments themselves. See a learned memoir of Freret\n     sur les Orphiques, Acad. des Inscrp. vol. 25, in quarto.\n\n     **** See Porphyry in Eusebus. Proep. Evang., lib. 3, p. 115.\n\n     *5 The Northern or Etesian wind, which commences regularly\n     at the solstice, with the inundation.\n\n\nVII. Seventh System. Worship of the SOUL of the WORLD, that is to say,\nthe Element of Fire, vital Principle of the Universe.\n\n\n\"But others, disgusted at the idea of a being at once effect and cause,\nagent and patient, and uniting contrary natures in the same nature,\ndistinguished the moving principle from the thing moved; and premising\nthat matter in itself was inert they pretended that its properties were\ncommunicated to it by a distinct agent, of which itself was only the\ncover or the case. This agent was called by some the igneous principle,\nknown to be the author of all motion; by others it was supposed to be\nthe fluid called ether, which was thought more active and subtile;\nand, as in animals the vital and moving principle was called a soul, a\nspirit, and as they reasoned constantly by comparisons, especially\nthose drawn from human beings, they gave to the moving principle of the\nuniverse the name of soul, intelligence, spirit; and God was the vital\nspirit, which extended through all beings and animated the vast body of\nthe world. And this class conveyed their idea sometimes by Youpiter,*\nessence of motion and animation, principle of existence, or rather\nexistence itself; sometimes by Vulcan or Phtha, elementary principle of\nfire; or by the altar of Vesta, placed in the center of her temple like\nthe sun in the heavens; sometimes by Kneph, a human figure, dressed in\ndark blue, having in one hand a sceptre and a girdle (the zodiac), with\na cap of feathers to express the fugacity of thought, and producing from\nhis mouth the great egg.\n\n     * This is the true pronunciation of the Jupiter of the\n     Latins. . . . Existence itself.  This is the signification\n     of the word You.\n\n\"Now, as a consequence of this system, every being containing in itself\na portion of the igneous and etherial fluid, common and universal mover,\nand this fluid soul of the world being God, it followed that the\nsouls of all beings were portions of God himself partaking of all\nhis attributes, that is, being a substance indivisible, simple, and\nimmortal; and hence the whole system of the immortality of the soul,\nwhich at first was eternity.*\n\n     * In the system of the first spiritualists, the soul was not\n     created with, or at the same time as the body, in order to\n     be inserted in it: its existence was supposed to be anterior\n     and from all eternity.  Such, in a few words, is the\n     doctrine of Macrobius on this head.  Som. Seip. passim.\n\n     \"There exists a luminous, igneous, subtile fluid, which\n     under the name of ether and spiritus, fills the universe.\n     It is the essential principle and agent of motion and life,\n     it is the Deity. When an earthly body is to be animated, a\n     small round particle of this fluid gravitates through the\n     milky way towards the lunar sphere; where, when it arrives,\n     it unites with a grosser air, and becomes fit to associate\n     with matter: it then enters and entirely fills the body,\n     animates it, suffers, grows, increases, and diminishes with\n     it; lastly, when the body dies, and its gross elements\n     dissolve, this incorruptible particle takes its leave of it,\n     and returns to the grand ocean of ether, if not retained by\n     its union with the lunar air: it is this air or gas, which,\n     retaining the shape of the body, becomes a phantom or ghost,\n     the perfect representation of the deceased.  The Greeks\n     called this phantom the image or idol of the soul; the\n     Pythagoreans, its chariot, its frame; and the Rabbinical\n     school, its vessel, or boat.  When a man had conducted\n     himself well in this world, his whole soul, that is its\n     chariot and ether, ascended to the moon, where a separation\n     took place: the chariot lived in the lunar Elysium, and the\n     ether returned to the fixed sphere, that is, to God: for the\n     fixed heaven, says Macrobius, was by many called by the name\n     of God (c. 14).  If a man had not lived virtuously, the soul\n     remained on earth to undergo purification, and was to wander\n     to and fro, like the ghosts of Homer, to whom this doctrine\n     must have been known, since he wrote after the time of\n     Pherecydes and Pythagoras, who were its promulgators in\n     Greece.  Herodotus upon this occasion says, that the whole\n     romance of the soul and its transmigrations was invented by\n     the Egyptians, and propagated in Greece by men, who\n     pretended to be its authors.  I know their names, adds he,\n     but shall not mention them (lib. 2).  Cicero, however, has\n     positively informed us, that it was Pherecydes, master of\n     Pythagoras.  Tuscul. lib. 1, sect. 16. Now admitting that\n     this system was at that period a novelty, it accounts for\n     Solomon's treating it as a fable, who lived 130 years before\n     Pherecydes.  'Who knoweth,' said he, 'the spirit of a man\n     that it goeth upwards?  I said in my heart concerning the\n     estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them and\n     that they might see that they themselves are beasts.  For\n     that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; even\n     one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the\n     other; yea they have all one breath, so that a man hath no\n     pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity.'\" Eccles. c.\n     iii: v. 18.\n\n     And such had been the opinion of Moses, as a translator of\n     Herodotus (M. Archer of the Academy of Inscriptions) justly\n     observes in note 389 of the second book; where he says also\n     that the immortality of the soul was not introduced among\n     the Hebrews till their intercourse with the Assyrians.  In\n     other respects, the whole Pythagorean system, properly\n     analysed, appears to be merely a system of physics badly\n     understood.\n\n\"Hence, also its transmigrations, known by the name of metempsychosis,\nthat is, the passage of the vital principle from one body to another; an\nidea which arose from the real transmigration of the material elements.\nAnd behold, ye Indians, ye Boudhists, ye Christians, ye Mussulmans!\nwhence are derived all your opinions on the spirituality of the soul;\nbehold what was the source of the dreams of Pythagoras and Plato, your\nmasters, who were themselves but the echoes of another, the last sect of\nvisionary philosophers, which we will proceed to examine.\n\n\nVIII. Eighth system. The WORLD-MACHINE: Worship of the Demi-Ourgos, or\nGrand Artificer.\n\n\n\"Hitherto the theologians, employing themselves in examining the\nfine and subtile substances of ether or the generating fire, had not,\nhowever, ceased to treat of beings palpable and perceptible to the\nsenses; and theology continued to be the theory of physical powers,\nplaced sometimes exclusively in the stars, and sometimes disseminated\nthrough the universe; but at this period, certain superficial minds,\nlosing the chain of ideas which had directed them in their profound\nstudies, or ignorant of the facts on which they were founded, distorted\nall the conclusions that flowed from them by the introduction of a\nstrange and novel chimera. They pretended that this universe, these\nheavens, these stars, this sun, differed in no respect from an ordinary\nmachine; and applying to this first hypothesis a comparison drawn from\nthe works of art, they raised an edifice of the most whimsical sophisms.\nA machine, said they, does not make itself; it has had an anterior\nworkman; its very existence proves it. The world is a machine; therefore\nit had an artificer.*\n\n     * All the arguments of the spiritualists are founded on\n     this.  See Macrobius, at the end of the second book, and\n     Plato, with the comments of Marcilius Ficinus.\n\n\"Here, then, is the Demi-Ourgos or grand artificer, constituted God\nautocratical and supreme. In vain the ancient philosophy objected to\nthis by saying that the artificer himself must have had parents and\nprogenitors; and that they only added another step to the ladder by\ntaking eternity from the world, and giving it to its supposed author.\nThe innovators, not content with this first paradox, passed on to\na second; and, applying to their artificer the theory of the human\nunderstanding, they pretended that the Demi-Ourgos had framed his\nmachine on a plan already existing in his understanding. Now, as their\nmasters, the naturalists, had placed in the regions of the fixed stars\nthe great primum mobile, under the name of intelligence and reason, so\ntheir mimics, the spiritualists, seizing this idea, applied it to their\nDemi-Ourgos, and making it a substance distinct and self-existent, they\ncalled it mens or logos (reason or word). And, as they likewise admitted\nthe existence of the soul of the world, or solar principle, they found\nthemselves obliged to compose three grades of divine beings, which were:\nfirst, the Demi-Ourgos, or working god; secondly, the logos, word\nor reason; thirdly, the spirit or soul (of the world).* And here,\nChristians! is the romance on which you have founded your trinity; here\nis the system which, born a heretic in the temples of Egypt, transported\na pagan into the schools of Greece and Italy, is now found to be\ngood, catholic, and orthodox, by the conversion of its partisans, the\ndisciples of Pythagoras and Plato, to Christianity.\n\n     * These are the real types of the Christian Trinity.\n\n\"It is thus that God, after having been, First, The visible and various\naction of the meteors and the elements;\n\n\"Secondly, The combined powers of the stars, considered in their\nrelations to terrestrial beings;\n\nThirdly, These terrestrial beings themselves, by confounding the symbols\nwith their archetypes;\n\nFourthly, The double power of nature in its two principal operations of\nproducing and destroying;\n\n\"Fifthly, The animated world, with distinction of agent and patient, of\neffect and cause;\n\n\"Sixthly, The solar principle, or the element of fire considered as the\nonly mover;\n\n\"Has thus become, finally, in the last resort, a chimerical and abstract\nbeing, a scholastic subtilty, of substance without form, a body without\na figure, a very delirium of the mind, beyond the power of reason to\ncomprehend. But vainly does it seek in this last transformation to elude\nthe senses; the seal of its origin is imprinted upon it too deep to be\neffaced; and its attributes, all borrowed from the physical attributes\nof the universe, such as immensity, eternity, indivisibility,\nincomprehensibility; or on the moral affections of man, such as\ngoodness, justice, majesty; its names* even, all derived from the\nphysical beings which were its types, and especially from the sun, from\nthe planets, and from the world, constantly bring to mind, in spite of\nits corrupters, indelible marks of its real nature.\n\n     * In our last analysis we found all the names of the Deity\n     to be derived from some material object in which it was\n     supposed to reside.  We have given a considerable number of\n     instances; let us add one more relative to our word God.\n     This is known to be the Deus of the Latins, and the Theos of\n     the Greeks.  Now by the confession of Plato (in Cratylo), of\n     Macrobius (Saturn, lib. 1, c. 24,) and of Plutarch (Isis and\n     Osiris) its root is thein, which signifies to wander, like\n     planein, that is to say, it is synonymous with planets;\n     because, add our authors, both the ancient Greeks and\n     Barbarians particularly worshipped the planets.  I know that\n     such enquiries into etymologies have been much decried: but\n     if, as is the case, words are the representative signs of\n     ideas, the genealogy of the one becomes that of the other,\n     and a good etymological dictionary would be the most perfect\n     history of the human understanding.  It would only be\n     necessary in this enquiry to observe certain precautions,\n     which have hitherto been neglected, and particularly to make\n     an exact comparison of the value of the letters of the\n     different alphabets.  But, to continue our subject, we shall\n     add, that in the Phoenician language, the word thah (with\n     ain) signifies also to wander, and appears to be the\n     derivation of thein.  If we suppose Deus to be derived from\n     the Greek Zeus, a proper name of You-piter, having zaw, I\n     live, for its root, its sense will be precisely that of you,\n     and will mean soul of the world, igneous principle.  (See\n     note p. 143).  Div-us, which only signifies Genius, God of\n     the second order, appears to me to come from the oriental\n     word div substituted for dib, wolf and chacal, one of the\n     emblems of the sun.  At Thebes, says Macrobius, the sun was\n     painted under the form of a wolf or chacal, for there are no\n     wolves in Egypt.  The reason of this emblem, doubtless, is\n     that the chacal, like the cock announces by its cries the\n     sun's rising; and this reason is confirmed by the analogy of\n     the words lykos, wolf, and lyke, light of the morning,\n     whence comes lux.\n\n     Dius, which is to be understood also of the sun, must be\n     derived from dih, a hawk.  \"The Egyptians,\" says Porphyry\n     (Euseb. Proecep. Evang. p. 92,) \"represent the sun under the\n     emblem of a hawk, because this bird soars to the highest\n     regions of air where light abounds.\"  And in reality we\n     continually see at Cairo large flights of these birds,\n     hovering in the air, from whence they descend not but to\n     stun us with their shrieks, which are like the monosyllable\n     dih: and here, as in the preceding example, we find an\n     analogy between the word dies, day, light, and dius, god,\n     sun.\n\n\"Such is the chain of ideas which the human mind had already run\nthrough at an epoch previous to the records of history; and since their\ncontinuity proves that they were the produce of the same series of\nstudies and labors, we have every reason to place their origin in Egypt,\nthe cradle of their first elements. This progress there may have been\nrapid; because the physical priests had no other food, in the retirement\nof the temples, but the enigma of the universe, always present to their\nminds; and because in the political districts into which that country\nwas for a long time divided, every state had its college of priests,\nwho, being by turns auxiliaries or rivals, hastened by their disputes\nthe progress of science and discovery.*\n\n     * One of the proofs that all these systems were invented in\n     Egypt, is that this is the only country where we see a\n     complete body of doctrine formed from the remotest\n     antiquity.\n\n     Clemens Alexandrinus has transmitted to us (Stromat. lib.\n     6,) a curious detail of the forty-two volumes which were\n     borne in the procession of Isis.  \"The priest,\" says he, \"or\n     chanter, carries one of the symbolic instruments of music,\n     and two of the books of Mercury; one containing hymns of the\n     gods, the other the list of kings.  Next to him the\n     horoscope (the regulator of time,) carries a palm and a\n     dial, symbols of astrology; he must know by heart the four\n     books of Mercury which treat of astrology: the first on the\n     order of the planets, the second on the risings of the sun\n     and moon, and the two last on the rising and aspect of the\n     stars.  Then comes the sacred author, with feathers on his\n     head (like Kneph) and a book in his hand, together with ink,\n     and a reed to write with, (as is still the practice among\n     the Arabs).  He must be versed in hieroglyphics, must\n     understand the description of the universe, the course of\n     the sun, moon, stars, and planets, be acquainted with the\n     division of Egypt into thirty-six nomes, with the course of\n     the Nile, with instruments, measures, sacred ornaments, and\n     sacred places.  Next comes the stole bearer, who carries the\n     cubit of justice, or measure of the Nile, and a cup for the\n     libations; he bears also in the procession ten volumes on\n     the subject of sacrifices, hymns, prayers, offerings,\n     ceremonies, festivals. Lastly arrives the prophet, bearing\n     in his bosom a pitcher, so as to be exposed to view; he is\n     followed by persons carrying bread (as at the marriage of\n     Cana.) This prophet, as president of the mysteries, learns\n     ten other sacred volumes, which treat of the laws, the gods,\n     and the discipline of the priests.  Now there are in all\n     forty-two volumes, thirty-six of which are studied and got\n     by heart by these personages, and the remaining six are set\n     apart to be consulted by the pastophores; they treat of\n     medicine, the construction of the human body (anatomy),\n     diseases, remedies, instruments, etc., etc.\"\n\n     We leave the reader to deduce all the consequences of an\n     Encyclopedia.  It is ascribed to Mercury; but Jamblicus\n     tells us that each book, composed by priests, was dedicated\n     to that god, who, on account of his title of genius or decan\n     opening the zodiac, presided over every enterprise.  He is\n     the Janus of the Romans, and the Guianesa of the Indians,\n     and it is remarkable that Yanus and Guianes are homonymous.\n     In short it appears that these books are the source of all\n     that has been transmitted to us by the Greeks and Latins in\n     every science, even in alchymy, necromancy, etc.  What is\n     most to be regretted in their loss is that part which\n     related to the principles of medicine and diet, in which the\n     Egyptians appear to have made a considerable progress, and\n     to have delivered many useful observations.\n\n\"There happened early on the borders of the Nile, what has since been\nrepeated in every country; as soon as a new system was formed\nits novelty excited quarrels and schisms; then, gaining credit by\npersecution itself, sometimes it effaced antecedent ideas, sometimes it\nmodified and incorporated them; then, by the intervention of political\nrevolutions, the aggregation of states and the mixture of nations\nconfused all opinions; and the filiation of ideas being lost, theology\nfell into a chaos, and became a mere logogriph of old traditions no\nlonger understood. Religion, having strayed from its object was now\nnothing more than a political engine to conduct the credulous vulgar;\nand it was used for this purpose, sometimes by men credulous themselves\nand dupes of their own visions, and sometimes by bold and energetic\nspirits in pursuit of great objects of ambition.\n\n\nIX. Religion of Moses, or Worship of the Soul of the World (You-piter).\n\n\n\"Such was the legislator of the Hebrews; who, wishing to separate his\nnation from all others, and to form a distinct and solitary empire,\nconceived the design of establishing its basis on religious prejudices,\nand of raising around it a sacred rampart of opinions and of rites. But\nin vain did he prescribe the worship of the symbols which prevailed in\nlower Egypt and in Phoenicia;* for his god was nevertheless an Egyptian\ngod, invented by those priests of whom Moses had been the disciple; and\nYahouh,** betrayed by its very name, essence (of beings), and by its\nsymbol, the burning bush, is only the soul of the world, the\nmoving principle which the Greeks soon after adopted under the same\ndenomination in their you-piter, regenerating being, and under that of\nEi, existence,*** which the Thebans consecrated by the name of Kneph,\nwhich Sais worshipped under the emblem of Isis veiled, with this\ninscription: I am al that has been, all that is, and all that is to\ncome, and no mortal has raised my veil; which Pythagoras honored under\nthe name of Vesta, and which the stoic philosophy defined precisely by\ncalling it the principle of fire. In vain did Moses wish to blot from\nhis religion every thing which had relation to the stars; many traits\ncall them to mind in spite of all he has done. The seven planetary\nluminaries of the great candlestick; the twelve stones, or signs in the\nUrim of the high priests; the feast of the two equinoxes, (entrances and\ngates of the two hemispheres); the ceremony of the lamb, (the celestial\nram then in his fifteenth degree); lastly, the name even of Osiris\npreserved in his song,**** and the ark, or coffer, an imitation of the\ntomb in which that God was laid, all remain as so many witnesses of the\nfiliation of his ideas, and of their extraction from the common source.\n\n     * \"At a certain period,\" says Plutarch (de Iside) \"all the\n     Egyptians have their animal gods painted.  The Thebans are\n     the only people who do not employ painters, because they\n     worship a god whose form comes not under the senses, and\n     cannot be represented.\"  And this is the god whom Moses,\n     educated at Heliopolis, adopted; but the idea was not of his\n     invention.\n\n     ** Such is the true pronunciation of the Jehovah of the\n     moderns, who violate, in this respect, every rule of\n     criticism; since it is evident that the ancients,\n     particularly the eastern Syrians and Phoenicians, were\n     acquainted neither with the J nor the P which are of Tartar\n     origin.  The subsisting usage of the Arabs, which we have\n     re-established here, is confirmed by Diodorus, who calls the\n     god of Moses Iaw, (lib. 1), and Iaw and Yahouh are\n     manifestly the same word: the identity continues in that of\n     You-piter; but in order to render it more complete, we shall\n     demonstrate the signification to be the same.\n\n     In Hebrew, that is to say, in one of the dialects of the\n     common language of lower Asia, Yahouh is the participle of\n     the verb hih, to exist, to be, and signifies existing: in\n     other words, the principle of life, the mover or even motion\n     (the universal soul of beings).  Now what is Jupiter?  Let\n     us hear the Greeks and Latins explain their theology.  \"The\n     Egyptians,\" says Diodorus, after Manatho, priest of Memphis,\n     \"in giving names to the five elements, called spirit, or\n     ether, You-piter, on account of the true meaning of that\n     word: for spirit is the source of life, author of the vital\n     principle in animals; and for this reason they considered\n     him as the father, the generator of beings.\"  For the same\n     reason Homer says, father, and king of men and gods.  (Diod.\n     lib. 1, sect 1).\n\n     \"Theologians,\" says Macrobius, \"consider You-piter as the\n     soul of the world.\"  Hence the words of Virgil: \" Muses let\n     us begin with You-piter; the world is full of You-piter.\"\n     (Somn. Scrip., ch. 17).  And in the Saturnalia, he says,\n     \"Jupiter is the sun himself.\" It was this also which made\n     Virgil say, \"The spirit nourishes the life (of beings), and\n     the soul diffused through the vast members (of the\n     universe), agitates the whole mass, and forms but one\n     immense body.\"\n\n     \"Ioupiter,\" says the ancient verses of the Orphic sect,\n     which originated in Egypt; verses collected by Onomacritus\n     in the days of Pisistratus, \"Ioupiter, represented with the\n     thunder in his hand, is the beginning, origin, end, and\n     middle of all things: a single and universal power, he\n     governs every thing; heaven, earth, fire, water, the\n     elements, day, and night.  These are what constitute his\n     immense body: his eyes are the sun and moon: he is space and\n     eternity: in fine,\" adds Porphyry.  \"Jupiter is the world,\n     the universe, that which constitutes the essence and life of\n     all beings.  Now,\" continues the same author, \"as\n     philosophers differed in opinion respecting the nature and\n     constituent parts of this god, and as they could invent no\n     figure that should represent all his attributes, they\n     painted him in the form of a man.  He is in a sitting\n     posture, in allusion to his immutable essence; the upper\n     part of his body is uncovered, because it is in the upper\n     regions of the universe (the stars) that he most\n     conspicuously displays himself.  He is covered from the\n     waist downwards, because respecting terrestrial things he is\n     more secret and concealed.  He holds a scepter in his left\n     hand, because on the left side is the heart, and the heart\n     is the seat of the understanding, which, (in human beings)\n     regulates every action.\"  Euseb. Proeper. Evang., p 100.\n\n     The following passage of the geographer and philosopher,\n     Strabo, removes every doubt as to the identity of the ideas\n     of Moses and those of the heathen theologians.\n\n     \"Moses, who was one of the Egyptian priests, taught his\n     followers that it was an egregious error to represent the\n     Deity under the form of animals, as the Egyptians did, or in\n     the shape of man, as was the practice of the Greeks and\n     Africans.  That alone is the Deity, said he, which\n     constitutes heaven, earth, and every living thing; that\n     which we call the world, the sum of all things, nature; and\n     no reasonable person will think of representing such a being\n     by the image of any one of the objects around us.  It is for\n     this reason, that, rejecting every species of images or\n     idols, Moses wished the Deity to be worshipped without\n     emblems, and according to his proper nature; and he\n     accordingly ordered a temple worthy of him to be erected,\n     etc.  