metamorphoses; but he will nevertheless say to his bonze, "I have faith; it is your will and pleasure that Vishnoo has undergone five hundred incarnations, which is worth to you an income of five the mere indolence of philosophy: no; [it is the rational repose of men who have exerted themselves and run an active race in vain. And after all, it must be admitted, that indolent philosophy is far preferable to turbulent divinity and me-hundred rupees: very well; you will taphysical delusion. FAITH. SECTION I. inveigh against me, and denounce me, and ruin my trade if I have not faith; but I have faith, and here are ten rupees over and above for you." The Indian may swear to the bonze that he believes, without taking a false oath; for, after all, there is no demonstration that Vishnoo has not actually made five hundred visits to India. WHAT is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, But if the bonze requires him to bebut of reason. I have no merit in think-lieve what is contradictory or impossible, ing that this eternal and infinite being, whom I consider as virtue, as goodness itself, is desirous that I should be good and virtuous. Faith consists in believing, not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding. The Asiatics can only by faith believe the journey of Mahomet to the seven planets, and the incarnations of the god Fo, of Vishnoo, Xaca, Brama, and Sommonocodom, &c. They subinit their understandings; they tremble to examine: wishing to avoid being either impaled or burnt, they say, -"I believe." as that two and two make five, or that the same body may be in a thousand different places, or that to be and not to be are precisely one and the same thing; in that case, if the Indian says he has faith, he lies; and if he swears that he believes, he commits perjury. He says, therefore, to the bonze, "My reverend father, I cannot declare that I believe in these absurdities, even though they should be worth to you an income of ten thousand rupees instead of five hundred." "My sou," the bonze answers, "give me twenty rupees, and God will give you grace to believe all that you now do not believe." We do not here intend the slightest allusion to the Catholic faith. Not only do we revere it, but we possess it. We "But how can you expect or desire," speak of the false lying faith of other na-rejoins the Indian," that God should do tions of the world, of that faith which is that by me which he cannot do even by not faith, and which consists only in himself? It is impossible that God words. should either perform or believe contradictions. I am very willing to say, in order to give you satisfaction, that I believe what is obscure, but I cannot say that I believe what is impossible. It is the will of God that we should be virtuous, and not that we should be absurd. I have already given you ten rupees; here are twenty more; believe in thirty rupees; be an honest man if you can, and do not trouble me any more." There is a faith for things that are merely astonishing and prodigious, and a faith for things contradictory and impossible. Vishnoo became incarnate five hundred times; this is extremely astonishing, but it is not, however, physically impossible; for if Vishnoo possessed a soul, he may have transferred that soul into five hundred different bodies, with a view to his own felicity. The Indian, indeed, has not a very lively faith; he is not intiinately and decidedly persuaded of these once; and he who says, I believe these mysteries, will see, beyond the possibility of a doubt, if he reflects for a moment on what passes in his mind, that these words mean no more than, I respect these mysteries; I submit myself to those who announce them. For they agree with me, that my reason, or their own reason, believe them not; but it is clear that if my reason is not persuaded, I am not persuaded. I and my reason cannot possibly be two different beings. It is an absolute contradiction that I should receive that as true which my understanding rejects as false. Faith, therefore, is nothing but submissive or deferential incredulity. that which they do understand; they have grounds of credibility. Jesus Christ performed miracles in Galilee; we ought, therefore, to believe all that he said. In order to know what he said, we must consult the church. The church has declared the books which announce Jesus Christ to us to be authentic. We ought, therefore, to believe those books. Those books inform us, that he who will not listen to the church shall be considered as a tax-gatherer or a Pagan; we ought therefore to listen to the church, that we may not be disgraced and hated like the farmers-general. We ought to submit our reason to it, not with infantile and blind credulity, but with a docile faith, such as reason itself would au- But why should this submission be thorise. Such is christian faith, particu-exercised when my understanding inlarly the Roman faith, which is "the vincibly recoils? The reason, we well faith" par excellence. The Lutheran, know, is, that my understanding has been Calvinistic, or Anglican faith, is a wicked persuaded that the mysteries of my faith faith. are laid down by God himsel. All, then, that I can do, as a reasonable being, is to be silent and adore. This is what divines call external faith; and this faith neither is, nor can be, anything more than respect for things incomprehensible, in consequence of the reliance I place on those who teach them. SECTION II. Divine faith, about which so much has been written, is evidently nothing more than incredulity brought under subjection; for we certainly have no other faculty than the understanding by which we can believe; and the objects of faith are not those of the understanding. We can believe only what appears to be true; and nothing can appear true but in one of the three following ways:-by intuition or feeling, as I exist, I see the sun; or by an accumulation of probability amounting to certainty, as there is a city called Constantinople; or by positive demonstration, as triangles of the same base and height are equal. If God himself were to say to me, "Thought is of an olive colour;" "the square of a certain number is bitter;" I should certainly understand nothing at all from these words. I could not adopt them either as true or false. But I will repeat them, if he commands me to do it; and I will make others repeat them at the risk of my life. This is faith: it is nothing more than obedience. In order to obtain a foundation then for this obedience, it is merely necessary to examine the books which require it. Our understanding, therefore, should in Faith, therefore, being nothing at all of this description, can no more be a belief, a persuasion, than it can be yellow or red. It can be nothing but the anni-vestigate the books of the Old and New hilation of reason, a silence of adoration at the contemplation of things absolutely incomprehensible. Thus, speaking philosophically, no person believes the Trinity; no person believes that the same body can be in a thousand places at Testament, just as it would Plutarch or Livy; and if it finds in them incontestible and decisive evidences,-evidences obvious to all minds, and such as would be admitted by men of all nations,that God himself is their author, then it SECTION III. We have long hesitated whether or not to publish the following article, "Faith," which we met with in an old book. Our respect for the chair of St. Peter restrained us. But some pious men having satisfied us that Alexander VI. and St. Peter had nothing in common, we have at las: determined to publish this curious little production, and do it without the slightest scruple. is our incumbent duty to subject our un- { know that I can be saved only by faith, derstanding to the yoke of faith. as I can certainly never be so by works.' "Ah, holy father!" says Pica, 66 you need neither works nor faith; they are well enough for such poor profane creatures as we are; but you, who are absolutely a vice-god-you may believe and do just whatever you please. You have the keys of heaven; and St. Peter will certainly never shut the door in your face. But with respect to myself, who am nothing but a poor prince, I freely confess that I should have found some very powerful protection necessary, if I had lain with my own daughter, or had employed the stiletto and night-shade as often as your holiness." Alexander VI. understood raillery. "Let us speak seriously," says he to the prince. "Tell me what merit there can be in a man's saying to God that he is persuaded of things of which, in fact, he cannot be persuaded? What pleasure can this afford to God? Between ourselves, a man who says that he believes what is impossible to be believed, is-a liar." Prince Pica de Mirandola once met Pope Alexander VI. at the house of the courtezan Emilia, while Lucretia, the holy father's daughter, was confined in child-birth, and the people of Rome were discussing whether the child of which she was delivered belonged