Geograph. lib. 16, p. 1104, edition of 1707.\n\n     The theology of Moses has, then, differed in no respect from\n     that of his followers, that is to say, from that of the\n     Stoics and Epicureans, who consider the Deity as the soul of\n     the world.  This philosophy appears to have taken birth, or\n     to have been disseminated when Abraham came into Egypt (200\n     years before Moses), since he quitted his system of idols\n     for that of the god Yahouh; so that we may place its\n     promulgation about the seventeenth or eighteenth century\n     before Christ; which corresponds with what we have said\n     before.\n\n     As to the history of Moses, Diodorus properly represents it\n     when he says, lib. 34 and 40, \"That the Jews were driven out\n     of Egypt at a time of dearth, when the country was full of\n     foreigners, and that Moses, a man of extraordinary prudence\n     seized this opportunity of establishing his religion in the\n     mountains of Judea.\"  It will seem paradoxical to assert,\n     that the 600,000 armed men whom he conducted thither ought\n     to be reduced to 6,000; but I can confirm the assertion by\n     so many proofs drawn from the books themselves, that it will\n     be necessary to correct an error which appears to have\n     arisen from the mistake of the transcribers.\n\n     *** This was the monosyllable written on the gates of the\n     temple of Delphos.  Plutarch has made it the subject of a\n     dissertation.\n\n     **** These are the literal expressions of the book of\n     Deuteronomy, chap. XXXII.  \"The works of Tsour are perfect.\"\n     Now Tsour has been translated by the word creator; its\n     proper signification is to give forms, and this is one of\n     the definitions of Osiris in Plutarch.\n\n\nX. Religion of Zoroaster.\n\n\n\"Such also was Zoroaster; who, five centuries after Moses, and in the\ntime of David, revived and moralized among the Medes and Bactrians, the\nwhole Egyptian system of Osiris and Typhon, under the names Ormuzd and\nAhrimanes; who called the reign of summer, virtue and good; the reign of\nwinter, sin and evil; the renewal of nature in spring, creation of the\nworld; the conjunction of the spheres at secular periods, resurrection;\nand the Tartarus and Elysium of the astrologers and geographers were\nnamed future life, hell and paradise. In a word, he did nothing but\nconsecrate the existing dreams of the mystical system.\n\n\nXI. Budsoism, or Religion of the Samaneans.\n\n\n\"Such again are the propagators of the dismal doctrine of the Samaneans;\nwho, on the basis of the Metempsychosis, have erected the misanthropic\nsystem of self-denial, and of privations; who, laying it down as a\nprinciple that the body is only a prison where the soul lives in an\nimpure confinement, that life is only a dream, an illusion, and the\nworld only a passage to another country, to a life without end, placed\nvirtue and perfection in absolute immobility, in the destruction of all\nsentiment, in the abnegation of physical organs, in the annihilation of\nall our being; whence resulted fasts, penances, macerations, solitude,\ncontemplations, and all the practices of the deplorable delirium of the\nAnchorites.\n\n\nXII. Brahmism, or Indian System.\n\n\n\"And such, too, were the founders of the Indian System; who, refining\nafter Zoroaster on the two principles of creation and destruction,\nintroduced an intermediary principle, that of preservation, and on\ntheir trinity in unity, of Brama, Chiven, and Vichenou, accumulated the\nallegories of their ancient traditions, and the alembicated subtilities\nof their metaphysics.\n\n\"These are the materials which existed in a scattered state for\nmany centuries in Asia; when a fortuitous concourse of events and\ncircumstances, on the borders of the Euphrates and the Mediterranean,\nserved to form them into new combinations.\n\n\nXIII. Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun, under the\ncabalistical names of Chrish-en, or Christ, and Ye-sus or Jesus.\n\n\n\"In constituting a separate nation, Moses strove in vain to defend it\nagainst the invasion of foreign ideas. An invisible inclination, founded\non the affinity of their origin, had constantly brought back the Hebrews\ntowards the worship of the neighboring nations; and the commercial and\npolitical relations which necessarily existed between them, strengthened\nthis propensity from day to day. As long as the constitution of the\nstate remained entire, the coercive force of the government and the laws\nopposed these innovations, and retarded their progress; nevertheless\nthe high places were full of idols; and the god Sun had his chariot and\nhorses painted in the palaces of the kings, and even in the temples of\nYahouh; but when the conquests of the sultans of Nineveh and Babylon had\ndissolved the bands of civil power, the people, left to themselves and\nsolicited by their conquerors, restrained no longer their inclination\nfor profane opinions, and they were publicly established in Judea.\nFirst, the Assyrian colonies, which came and occupied the lands of the\ntribes, filled the kingdom of Samaria with dogmas of the Magi, which\nvery soon penetrated into the kingdom of Judea. Afterwards, Jerusalem\nbeing subjugated, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, entering this\ndefenceless country, introduced their opinions; and the religion of\nMoses was doubly mutilated. Besides the priests and great men, being\ntransported to Babylon and educated in the sciences of the Chaldeans,\nimbibed, during a residence of seventy years, the whole of their\ntheology; and from that moment the dogmas of the hostile Genius (Satan),\nthe archangel Michael,* the ancient of days (Ormuzd), the rebel\nangels, the battles in heaven, the immortality of the soul, and the\nresurrection, all unknown to Moses, or rejected by his total silence\nrespecting them, were introduced and naturalized among the Jews.\n\n     * \"The names of the angels and of the months, such as\n     Gabriel, Michael, Yar, Nisan, etc., came from Babylon with\n     the Jews:\" says expressly the Talmud of Jerusalem.  See\n     Beousob. Hist. du Manich. Vol. II, p. 624, where he proves\n     that the saints of the Almanac are an imitation of the 365\n     angels of the Persians; and Jamblicus in his Egyptian\n     Mysteries, sect. 2, c. 3, speaks of angels, archangels,\n     seraphims, etc., like a true Christian.\n\n\"The emigrants returned to their country with these ideas; and their\ninnovation at first excited disputes between their partisans the\nPharisees, and their opponents the Saducees, who maintained the ancient\nnational worship; but the former, aided by the propensities of the\npeople and their habits already contracted, and supported by the\nPersians, their deliverers and masters, gained the ascendant over the\nlatter; and the Sons of Moses consecrated the theology of Zoroaster.*\n\n     * \"The whole philosophy of the gymnosophists,\" says Diogenes\n     Laertius on the authority of an ancient writer, \"is derived\n     from that of the Magi, and many assert that of the Jews to\n     have the same origin.\"  Lib. 1. c. 9.  Megasthenes, an\n     historian of repute in the days of Seleucus Nicanor, and who\n     wrote particularly upon India, speaking of the philosophy of\n     the ancients respecting natural things, puts the Brachmans\n     and the Jews precisely on the same footing.\n\n\"A fortuitous analogy between two leading ideas was highly favorable\nto this coalition, and became the basis of a last system, not less\nsurprising in the fortune it has had in the world, than in the causes of\nits formation.\n\n\"After the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Samaria, some\njudicious men foresaw the same destiny for Jerusalem, which they did not\nfail to predict and publish; and their predictions had the particular\nturn of being terminated by prayers for a re-establishment and\nregeneration, uttered in the form of prophecies. The Hierophants,\nin their enthusiasm, had painted a king as a deliverer, who was to\nre-establish the nation in its ancient glory; the Hebrews were to become\nonce more a powerful, a conquering nation, and Jerusalem the capital of\nan empire extended over the whole earth.\n\n\"Events having realized the first part of these predictions, the ruin of\nJerusalem, the people adhered to the second with a firmness of belief in\nproportion to their misfortunes; and the afflicted Jews expected, with\nthe impatience of want and desire, this victorious king and deliverer,\nwho was to come and save the nation of Moses, and restore the empire of\nDavid.\n\n\"On the other hand, the sacred and mythological traditions of preceding\ntimes had spread through all Asia a dogma perfectly analogous. The cry\nthere was a great mediator, a final judge, a future saviour, a king,\ngod, conqueror and legislator, who was to restore the golden age upon\nearth,* to deliver it from the dominion of evil, and restore men to the\nempire of good, peace, and happiness. The people seized and cherished\nthese ideas with so much the more avidity, as they found in them a\nconsolation under that deplorable state of suffering into which they\nhad been plunged by the devastations of successive conquests, and the\nbarbarous despotism of their governments. This conformity between the\noracles of different nations, and those of the prophets, excited the\nattention of the Jews; and doubtless the prophets had the art to compose\ntheir descriptions after the style and genius of the sacred books\nemployed in the Pagan mysteries. There was therefore a general\nexpectation in Judea of a great ambassador, a final Saviour; when a\nsingular circumstance determined the epoch of his coming.\n\n     * This is the reason of the application of the many Pagan\n     oracles to Jesus, and particularly the fourth eclogue of\n     Virgil, and the Sybilline verses so celebrated among the\n     ancients.\n\n\"It is found in the sacred books of the Persians and Chaldeans, that the\nworld, composed of a total revolution of twelve thousand, was divided\ninto two partial revolutions; one of which, the age and reign of good,\nterminated in six thousand; the other, the age and reign of evil, was to\nterminate in six thousand more.\n\n\"By these records, the first authors had understood the annual\nrevolution of the great celestial orb called the world, (a revolution\ncomposed of twelve months or signs, divided each into a thousand parts),\nand the two systematic periods, of winter and summer, composed each of\nsix thousand. These expressions, wholly equivocal and badly explained,\nhaving received an absolute and moral, instead of a physical and\nastrological sense, it happened that the annual world was taken for the\nsecular world, the thousand of the zodiacal divisions, for a thousand of\nyears; and supposing, from the state of things, that they lived in\nthe age of evil, they inferred that it would end with the six thousand\npretended years.*\n\n     * We have already seen this tradition current among the\n     Tuscans; it was disseminated through most nations, and shows\n     us what we ought to think of all the pretended creations and\n     terminations of the world, which are merely the beginnings\n     and endings of astronomical periods invented by astrologers.\n     That of the year or solar revolution, being the most simple\n     and perceptible, served as a model to the rest, and its\n     comparison gave rise to the most whimsical ideas.  Of this\n     description is the idea of the four ages of the world among\n     the Indians.  Originally these four ages were merely the\n     four seasons; and as each season was under the supposed\n     influence of a planet, it bore the name of the metal\n     appropriated to that planet; thus spring was the age of the\n     sun, or of gold; summer the age of the moon, or of silver;\n     autumn the age of Venus, or of brass; and winter the age of\n     Mars, or of iron.  Afterwards when astronomers invented the\n     great year of 25 and 36 thousand common years, which had for\n     its object the bringing back all the stars to one point of\n     departure and a general conjunction, the ambiguity of the\n     terms introduced a similar ambiguity of ideas; and the\n     myriads of celestial signs and periods of duration which\n     were thus measured were easily converted into so many\n     revolutions of the sun.  Thus the different periods of\n     creation which have been so great a source of difficulty and\n     misapprehension to curious enquirers, were in reality\n     nothing more than hypothetical calculations of astronomical\n     periods.  In the same manner the creation of the world has\n     been attributed to different seasons of the year, just as\n     these different seasons have served for the fictitious\n     period of these conjunctions; and of consequence has been\n     adopted by different nations for the commencement of an\n     ordinary year.  Among the Egyptians this period fell upon\n     the summer solstice, which was the commencement of their\n     year; and the departure of the spheres, according to their\n     conjectures, fell in like manner upon the period when the\n     sun enters cancer.  Among the Persians the year commenced at\n     first in the spring, or when the sun enters Aries; and from\n     thence the first Christians were led to suppose that God\n     created the world in the spring: this opinion is also\n     favored by the book of Genesis; and it is farther\n     remarkable, that the world is not there said to be created\n     by the God of Moses (Yahouh), but by the Elohim or gods in\n     the plural, that is by the angels or genii, for so the word\n     constantly means in the Hebrew books.  If we farther observe\n     that the root of the word Elohim signifies strong or\n     powerful, and that the Egyptians called their decans strong\n     and powerful leaders, attributing to them the creation of\n     the world, we shall presently perceive that the book of\n     Genesis affirms neither more nor less than that the world\n     was created by the decans, by those very genii whom,\n     according to Sanchoniathon, Mercury excited against Saturn,\n     and who were called Elohim.  It may be farther asked why the\n     plural substantive Elohim is made to agree with the singular\n     verb bara (the Elohim creates). The reason is that after the\n     Babylonish captivity the unity of the Supreme Being was the\n     prevailing opinion of the Jews; it was therefore thought\n     proper to introduce a pious solecism in language, which it\n     is evident had no existence before Moses; thus in the names\n     of the children of Jacob many of them are compounded of a\n     plural verb, to which Elohim is the nominative case\n     understood, as Raouben (Reuben), they have looked upon me,\n     and Samaonni (Simeon), they have granted me my prayer; to\n     wit, the Elohim.  The reason of this etymology is to be\n     found in the religious creeds of the wives of Jacob, whose\n     gods were the taraphim of Laban, that is, the angels of the\n     Persians, and Egyptian decans.\n\n\"Now, according to calculations admitted by the Jews, they began to\nreckon near six thousand years since the supposed creation of the\nworld.* This coincidence caused a fermentation in the public mind.\nNothing was thought of but the approaching end. They consulted the\nhierophants and the mystical books, which differed as to the term; the\ngreat mediator, the final judge, was expected and desired, to put an\nend to so many calamities. This being was so much spoken of, that some\nperson finally was said to have seen him; and a first rumor of this sort\nwas sufficient to establish a general certainty. Popular report became\nan established fact: the imaginary being was realized; and all the\ncircumstances of mythological tradition, being assembled around this\nphantom, produced a regular history, of which it was no longer permitted\nto doubt.\n\n     * According to the computation of the Seventy, the period\n     elapsed consisted of about 5,600 years, and this computation\n     was principally followed.  It is well known how much, in the\n     first ages of the church, this opinion of the end of the\n     world agitated the minds of men.  In the sequel, the general\n     councils encouraged by finding that the general\n     conflagration did not come, pronounced the expectation that\n     prevailed heretical, and its believers were called\n     Millenarians; a circumstance curious enough, since it is\n     evident from the history of the gospels that Jesus Christ\n     was a Millenarian, and of consequence a heretic.\n\n\"These mythological traditions recounted that, in the beginning, a woman\nand a man had by their fall introduced sin and misery into the world.\n(Consult plate of the Astrological Heaven of the Ancients.)\n\n\"By this was denoted the astronomical fact, that the celestial virgin\nand the herdsman (Bootes), by setting heliacally at the autumnal\nequinox, delivered the world to the wintry constellations, and seemed,\non falling below the horizon, to introduce into the world the genius of\nevil, Ahrimanes, represented by the constellation of the Serpent.*\n\n     * \"The Persians,\" says Chardin, \"call the constellation of\n     the serpent Ophiucus, serpent of Eve: and this serpent\n     Ophiucas or Ophioneus plays a similar part in the theology\n     of the Phoenicians,\" for Pherecydes, their disciple and the\n     master of Pythagoras, said \"that Ophioneus Serpentinus had\n     been chief of the rebels against Jupiter.\"  See Mars. Ficin.\n     Apol. Socrat. p. m. 797, col. 2.  I shall add that ephah\n     (with ain) signifies in Hebrew, serpent.\n\nThese traditions related that the woman had decoyed and seduced the\nman.*\n\n     * In a physical sense to seduce, seducere, means only to\n     attract, to draw after us.\n\n\"And in fact, the virgin, setting first, seems to draw the herdsman\nafter her.\n\n\"That the woman tempted him by offering him fruit fair to the sight and\ngood to eat, which gave the knowledge of good and evil.\n\n\"And in fact, the Virgin holds in her hand a branch of fruit, which she\nseems to offer to the Herdsman; and the branch, emblem of autumn, placed\nin the picture of Mithra* between winter and summer, seems to open the\ndoor and give knowledge, the key of good and evil.\n\n     * See this picture in Hyde, page 111, edition of 1760.\n\nThat this couple had been driven from the celestial garden, and that a\ncherub with a flaming sword had been placed at the gate to guard it.\n\n\"And in fact, when the virgin and the herdsman fall beneath the horizon,\nPerseus rises on the other side;* and this Genius, with a sword in\nhis hand, seems to drive them from the summer heaven, the garden and\ndominion of fruits and flowers.\n\n     * Rather the head of Medusa; that head of a woman once so\n     beautiful, which Perseus cut off and which beholds in his\n     hand, is only that of the virgin, whose head sinks below the\n     horizon at the very moment that Perseus rises; and the\n     serpents which surround it are Orphiucus and the Polar\n     Dragon, who then occupy the zenith. This shows us in what\n     manner the ancients composed all their figures and fables.\n     They took such constellations as they found at the same time\n     on the circle of the horizon, and collecting the different\n     parts, they formed groups which served them as an almanac in\n     hieroglyphic characters.  Such is the secret of all their\n     pictures, and the solution of all their mythological\n     monsters.  The virgin is also Andromeda, delivered by\n     Perseus from the whale that pursues her (pro-sequitor).\n\nThat of this virgin should be born, spring up, an offspring, a child,\nwho should bruise the head of the serpent, and deliver the world from\nsin.\n\n\"This denotes the son, which, at the moment of the winter solstice,\nprecisely when the Persian Magi drew the horoscope of the new year,\nwas placed on the bosom of the Virgin, rising heliacally in the eastern\nhorizon; on this account he was figured in their astrological pictures\nunder the form of a child suckled by a chaste virgin,* and became\nafterwards, at the vernal equinox, the ram, or the lamb, triumphant over\nthe constellation of the Serpent, which disappeared from the skies.\n\n     * Such was the picture of the Persian sphere, cited by Aben\n     Ezra in the Coelam Poeticum of Blaeu, p. 71.  \"The picture\n     of the first decan of the Virgin,\" says that writer.\n     \"represents a beautiful virgin with flowing hair; sitting in\n     a chair, with two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an\n     infant, called Jesus by some nations, and Christ in Greek.\"\n\n     In the library of the king of France is a manuscript in\n     Arabic, marked 1165, in which is a picture of the twelve\n     signs; and that of the Virgin represents a young woman with\n     an infant by her side: the whole scene indeed of the birth\n     of Jesus is to be found in the adjacent part of the heavens.\n     The stable is the constellation of the charioteer and the\n     goat, formerly Capricorn: a constellation called proesepe\n     Jovis Heniochi, stable of Iou; and the word Iou is found in\n     the name Iou-seph (Joseph).  At no great distance is the ass\n     of Typhon (the great she-bear), and the ox or bull, the\n     ancient attendants of the manger.  Peter the porter, is\n     Janus with his keys and bald forehead: the twelve apostles\n     are the genii of the twelve months, etc.  This Virgin has\n     acted very different parts in the various systems of\n     mythology: she has been the Isis of the Egyptians, who said\n     of her in one of their inscriptions cited by Julian, the\n     fruit I have brought forth is the sun.  The majority of\n     traits drawn by Plutarch apply to her, in the same manner as\n     those of Osiris apply to Bootes: also the seven principal\n     stars of the she-bear, called David's chariot, were called\n     the chariot of Osiris (See Kirker); and the crown that is\n     situated behind, formed of ivy, was called Chen-Osiris, the\n     tree of Osiris.  The Virgin has likewise been Ceres, whose\n     mysteries were the same with those of Isis and Mithra; she\n     has been the Diana of the Ephesians; the great goddess of\n     Syria, Cybele, drawn by lions; Minerva, the mother of\n     Bacchus; Astraea, a chaste virgin taken up into heaven at\n     the end of a golden age; Themis at whose feet is the balance\n     that was put in her hands; the Sybil of Virgil, who descends\n     into hell, or sinks below the hemisphere with a branch in\n     her hand, etc.\n\nThat, in his infancy, this restorer of divine and celestial nature would\nlive abased, humble, obscure and indigent.\n\n\"And this, because the winter sun is abased below the horizon; and that\nthis first period of his four ages or seasons, is a time of obscurity,\nscarcity, fasting, and want.\n\n\"That, being put to death by the wicked, he had risen gloriously; that\nhe had reascended from hell to heaven, where he would reign forever\n\n\"This is a sketch of the life of the sun; who, finishing his career at\nthe winter solstice, when Typhon and the rebel angels gain the dominion,\nseems to be put to death by them; but who soon after is born again, and\nrises* into the vault of heaven, where he reigns.\n\n     * Resurgere, to rise a second time, cannot signify to return\n     to life, but in a metaphorical sense; but we see continually\n     mistakes of this kind result from the ambiguous meaning of\n     the words made use of in ancient tradition.\n\n\"Finally, these traditions went so far as to mention even his\nastrological and mythological names, and inform us that he was called\nsometimes Chris, that is to say, preserver,* and from that, ye Indians,\nyou have made your god Chrish-en or Chrish-na; and, ye Greek and Western\nChristians, your Chris-tos, son of Mary, is the same; sometimes he is\ncalled Yes, by the union of three letters, which by their numerical\nvalue form the number 608, one of the solar periods.** And this,\nEuropeans, is the name which, with the Latin termination, is become your\nYes-us or Jesus, the ancient and cabalistic name attributed to young\nBacchus, the clandestine son (nocturnal) of the Virgin Minerva, who, in\nthe history of his whole life, and even of his death, brings to mind the\nhistory of the god of the Christians, that is, of the star of day, of\nwhich they are each of them the emblems.\"\n\n     * The Greeks used to express by X, or Spanish iota, the\n     aspirated ha of the Orientals, who said haris.  In Hebrew\n     heres signifies the sun, but in Arabic the meaning of the\n     radical word is, to guard, to preserve, and of haris,\n     guardian, preserver.  It is the proper epithet of Vichenou,\n     which demonstrates at once the identity of the Indian and\n     Christian Trinities, and their common origin.  It is\n     manifestly but one system, which divided into two branches,\n     one extending to the east, and the other to the west,\n     assumed two different forms: Its principal trunk is the\n     Pythagorean system of the soul of the world, or Iou-piter.\n     The epithet piter, or father, having been applied to the\n     demi-ourgos of Plato, gave rise to an ambiguity which caused\n     an enquiry to be made respecting the son of this father.  In\n     the opinion of the philosophers the son was understanding,\n     Nous and Logos, from which the Latins made their Verbum.\n     And thus we clearly perceive the origin of the eternal\n     father and of the Verbum his son, proceeding from him (Mens\n     Ex Deo nata, says Macrobius): the oenima or spiritus mundi,\n     was the Holy Ghost; and it is for this reason that Manes,\n     Pasilides, Valentinius, and other pretended heretics of the\n     first ages, who traced things to their source, said, that\n     God the Father was the supreme inaccessible light (that of\n     the heaven, the primum mobile, or the aplanes); the Son the\n     secondary light resident in the sun, and the Holy Ghost the\n     atmosphere of the earth (See Beausob. vol. II, p. 586):\n     hence, among the Syrians, the representation of the Holy\n     Ghost by a dove, the bird of Venus Urania, that is of the\n     air. The Syrians (says Nigidius de Germaico) assert that a\n     dove sat for a certain number of days on the egg of a fish,\n     and that from this incubation Venus was born: Sextus\n     Empiricus also observes (Inst. Pyrrh. lib. 3, c. 23) that\n     the Syrians abstain from eating doves; which intimates to us\n     a period commencing in the sign Pisces, in the winter\n     solstice.  We may farther observe, that if Chris comes from\n     Harisch by a chin, it will signify artificer, an epithet\n     belonging to the sun.  These variations, which must have\n     embarrassed the ancients, prove it to be the real type of\n     Jesus, as had been already remarked in the time of\n     Tertullian.  \"Many, says this writer, suppose with greater\n     probability that the sun is our God, and they refer us to\n     the religion of the Persians.\"  Apologet. c. 16.\n\n     ** See a curious ode to the sun, by Martianus Capella,\n     translated by Gebelin.\n\nHere a great murmur having arisen among all the Christian groups, the\nLamas, the Mussulmans and the Indians called them to order, and the\norator went on to finish his discourse:\n\n\"You know at present,\" said he, \"how the rest of this system was\ncomposed in the chaos and anarchy of the three first centuries; what a\nmultitude of singular opinions divided the minds of men, and armed them\nwith an enthusiasm and a reciprocal obstinacy; because, being equally\nfounded on ancient tradition, they were equally sacred. You know how the\ngovernment, after three centuries, having embraced one of these sects,\nmade it the orthodox, that is to say, the pre-dominant religion, to the\nexclusion of the rest; which, being less in number, became heretics; you\nknow how and by what means of violence and seduction this religion was\npropagated, extended, divided, and enfeebled; how, six hundred years\nafter the Christian innovation, another system was formed from it and\nfrom that of the Jews; and how Mahomet found the means of composing a\npolitical and theological empire at the expense of those of Moses and\nthe vicars of Jesus.\n\n\"Now, if you take a review of the whole history of the spirit of all\nreligion, you will see that in its origin it has had no other author\nthan the sensations and wants of man; that the idea of God has had no\nother type and model than those of physical powers, material beings,\nproducing either good or evil, by impressions of pleasure or pain on\nsensitive beings; that in the formation of all these systems the spirit\nof religion has always followed the same course, and been uniform in\nits proceedings; that in all of them the dogma has never failed to\nrepresent, under the name of gods, the operations of nature, and\npassions and prejudices of men; that the moral of them all has had for\nits object the desire of happiness and the aversion to pain; but that\nthe people, and the greater part of legislators, not knowing the route\nto be pursued, have formed false, and therefore discordant, ideas of\nvirtue and vice of good and evil, that is to say, of what renders man\nhappy or miserable; that in every instance, the means and the causes of\npropagating and establishing systems have exhibited the same scenes of\npassion and the same events; everywhere disputes about words, pretexts\nfor zeal, revolutions and wars excited by the ambition of princes, the\nknavery of apostles, the credulity of proselytes, the ignorance of the\nvulgar, the exclusive cupidity and intolerant arrogance of all. Indeed,\nyou will see that the whole history of the spirit of religion is only\nthe history of the errors of the human mind, which, placed in a world\nthat it does not comprehend, endeavors nevertheless to solve the enigma;\nand which, beholding with astonishment this mysterious and visible\nprodigy, imagines causes, supposes reasons, builds systems; then,\nfinding one defective, destroys it for another not less so; hates the\nerror that it abandons, misconceives the one that it embraces, rejects\nthe truth that it is seeking, composes chimeras of discordant beings;\nand thus, while always dreaming of wisdom and happiness, wanders blindly\nin a labyrinth of illusion and doubt.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nALL RELIGIONS HAVE THE SAME OBJECT.\n\n\nThus spoke the orator in the name of those men who had studied the\norigin and succession of religious ideas.\n\nThe theologians of various systems, reasoning on this discourse: \"It is\nan impious representation,\" said some, \"whose tendency is nothing less\nthan to overturn all belief, to destroy subordination in the minds of\nmen, and annihilate our ministry and power.\" \"It is a romance,\" said\nothers, \"a tissue of conjectures, composed with art, but without\nfoundation.\" The moderate and prudent men added: \"Supposing all this to\nbe true, why reveal these mysteries? Doubtless our opinions are full of\nerrors; but these errors are a necessary restraint on the multitude. The\nworld has gone thus for two thousand years; why change it now?\"\n\nA murmur of disapprobation, which never fails to rise at every\ninnovation, now began to increase; when a numerous group of the common\nclasses of people, and of untaught men of all countries and of every\nnation, without prophets, without doctors, and without doctrine,\nadvancing in the circle, drew the attention of the whole assembly; and\none of them, in the name of all, thus addressed the multitude:\n\n\"Mediators and arbiters of nations! the strange relations which have\noccupied the present debate were unknown to us until this day. Our\nunderstanding, confounded and amazed at so many statements, some of them\nlearned, others absurd and all incomprehensible, remains in uncertainty\nand doubt. One only reflection has struck us: on reviewing so many\nprodigious facts, so many contradictory assertions, we ask ourselves:\nWhat are all these discussions to us? What need have we of knowing what\npassed five or six thousand years ago, in countries we never heard\nof, and among men who will ever be unknown to us? True or false, what\ninterest have we in knowing whether the world has existed six thousand,\nor twenty-five thousand years? Whether it was made of nothing, or of\nsomething; by itself, or by a maker, who in his turn would require\nanother maker? What! we are not sure of what happens near us, and shall\nwe answer for what happens in the sun, in the moon, or in imaginary\nregions of space? We have forgotten our own infancy, and shall we know\nthe infancy of the world? And who will attest what no one has seen? who\nwill certify what no man comprehends?\n\n\"Besides, what addition or diminution will it make to our existence, to\nanswer yes or no to all these chimeras? Hitherto neither our fathers nor\nourselves have had the least knowledge or notion of them, and we do not\nperceive that we have had on this account either more or less of the\nsun, more or less of subsistence, more or less of good or of evil.\n\n\"If the knowledge of these things is so necessary, why have we lived as\nwell without it as those who have taken so much trouble concerning it?\nIf this knowledge is superfluous, why should we burden ourselves with it\nto-day?\"\n\nThen addressing himself to the doctors and theologians:\n\n\"What!\" said he, \"is it necessary that we, poor and ignorant men, whose\nevery moment is scarcely sufficient for the cares of life, and the\nlabors of which you take the profit,--is it necessary for us to learn\nthe numberless histories that you have recounted, to read the quantity\nof books that you have cited, and to study the various languages in\nwhich they are composed! A thousand years of life would not suffice--\"\n\n\"It is not necessary,\" replied the doctors, \"that you should acquire all\nthis science; we have it for you--\"\n\n\"But even you,\" replied the simple men, \"with all your science, you are\nnot agreed; of what advantage, then, is your science? Besides, how can\nyou answer for us? If the faith of one man is applicable to many, what\nneed have even you to believe? your fathers may have believed for you;\nand this would be reasonable, since they have seen for you.\n\n\"Farther, what is believing, if believing influences no action? And what\naction is influenced by believing, for instance, that the world is or is\nnot eternal?\"\n\n\"The latter would be offensive to God,\" said the doctors.\n\n\"How prove you that?\" replied the simple men.\n\n\"In our books,\" answered the doctors.\n\n\"We do not understand them,\" returned the simple men.\n\n\"We understand them for you,\" said the doctors.\n\n\"That is the difficulty,\" replied the simple men. \"By what right do you\nconstitute yourselves mediators between God and us?\"\n\n\"By his orders,\" said the doctors.\n\n\"Where is the proof of these orders?\" said the simple men.\n\n\"In our books,\" said the doctors.\n\n\"We understand them not,\" said the simple men; \"and how came this just\nGod to give you this privilege over us? Why did this common father\noblige us to believe on a less degree of evidence than you? He has\nspoken to you; be it so; he is infallible, and deceives you not. But\nit is you who speak to us! And who shall assure us that you are not in\nerror yourselves, or that you will not lead us into error? And if we\nshould be deceived, how will that just God save us contrary to law, or\ncondemn us on a law which we have not known?\"\n\n\"He has given you the natural law,\" said the doctors.\n\n\"And what is the natural law?\" replied the simple men. \"If that law is\nsufficient, why has he given any other? If it is not sufficient, why did\nhe make it imperfect?\"\n\n\"His judgments are mysteries,\" said the doctors, \"and his justice is not\nlike that of men.\"\n\n\"If his justice,\" replied the simple men, \"is not like ours, by what\nrule are we to judge of it? And, moreover, why all these laws, and what\nis the object proposed by them?\"\n\n\"To render you more happy,\" replied a doctor, \"by rendering you better\nand more virtuous. It is to teach man to enjoy his benefits, and not\ninjure his fellows, that God has manifested himself by so many oracles\nand prodigies.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" said the simple men, \"there is no necessity for so many\nstudies, nor of such a variety of arguments; only tell us which is the\nreligion that best answers the end which they all propose.\"\n\nImmediately, on this, every group, extolling its own morality above\nthat of all others, there arose among the different sects a new and most\nviolent dispute.\n\n\"It is we,\" said the Mussulmans, \"who possess the most excellent morals,\nwho teach all the virtues useful to men and agreeable to God. We profess\njustice, disinterestedness, resignation to providence, charity to\nour brethren, alms-giving, and devotion; we torment not the soul with\nsuperstitious fears; we live without alarm, and die without remorse.\"\n\n\"How dare you speak of morals,\" answered the Christian priests, \"you,\nwhose chief lived in licentiousness and preached impurity? You, whose\nfirst precept is homicide and war? For this we appeal to experience: for\nthese twelve hundred years your fanatical zeal has not ceased to spread\ncommotion and carnage among the nations. If Asia, so flourishing in\nformer times, is now languishing in barbarity and depopulation, it is in\nyour doctrine that we find the cause; in that doctrine, the enemy of\nall instruction, which sanctifies ignorance, which consecrates the most\nabsolute despotism in the governors, imposes the most blind and passive\nobedience in the people, that has stupefied the faculties of man, and\nbrutalized the nations.\n\n\"It is not so with our sublime and celestial morals; it was they which\nraised the world from its primitive barbarity, from the senseless\nand cruel superstitions of idolatry, from human sacrifices,* from the\nshameful orgies of pagan mysteries; they it was that purified manners,\nproscribed incest and adultery, polished savage nations, banished\nslavery, and introduced new and unknown virtues, charity for men, their\nequality in the sight of God, forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries,\nthe restraint of all the passions, the contempt of worldly greatness, a\nlife completely spiritual and completely holy!\"\n\n     * Read the cold declaration of Eusebius (Proep. Evang. lib.\n     I, p. 11,), who pretends that, since the coming of Christ,\n     there have been neither wars, nor tyrants, nor cannibals,\n     nor sodomites, nor persons committing incest, nor savages\n     destroying their parents, etc.  When we read these fathers\n     of the church we are astonished at their insincerity or\n     infatuation.\n\n\"We admire,\" said the Mussulmans, \"the ease with which you reconcile\nthat evangelical meekness, of which you are so ostentatious, with\nthe injuries and outrages with which you are constantly galling your\nneighbors. When you criminate so severely the great man whom we revere,\nwe might fairly retort on the conduct of him whom you adore; but we\nscorn such advantages, and confining ourselves to the real object in\nquestion, we maintain that the morals of your gospel have by no means\nthat perfection which you ascribe to them; it is not true that they\nhave introduced into the world new and unknown virtues: for example,\nthe equality of men in the sight of God,--that fraternity and that\nbenevolence which follow from it, were formal doctrines of the sect\nof the Hermatics or Samaneans,* from whom you descend. As to the\nforgiveness of injuries, the Pagans themselves had taught it; but in\nthe extent that you give it, far from being a virtue, it becomes an\nimmorality, a vice. Your so much boasted precept of turning one cheek\nafter the other, is not only contrary to every sentiment of man, but is\nopposed to all ideas of justice. It emboldens the wicked by impunity,\ndebases the virtuous by servility, delivers up the world to despotism\nand tyranny, and dissolves all society. Such is the true spirit of your\ndoctrines. Your gospels in their precepts and their parables, never\nrepresent God but as a despot without any rules of equity; a partial\nfather treating a debauched and prodigal son with more favor than his\nrespectful and virtuous children; a capricious master, who gives the\nsame wages to workmen who had wrought but one hour, as to those who had\nlabored through the whole day; one who prefers the last comers to the\nfirst. The moral is everywhere misanthropic and antisocial; it disgusts\nmen with life and with society; and tends only to encourage hermitism\nand celibacy.\n\n     * The equality of mankind in a state of nature and in the\n     eyes of God was one of the principal tenets of the\n     Samaneans, and they appear to be the only ancients that\n     entertained this opinion.\n\n\"As to the manner in which you have practised these morals, we appeal\nin our turn to the testimony of facts. We ask whether it is this\nevangelical meekness which has excited your interminable wars between\nyour sects, your atrocious persecutions of pretended heretics, your\ncrusades against Arianism, Manicheism, Protestantism, without speaking\nof your crusades against us, and of those sacrilegious associations,\nstill subsisting, of men who take an oath to continue them?* We ask\nyou whether it be gospel charity which has made you exterminate whole\nnations in America, to annihilate the empires of Mexico and Peru; which\nmakes you continue to dispeople Africa and sell its inhabitants like\ncattle, notwithstanding your abolition of slavery; which makes you\nravage India and usurp its dominions; and whether it be the same charity\nwhich, for three centuries past, has led you to harrass the habitations\nof the people of three continents, of whom the most prudent, the Chinese\nand Japanese, were constrained to drive you off, that they might escape\nyour chains and recover their internal peace?\"\n\n     * The oath taken by the knights of the Order of Malta, is to\n     kill, or make the Mahometans prisoners, for the glory of\n     God.\n\nHere the Bramins, the Rabbins, the Bonzes, the Chamans, the Priests of\nthe Molucca islands, and the coasts of Guinea, loading the Christian\ndoctors with reproaches: \"Yes!\" cried they, \"these men are robbers and\nhypocrites, who preach simplicity, to surprise confidence; humility,\nto enslave with more ease; poverty, to appropriate all riches to\nthemselves. They promise another world, the better to usurp the present;\nand while they speak to you of tolerance and charity, they burn, in the\nname of God, the men who do not worship him in their manner.\"\n\n\"Lying priests,\" retorted the missionaries, \"it is you who abuse the\ncredulity of ignorant nations to subjugate them. It is you who have made\nof your ministry an art of cheating and imposture; you have converted\nreligion into a traffic of cupidity and avarice. You pretend to hold\ncommunications with spirits, and they give for oracles nothing but\nyour wills. You feign to read the stars, and destiny decrees only your\ndesires. You cause idols to speak, and the gods are but the instruments\nof your passions. You have invented sacrifices and libations, to\ncollect for your own profit the milk of flocks, and the flesh and fat\nof victims; and under the cloak of piety you devour the offerings of the\ngods, who cannot eat, and the substance of the people who are forced to\nlabor.\"\n\n\"And you,\" replied the Bramins, the Bonzes, the Chamans, \"you sell to\nthe credulous living, your vain prayers for the souls of the dead. With\nyour indulgences and your absolutions you have usurped the power of God\nhimself; and making a traffic of his favors and pardons, you have put\nheaven at auction; and by your system of expiations you have formed a\ntariff of crimes, which has perverted all consciences.\"*\n\n     * As long as it shall be possible to obtain purification\n     from crimes and exemption from punishment by means of money\n     or other frivolous practices; as long as kings and great men\n     shall suppose that building temples or instituting\n     foundations, will absolve them from the guilt of oppression\n     and homicide; as long as individuals shall imagine that they\n     may rob and cheat, provided they observe fast during Lent,\n     go to confession, and receive extreme unction, it is\n     impossible there should exist in society any morality or\n     virtue; and it is from a deep conviction of truth, that a\n     modern philosopher has called the doctrine of expiations la\n     verola des societes.\n\n\"Add to this,\" said the Imans, \"that these men have invented the\nmost insidious of all systems of wickedness,--the absurd and impious\nobligation of recounting to them the most intimate secrets of actions\nand of thoughts (confessions); so their insolent curiosity has carried\ntheir inquisition even into the sanctuary of the marriage bed,* and the\ninviolable recesses of the heart.\"\n\n     * Confession is a very ancient invention of the priests, who\n     did not fail to avail themselves of that means of governing.\n     It was practised in the Egyptian, Greek, Phrygian, Persian\n     mysteries, etc. Plutarch has transmitted us the remarkable\n     answer of a Spartan whom a priest wanted to confess.  \"Is it\n     to you or to God I am to confess?\"  \"To God,\" answered the\n     priest: \"In that case,\" replied the Spartan, \"man, begone!\"\n     (Remarkable Savings of the Lacedemonians.)  The first\n     Christians confessed their faults publicly, like the\n     Essenians.  Afterwards, priests began to be established,\n     with power of absolution from the sin of idolatry.  In the\n     time of Theodosius, a woman having publicly confessed an\n     intrigue with a deacon, bishop Necterius, and his successor\n     Chrysostom, granted communion without confession.  It was\n     not until the seventh century that the abbots of convents\n     exacted from monks and nuns confession twice a year; and it\n     was at a still later period that bishops of Rome generalized\n     it.\n\n     The Mussulmen, who suppose women to have no souls, are\n     shocked at the idea of confession; and say; How can an\n     honest man think of listening to the recital of the actions\n     or the secret thoughts of a woman?  May we not also ask, on\n     the other hand, how can an honest woman consent to reveal\n     them?\n\nThus by mutual reproaches the doctors of the different sects began to\nreveal all the crimes of their ministry--all the vices of their craft;\nand it was found that among all nations the spirit of the priesthood,\ntheir system of conduct, their actions their morals, were absolutely the\nsame:\n\nThat they had everywhere formed secret associations and corporations at\nenmity with the rest of society:*\n\n     * That we may understand the general feelings of priests\n     respecting the rest of mankind, whom they always call by the\n     name of the people, let us hear one of the doctors of the\n     church.  \"The people,\" says Bishop Synnesius, in Calvit.\n     page 315, \"are desirous of being deceived, we cannot act\n     otherwise respecting them.  The case was similar with the\n     ancient priests of Egypt, and for this reason they shut\n     themselves up in their temples, and there composed their\n     mysteries, out of the reach of the eye of the people.\"  And\n     forgetting what he has before just said, he adds: \"for had\n     the people been in the secret they might have been offended\n     at the deception played upon them.  In the mean time how is\n     it possible to conduct one's self otherwise with the people\n     so long as they are people?  For my own part, to myself I\n     shall always be a philosopher, but in dealing with the mass\n     of mankind, I shall be a priest.\"\n\n     \"A little jargon,\" says Geogory Nazianzen to St. Jerome\n     (Hieron. ad. Nep.) \"is all that is necessary to impose on\n     the people.  The less they comprehend, the more they admire.\n     Our forefathers and doctors of the church have often said,\n     not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity\n     dictated to them.\"\n\n     \"We endeavor,\" says Sanchoniaton, \"to excite admiration by\n     means of the marvellous.\" (Proep. Evang. lib. 3.)\n\n     Such was the conduct of all the priests of antiquity, and is\n     still that of the Bramins and Lamas who are the exact\n     counterpart of the Egyptian priests.  Such was the practice\n     of the Jesuits, who marched with hasty strides in the same\n     career.  It is useless to point out the whole depravity of\n     such a doctrine.  In general every association which has\n     mystery for its basis, or an oath of secrecy, is a league of\n     robbers against society, a league divided in its very bosom\n     into knaves and dupes, or in other words agents and\n     instruments.  It is thus we ought to judge of those modern\n     clubs, which, under the name of Illuminatists, Martinists,\n     Cagliostronists, and Mesmerites, infest Europe.  These\n     societies are the follies and deceptions of the ancient\n     Cabalists, Magicians, Orphies, etc., \"who,\" says Plutarch,\n     \"led into errors of considerable magnitude, not only\n     individuals, but kings and nations.\"\n\nThat they had everywhere attributed to themselves prerogatives and\nimmunities, by means of which they lived exempt from the burdens of\nother classes:\n\nThat they everywhere avoided the toils of the laborer, the dangers of\nthe soldier, and the disappointments of the merchant:\n\nThat they lived everywhere in celibacy, to shun even the cares of a\nfamily:\n\nThat, under the cloak of poverty, they found everywhere the secret of\nprocuring wealth and all sorts of enjoyments:\n\nThat under the name of mendicity they raised taxes to a greater amount\nthan princes:\n\nThat in the form of gifts and offerings they had established fixed and\ncertain revenues exempt from charges:\n\nThat under pretence of retirement and devotion they lived in idleness\nand licentiousness:\n\nThat they had made a virtue of alms-giving, to live quietly on the\nlabors of others:\n\nThat they had invented the ceremonies of worship, as a means of\nattracting the reverence of the people, while they were playing the\nparts of gods, of whom they styled themselves the interpreters and\nmediators, to assume all their powers; that, with this design, they had\n(according to the degree of ignorance or information of their people)\nassumed by turns the character of astrologers, drawers of horoscopes,\nfortune-tellers, magicians,* necromancers, quacks, physicians,\ncourtiers, confessors of princes, always aiming at the great object to\ngovern for their own advantage:\n\n     * What is a magician, in the sense in which people\n     understand the word?  A man who by words and gestures\n     pretends to act on supernatural beings, and compel them to\n     descend at his call and obey his orders.  Such was the\n     conduct of the ancient priests, and such is still that of\n     all priests in idolatrous nations; for which reason we have\n     given them the denomination of Magicians.\n\n     And when a Christian priest pretends to make God descend\n     from heaven, to fix him to a morsel of leaven, and render,\n     by means of this talisman, souls pure and in a state of\n     grace, what is this but a trick of magic?  And where is the\n     difference between a Chaman of Tartary who invokes the\n     Genii, or an Indian Bramin, who makes Vichenou descend in a\n     vessel of water to drive away evil spirits? Yes, the\n     identity of the spirit of priests in every age and country\n     is fully established!  Every where it is the assumption of\n     an exclusive privilege, the pretended faculty of moving at\n     will the powers of nature; and this assumption is so direct\n     a violation of the right of equality, that whenever the\n     people shall regain their importance, they will forever\n     abolish this sacrilegious kind of nobility, which has been\n     the type and parent stock of the other species of nobility.\n\nThat sometimes they had exalted the power of kings and consecrated their\npersons, to monopolize their favors, or participate their sway:\n\nThat sometimes they had preached up the murder of tyrants (reserving it\nto themselves to define tyranny), to avenge themselves of their contempt\nor their disobedience:\n\nAnd that they always stigmatised with impiety whatever crossed their\ninterests; that they hindered all public instruction, to exercise the\nmonopoly of science; that finally, at all times and in all places, they\nhad found the secret of living in peace in the midst of the anarchy they\ncreated, in safety under the despotism that they favored, in idleness\namidst the industry they preached, and in abundance while surrounded\nwith scarcity; and all this by carrying on the singular trade of selling\nwords and gestures to credulous people, who purchase them as commodities\nof the greatest value.*\n\n     * A curious work would be the comparative history of the\n     agnuses of the pope and the pastils of the grand Lama.  It\n     would be worth while to extend this idea to religions\n     ceremonies in general, and to confront column by column, the\n     analogous or contrasting points of faith and superstitious\n     practices in all nations.  There is one more species of\n     superstition which it would be equally salutary to cure,\n     blind veneration for the great; and for this purpose it\n     would be alone sufficient to write a minute detail of the\n     private life of kings and princes.  No work could be so\n     philosophical as this; and accordingly we have seen what a\n     general outcry was excited among kings and the panders of\n     kings, when the Anecdotes of the Court of Berlin first\n     appeared.  What would be the alarm were the public put in\n     possession of the sequel of this work?  Were the people\n     fairly acquainted with all the absurdities of this species\n     of idol, they would no longer be exposed to covet their\n     specious pleasures of which the plausible and hollow\n     appearance disturbs their peace, and hinders them from\n     enjoying the much more solid happiness of their own\n     condition.\n\nThen the different nations, in a transport of fury, were going to\ntear in pieces the men who had thus abused them; but the legislator,\narresting this movement of violence, addressed the chiefs and doctors:\n\n\"What!\" said he, \"instructors of nations, is it thus that you have\ndeceived them?\"\n\nAnd the terrified priests replied.\n\n\"O legislator! we are men. The people are so superstitious! they have\nthemselves encouraged these errors.\"*\n\n     * Consider in this view the Brabanters.\n\nAnd the kings said:\n\n\"O legislator! the people are so servile and so ignorant! they\nprostrated themselves before the yoke, which we scarcely dared to show\nthem.\"*\n\n     * The inhabitants of Vienna, for example, who harnessed\n     themselves like cattle and drew the chariot of Leopold.\n\nThen the legislator, turning to the people--\"People!\" said he, \"remember\nwhat you have just heard; they are two indelible truths. Yes, you\nyourselves cause the evils of which you complain; yourselves encourage\nthe tyrants, by a base adulation of their power, by an imprudent\nadmiration of their false beneficence, by servility in obedience,\nby licentiousness in liberty, and by a credulous reception of every\nimposition. On whom shall you wreak vengeance for the faults committed\nby your own ignorance and cupidity?\"\n\nAnd the people, struck with confusion, remained in mournful silence.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nSOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF CONTRADICTIONS.\n\n\nThe legislator then resumed his discourse: \"O nations!\" said he, \"we\nhave heard the discussion of your opinions. The different sentiments\nwhich divide you have given rise to many reflections, and furnished\nseveral questions which we shall propose to you to solve.\n\n\"First, considering the diversity and opposition of the creeds to which\nyou are attached, we ask on what motives you found your persuasion? Is\nit from a deliberate choice that you follow the standard of one prophet\nrather than another? Before adopting this doctrine, rather than that,\ndid you first compare? did you carefully examine them? Or have you\nreceived them only from the chance of birth, from the empire of\neducation and habit? Are you not born Christians on the borders of the\nTiber, Mussulmans on those of the Euphrates, Idolaters on the Indus,\njust as you are born fair in cold climates, and sable under the\nscorching sun of Africa? And if your opinions are the effect of your\nfortuitous position on the earth, of consanguinity, of imitation, how is\nit that such a hazard should be a ground of conviction, an argument of\ntruth?\n\n\"Secondly, when we reflect on the mutual proscriptions and arbitrary\nintolerance of your pretensions, we are frightened at the consequences\nthat flow from your own principles. Nations! who reciprocally devote\neach other to the bolts of heavenly wrath, suppose that the universal\nBeing, whom you revere, should this moment descend from heaven on this\nmultitude; and, clothed with all his power, should sit on this throne\nto judge you; suppose that he should say to you: Mortals! it is your own\njustice that I am going to exercise upon you. Yes, of all the religious\nsystems that divide you, one alone shall this day be preferred; all the\nothers, all this multitude of standards, of nations, of prophets, shall\nbe condemned to eternal destruction. This is not enough: among the\nparticular sects of the chosen system, one only can be favored; all\nthe others must be condemned: neither is this enough;--from this little\nremnant of a group I must exclude all those who have not fulfilled the\nconditions enjoined by its precepts. O men! to what a small number of\nelect have you limited your race! to what a penury of beneficence do you\nreduce the immensity of my goodness! to what a solitude of beholders do\nyou condemn my greatness and my glory!\n\n\"But,\" said the legislator rising, \"no matter you have willed it so.\nNations! here is an urn in which all your names are placed: one only is\na prize: approach, and draw this tremendous lottery!\" And the nations,\nseized with terror cried: \"No, no; we are all brothers, all equal; we\ncannot condemn each other.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said the legislator, resuming his seat: \"O men! who dispute\non so many subjects, lend an attentive ear to one problem which you\nexhibit, and which you ought to decide yourselves.\"\n\nAnd the people, giving great attention, he lifted an arm towards heaven,\nand, pointing to the sun, said:\n\n\"Nations, does that sun, which enlightens you, appear square or\ntriangular?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered they with one voice, \"it is round.\"\n\nThen, taking the golden balance that was on the altar:\n\n\"This gold,\" said the legislator, \"that you handle every day, is it\nheavier than the same volume of copper?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered all the people, \"gold is heavier than Copper.\"\n\nThen, taking the sword:\n\n\"Is this iron,\" said the legislator, \"softer than lead?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the people.\n\n\"Is sugar sweet, and gall bitter?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Do you love pleasure and hate pain?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Thus, then, you are agreed in these points, and many others of the same\nnature.\n\n\"Now, tell us, is there a cavern in the centre of the earth, or\ninhabitants in the moon?\"\n\nThis question caused a universal murmur. Every one answered\ndifferently--some yes, others no; one said it was probable, another said\nit was an idle and ridiculous question; some, that it was worth knowing.\nAnd the discord was universal.\n\nAfter some time the legislator, having obtained silence, said:\n\n\"Explain to us, O Nations! this problem: we have put to you several\nquestions which you have answered with one voice, without distinction\nof race or of sect: white men, black men, followers of Mahomet and of\nMoses, worshippers of Boudha and of Jesus, all have returned the same\nanswer. We then proposed another question, and you have all disagreed!\nWhy this unanimity in one case, and this discordance in the other?\"\n\nAnd the group of simple men and savages answered and said: \"The reason\nof this is plain. In the first case we see and feel the objects, and we\nspeak from sensation; in the second, they are beyond the reach of our\nsenses--we speak of them only from conjecture.\"\n\n\"You have resolved the problem,\" said the legislator; \"and your own\nconsent has established this first truth:\n\n\"That whenever objects can be examined and judged of by your senses,\nyou are agreed in opinion; and that you only differ when the objects are\nabsent and beyond your reach.\n\n\"From this first truth flows another equally clear and worthy of notice.\nSince you agree on things which you know with certainty, it follows that\nyou disagree only on those which you know not with certainty, and about\nwhich you are not sure; that is to say, you dispute, you quarrel, you\nfight, for that which is uncertain, that of which you doubt. O men! is\nthis wisdom?\n\n\"Is it not, then, demonstrated that truth is not the object of your\ncontests? that it is not her cause which you defend, but that of your\naffections, and your prejudices? that it is not the object, as it really\nis in itself, that you would verify, but the object as you would have\nit; that is to say, it is not the evidence of the thing that you would\nenforce, but your own personal opinion, your particular manner of seeing\nand judging? It is a power that you wish to exercise, an interest that\nyou wish to satisfy, a prerogative that you arrogate to yourself; it is\na contest of vanity. Now, as each of you, on comparing himself to every\nother, finds himself his equal and his fellow, he resists by a feeling\nof the same right. And your disputes, your combats, your intolerance,\nare the effect of this right which you deny each other, and of the\nintimate conviction of your equality.\n\n\"Now, the only means of establishing harmony is to return to nature,\nand to take for a guide and regulator the order of things which she has\nfounded; and then your accord will prove this other truth:\n\n\"That real beings have in themselves an identical, constant and uniform\nmode of existence; and that there is in your organs a like mode of being\naffected by them.\n\n\"But at the same time, by reason of the mobility of these organs as\nsubject to your will, you may conceive different affections, and find\nyourselves in different relations with the same objects; so that you are\nto them like a mirror, capable of reflecting them truly as they are, or\nof distorting and disfiguring them.\n\n\"Hence it follows, that whenever you perceive objects as they are,\nyou agree among yourselves, and with the objects; and this similitude\nbetween your sensations and their manner of existence, is what\nconstitutes their truth with respect to you; and, on the contrary,\nwhenever you differ in opinion, your disagreement is a proof that you do\nnot represent them such as they are,--that you change them.\n\n\"Hence, also, it follows, that the causes of your disagreement exist\nnot in the objects themselves, but in your minds, in your manner of\nperceiving or judging.\n\n\"To establish, therefore, a uniformity of opinion, it is necessary first\nto establish the certainty, completely verified, that the portraits\nwhich the mind forms are perfectly like the originals; that it reflects\nthe objects correctly as they exist. Now, this result cannot be obtained\nbut in those cases where the objects can be brought to the test, and\nsubmitted to the examination of the senses. Everything which cannot\nbe brought to this trial is, for that reason alone, impossible to be\ndetermined; there exists no rule, no term of comparison, no means of\ncertainty, respecting it.\n\n\"From this we conclude, that, to live in harmony and peace, we must\nagree never to decide on such subjects, and to attach to them no\nimportance; in a word, we must trace a line of distinction between those\nthat are capable of verification, and those that are not; and separate\nby an inviolable barrier the world of fantastical beings from the world\nof realities; that is to say, all civil effect must be taken away from\ntheological and religious opinions.\n\n\"This, O ye people of the earth! is the object proposed by a great\nnation freed from her fetters and her prejudices; this is the work\nwhich, under her eye and by her orders, we had undertaken, when your\nkings and your priests came to interrupt it. O kings and priests! you\nmay suspend, yet for a while, the solemn publication of the laws of\nnature; but it is no longer in your power to annihilate or to subvert\nthem.\"\n\n\nA general shout then arose from every part of the assembly; and the\nnations universally, and with one voice, testified their assent to the\nproposals of the delegates: \"Resume,\" said they, \"your holy and sublime\nlabors, and bring them to perfection. Investigate the laws which nature,\nfor our guidance, has implanted in our breasts, and collect from them\nan authentic and immutable code; nor let this code be any longer for one\nfamily only, but for us all without exception. Be the legislators of the\nwhole human race, as you are the interpreters of nature herself. Show\nus the line of partition between the world of chimeras and that of\nrealities; and teach us, after so many religions of error and delusion,\nthe religion of evidence and truth!\"\n\n\nThen the delegates, having resumed their enquiries into the physical and\nconstituent attributes of man, and examined the motives and affections\nwhich govern him in his individual and social state, unfolded in these\nwords the laws on which nature herself has founded his happiness.\n\n\n\nTHE LAW OF NATURE.\n\n\nCHAPTER 1.\n\nOF THE LAW OF NATURE.\n\n\nQ. What is the law of nature?\n\nA. It is the constant and regular order of events, by which God governs\nthe universe; an order which his wisdom presents to the senses and\nreason of men, as an equal and common rule for their actions, to guide\nthem, without distinction of country or sect, towards perfection and\nhappiness.\n\nQ. Give a clear definition of the word law.\n\nA. The word law, taken literary, signifies lecture,* because originally,\nordinances and regulations were the lectures, preferably to all others,\nmade to the people, in order that they might observe them, and not incur\nthe penalties attached to their infraction: whence follows the original\ncustom explaining the true idea.\n\nThe definition of law is, \"An order or prohibition to act with the\nexpress clause of a penalty attached to the infraction, or of a\nrecompense attached to the observance of that order.\"\n\n     * From the Latin word lex, lectio.  Alcoran likewise\n     signifies lecture and is only a literal translation of the\n     word law.\n\nQ. Do such orders exist in nature?\n\nA. Yes.\n\nQ. What does the word nature signify?\n\nA. The word nature bears three different significations.\n\n1. It signifies the universe, the material world: in this first sense\nwe say the beauties of nature, the riches of nature, that is to say, the\nobjects in the heavens and on the earth exposed to our sight;\n\n2. It signifies the power that animates, that moves the universe,\nconsidering it as a distinct being, such as the soul is to the body;\nin this second sense we say, \"The intentions of nature, the\nincomprehensible secrets of nature.\"\n\n3. It signifies the partial operations of that power on each being, or\non each class of beings; and in this third sense we say, \"The nature of\nman is an enigma; every being acts according to its nature.\"\n\nWherefore, as the actions of each being, or of each species of beings,\nare subjected to constant and general rules, which cannot be infringed\nwithout interrupting and troubling the general or particular order,\nthose rules of action and of motion are called natural laws, or laws of\nnature.\n\nQ. Give me examples of those laws.\n\nA. It is a law of nature, that the sun illuminates successively the\nsurface of the terrestrial globe;--that its presence causes both light\nand heat;--that heat acting upon water, produces vapors;--that those\nvapors rising in clouds into the regions of the air, dissolve into rain\nor snow, and renew incessantly the waters of fountains and rivers.\n\nIt is a law of nature, that water flows downwards; that it endeavors\nto find its level; that it is heavier than air; that all bodies tend\ntowards the earth; that flame ascends towards the heavens;--that it\ndisorganizes vegetables and animals; that air is essential to the life\nof certain animals; that, in certain circumstances, water suffocates and\nkills them; that certain juices of plants, certain minerals attack\ntheir organs, and destroy their life, and so on in a multitude of other\ninstances.\n\nWherefore, as all those and similar facts are immutable, constant, and\nregular, so many real orders result from them for man to conform himself\nto, with the express clause of punishment attending the infraction of\nthem, or of welfare attending their observance. So that if man pretends\nto see clear in darkness, if he goes in contradiction to the course of\nthe seasons, or the action of the elements; if he pretends to remain\nunder water without being drowned, to touch fire without burning\nhimself, to deprive himself of air without being suffocated, to swallow\npoison without destroying himself, he receives from each of those\ninfractions of the laws of nature a corporeal punishment proportionate\nto his fault; but if on the contrary, he observes and practises each of\nthose laws according to the regular and exact relations they have to him\nhe preserves his existence, and renders it as happy as it can be: and\nas the only and common end of all those laws, considered relatively to\nmankind, is to preserve, and render them happy, it has been agreed\nupon to reduce the idea to one simple expression, and to call them\ncollectively the law of nature.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nCHARACTERS OF THE LAW OF NATURE.\n\n\nQ. What are the characters of the law of nature?\n\nA. There can be assigned ten principal ones.\n\nQ. Which is the first?\n\nA. To be inherent to the existence of things, and, consequently,\nprimitive and anterior to every other law: so that all those which\nman has received, are only imitations of it, and their perfection is\nascertained by the resemblance they bear to this primordial model.\n\nQ. Which is the second?\n\nA. To be derived immediately from God, and presented by him to each man,\nwhereas all other laws are presented to us by men, who may be either\ndeceived or deceivers.\n\nQ. Which is the third?\n\nA. To be common to all times, and to all countries, that is to say, one\nand universal.\n\nQ. Is no other law universal?\n\nA. No: for no other is agreeable or applicable to all the people of the\nearth; they are all local and accidental, originating from circumstances\nof places and of persons; so that if such a man had not existed, or such\nan event happened, such a law would never have been enacted.\n\nQ. Which is the fourth character?\n\nA. To be uniform and invariable.\n\nQ. Is no other law uniform and invariable?\n\nA. No: for what is good and virtue according to one, is evil and vice\naccording to another; and what one and the same law approves of at one\ntime, it often condemns at another.\n\nQ. Which is the fifth character?\n\nA. To be evident and palpable, because it consists entirely of facts\nincessantly present to the senses, and to demonstration.\n\nQ. Are not other laws evident?\n\nA. No: for they are founded on past and doubtful facts, on equivocal and\nsuspicious testimonies, and on proofs inaccessible to the senses.\n\nQ. Which is the sixth character?\n\nA. To be reasonable, because its precepts and entire doctrine are\nconformable to reason, and to the human understanding.\n\nQ. Is no other law reasonable?\n\nA. No: for all are in contradiction to the reason and the understanding\nof men, and tyrannically impose on him a blind and impracticable belief.\n\nQ. Which is the seventh character?\n\nA. To be just, because in that law, the penalties are proportionate to\nthe infractions.\n\nQ. Are not other laws just?\n\nA. No: for they often exceed bounds, either in rewarding deserts, or in\npunishing delinquencies, and consider as meritorious or criminal, null\nor indifferent actions.\n\nQ. Which is the eighth character?\n\nA. To be pacific and tolerant, because in the law of nature, all men\nbeing brothers and equal in rights, it recommends to them only peace and\ntoleration, even for errors.\n\nQ. Are not other laws pacific?\n\nA. No: for all preach dissension, discord, and war, and divide mankind\nby exclusive pretensions of truth and domination.\n\nQ. Which is the ninth character?\n\nA. To be equally beneficent to all men, in teaching them the true means\nof becoming better and happier.\n\nQ. Are not other laws beneficent likewise?\n\nA. No: for none of them teach the real means of attaining happiness; all\nare confined to pernicious or futile practices; and this is evident from\nfacts, since after so many laws, so many religions, so many legislators\nand prophets, men are still as unhappy and ignorant, as they were six\nthousand years ago.\n\nQ. Which is the last character of the law of nature?\n\nA. That it is alone sufficient to render men happier and better, because\nit comprises all that is good and useful in other laws, either civil or\nreligious, that is to say, it constitutes essentially the moral part of\nthem; so that if other laws were divested of it, they would be reduced\nto chimerical and imaginary opinions devoid of any practical utility.\n\nQ. Recapitulate all those characters.\n\nA. We have said that the law of nature is,\n\n     1.  Primitive;     6.  Reasonable;\n     2.  Immediate;     7.  Just;\n     3.  Universal;     8.  Pacific;\n     4.  Invariable;    9.  Beneficent: and\n     5.  Evident;      10.  Alone sufficient.\n\nAnd such is the power of all these attributes of perfection and truth,\nthat when in their disputes the theologians can agree upon no article of\nbelief, they recur to the law of nature, the neglect of which, say they,\nforced God to send from time to time prophets to proclaim new laws; as\nif God enacted laws for particular circumstances, as men do; especially\nwhen the first subsists in such force, that we may assert it to have\nbeen at all times and in all countries the rule of conscience for every\nman of sense or understanding.\n\nQ. If, as you say, it emanates immediately from God, does it teach his\nexistence?\n\nA. Yes, most positively: for, to any man whatever, who observes with\nreflection the astonishing spectacle of the universe, the more he\nmeditates on the properties and attributes of each being, on\nthe admirable order and harmony of their motions, the more it is\ndemonstrated that there exists a supreme agent, a universal and identic\nmover, designated by the appellation of God; and so true it is that the\nlaw of nature suffices to elevate him to the knowledge of God, that all\nwhich men have pretended to know by supernatural means, has constantly\nturned out ridiculous and absurd, and that they have ever been obliged\nto recur to the immutable conceptions of natural reason.\n\nQ. Then it is not true that the followers of the law of nature are\natheists?\n\nA. No; it is not true; on the contrary, they entertain stronger and\nnobler ideas of the Divinity than most other men; for they do not\nsully him with the foul ingredients of all the weaknesses and passions\nentailed on humanity.\n\nQ. What worship do they pay to him?\n\nA. A worship wholly of action; the practice and observance of all the\nrules which the supreme wisdom has imposed on the motion of each being;\neternal and unalterable rules, by which it maintains the order\nand harmony of the universe, and which, in their relations to man,\nconstitute the law of nature.\n\nQ. Was the law of nature known before this period:\n\nA. It has been at all times spoken of: most legislators pretend to adopt\nit as the basis of their laws; but they only quote some of its precepts,\nand have only vague ideas of its totality.\n\nQ. Why.\n\nA. Because, though simple in its basis, it forms in its developements\nand consequences, a complicated whole which requires an extensive\nknowledge of facts, joined to all the sagacity of reasoning.\n\nQ. Does not instinct alone teach the law of nature?\n\nA. No; for by instinct is meant nothing more than that blind sentiment\nby which we are actuated indiscriminately towards everything that\nflatters the senses.\n\nQ. Why, then, is it said that the law of nature is engraved in the\nhearts of all men.\n\nA. It is said for two reasons: first, because it has been remarked, that\nthere are acts and sentiments common to all men, and this proceeds from\ntheir common organization; secondly, because the first philosophers\nbelieved that men were born with ideas already formed, which is now\ndemonstrated to be erroneous.\n\nQ. Philosophers, then, are fallible?\n\nA. Yes, sometimes.\n\nQ. Why so?\n\nA. First, because they are men; secondly, because the ignorant call all\nthose who reason, right or wrong, philosophers; thirdly, because those\nwho reason on many subjects, and who are the first to reason on them,\nare liable to be deceived.\n\nQ. If the law of nature be not written, must it not become arbitrary and\nideal?\n\nA. No: because it consists entirely in facts, the demonstration of which\ncan be incessantly renewed to the senses, and constitutes a science as\naccurate and precise as geometry and mathematics; and it is because the\nlaw of nature forms an exact science, that men, born ignorant and living\ninattentive and heedless, have had hitherto only a superficial knowledge\nof it.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nPRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF NATURE RELATING TO MAN.\n\n\nQ. Explain the principles of the law of nature with relation to man.\n\nA. They are simple; all of them are comprised in one fundamental and\nsingle precept.\n\nQ. What is that precept?\n\nA. It is self-preservation.\n\nQ. Is not happiness also a precept of the law of nature?\n\nA. Yes: but as happiness is an accidental state, resulting only from\nthe development of man's faculties and his social system, it is not\nthe immediate and direct object of nature; it is in some measure,\na superfluity annexed to the necessary and fundamental object of\npreservation.\n\nQ. How does nature order man to preserve himself?\n\nA. By two powerful and involuntary sensations, which it has attached,\nas two guides, two guardian Geniuses to all his actions: the one a\nsensation of pain, by which it admonishes him of, and deters him\nfrom, everything that tends to destroy him; the other, a sensation of\npleasure, by which it attracts and carries him towards everything that\ntends to his preservation and the development of his existence.\n\nQ. Pleasure, then, is not an evil, a sin, as casuists pretend?\n\nA. No, only inasmuch as it tends to destroy life and health which, by\nthe avowal of those same casuists, we derive from God himself.\n\nQ. Is pleasure the principal object of our existence, as some\nphilosophers have asserted?\n\nA. No; not more than pain; pleasure is an incitement to live as pain is\na repulsion from death.\n\nQ. How do you prove this assertion?\n\nA. By two palpable facts: One, that pleasure, when taken immoderately,\nleads to destruction; for instance, a man who abuses the pleasure of\neating or drinking, attacks his health, and injures his life. The other,\nthat pain sometimes leads to self-preservation; for instance, a man who\npermits a mortified member to be cut off, suffers pain in order not to\nperish totally.\n\nQ. But does not even this prove that our sensations can deceive us\nrespecting the end of our preservation?\n\nA. Yes; they can momentarily.\n\nQ. How do our sensations deceive us?\n\nA. In two ways: by ignorance, and by passion.\n\nQ. When do they deceive us by ignorance?\n\nA. When we act without knowing the action and effect of objects on our\nsenses: for example, when a man touches nettles without knowing\ntheir stinging quality, or when he swallows opium without knowing its\nsoporiferous effects.\n\nQ. When do they deceive us by passion?\n\nA. When, conscious of the pernicious action of objects, we abandon\nourselves, nevertheless, to the impetuosity of our desires and\nappetites: for example, when a man who knows that wine intoxicates, does\nnevertheless drink it to excess.\n\nQ. What is the result?\n\nA. That the ignorance in which we are born, and the unbridled appetites\nto which we abandon ourselves, are contrary to our preservation; that,\ntherefore, the instruction of our minds and the moderation of our\npassions are two obligations, two laws, which spring directly from the\nfirst law of preservation.\n\nQ. But being born ignorant, is not ignorance a law of nature?\n\nA. No more than to remain in the naked and feeble state of infancy. Far\nfrom being a law of nature, ignorance is an obstacle to the practice of\nall its laws. It is the real original sin.\n\nQ. Why, then, have there been moralists who have looked upon it as a\nvirtue and perfection?\n\nA. Because, from a strange or perverted disposition, they confounded the\nabuse of knowledge with knowledge itself; as if, because men abuse the\npower of speech, their tongues should be cut out; as if perfection and\nvirtue consisted in the nullity, and not in the proper development of\nour faculties.\n\nQ. Instruction, then, is indispensable to man's existence?\n\nA. Yes, so indispensable, that without it he is every instant assailed\nand wounded by all that surrounds him; for if he does not know the\neffects of fire, he burns himself; those of water he drowns himself;\nthose of opium, he poisons himself; if, in the savage state, he does\nnot know the wiles of animals, and the art of seizing game, he perishes\nthrough hunger; if in the social state, he does not know the course\nof the seasons, he can neither cultivate the ground, nor procure\nnourishment; and so on, of all his actions, respecting all his wants.\n\nQ. But can man individually acquire this knowledge necessary to his\nexistence, and to the development of his faculties?\n\nA. No; not without the assistance of his fellow men, and by living in\nsociety.\n\nQ. But is not society to man a state against nature?\n\nA. No: it is on the contrary a necessity, a law that nature imposed\non him by the very act of his organization; for, first, nature has so\nconstituted man, that he cannot see his species of another sex without\nfeeling emotions and an attraction which induce him to live in a family,\nwhich is already a state of society; secondly, by endowing him with\nsensibility, she organized him so that the sensations of others reflect\nwithin him, and excite reciprocal sentiments of pleasure and of grief,\nwhich are attractions, and indissoluble ties of society; thirdly, and\nfinally, the state of society, founded on the wants of man, is only a\nfurther means of fulfilling the law of preservation: and to pretend that\nthis state is out of nature, because it is more perfect, is the same\nas to say, that a bitter and wild fruit of the forest, is no longer the\nproduction of nature, when rendered sweet and delicious by cultivation\nin our gardens.\n\nQ. Why, then, have philosophers called the savage state the state of\nperfection?\n\nA. Because, as I have told you, the vulgar have often given the name of\nphilosophers to whimsical geniuses, who, from moroseness, from wounded\nvanity, or from a disgust to the vices of society, have conceived\nchimerical ideas of the savage state, in contradiction with their own\nsystem of a perfect man.\n\nQ. What is the true meaning of the word philosopher?\n\nA. The word philosopher signifies a lover of wisdom; and as wisdom\nconsists in the practice of the laws of nature, the true philosopher is\nhe who knows those laws, and conforms the whole tenor of his conduct to\nthem.\n\nQ. What is man in the savage state?\n\nA. A brutal, ignorant animal, a wicked and ferocious beast.\n\nQ. Is he happy in that state?\n\nA. No; for he only feels momentary sensations, which are habitually of\nviolent wants which he cannot satisfy, since he is ignorant by nature,\nand weak by being isolated from his race.\n\nQ. Is he free?\n\nA. No; he is the most abject slave that exists; for his life depends\non everything that surrounds him: he is not free to eat when hungry,\nto rest when tired, to warm himself when cold; he is every instant in\ndanger of perishing; wherefore nature offers but fortuitous examples of\nsuch beings; and we see that all the efforts of the human species,\nsince its origin, sorely tends to emerge from that violent state by the\npressing necessity of self-preservation.\n\nQ. But does not this necessity of preservation engender in individuals\negotism, that is to say self-love? and is not egotism contrary to the\nsocial state?\n\nA. No; for if by egotism you mean a propensity to hurt our neighbor, it\nis no longer self-love, but the hatred of others. Self-love, taken in\nits true sense, not only is not contrary to society, but is its firmest\nsupport, by the necessity we lie under of not injuring others, lest in\nreturn they should injure us.\n\nThus mans preservation, and the unfolding of his faculties, directed\ntowards this end, teach the true law of nature in the production of the\nhuman being; and it is from this essential principle that are derived,\nare referred, and in its scale are weighed, all ideas of good and evil,\nof vice and virtue, of just and unjust, of truth or error, of lawful or\nforbidden, on which is founded the morality of individual, or of social\nman.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nBASIS OF MORALITY; OF GOOD, OF EVIL, OF SIN, OF CRIME, OF VICE AND OF\nVIRTUE.\n\n\nQ. What is good, according to the law of nature?\n\nA. It is everything that tends to preserve and perfect man.\n\nQ. What is evil?\n\nA. That which tends to man's destruction or deterioration.\n\nQ. What is meant by physical good and evil, and by moral good and evil?\n\nA. By the word physical is understood, whatever acts immediately on the\nbody. Health is a physical good; and sickness a physical evil. By moral,\nis meant what acts by consequences more or less remote. Calumny is a\nmoral evil; a fair reputation is a moral good, because both one and the\nother occasion towards us, on the part of other men, dispositions and\nhabitudes,* which are useful or hurtful to our preservation, and which\nattack or favor our means of existence.\n\n     * It is from this word habitudes, (reiterated actions,) in\n     Latin mores, that the word moral, and all its family, are\n     derived.\n\nQ. Everything that tends to preserve, or to produce is therefore a good?\n\nA. Yes; and it is for that reason that certain legislators have classed\namong the works agreeable to the divinity, the cultivation of a field\nand the fecundity of a woman.\n\nQ. Whatever tends to cause death is, therefore, an evil?\n\nA. Yes; and it is for that reason some legislators have extended the\nidea of evil and of sin even to the killing of animals.\n\nQ. The murdering of a man is, therefore, a crime in the law of nature?\n\nA. Yes, and the greatest that can be committed; for every other evil can\nbe repaired, but murder alone is irreparable.\n\nQ. What is a sin in the law of nature?\n\nA. Whatever tends to disturb the order established by nature for the\npreservation and perfection of man and of society.\n\nQ. Can intention be a merit or a crime?\n\nA. No, for it is only an idea void of reality: but it is a commencement\nof sin and evil, by the impulse it gives to action.\n\nQ. What is virtue according to the law of nature?\n\nA. It is the practice of actions useful to the individual and to\nsociety.\n\nQ. What is meant by the word individual?\n\nA. It means a man considered separately from every other.\n\nQ. What is vice according to the law of nature?\n\nA. It is the practice of actions prejudicial to the individual and to\nsociety.\n\nQ. Have not virtue and vice an object purely spiritual and abstracted\nfrom the senses?\n\nA. No; it is always to a physical end that they finally relate, and that\nend is always to destroy or preserve the body.\n\nQ. Have vice and virtue degrees of strength and intensity?\n\nA. Yes: according to the importance of the faculties, which they attack\nor which they favor; and according to the number of persons in whom\nthose faculties are favored or injured.\n\nQ. Give me some examples?\n\nA. The action of saving a man's life is more virtuous than that of\nsaving his property; the action of saving the lives of ten men, than\nthat of saving only the life of one, and an action useful to the whole\nhuman race is more virtuous than an action that is only useful to one\nsingle nation.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature prescribe the practice of good and virtue,\nand forbid that of evil and vice?\n\nA. By the advantages resulting from the practice of good and virtue\nfor the preservation of our body, and by the losses which result to our\nexistence from the practice of evil and vice.\n\nQ. Its precepts are then in action?\n\nA. Yes: they are action itself, considered in its present effect and in\nits future consequences.\n\nQ. How do you divide the virtues?\n\nA. We divide them in three classes, first, individual virtues, as\nrelative to man alone; secondly, domestic virtues, as relative to a\nfamily; thirdly, social virtues, as relative to society.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nOF INDIVIDUAL VIRTUES.\n\n\nQ. Which are the individual virtues?\n\nA. There are five principal ones, to wit: first, science, which\ncomprises prudence and wisdom; secondly, temperance, comprising sobriety\nand chastity; thirdly, courage, or strength of body and mind; fourthly,\nactivity, that is to say, love of labor and employment of time; fifthly,\nand finally, cleanliness, or purity of body, as well in dress as in\nhabitation.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature prescribe science?\n\nA. Because the man acquainted with the causes and effects of things\nattends in a careful and sure manner to his preservation, and to the\ndevelopment of his faculties. Science is to him the eye and the light,\nwhich enable him to discern clearly and accurately all the objects\nwith which he is conversant, and hence by an enlightened man is meant a\nlearned and well-informed man. With science and instruction a man never\nwants for resources and means of subsistence; and upon this principle a\nphilosopher, who had been shipwrecked, said to his companions, that were\ninconsolable for the loss of their wealth: \"For my part, I carry all my\nwealth within me.\"\n\nQ. Which is the vice contrary to science?\n\nA. It is ignorance.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature forbid ignorance?\n\nA. By the grievous detriments resulting from it to our existence; for\nthe ignorant man who knows neither causes nor effects, commits every\ninstant errors most pernicious to himself and to others; he resembles a\nblind man groping his way at random, and who, at every step, jostles or\nis jostled by every one he meets.\n\nQ. What difference is there between an ignorant and a silly man?\n\nA. The same difference as between him who frankly avows his blindness\nand the blind man who pretends to sight; silliness is the reality of\nignorance, to which is superadded the vanity of knowledge.\n\nQ. Are ignorance and silliness common?\n\nA. Yes, very common; they are the usual and general distempers of\nmankind: more than three thousand years ago the wisest of men said: \"The\nnumber of fools is infinite;\" and the world has not changed.\n\nQ. What is the reason of it?\n\nA. Because much labor and time are necessary to acquire instruction,\nand because men, born ignorant and indolent, find it more convenient to\nremain blind, and pretend to see clear.\n\nQ. What difference is there between a learned and a wise man?\n\nA. The learned knows, and the wise man practices.\n\nQ. What is prudence?\n\nA. It is the anticipated perception, the foresight of the effects and\nconsequences of every action; by means of which foresight, man\navoids the dangers which threaten him, while he seizes on and creates\nopportunities favorable to him: he thereby provides for his present and\nfuture safety in a certain and secure manner, whereas the imprudent\nman, who calculates neither his steps nor his conduct, nor efforts, nor\nresistance, falls every instant into difficulties and dangers, which\nsooner or later impair his faculties and destroy his existence.\n\nQ. When the Gospel says, \"Happy are the poor of spirit,\" does it mean\nthe ignorant and imprudent?\n\nA. No; for, at the same time that it recommends the simplicity of doves,\nit adds the prudent cunning of serpents. By simplicity of mind is meant\nuprightness, and the precept of the Gospel is that of nature.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nON TEMPERANCE.\n\n\nQ. What is temperance?\n\nA. It is a regular use of our faculties, which makes us never exceed in\nour sensations the end of nature to preserve us; it is the moderation of\nthe passions.\n\nQ. Which is the vice contrary to temperance?\n\nA. The disorder of the passions, the avidity of all kind of enjoyments,\nin a word, cupidity.\n\nQ. Which are the principal branches of temperance?\n\nA. Sobriety, and continence or chastity.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature prescribe sobriety?\n\nA. By its powerful influence over our health. The sober man digests with\ncomfort; he is not overpowered by the weight of aliments; his ideas are\nclear and easy; he fulfills all his functions properly; he conducts his\nbusiness with intelligence; his old age is exempt from infirmity;\nhe does not spend his money in remedies, and he enjoys, in mirth and\ngladness, the wealth which chance and his own prudence have procured\nhim. Thus, from one virtue alone, generous nature derives innumerable\nrecompenses.\n\nQ. How does it prohibit gluttony?\n\nA. By the numerous evils that are attached to it. The glutton, oppressed\nwith aliments, digests with anxiety; his head, troubled by the fumes\nof indigestion, is incapable of conceiving clear and distinct ideas;\nhe abandons himself with violence to the disorderly impulse of lust and\nanger, which impair his health; his body becomes bloated, heavy, and\nunfit for labor; he endures painful and expensive distempers; he seldom\nlives to be old; and his age is replete with infirmities and sorrow.\n\nQ. Should abstinence and fasting be considered as virtuous actions?\n\nA. Yes, when one has eaten too much; for then abstinence and fasting\nare simple and efficacious remedies; but when the body is in want of\naliment, to refuse it any, and let it suffer from hunger or thirst, is\ndelirium and a real sin against the law of nature.\n\nQ. How is drunkenness considered in the law of nature?\n\nA. As a most vile and pernicious vice. The drunkard, deprived of\nthe sense and reason given us by God, profanes the donations of the\ndivinity: he debases himself to the condition of brutes; unable even to\nguide his steps, he staggers and falls as if he were epileptic; he hurts\nand even risks killing himself; his debility in this state exposes him\nto the ridicule and contempt of every person that sees him; he makes\nin his drunkenness, prejudicial and ruinous bargains, and injures his\nfortune; he makes use of opprobrious language, which creates him enemies\nand repentance; he fills his house with trouble and sorrow, and ends by\na premature death or by a cacochymical old age.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature interdict absolutely the use of wine?\n\nA. No; it only forbids the abuse; but as the transition from the use to\nthe abuse is easy and prompt among the generality of men, perhaps\nthe legislators, who have proscribed the use of wine, have rendered a\nservice to humanity.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature forbid the use of certain kinds of meat, or of\ncertain vegetables, on particular days, during certain seasons?\n\nA. No; it absolutely forbids only whatever is injurious to health;\nits precepts, in this respect, vary according to persons, and even\nconstitute a very delicate and important science for the quality, the\nquantity, and the combination of aliments have the greatest influence,\nnot only over the momentary affections of the soul, but even over its\nhabitual disposition. A man is not the same when fasting as after a\nmeal, even if he were sober. A glass of spirituous liquor, or a dish of\ncoffee, gives degrees of vivacity, of mobility, of disposition to anger,\nsadness, or gaiety; such a meat, because it lies heavy on the\nstomach, engenders moroseness and melancholy; such another, because\nit facilitates digestion, creates sprightliness, and an inclination\nto oblige and to love. The use of vegetables, because they have little\nnourishment, enfeebles the body, and gives a disposition to repose,\nindolence, and ease; the use of meat, because it is full of nourishment,\nand of spirituous liquors, because they stimulate the nerves, creates\nvivacity, uneasiness, and audacity. Now from those habitudes of aliment\nresult habits of constitution and of the organs, which form afterwards\ndifferent kinds of temperaments, each of which is distinguished by\na peculiar characteristic. And it is for this reason that, in hot\ncountries especially, legislators have made laws respecting regimen\nor food. The ancients were taught by long experience that the dietetic\nscience constituted a considerable part of morality; among the\nEgyptians, the ancient Persians, and even among the Greeks, at the\nAreopagus, important affairs were examined fasting; and it has been\nremarked that, among those people, where public affairs were discussed\nduring the heat of meals, and the fumes of digestion, deliberations were\nhasty and violent, and the results of them frequently unreasonable, and\nproductive of turbulence and confusion.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nON CONTINENCE.\n\n\nQ. Does the law of nature prescribe continence?\n\nA. Yes: because a moderate use of the most lively of pleasures is not\nonly useful, but indispensable, to the support of strength and health:\nand because a simple calculation proves that, for some minutes of\nprivation, you increase the number of your days, both in vigor of body\nand of mind.\n\nQ. How does it forbid libertinism?\n\nA. By the numerous evils which result from it to the physical and the\nmoral existence. He who carries it to an excess enervates and pines\naway; he can no longer attend to study or labor; he contracts idle\nand expensive habits, which destroy his means of existence, his\npublic consideration, and his credit; his intrigues occasion continual\nembarrassment, cares, quarrels and lawsuits, without mentioning the\ngrievous deep-rooted distempers, and the loss of his strength by\nan inward and slow poison; the stupid dullness of his mind, by the\nexhaustion of the nervous system; and, in fine, a premature and infirm\nold age.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature look on that absolute chastity so recommended\nin monastical institutions, as a virtue?\n\nA. No: for that chastity is of no use either to the society that\nwitnesses, or the individual who practises it; it is even prejudicial to\nboth. First, it injures society by depriving it of population, which\nis one of its principal sources of wealth and power; and as bachelors\nconfine all their views and affections to the term of their lives, they\nhave in general an egotism unfavorable to the interests of society.\n\nIn the second place, it injures the individuals who practise it, because\nit deprives them of a number of affections and relations which are\nthe springs of most domestic and social virtues; and besides, it often\nhappens, from circumstances of age, regimen, or temperament, that\nabsolute continence injures the constitution and causes severe diseases,\nbecause it is contrary to the physical laws on which nature has founded\nthe system of the reproduction of beings; and they who recommend\nso strongly chastity, even supposing them to be sincere, are in\ncontradiction with their own doctrine, which consecrates the law of\nnature by the well known commandment: increase and multiply.\n\nQ. Why is chastity considered a greater virtue in women than in men?\n\nA. Because a want of chastity in women is attended with inconveniences\nmuch more serious and dangerous for them and for society; for, without\ntaking into account the pains and diseases they have in common with\nmen, they are further exposed to all the disadvantages and perils that\nprecede, attend, and follow child-birth. When pregnant contrary to law,\nthey become an object of public scandal and contempt, and spend the\nremainder of their lives in bitterness and misery. Moreover, all the\nexpense of maintaining and educating their fatherless children falls on\nthem: which expense impoverishes them, and is every way prejudicial to\ntheir physical and moral existence. In this situation, deprived of the\nfreshness and health that constitute their charm, carrying with them an\nextraneous and expensive burden, they are less prized by men, they\nfind no solid establishment, they fall into poverty, misery, and\nwretchedness, and thus drag on in sorrow their unhappy existence.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature extend so far as the scruples of desires and\nthoughts.\n\nA. Yes; because, in the physical laws of the human body, thoughts and\ndesires inflame the senses, and soon provoke to action: now, by another\nlaw of nature in the organization of our body, those actions become\nmechanical wants which recur at certain periods of days or of weeks, so\nthat, at such a time, the want is renewed of such an action and such a\nsecretion; if this action and this secretion be injurious to health, the\nhabitude of them becomes destructive of life itself. Thus thoughts and\ndesires have a true and natural importance.\n\nQ. Should modesty be considered as a virtue?\n\nA. Yes; because modesty, inasmuch as it is a shame of certain actions,\nmaintains the soul and body in all those habits useful to good order,\nand to self-preservation. The modest woman is esteemed, courted, and\nestablished, with advantages of fortune which ensure her existence,\nand render it agreeable to her, while the immodest and prostitute are\ndespised, repulsed, and abandoned to misery and infamy.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nON COURAGE AND ACTIVITY.\n\n\nQ. Are courage and strength of body and mind virtues in the law of\nnature?\n\nA. Yes, and most important virtues; for they are the efficacious and\nindispensable means of attending to our preservation and welfare. The\ncourageous and strong man repulses oppression, defends his life, his\nliberty, and his property; by his labor he procures himself an abundant\nsubsistence, which he enjoys in tranquillity and peace of mind. If he\nfalls into misfortunes, from which his prudence could not protect him,\nhe supports them with fortitude and resignation; and it is for this\nreason that the ancient moralists have reckoned strength and courage\namong the four principal virtues.\n\nQ. Should weakness and cowardice be considered as vices?\n\nA. Yes, since it is certain that they produce innumerable calamities.\nThe weak or cowardly man lives in perpetual cares and agonies; he\nundermines his health by the dread, oftentimes ill founded, of attacks\nand dangers: and this dread which is an evil, is not a remedy; it\nrenders him, on the contrary, the slave of him who wishes to oppress\nhim; and by the servitude and debasement of all his faculties, it\ndegrades and diminishes his means of existence, so far as the seeing his\nlife depend on the will and caprice of another man.\n\nQ. But, after what you have said on the influence of aliments, are not\ncourage and force, as well as many other virtues, in a great measure the\neffect of our physical constitution and temperament?\n\nA. Yes, it is true; and so far, that those qualities are transmitted by\ngeneration and blood, with the elements on which they depend: the most\nreiterated and constant facts prove that in the breed of animals of\nevery kind, we see certain physical and moral qualities, attached to\nthe individuals of those species, increase or decay according to the\ncombinations and mixtures they make with other breeds.\n\nQ. But, then, as our will is not sufficient to procure us those\nqualities, is it a crime to be destitute of them?\n\nA. No, it is not a crime, but a misfortune; it is what the ancients\ncall an unlucky fatality; but even then we have it yet in our power to\nacquire them; for, as soon as we know on what physical elements such\nor such a quality is founded, we can promote its growth, and hasten its\ndevelopments, by a skillful management of those elements; and in this\nconsists the science of education, which, according as it is directed,\nmeliorates or degrades individuals, or the whole race, to such a pitch\nas totally to change their nature and inclinations; for which reason it\nis of the greatest importance to be acquainted with the laws of nature\nby which those operations and changes are certainly and necessarily\neffected.\n\nQ. Why do you say that activity is a virtue according to the law of\nnature?\n\nA. Because the man who works and employs his time usefully, derives from\nit a thousand precious advantages to his existence. If he is born poor,\nhis labor furnishes him with subsistence; and still more so, if he is\nsober, continent, and prudent, for he soon acquires a competency, and\nenjoys the sweets of life; his very labor gives him virtues; for, while\nhe occupies his body and mind, he is not affected with unruly desires,\ntime does not lie heavy on him, he contracts mild habits, he augments\nhis strength and health, and attains a peaceful and happy old age.\n\nQ. Are idleness and sloth vices in the law of nature?\n\nA. Yes, and the most pernicious of all vices, for they lead to all the\nothers. By idleness and sloth man remains ignorant, he forgets even\nthe science he had acquired, and falls into all the misfortunes which\naccompany ignorance and folly; by idleness and sloth man, devoured\nwith disquietude, in order to dissipate it, abandons himself to all the\ndesires of his senses, which, becoming every day more inordinate, render\nhim intemperate, gluttonous, lascivious, enervated, cowardly, vile, and\ncontemptible. By the certain effect of all those vices, he ruins his\nfortune, consumes his health, and terminates his life in all the agonies\nof sickness and of poverty.\n\nQ. From what you say, one would think that poverty was a vice?\n\nA. No, it is not a vice; but it is still less a virtue, for it is by far\nmore ready to injure than to be useful; it is even commonly the result,\nor the beginning of vice, for the effect of all individual vices is to\nlead to indigence, and to the privation of the necessaries of life; and\nwhen a man is in want of necessaries, he is tempted to procure them by\nvicious means, that is to say, by means injurious to society. All\nthe individual virtues tend, on the contrary, to procure to a man an\nabundant subsistence; and when he has more than he can consume, it\nis much easier for him to give to others, and to practice the actions\nuseful to society.\n\nQ. Do you look upon opulence as a virtue?\n\nA. No; but still less as a vice: it is the use alone of wealth that\ncan be called virtuous or vicious, according as it is serviceable or\nprejudicial to man and to society. Wealth is an instrument, the use and\nemployment alone of which determine its virtue or vice.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nON CLEANLINESS.\n\n\nQ. Why is cleanliness included among the virtues?\n\nA. Because it is, in reality, one of the most important among them, on\naccount of its powerful influence over the health and preservation of\nthe body. Cleanliness, as well in dress as in residence, obviates\nthe pernicious effects of the humidity, baneful odors, and contagious\nexhalations, proceeding from all things abandoned to putrefaction.\nCleanliness, maintains free transpiration; it renews the air, refreshes\nthe blood, and disposes even the mind to cheerfulness.\n\nFrom this it appears that persons attentive to the cleanliness of their\nbodies and habitations are, in general, more healthy, and less subject\nto disease, than those who live in filth and nastiness; and it is\nfurther remarked, that cleanliness carries with it, throughout all the\nbranches of domestic administration, habits of order and arrangement,\nwhich are the chief means and first elements of happiness.\n\nQ. Uncleanliness or filthiness is, then, a real vice?\n\nA. Yes, as real a one as drunkenness, or as idleness, from which in a\ngreat measure it is derived. Uncleanliness is the second, and often the\nfirst, cause of many inconveniences, and even of grievous disorders; it\nis a fact in medicine, that it brings on the itch, the scurf, tetters,\nleprosies, as much as the use of tainted or sour aliments; that it\nfavors the contagious influence of the plague and malignant fevers,\nthat it even produces them in hospitals and prisons; that it occasions\nrheumatisms, by incrusting the skin with dirt, and thereby preventing\ntranspiration; without reckoning the shameful inconvenience of being\ndevoured by vermin--the foul appendage of misery and depravity.\n\nMost ancient legislators, therefore, considered cleanliness, which they\ncalled purity, as one of the essential dogmas of their religions. It\nwas for this reason that they expelled from society, and even punished\ncorporeally those who were infected with distempers produced by\nuncleanliness; that they instituted and consecrated ceremonies of\nablutions baths, baptisms, and of purifications, even by fire and the\naromatic fumes of incense, myrrh, benjamin, etc., so that the entire\nsystem of pollutions, all those rites of clean and unclean things,\ndegenerated since into abuses and prejudices, were only founded\noriginally on the judicious observation, which wise and learned men\nhad made, of the extreme influence that cleanliness in dress and abode\nexercises over the health of the body, and by an immediate consequence\nover that of the mind and moral faculties.\n\nThus all the individual virtues have for their object, more or less\ndirect, more or less near, the preservation of the man who practises\nthem and by the preservation of each man, they lead to that of families\nand society, which are composed of the united sum of individuals.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nON DOMESTIC VIRTUES.\n\n\nQ. What do you mean be domestic virtues?\n\nA. I mean the practice of actions useful to a family, supposed to live\nin the same house.*\n\n     * Domestic is derived from the Latin word domus, a house.\n\nQ. What are those virtues?\n\nA. They are economy, paternal love, filial love, conjugal love,\nfraternal love, and the accomplishment of the duties of master and\nservant.\n\nQ. What is economy?\n\nA. It is, according to the most extensive meaning of the word, the\nproper administration of every thing that concerns the existence of\nthe family or house; and as subsistence holds the first rank, the word\neconomy in confined to the employment of money for the wants of life.\n\nQ. Why is economy a virtue?\n\nA. Because a man who makes no useless expenses acquires a\nsuperabundancy, which is true wealth, and by means of which he procures\nfor himself and his family everything that is really convenient and\nuseful; without mentioning his securing thereby resources against\naccidental and unforeseen losses, so that he and his family enjoy\nan agreeable and undisturbed competency, which is the basis of human\nfelicity.\n\nQ. Dissipation and prodigality, therefore, are vices?\n\nA. Yes, for by them man, in the end, is deprived of the necessaries\nof life; he falls into poverty and wretchedness; and his very friends,\nfearing to be obliged to restore to him what he has spent with or for\nthem, avoid him as a debtor does his creditor, and he remains abandoned\nby the whole world.\n\nQ. What is paternal love?\n\nA. It is the assiduous care taken by parents to make their children\ncontract the habit of every action useful to themselves and to society.\n\nQ. Why is paternal tenderness a virtue in parents?\n\nA. Because parents, who rear their children in those habits, procure for\nthemselves, during the course of their lives, enjoyments and helps that\ngive a sensible satisfaction at every instant, and which assure to them,\nwhen advanced in years, supports and consolations against the wants and\ncalamities of all kinds with which old age is beset.\n\nQ. Is paternal love a common virtue?\n\nA. No; notwithstanding the ostentation made of it by parents, it is\na rare virtue. They do not love their children, they caress and spoil\nthem. In them they love only the agents of their will, the instruments\nof their power, the trophies of their vanity, the pastime of their\nidleness. It is not so much the welfare of their children that they\npropose to themselves, as their submission and obedience; and if among\nchildren so many are seen ungrateful for benefits received, it\nis because there are among parents as many despotic and ignorant\nbenefactors.\n\nQ. Why do you say that conjugal love is a virtue?\n\nA. Because the concord and union resulting from the love of the married,\nestablish in the heart of the family a multitude of habits useful to its\nprosperity and preservation. The united pair are attached to, and seldom\nquit their home; they superintend each particular direction of it; they\nattend to the education of their children; they maintain the respect and\nfidelity of domestics; they prevent all disorder and dissipation;\nand from the whole of their good conduct, they live in ease and\nconsideration; while married persons who do not love one another, fill\ntheir house with quarrels and troubles, create dissension between their\nchildren and the servants, leaving both indiscriminately to all kinds of\nvicious habits; every one in turn spoils, robs, and plunders the house;\nthe revenues are absorbed without profit; debts accumulate; the married\npair avoid each other, or contend in lawsuits; and the whole family\nfalls into disorder, ruin, disgrace and want.\n\nQ. Is adultery an offence in the law of nature?\n\nA. Yes; for it is attended with a number of habits injurious to the\nmarried and to their families. The wife or husband, whose affections\nare estranged, neglect their house, avoid it, and deprive it, as much as\nthey can, of its revenues or income, to expend them with the object of\ntheir affections; hence arise quarrels, scandal, lawsuits, the neglect\nof their children and servants, and at last the plundering and ruin of\nthe whole family; without reckoning that the adulterous woman commits\na most grievous theft, in giving to her husband heirs of foreign blood,\nwho deprive his real children of their legitimate portion.\n\nQ. What is filial love?\n\nA. It is, on the side of children, the practice of those actions useful\nto themselves and to their parents.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature prescribe filial love?\n\nA. By three principal motives:\n\n1. By sentiment; for the affectionate care of parents inspires, from the\nmost tender age, mild habits of attachment.\n\n2. By justice; for children owe to their parents a return and indemnity\nfor the cares, and even for the expenses, they have caused them.\n\n3. By personal interest; for, if they use them ill, they give to their\nown children examples of revolt and ingratitude, which authorize them,\nat a future day, to behave to themselves in a similar manner.\n\nQ. Are we to understand by filial love a passive and blind submission?\n\nA. No; but a reasonable submission, founded on the knowledge of the\nmutual rights and duties of parents and children; rights and duties,\nwithout the observance of which their mutual conduct is nothing but\ndisorder.\n\nQ. Why is fraternal love a virtue?\n\nA. Because the concord and union, which result from the love of\nbrothers, establish the strength, security, and conservation of the\nfamily: brothers united defend themselves against all oppression,\nthey aid one another in their wants, they help one another in their\nmisfortunes, and thus secure their common existence; while brothers\ndisunited, abandoned each to his own personal strength, fall into\nall the inconveniences attendant on an insulated state and individual\nweakness. This is what a certain Scythian king ingeniously expressed\nwhen, on his death-bed, calling his children to him, he ordered them to\nbreak a bundle of arrows. The young men, though strong, being unable to\neffect it, he took them in his turn, and untieing them, broke each of\nthe arrows separately with his fingers. \"Behold,\" said he, \"the effects\nof union; united together, you will be invincible; taken separately, you\nwill be broken like reeds.\"\n\nQ. What are the reciprocal duties of masters and of servants?\n\nA. They consist in the practice of the actions which are respectively\nand justly useful to them; and here begin the relations of society; for\nthe rule and measure of those respective actions is the equilibrium or\nequality between the service and the recompense, between what the one\nreturns and the other gives; which is the fundamental basis of all\nsociety.\n\nThus all the domestic and individual virtues refer, more or less\nmediately, but always with certitude, to the physical object of the\namelioration and preservation of man, and are thereby precepts resulting\nfrom the fundamental law of nature in his formation.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTHE SOCIAL VIRTUES; JUSTICE.\n\n\nQ. What is society?\n\nA. It is every reunion of men living together under the clauses of\nan expressed or tacit contract, which has for its end their common\npreservation.\n\nQ. Are the social virtues numerous?\n\nA. Yes; they are in as great number as the kinds of actions useful to\nsociety; but all may be reduced to one principle.\n\nQ. What is that fundamental principle?\n\nA. It is justice, which alone comprises all the virtues of society.\n\nQ. Why do you say that justice is the fundamental and almost only virtue\nof society?\n\nA. Because it alone embraces the practice of all the actions useful\nto it; and because all the other virtues, under the denominations\nof charity, humanity, probity, love of one's country, sincerity,\ngenerosity, simplicity of manners, and modesty, are only varied forms\nand diversified applications of the axiom, \"Do not to another what you\ndo not wish to be done to yourself,\" which is the definition of justice.\n\nQ. How does the law of nature prescribe justice?\n\nA. By three physical attributes, inherent in the organization of man.\n\nQ. What are those attributes?\n\nA. They are equality, liberty, and property.\n\nQ. How is equality a physical attribute of man?\n\nA. Because all men, having equally eyes, hands, mouths, ears, and the\nnecessity of making use of them, in order to live, have, by this reason\nalone, an equal right to life, and to the use of the aliments which\nmaintain it; they are all equal before God.\n\nQ. Do you suppose that all men hear equally, see equally, feel equally,\nhave equal wants, and equal passions?\n\nA. No; for it is evident, and daily demonstrated, that one is short, and\nanother long-sighted; that one eats much, another little; that one has\nmild, another violent passions; in a word, that one is weak in body and\nmind, while another is strong in both.\n\nQ. They are, therefore, really unequal?\n\nA. Yes, in the development of their means, but not in the nature and\nessence of those means. They are made of the same stuff, but not in\nthe same dimensions; nor are the weight and value equal. Our language\npossesses no one word capable of expressing the identity of nature, and\nthe diversity of its form and employment. It is a proportional equality;\nand it is for this reason I have said, equal before God, and in the\norder of nature.\n\nQ. How is liberty a physical attribute of man?\n\nA. Because all men having senses sufficient for their preservation--no\none wanting the eye of another to see, his ear to hear, his mouth to\neat, his feet to walk--they are all, by this very reason, constituted\nnaturally independent and free; no man is necessarily subjected to\nanother, nor has he a right to dominate over him.\n\nQ. But if a man is born strong, has he a natural right to master the\nweak man?\n\nA. No; for it is neither a necessity for him, nor a convention between\nthem; it is an abusive extension of his strength; and here an abuse is\nmade of the word right, which in its true meaning implies, justice or\nreciprocal faculty.\n\nQ. How is property a physical attribute of man?\n\nA. Inasmuch as all men being constituted equal or similar to one\nanother, and consequently independent and free, each is the absolute\nmaster, the full proprietor of his body and of the produce of his labor.\n\nQ. How is justice derived from these three attributes?\n\nA. In this, that men being equal and free, owing nothing to each other,\nhave no right to require anything from one another only inasmuch as\nthey return an equal value for it; or inasmuch as the balance of what is\ngiven is in equilibrium with what is returned: and it is this equality,\nthis equilibrium which is called justice, equity;* that is to say that\nequality and justice are but one and the same word, the same law\nof nature, of which the social virtues are only applications and\nderivatives.\n\n     * Aequitas, aequilibrium, aequalitas, are all of the same\n     family.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nDEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL VIRTUES.\n\n\nQ. Explain how the social virtues are derived from the law of nature.\nHow is charity or the love of one's neighbor a precept and application\nof it?\n\nA. By reason of equality and reciprocity; for when we injure another,\nwe give him a right to injure us in return; thus, by attacking the\nexistence of our neighbor, we endanger our own, from the effect of\nreciprocity; on the other hand, by doing good to others, we have room\nand right to expect an equivalent exchange; and such is the character of\nall social virtues, that they are useful to the man who practises them,\nby the right of reciprocity which they give him over those who are\nbenefited by them.\n\nQ. Charity is then nothing but justice?\n\nA. No: it is only justice; with this slight difference, that strict\njustice confines itself to saying, \"Do not to another the harm you would\nnot wish he should do to you;\" and that charity, or the love of one's\nneighbor, extends so far as to say, \"Do to another the good which you\nwould wish to receive from him.\" Thus when the gospel said, that this\nprecept contained the whole of the law and the prophets, it announced\nnothing more than the precept of the law of nature.\n\nQ. Does it enjoin forgiveness of injuries?\n\nA. Yes, when that forgiveness implies self-preservation.\n\nQ. Does it prescribe to us, after having received a blow on one cheek,\nto hold out the other?\n\nA. No; for it is, in the first place, contrary to the precept of loving\nour neighbor as ourselves, since thereby we should love, more than\nourselves, him who makes an attack on our preservation. Secondly, such\na precept in its literal sense, encourages the wicked to oppression\nand injustice. The law of nature has been more wise in prescribing a\ncalculated proportion of courage and moderation, which induces us to\nforget a first or unpremediated injury, but which punishes every act\ntending to oppression.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature prescribe to do good to others beyond the\nbounds of reason and measure?\n\nA. No; for it is a sure way of leading them to ingratitude. Such is the\nforce of sentiment and justice implanted in the heart of man, that he\nis not even grateful for benefits conferred without discretion. There is\nonly one measure with them, and that is to be just.\n\nQ. Is alms-giving a virtuous action?\n\nA. Yes, when it is practised according to the rule first mentioned;\nwithout which it degenerates into imprudence and vice, inasmuch as it\nencourages laziness, which is hurtful to the beggar and to society;\nno one has a right to partake of the property and fruits of another's\nlabor, without rendering an equivalent of his own industry.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature consider as virtues faith and hope, which are\noften joined with charity?\n\nA. No; for they are ideas without reality; and if any effects result\nfrom them, they turn rather to the profit of those who have not those\nideas, than of those who have them; so that faith and hope may be called\nthe virtues of dupes for the benefit of knaves.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature prescribe probity?\n\nA. Yes, for probity is nothing more than respect for one's own rights\nin those of another; a respect founded on a prudent and well combined\ncalculation of our interests compared to those of others.\n\nQ. But does not this calculation, which embraces the complicated\ninterests and rights of the social state, require an enlightened\nunderstanding and knowledge, which make it a difficult science?\n\nA. Yes, and a science so much the more delicate as the honest man\npronounces in his own cause.\n\nQ. Probity, then, shows an extension and justice in the mind?\n\nA. Yes, for an honest man almost always neglects a present interest, in\norder not to destroy a future one; whereas the knave does the contrary,\nand loses a great future interest for a present smaller one.\n\nQ. Improbity, therefore, is a sign of false judgment and a narrow mind?\n\nA. Yes, and rogues may be defined ignorant and silly calculators; for\nthey do not understand their true interest, and they pretend to cunning:\nnevertheless, their cunning only ends in making known what they are--in\nlosing all confidence and esteem, and the good services resulting from\nthem for their physical and social existence. They neither live in\npeace with others, nor with themselves; and incessantly menaced by their\nconscience and their enemies, they enjoy no other real happiness but\nthat of not being hanged.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature forbid robbery?\n\nA. Yes, for the man who robs another gives him a right to rob him; from\nthat moment there is no security in his property, nor in his means of\npreservation: thus in injuring others, he, by a counterblow, injures\nhimself.\n\nQ. Does it interdict even an inclination to rob?\n\nA. Yes; for that inclination leads naturally to action, and it is for\nthis reason that envy is considered a sin?\n\nQ. How does it forbid murder?\n\nA. By the most powerful motives of self-preservation; for, first, the\nman who attacks exposes himself to the risk of being killed, by the\nright of defence; secondly, if he kills, he gives to the relations and\nfriends of the deceased, and to society at large, an equal right of\nkilling him; so that his life is no longer in safety.\n\nQ. How can we, by the law of nature, repair the evil we have done?\n\nA. By rendering a proportionate good to those whom we have injured.\n\nQ. Does it allow us to repair it by prayers, vows, offerings to God,\nfasting and mortifications?\n\nA. No: for all those things are foreign to the action we wish to repair:\nthey neither restore the ox to him from whom it has been stolen, honor\nto him whom we have deprived of it, nor life to him from whom it has\nbeen taken away; consequently they miss the end of justice; they are\nonly perverse contracts by which a man sells to another goods which do\nnot belong to him; they are a real depravation of morality, inasmuch\nas they embolden to commit crimes through the hope of expiating them;\nwherefore, they have been the real cause of all the evils by which\nthe people among whom those expiatory practices were used, have been\ncontinually tormented.\n\nQ. Does the law of nature order sincerity?\n\nA. Yes; for lying, perfidy, and perjury create distrust, quarrels,\nhatred, revenge, and a crowd of evils among men, which tend to their\ncommon destruction; while sincerity and fidelity establish confidence,\nconcord, and peace, besides the infinite good resulting from such a\nstate of things to society.\n\nQ. Does it prescribe mildness and modesty?\n\nA. Yes; for harshness and obduracy, by alienating from us the hearts of\nother men, give them an inclination to hurt us; ostentation and vanity,\nby wounding their self-love and jealousy, occasion us to miss the end of\na real utility.\n\nQ. Does it prescribe humility as a virtue?\n\nA. No; for it is a propensity in the human heart to despise secretly\neverything that presents to it the idea of weakness; and self-debasement\nencourages pride and oppression in others; the balance must be kept in\nequipoise.\n\nQ. You have reckoned simplicity of manners among the social virtues;\nwhat do you understand by that word?\n\nA. I mean the restricting our wants and desires to what is truly useful\nto the existence of the citizen and his family; that is to say, the man\nof simple manners has but few wants, and lives content with a little.\n\nQ. How is this virtue prescribed to us?\n\nA. By the numerous advantages which the practice of it procures to the\nindividual and to society; for the man whose wants are few, is free at\nonce from a crowd of cares, perplexities, and labors; he avoids many\nquarrels and contests arising from avidity and a desire of gain; he\nspares himself the anxiety of ambition, the inquietudes of possession,\nand the uneasiness of losses; finding superfluity everywhere, he is the\nreal rich man; always content with what he has, he is happy at little\nexpense; and other men, not fearing any competition from him, leave him\nin quiet, and are disposed to render him the services he should stand\nin need of. And if this virtue of simplicity extends to a whole people,\nthey insure to themselves abundance; rich in everything they do not\nconsume, they acquire immense means of exchange and commerce; they work,\nfabricate, and sell at a lower price than others, and attain to all\nkinds of prosperity, both at home and abroad.\n\nQ. What is the vice contrary to this virtue?\n\nA. It is cupidity and luxury.\n\nQ. Is luxury a vice in the individual and in society?\n\nA. Yes, and to that degree, that it may be said to include all the\nothers; for the man who stands in need of many things, imposes thereby\non himself all the anxiety, and submits to all the means just or unjust\nof acquiring them. Does he possess an enjoyment, he covets another; and\nin the bosom of superfluity, he is never rich; a commodious dwelling is\nnot sufficient for him, he must have a beautiful hotel; not content with\na plenteous table, he must have rare and costly viands: he must have\nsplendid furniture, expensive clothes, a train of attendants, horses,\ncarriages, women, theatrical representations and games. Now, to supply\nso many expenses, much money must be had; and he looks on every method\nof procuring it as good and even necessary; at first he borrows,\nafterwards he steals, robs, plunders, turns bankrupt, is at war with\nevery one, ruins and is ruined.\n\nShould a nation be involved in luxury, it occasions on a larger scale\nthe same devastations; by reason that it consumes its entire produce,\nit finds itself poor even with abundance; it has nothing to sell to\nforeigners; its manufactures are carried on at a great expense, and\nare sold too dear; it becomes tributary for everything it imports; it\nattacks externally its consideration, power, strength, and means of\ndefence and preservation, while internally it undermines and falls\ninto the dissolution of its members. All its citizens being covetous\nof enjoyments, are engaged in a perpetual struggle to obtain them; all\ninjure or are near injuring themselves; and hence arise those habits\nand actions of usurpation, which constitute what is denominated moral\ncorruption, intestine war between citizen and citizen. From luxury\narises avidity, from avidity, invasion by violence and perfidy; from\nluxury arises the iniquity of the judge, the venality of the witness,\nthe improbity of the husband, the prostitution of the wife, the obduracy\nof parents, the ingratitude of children, the avarice of the master, the\ndishonesty of the servant, the dilapidation of the administrator, the\nperversity of the legislator, lying, perfidy, perjury, assassination,\nand all the disorders of the social state; so that it was with a\nprofound sense of truth, that ancient moralists have laid the basis of\nthe social virtues on simplicity of manners, restriction of wants, and\ncontentment with a little; and a sure way of knowing the extent of\na man's virtues and vices is, to find out if his expenses are\nproportionate to his fortune, and calculate, from his want of money, his\nprobity, his integrity in fulfilling his engagements, his devotion to\nthe public weal, and his sincere or pretended love of his country.\n\nQ. What do you mean by the word country?\n\nA. I mean the community of citizens who, united by fraternal sentiments,\nand reciprocal wants, make of their respective strength one common\nforce, the reaction of which on each of them assumes the noble and\nbeneficent character of paternity. In society, citizens form a bank of\ninterest; in our country we form a family of endearing attachments; it\nis charity, the love of one's neighbor extended to a whole nation. Now\nas charity cannot be separated from justice, no member of the family can\npretend to the enjoyment of its advantages, except in proportion to his\nlabor; if he consumes more than it produces, he necessarily encroaches\non his fellow-citizens; and it is only by consuming less than what\nhe produces or possesses, that he can acquire the means of making\nsacrifices and being generous.\n\nQ. What do you conclude from all this?\n\nA. I conclude from it that all the social virtues are only the habitude\nof actions useful to society and to the individual who practices them;\nThat they refer to the physical object of man's preservation; That\nnature having implanted in us the want of that preservation, has made\na law to us of all its consequences, and a crime of everything that\ndeviates from it; That we carry in us the seed of every virtue, and of\nevery perfection; That it only requires to be developed; That we are\nonly happy inasmuch as we observe the rules established by nature for\nthe end of our preservation; And that all wisdom, all perfection, all\nlaw, all virtue, all philosophy, consist in the practice of these axioms\nfounded on our own organization:\n\n\nPreserve thyself; Instruct thyself; Moderate thyself; Live for thy\nfellow citizens, that they may live for thee.\n\n\n\n\n\nVOLNEY'S ANSWER TO DR. PRIESTLY.*\n\n     * In 1797, Dr. Priestly published a pamphlet, entitled,\n     \"Observation on the increase of infidelity, with\n     animadversions upon the writings of several modern\n     unbelievers, and especially the Ruins of Mr. Volney.\" The\n     motto to this tract was:\n\n\"Minds of little penetration rest naturally on the surface of things.\nThey do not like to pierce deep into them, for fear of labor and\ntrouble; sometimes still more for fear of truth.\"\n\nThis Letter is an answer from Volney, taken from the Anti-Jacobin Review\nof March and April, 1799.\n\n\nSIR.--I received in due time your pamphlet on the increase of\ninfidelity, together with the note without date which accompanied it.*\nMy answer has been delayed by the incidents of business, and even by\nill health, which you will surely excuse: this delay has, besides, no\ninconvenience in it. The question between us is not of a very urgent\nnature: the world would not go on less well with or without my answer\nas with or without your book. I might, indeed, have dispensed with\nreturning you any answer at all; and I should have been warranted in\nso doing, by the manner in which you have stated the debate, and by the\nopinion pretty generally received that, on certain occasions, and with\ncertain persons, the most noble reply is silence. You seem to have been\naware of this yourself, considering the extreme precautions you have\ntaken to deprive me of this resource; but as according to our French\ncustoms, any answer is an act of civility, I am not willing to concede\nthe advantage of politeness--besides, although silence is sometimes\nvery significant, its eloquence is not understood by every one, and\nthe public which has not leisure to analyze disputes (often of little\ninterest) has a reasonable right to require at least some preliminary\nexplanations; reserving to itself, should the discussion degenerate into\nthe recriminative clamors of an irritated self-love, to allow the right\nof silence to him in whom it becomes the virtue of moderation.\n\n     * Dr. Priestly sent his pamphlet to Volney, desiring his\n     answer to the strictures on his opinions in his Ruins of\n     Empires.\n\nI have read, therefore, your animadversions on my Ruins, which you are\npleased to class among the writings of modern unbelievers, and since you\nabsolutely insist on my expressing my opinion before the public, I shall\nnow fulfill this rather disagreeable task with all possible brevity,\nfor the sake of economizing the time of our readers. In the first place,\nsir, it appears evidently, from your pamphlet, that your design is less\nto attack my book than my personal and moral character; and in order\nthat the public may pronounce with accuracy on this point, I submit\nseveral passages fitted to throw light on the subject.\n\nYou say, in the preface of your discourses, p. 12, \"There are, however,\nunbelievers more ignorant than Mr. Paine, Mr. Volney, Lequino, and\nothers in France say,\" &c.\n\nAlso in the preface of your present observations, p. 20. \"I can\ntruly say that in the writings of Hume, Mr. Gibbon, Voltaire, Mr.\nVolney--there is nothing of solid argument: all abound in gross mistakes\nand misrepresentations.\" Idem, p. 38--\"Whereas had he (Mr. Volney)\ngiven attention to the history of the times in which Christianity was\npromulgated . . . he could have no more doubt . . . &c., it is as much\nin vain to argue with such a person as this, as with a Chinese or even a\nHottentot.\"\n\nIdem, p. 119--\"Mr. Volney, if we may judge from his numerous quotations\nof ancient writers in all the learned languages, oriental as well as\noccidental, must be acquainted with all; for he makes no mention of any\ntranslation, and yet if we judge from this specimen of his knowledge of\nthem, he cannot have the smallest tincture of that of the Hebrew or even\nof the Greek.\"\n\nAnd, at last, after having published and posted me in your very title\npage, as an unbeliever and an infidel; after having pointed me out in\nyour motto as one of those superficial spirits who know not how to find\nout, and are unwilling to encounter, truth; you add, p. 124,\nimmediately after an article in which you speak of me under all these\ndenominations--\n\n\"The progress of infidelity, in the present age, is attended with a\ncircumstance which did not so frequently accompany it in any former\nperiod, at least, in England, which is, that unbelievers in revelation\ngenerally proceed to the disbelief of the being and providence of God\nso as to become properly Atheists.\" So that, according to you, I am a\nChinese, a Hottentot, an unbeliever, an Atheist, an ignoramus, a man of\nno sincerity; whose writings are full of nothing but gross mistakes and\nmisrepresentations. Now I ask you, sir, What has all this to do with the\nmain question? What has my book in common with my person? And how can\nyou hold any converse with a man of such bad connexions? In the second\nplace, your invitation, or rather, your summons to me, to point out\nthe mistakes which I think you have made with respect to my opinions,\nsuggest to me several observations.\n\nFirst. You suppose that the public attaches a high importance to your\nmistakes and to my opinions: but I cannot act upon a supposition. Am I\nnot an unbeliever?\n\nSecondly. You say, p. 18, that the public will expect it from me: Where\nare the powers by which you make the public speak and act? Is this also\na revelation?\n\nThirdly. You require me to point out your mistakes. I do not know that I\nam under any such obligation: I have not reproached you with them; it\nis not, indeed, very correct to ascribe to me, by selection or\nindiscriminately, as you have done, all the opinions scattered through\nmy book, since, having introduced many different persons, I was under\nthe necessity of making them deliver different sentiments, according to\ntheir different characters. The part which belongs to me is that of a\ntraveler, resting upon the ruins and meditating on the causes of the\nmisfortunes of the human race. To be consistent with yourself you ought\nto have assigned to me that of the Hottentot or Samoyde savage, who\nargues with the Doctors, chap. xxiii, and I should have accepted it; you\nhave preferred that of the erudite historian, chap. xxii, nor do I look\nupon this as a mistake; I discover on the contrary, an insidious design\nto engage me in a duel of self-love before the public, wherein you would\nexcite the exclusive interest of the spectators by supporting the cause\nwhich they approve; while the task which you would impose on me,\nwould only, in the event of success, be attended with sentiments of\ndisapprobation. Such is your artful purpose, that, in attacking me\nas doubting the existence of Jesus, you might secure to yourself,\nby surprise, the favor of every Christian sect, although your own\nincredulity in his divine nature is not less subversive of Christianity\nthan the profane opinion, which does not find in history the proof\nrequired by the English law to establish a fact: to say nothing of\nthe extraordinary kind of pride assumed in the silent, but palpable,\ncomparison of yourself to Paul and to Christ, by likening your labors to\ntheirs as tending to the same object, p. 10, preface. Nevertheless, as\nthe first impression of an attack always confers an advantage, you\nhave some ground for expecting you may obtain the apostolic crown;\nunfortunately for your purpose I entertain no disposition to that of\nmartrydom: and however glorious it might be to me to fall under the arm\nof him who has overcome Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire and even Frederick II., I\nfind myself under the necessity of declining your theological challenge,\nfor a number of substantial reasons.\n\n1. Because, to religious quarrels there is no end, since the prejudices\nof infancy and education almost unavoidably exclude impartial reasoning,\nand besides, the vanity of the champions becomes committed by the very\npublicity of the contest, never to give up a first assertion, whence\nresult a spirit of sectarism and faction.\n\n2. Because no one has a right to ask of me an account of my religious\nopinions. Every inquisition of this kind is a pretension to sovereignty,\na first step towards persecution; and the tolerant spirit of this\ncountry, which you invoke, has much less in view to engage men to speak,\nthan to invite them to be silent.\n\n3. Because, supposing I do hold the opinions you attribute to me, I wish\nnot to engage my vanity so as never to retract, nor to deprive myself\nof the resource of a conversion on some future day after more ample\ninformation.\n\n4. And because, reverend sir, if, in the support of your own thesis, you\nshould happen to be discomfited before the Christian audience, it would\nbe a dreadful scandal; and I will not be a cause for scandal, even for\nthe sake of good.\n\n5. Because in this metaphysical contest our arms are too unequal; you\nspeaking in your mother tongue, which I scarcely lisp, might bring forth\nhuge volumes, while I could hardly oppose pages; and the public, who\nwould read neither production, might take the weight of the books for\nthat of reasoning.\n\n6. And because, being endowed with the gift of faith in a pretty\nsufficient quantity, you might swallow in a quarter of an hour more\narticles than my logic would digest in a week.\n\n7. Because again, if you were to oblige me to attend your sermons, as\nyou have compelled me to read your pamphlet, the congregation would\nnever believe that a man powdered and adorned like any worldling, could\nbe in the right against a man dressed out in a large hat, with straight\nhair,* and a mortified countenance, although the gospel, speaking of the\npharisees of other times, who were unpowdered, says that when one fasts\nhe must anoint his head and wash his face.**\n\n     * Dr. Priestly has discarded his wig since he went to\n     America, and wears his own hair.  Editor A. J. Reveiw.\n\n     ** St. Matthew, Chapter VI. verses 16 and 17.\n\n8. Because, finally, a dispute to one having nothing else to do would be\na gratification, while to me, who can employ my time better, it would be\nan absolute loss.\n\nI shall not then, reverend sir, make you my confessor in matters of\nreligion, but I will disclose to you my opinion, as a man of letters, on\nthe composition of your book. Having in former days, read many works of\ntheology, I was curious to learn whether by any chemical process you had\ndiscovered real beings in that world of invisibles. Unfortunately, I am\nobliged to declare to the public, which, according to your expression,\np. 19, \"hopes to be instructed, to be led into truth, and not into error\nby me,\" that I have not found in your book a single new argument,\nbut the mere repetition of what is told over and over in thousands of\nvolumes, the whole fruit of which has been to procure for their authors\na cursory mention in the dictionary of heresies. You everywhere lay down\nthat as proved which remains to be proved; with this peculiarity,\nthat, as Gibbon says, firing away your double battery against those who\nbelieve too much, and those who believe too little, you hold out your\nown peculiar sensations, as to the precise criterion of truth; so that\nwe must all be just of your size in order to pass the gate of that\nNew Jerusalem which you are building. After this, your reputation as\na divine might have become problematical with me; but recollecting the\nprinciple of the association of ideas so well developed by Locke, whom\nyou hold in estimation, and whom, for that reason I am happy to cite to\nyou, although to him I owe that pernicious use of my understanding which\nmakes me disbelieve what I do not comprehend--I perceive why the public\nhaving originally attached the idea of talents to the name of Mr.\nPriestly, doctor in chemistry, continued by habit to associate it with\nthe name of Mr. Priestly, doctor in divinity; which, however, is not the\nsame thing: an association of ideas the more vicious as it is liable\nto be moved inversely.* Happily you have yourself raised a bar of\nseparation between your admirers, by advising us in the first page\nof your preface, that your present book is especially destined for\nbelievers. To cooperate, however, with you, sir, in this judicious\ndesign, I must observe that it is necessary to retrench two passages,\nseeing they afford the greatest support to the arguments of unbelievers.\n\n     * Mr. Blair, doctor of divinity, and Mr. Black, doctor in\n     chemistry, met at the coffee house in Edinburg: a new\n     theological pamphlet written by doctor Priestly was thrown\n     upon the table, \"Really,\" said Dr. Blair, \"this man had\n     better confine himself to chemistry, for he is absolutely\n     ignorant in theology:\"--\"I beg your pardon,\" answered Dr.\n     Black, \"he is in the right, he is a minister of the gospel,\n     he ought to adhere to his profession, for in truth he knows\n     nothing of chemistry.\"\n\nYou say, p. 15, \"What is manifestly contrary to natural reason cannot be\nreceived by it;\"--and p. 62, \"With respect to intellect, men and brute\nanimals are born in the same state, having the same external senses,\nwhich are the only inlets to all ideas, and consequently the source of\nall the knowledge and of all the mental habits they ever acquire.\"\n\nNow if you admit, with Locke, and with us infidels, that every one has\nthe right of rejecting whatever is contrary to his natural reason, and\nthat all our ideas and all our knowledge are acquired only by the inlets\nof our external senses; What becomes of the system of revelation, and of\nthat order of things in times past, which is so contradictory to that\nof the time present? unless we consider it as a dream of the human brain\nduring the state of superstitious ignorance.\n\nWith these two single phrases, I could overturn the whole edifice of\nyour faith. Dread not, however, sir, in me such overflowing zeal. For\nthe same reason that I have not the frenzy of martyrdom, I have not that\nof making proselytes. It becomes those ardent, or rather acrimonious\ntempers, who mistake the violence of their sentiments for the enthusiasm\nof truth; the ambition of noise and rumor, for the love of glory; and\nfor the love of their neighbor, the detestation of his opinions, and the\nsecret desire of dominion.\n\nAs for me, who have not received from nature the turbulent qualities of\nan apostle, and never sustained in Europe the character of a dissenter,\nI am come to America neither to agitate the conscience of men, nor to\nform a sect, nor to establish a colony, in which, under the pretext of\nreligion, I might erect a little empire to myself. I have never been\nseen evangelizing my ideas, either in temples or in public meetings. I\nhave never likewise practiced that quackery of beneficence, by which\na certain divine, imposing a tax upon the generosity of the public,\nprocures for himself the honors of a more numerous audience, and the\nmerit of distributing at his pleasure a bounty which costs him nothing,\nand for which he receives grateful thanks dexterously stolen from the\noriginal donors.\n\nEither in the capacity of a stranger, or in that of a citizen, a sincere\nfriend to peace, I carry into society neither the spirit of dissension,\nnor the desire of commotion; and because I respect in every one what\nI wish him to respect in me, the name of liberty is in my mind nothing\nelse but the synonyma of justice.\n\nAs a man, whether from moderation or indolence, a spectator of the world\nrather than an actor in it, I am every day less tempted to take on me\nthe management of the minds or bodies of men: it is sufficient for an\nindividual to govern his own passions and caprices.\n\nIf by one of these caprices, I am induced to think it may be useful,\nsometimes, to publish my reflections, I do it without obstinacy or\npretension to that implicit faith, the ridicule of which you desire\nto impart to me, p. 123. My whole book of the Ruins which you treat so\nungratefully, since you thought it amusing, p. 122, evidently bears this\ncharacter. By means of the contrasted opinions I have scattered through\nit, it breathes that spirit of doubt and uncertainty which appears to me\nthe best suited to the weakness of the human mind, and the most adapted\nto its improvement, inasmuch as it always leaves a door open to new\ntruths; while the spirit of dogmatism and immovable belief, limiting our\nprogress to a first received opinion, binds us at hazard, and without\nresource, to the yoke of error or falsehood, and occasions the most\nserious mischiefs to society; since by combining with the passions, it\nengenders fanaticism, which, sometimes misled and sometimes misleading,\nthough always intolerant and despotic, attacks whatever is not of\nits own nature; drawing upon itself persecution when it is weak, and\npractising persecution when it is powerful; establishing a religion of\nterror, which annihilates the faculties, and vitiates the conscience:\nso that, whether under a political or a religious aspect, the spirit\nof doubt is friendly to all ideas of liberty, truth, or genius, while a\nspirit of confidence is connected with the ideas of tyranny, servility,\nand ignorance.\n\nIf, as is the fact, our own experience and that of others daily teaches\nus that what at one time appeared true, afterwards appeared demonstrably\nfalse, how can we connect with our judgments that blind and presumptuous\nconfidence which pursues those of others with so much hatred?\n\nNo doubt it is reasonable, and even honest, to act according to our\npresent feelings and conviction: but if these feelings and their causes\ndo vary by the very nature of things, how dare we impose upon ourselves\nor others an invariable conviction? How, above all, dare we require this\nconviction in cases where there is really no sensation, as happens\nin purely speculative questions, in which no palpable fact can be\npresented?\n\nTherefore, when opening the book of nature, (a more authentic one and\nmore easy to be read than leaves of paper blackened over with Greek or\nHebrew,) and when I reflected that the slightest change in the material\nworld has not been in times past, nor is at present effected by the\ndifference of so many religions and sects which have appeared and still\nexist on the globe, and that the course of the seasons, the path of the\nsun, the return of rain and drought, are the same for the inhabitants\nof each country, whether Christians, Mussulmans, Idolaters, Catholics,\nProtestants, etc., I am induced to believe that the universe is governed\nby laws of wisdom and justice, very different from those which human\nignorance and intolerance would enact.\n\nAnd as in living with men of very opposite religious persuasions, I\nhave had occasion to remark that their manners were, nevertheless, very\nanalogous; that is to say, among the different Christian sects, among\nthe Mahometans, and even among those people who were of no sect, I have\nfound men who practise all the virtues, public and private, and that too\nwithout affectation; while others, who were incessantly declaiming of\nGod and religion, abandoned themselves to every vicious habit which\ntheir belief condemned, I thereby became convinced that Ethics,\nthe doctrines of morality, are the only essential, as they are only\ndemonstrable, part of religion. And as, by your own avowal, the only end\nof religion is to render men better, in order to add to their happiness,\np. 62, I have concluded that there are but two great systems of religion\nin the world, that of good sense and beneficence, and that of malice and\nhypocrisy.\n\nIn closing this letter, I find myself embarrassed by the nature of the\nsentiment which I ought to express to you, for in declaring as you\nhave done, p. 123, that you do not care for the contempt of such as me*\n(ignorant as you were of my opinion), you tell me plainly that you do\nnot care for their esteem. I leave, therefore, to your discernment and\ntaste to determine the sentiment most congenial to my situation and your\ndesert.\n\n     * \"And what does it do for me here, except, perhaps, expose\n     me to the contempt of such men as Mr. Volney, which,\n     however, I feel myself pretty well able to bear?\" p. 124.\n     This language is the more surprising, as Dr. Priestly never\n     received anything from me but civilities.  In the year 1791\n     I sent him a dissertation of mine on the Chronology of the\n     Ancients, in consequence of some charts which he had himself\n     published.  His only answer was to abuse me in a pamphlet in\n     1792.  After this first abuse, on meeting me here last\n     winter, he procured me an invitation to dine with his friend\n     Mr. Russell, at whose house he lodged; after having shown me\n     polite attention at that dinner, he abuses me in his new\n     pamphlet.  After this second abuse he meets me in Spruce\n     Street, and takes me by the hand as a friend, and speaks of\n     me in a large company under that denomination.  Now I ask\n     the public, what kind of a man is Dr. Priestly?\n\nC. F. VOLNEY.\n\nPhiladelphia, March 10, 1797.\n\nP. S. I do not accompany this public letter with a private note to Dr.\nPriestly, because communications of that nature carry an appearance of\nbravado, which, even in exercising the right of a necessary defence,\nappear to me imcompatible with decency and politeness.\n\n\n\nTHE ZODIACAL SIGNS AND CONSTELLATIONS.\n\n(Compiled by the publisher from recognized authorities.)\n\n\nThe Zodiac is an imaginary girdle or belt in the celestial sphere, which\nextends about eight degrees on each side of the Ecliptic. It is divided\ninto twelve portions, called the signs of the Zodiac, within which all\nthe planets make their revolutions. The Zodiac is so called from the\nanimals represented upon it, and is supposed to have originated\nin remote ages and in latitudes where the camel and elephant were\ncomparatively unknown. This pictorial representation of the zodiac was\nprobably the origin, as M. Dupuis suggests, of the Arabian and Egyptian\nadoration of animals and birds, and has led in the natural progress of\nevents to the adoration of images by both Christians and pagans.\n\n\"The Signs of the Zodiac, (says Godfrey Higgins in The Anacalypsis) with\nthe exception of the Scorpion, which was exchanged by Dan for the\nEagle, were carried by the different tribes of the Israelites on their\nstandards; and Taurus, Leo, Aquarius, and Scorpio or the Eagle--the\nfour signs of Reuben, Judah, Ephriam, and Dan--were placed at the four\ncorners, (the four cardinal points), of their encampment, evidently\nin allusion to the cardinal points of the sphere, the equinoxes and\nsolstices, when the equinox was in Taurus. (See Parkhurst's Lexicon.)\nThese coincidences prove that this religious system had its origin\nbefore the bull ceased to be an equinoctial sign, and prove also, that\nthe religion of Moses was originally the same in its secret mysteries as\nthat of the Heathen, or, if my reader likes it better, that the Heathen\nsecret mysteries were the same as those of Moses.\"\n\nThe Ecliptic, a great circle of the sphere, (shown on the preceding map\nby two parallel lines), is supposed to be drawn through the middle of\nthe Zodiac, cutting the Equator at two points, (called the Equinoctial\npoints), at an angle with the equinoctial of 23 degrees 28 minutes, (the\nsun's greatest declination), and is the path which the earth is supposed\nto describe amidst the fixed stars in performing its annual circuit\naround the sun. It is called the Ecliptic because the eclipses of the\nsun and moon always occur under it.\n\nThe Signs are each the twelfth part of the Ecliptic or Zodiac, (30\ndegrees,) and are reckoned from the point of intersection of the\necliptic and equator at the vernal equinox. They are named respectively\nAries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius,\nCapricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. These names are borrowed from\nthe constellations of the zodiac of the same denomination, which\ncorresponded when these divisions were originally made; but in\nconsequence of the precession, recession, or retrocession of the\nequinoxes, (about 50 1/10\" yearly, at the rate of about 72 years to a\ndegree, displacing an entire sign in about 2152 years, and making\nan entire revolution of the equinoctial in about 25,868 years), the\npositions of these constellations in the heavens no longer correspond\nwith the divisions of the ecliptic of the same name, but are in advance\nof them. Thus, the constellation Aries is now in that part of the\necliptic called Taurus, and the stars of Taurus are in Gemini, those of\nGemini in Cancer, and so on throughout the ecliptic.\n\nThe relative positions of the signs and constellations in the zodiac and\necliptic seem thus to have gradually changed with the revolving years;\nand the worship of the three constellations, Taurus, Aries, and Pisces,\nwith which Christianity is so intimately connected, seems to have\nchanged in a corresponding degree. The worship of the bull of Egypt--the\ncelestial Taurus--has given place to that of the lamb of Palestine--the\ncelestial Aries; and under the astronomical emblem Pisces--the twelfth\nsign of the zodiac--the dominant faith of to-day was appropriately\ntaught by the twelve apostolic fishermen.\n\nIt is from one of these chosen fishermen, St. Peter, that the Pope of\nRome claims to have derived his arbitrary power for binding and loosing\non earth those who are to be bound and loosed in heaven. (Matt. xvi,\n19.) The grave responsibility of wielding with justice and equity this\ntremendous power over the future destiny of mankind, seems never to have\ndisconcerted any of the successors of St. Peter. They have all proved\nto be equally arrogant and intolerant, zealous for both temporal and\nspiritual domination, and merciless to those who have opposed their\npretensions. The present incumbent of the papal chair, who modestly\nclaims the attribute of infallibility, seems proud of his inherited\ntitle, The Great Fisherman! and hopes in the progress of time, with the\nassistance of his monks, bishops, and cardinals, to entangle all nations\nin his net of faith, and to dictate with unquestioned authority the\nreligious worship of the entire human race.\n\nAs the precession of the equinoxes still continues as of yore, and as\nthe masses still continue credulous and devout, they may in succeeding\nages be again called upon to worship the god Apis, when the sign of\nTaurus shall again coincide in the zodiac and the ecliptic; and Aries,\n\"the lamb of God,\" may again be offered in the \"fullness of time\" as a\nsacrifice for mankind, again be crucified, and again shed his redeeming\nblood to wash away the sins of a believing world.\n\nM. Dupuis has satisfactorily shown in The History of all Religions that\nthe twelve labors of the god and saviour Hercules were astronomical\nallegories--the history of the passage of the sun through the twelve\nsigns of the zodiac--and these labors are so similar to the sufferings\nof Jesus, that the Rev. Mr. Parkhurst has been obliged, much against\nhis inclination, to acknowledge that they \"were types of what the\nreal Saviour was to do and suffer.\" (Parkhurst, p.47.) An intimate\nconnection, if not identity, is thus shown between ancient and modern\nbelief--between the paganism of the past and the orthodoxy of the\npresent.\n\n\n\nTHE ZODIACAL SIGNS.\n\n\nARIES, the Ram: (marked [symbol for ARIES])--A northern constellation,\nusually named as the first sign in the zodiac, into which, when the sun\nenters at the vernal equinox in March, the days and nights are of equal\nlength. Aries has been regarded by the devout during many ages as the\ncelestial representative, visible in the heavens, of \"the Lamb of God\nthat taketh away the sins of the world.\"\n\nTAURUS, the Bull:(marked thus, [symbol for TAURUS])--The second sign in\nthe zodiac, which by the Arabians is called Ataur. This constellation\nwas worshipped for ages by the idolatrous Egyptians as the heavenly\nrepresentative of their god Osiris; and derives its name, according to\nGrecian fable, from the bull into which Jupiter transformed himself\nin order to carry Europa over into Crete; but the constellation was\nprobably so named by the Egyptians to designate that period of the year,\n(April), in which cows mostly bring forth their young.\n\n\"The Rev. Mr. Maurice in his work on the antiquities of India, has shown\nthat the May-day festival and the May-pole of Great Britain with its\ngarlands, etc., are the remains of an ancient festival of Egypt and\nIndia, and probably of Phoenicia, when these nations, in countries\nvery distant, and from times very remote, have all, with one consent,\ncelebrated the entrance of the sun into the sign of Taurus at the vernal\nequinox.\"\n\nGEMINI, the Twins: (marked thus, [symbol for GEMINI])--A zodiacal\nconstellation, visible in May, containing the two bright stars Castor\nand Pollux, the fabled sons of Leda and Jupiter, who during their lives\nhad cleared the Hellespont and neighboring seas of pirates, and were\ntherefore deemed the protectors of navigators and sailors.\n\nCANCER, the Crab: (marked thus, [symbol for CANCER])--Is the fourth\nsign of the zodiac, which the sun enters on the 21st day of June, and is\nthence called the summer solstice. According to Grecian fable, the crab\nwas transported to heaven at the request of Juno, after it had been\nslain by Hercules during his battle with the serpent Python, but the\nevident design of the name is to represent the apparent backward motion\nof the sun in June, which is said to resemble the motions of a crab.\n\nLEO, the Lion: ([symbol for LEO]).--Is the fifth sign in the zodiac,\nand contains one star of the first magnitude, called Regulus, or Cor\nLeonis--the Lion's Heart. The fervid heat of July, when the sun has\nattained its greatest power, is now symbolized in our almanacs by\nthe figure of an enraged lion; and the feasts or sacrifices formerly\ncelebrated among the ancients during this month, in honor of the sun,\n(which they also represented under the form of a lion,) were called\nLeonitica. The priests who performed the sacred rites were called\nLeones. This feast was sometimes called Mithriaca, because Mithra was\nthe name of the sun among the Persians. The sacred writings abound with\nreferences to the \"king of beasts;\" among the most interesting of which\nis the story of the battle between the lion and Samson, the Jewish\nHerculus; while the most wonderful example of animal evolution on record\nis found in the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, where we are gravely\ninformed that \"the lion shall eat straw like the bullock.\"\n\nVIRGO, Virgin Mother, Venus, Eve, Isis, &c.--([symbol for VIRGO]).--Is\nthe sixth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of\nAugust. The myths and fables regarding the virgin which abound among all\nnations and all religions, are both various and voluminous, and we may\nadd somewhat improbable. They all agree, however, in this, that the\nfemale, shown on the preceding diagram, holding in her right hand a\nbranch of ripened fruit,--the apples of Paradise,--was intended\nto represent the reproductive powers of nature,--the abundance,\nsatisfaction and contentment which mortals enjoy during the happy period\nof harvest.\n\nLIBRA, the Balance.--The seventh sign of the zodiac, directly opposite\nto Aries, from which it is distant 180 degrees. It is marked thus\n[symbol for LIBRA], after the manner of a pair of scales; to denote,\nprobably, that when the sun arrives at this part of the ecliptic, the\ndays and nights are equal, as if weighed in a balance. Hence the\nperiod when the sun enters Libra, (about September 21st,) is called the\nAutumnal equinox. On the 25th of September was born John the Baptist,\nthe forerunner of his cousin Jesus, who came to his exaltation of glory\non the 25th of March, the Vernal equinox. \"The equinoxes and solstices,\"\nsays Higgins, \"equally marked the births and deaths of John and Jesus.\"\nThe one preceded and prepared the way for the other, who receded.\nOne advanced, the other declined. Jesus ascended, John descended.\nAstrologically speaking, \"He must increase, but I must decrease.\" (John\niii, 30.)\n\nSCORPIO, the Scorpion.--The eighth sign of the zodiac, which the sun\nenters on the 23d of October, is marked thus [symbol for SCORPIO].\nScorpio is fabled to have killed the great hunter Orion, and for that\nexploit to have been placed among the constellations. For this reason it\nis also said that when Scorpio rises Orion sets.\n\nSAGITTARIUS, the Archer: (marked thus, [symbol for SAGITTARIUS]) is the\nninth zodiacal sign, and corresponds with the month of November. This\nsign is represented like a centaur and was fabled to be Crotus, the son\nof Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses.\n\nCAPRICORNUS, the Goat.([symbol for CAPRICORNUS])--The tenth sign of the\nzodiac, which the sun enters the 21st of December, (the longest night in\nthe year,) called the winter solstice. This sign is drawn to represent\nthe horns of a goat, and is fabled to have been Pan, who in the war of\nthe giants was taken to heaven in the shape of a goat. Others claim\nthat it was the goat of Amalthaea, which fed Jupiter with her milk.\nMacrobius, who calls Cancer and Capricorn the gates of the sun, makes\nthe latter sign to represent his motion, after the manner of a goat\nclimbing the mountains.\n\nAQUARIUS, the Water Bearer.--A constellation in the heavens so called,\nbecause during its rising there is usually an abundance of rain. It\nis the eleventh sign in the zodiac, reckoned from Aries, and is marked\nthus, [symbol for AQUARIUS]. It rises in January and sets in February,\nand is supposed by the poets to be Ganymede.\n\nPISCES, the Fishes, [symbol for PISCES].--The twelfth sign of the\nzodiac, rises in February and is represented by two fishes tied together\nby the tails. These fishes are fabled by the Greeks to be those into\nwhich Venus and Cupid were changed to escape from the giant Typhon. This\nfable may not be true, but that wonderful miracles were once performed\nwith two small fishes is stated in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of\nSt. Luke, where it is said that 5000 hungry mortals were cheaply, if\nnot sumptuously regaled with two small fishes and five loaves of bread;\nwhile a large surplus of this piscatory diet, larger indeed than the\noriginal stock, still remained intact.\n\nIn the vestibule or approaches to catholic churches is usually found a\nvase filled with water, (called Piscina,) and this water is considered\nholy. The Fish-days are observed as holy days, or fast days, in which\nFish may be eaten and meat is forbidden; and learned writers have\nasserted that in the worship of Pisces may be found the true secret of\nthe origin of the rite of baptism. The Fish-god Oannes, is said to have\ncome out of the Erythraean Sea and taught the Babylonians all kinds of\nuseful knowledge. Ionnes or Jonas went headlong into the sea and into\na fish, and has kindly recorded for our instruction his remarkable\nadventures. The miraculous draughts of fishes in the apostolic age still\nexcite the emulation of modern fishermen, who cannot even hope to rival\nthe wonders that have been recorded. St. Peter is said to have secured\nready money from the mouth of a fish that he caught with a hook and\nline in the sea of Galilee. (Matthew xvii, 27.) His success was justly\nrewarded, and to him was delegated the power of ruling the infant\nchurch. Pisces thus displaced Aries. The fisherman succeeded the\nshepherd. The precession of the equinoxes produced a new avatar; a new\nsign arose in the heavens; and a new saviour was born to save mankind.\n\n\nTHE CONSTELLATIONS.\n\n\nSIRIUS, the Dog Star.--A bright star of the first magnitude in the\nmouth of the constellation Canis Major. This is the brightest star that\nappears in our firmament, and is supposed by some to be the nearest.\n\nLEPUS.--One of the southern constellations, placed near Orion, according\nto Grecian fable, because it was one of the animals which he hunted.\n\nERIDANUS.--A winding southern constellation, near the Cetus, containing\nthe bright star Achemar.\n\nCETUS, the Whale.--A southern constellation, and one of the forty-eight\nold asterisms. It is fabled to have been the sea monster sent by Neptune\nto devour Andromeda, which was killed by Perseus.\n\nCRATER, the Cup.--A southern constellation, near Hydra. This is supposed\nby Hyainus to be the cup which Apollo gave to the Corvus, or Raven.\n\nCORVUS.--One of the old constellations in the southern hemisphere, near\nSagittarius. This bird is fabled to have been translated to heaven by\nApollo for discovering to him the infidelity of the nymph Coronis.\n\nARGO NAVIS, the Ship.--A constellation near to the Canis Major, and the\nname of the ship which carried Jason and his fifty-four companions\nto Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, and was said to have been\ntranslated into the heavens.\n\nCANOPUS.--The name formerly given to a star in the second bend of\nEridanus. A bright star of the first magnitude in the rudder of the ship\nArgo, which, according to Pliny, was visible at Alexandria in Egypt.\n\nCENTAURUS.--One of the forty-eight old constellations in the southern\nhemisphere, represented in the form of half man and half horse, who was\nfabled by the Greeks to have been Chiron, the tutor of Achilles.\n\nAVA, or ALTAR.--One of the old constellations, and fabled to have been\nthat at which the giants entered into their conspiracy against the gods;\nwherefore Jupiter, in commemoration of the event, transplanted the altar\ninto the heavens.\n\nPEGASUS.--One of the forty-eight old constellations of the northern\nhemisphere, figured in the form of a flying horse.\n\nDELPHINUS, or DOLPHIN.--A northern constellation, near Pegasus. The\nDolphin is fabled to have been translated to heaven by Neptune.\n\nAQUILA, the Eagle.--In the Arabic Altair, but in the Persian tables the\nFlying Vulture. This is one of the old constellations, situated near\nDelphinus in the northern hemisphere. According to Grecian fable, Aquila\nrepresented Ganymede or Hebe, who was transported to heaven and made\ncup-bearer to Jupiter.\n\nSAGITTA--the Dart or Arrow, called by the Arabians Schahan. One of\nthe old constellations in the northern hemisphere, near Aquila and\nDelphinus. It is fabled to have been the arrow with which Hercules slew\nthe vulture that was devouring the liver of Prometheus who was, like\nJesus, crucified for loving mankind.\n\nCYGNUS, the Swan.--An old constellation in the milky-way, between\nEquus and the Dragon. This is fabled to be the swan into which Jupiter\ntransformed himself in order to deceive the virtuous Leda, wife of\nTyndareus, king of Sparta. The Grecian matron, like the Jewish virgin,\nthus became the mother of a God.\n\nLYRA.--A northern constellation between Hercules and Cygnus, containing\na white star of the first magnitude.\n\nMILKY-WAY.--Galaxy, or Via Lactia.--A broad luminous path or circle\nencompassing the heavens, which is easily discernible by its white\nappearance, from which it derives its name. It is supposed to be the\nblended light of innumerable fixed stars, which are not distinguishable\nwith ordinary telescopes.\n\nHYDRA, the Serpent.--A southern constellation of great length, which is\ndrawn to represent a serpent. The Hydra is fabled to have been placed in\nthe heavens by Apollo, to frighten the Raven from drinking.\n\nORION, the hunter.--A constellation of the southern hemisphere with\nrespect to the ecliptic, but half southern and half northern with\nrespect to the equinoctial. It is placed near the feet of the bull, and\nis composed of seventeen stars in the form of a sword, which has given\noccasion to the poets to speak of Orion's sword. He was described by\nthe Greeks as a \"mighty hunter,\" who for his exploits was placed in the\nheavens by Jupiter, between the Canis and the Lepus. He is believed by\nmany to have been the \"mighty hunter\" spoken of in the bible, under the\nname of Nimrod. (See Gen. x: 8, 9; 1 Chron. i: 10; Micha v: 6, Job ix,\n9; Amos v, 8.)\n\nPERSEUS.--This constellation is named from Perseus, the son of Jupiter\nby Danae, who was translated into the heavens by the assistance of\nMinerva, for having released Andromeda from her confinement on the\nrock to which she was chained. He is represented in the preceding\nillustration holding a drawn sword in his right hand and in his left the\nhead of Medusa, the Gorgon, whose terrifying appearance changed all who\nbeheld her into stone, and whom he had destroyed with the assistance of\nthe wings he had borrowed from Mercury, the helmet from Pluto, the sword\nfrom Vulcan, and the shield from Minerva.\n\nJOSEPH'S STABLE; AURIGA, the Wagoner:--A northern constellation between\nPerseus and Gemini, represented by the figure of an old man supporting\na goat. He is said to have been taken to heaven by Jupiter after the\ninvention of wagons.\n\nURSA MAJOR, the Bear.--One of the prominent northern constellations,\nsituated near the north pole. It contains the stars called the Dipper.\nUrsa Minor contains the pole-star, which is shown in the extremity of\nthe tail of the bear.\n\nANDROMEDA.--A northern constellation, represented by a woman chained;\nas, according to Grecian fable, Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopia,\nwas bound to a rock by the Nereides, and afterwards released by Perseus.\nMinerva changed her into a constellation after her death, and placed her\nin the heavens.\n\nDRACO OR DRAGON.--A northern constellation, supposed to represent the\nDragon that guarded the Hesperian fruit, and was killed by Hercules.\nIt is said that Juno took it up to heaven and placed it among the\nconstellations.\n\nBOOTIS, the Ox driver: so called because this constellation seems\nto follow the Great Bear as the driver follows his oxen. Bootis is\nrepresented as grasping in his right hand a sickle and in his left a\nclub, and is fabled to have been Icarius, who was transported to heaven\nbecause he was a great cultivator of the vine; for when Bootes rises the\nworks of ploughing and cultivation go forward.\n\nCORONA BOREALIS. Northern Crown.--One of the old northern\nconstellations, between Hercules and Bootes.\n\nCORONA AUSTRALIS--Southern Crown.--One of the old constellations in the\nsouthern hemisphere, between Sagittarius and Scorpio. The Corona\nwere fabled to be Menippe and Metioche, two daughters of Orion, who\nsacrificed themselves at the suggestion of an oracle, to protect\nBoeotia, their native country, from the ravages of a pestilence: it\nbeing the belief of idolatrous nations that an angry god could be\npropitiated by human sacrifices, and that the death of the innocent\nmight atone for the sins of the guilty. The deities of Hades were\nastonished, it is said, at the patriotism and devotion of these Grecian\nmaidens, who had so generously and uselessly sacrificed their lives.\nAfter their death two stars were seen to issue from the altars that\nstill smoked with their blood, and these stars were placed in the\nheavens in the form of a crown or coronet.\n\nCEPHEUS AND CASSIOPIA.--One of the old asterism in the northern\nhemisphere, near the pole. According to Grecian fables, Cassiopia\nand her husband Cepheus, king of Etheopia, were placed among the\nconstellations to witness the punishment inflicted on their daughter,\nAndromeda.\n\nTRIANGULARIUM.--A name for both one of the old and new constellations in\nthe northern hemisphere, between Andromeda and Aries.\n\nSERPENTARIUS, called Ophiucus, is a constellation in the northern\nhemisphere, between Scorpio and Hercules.\n\nHERCULES, one of the old northern constellations. In Grecian mythology\nit was taught and believed that Hercules, the Theban, was born of a\nhuman mother and an immortal father, like other so-called saviours of\nmankind. His mother, the fair Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, having found\nfavor in the eyes of the god Jupiter, soon fell an unwilling victim\nto his celestial wiles. The life of the infant Hercules, born of this\nunnatural union, was threatened by the jealous Juno, the same as the\nlife of the infant Jesus was threatened by the tyrant Herod. Like Jesus,\nHercules devoted his life to the benefit of the human race, and like\nJesus he was also worshipped after his death as a God in heaven. He is\nshown in the astrological chart, enveloped in the skin of the lion he\nhas slain, with his club upraised, and his foot placed threateningly\nabove the head of the Dragon, as if about to fulfill the scriptural\nprophecy, that \"the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.\"","title":"The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":98038}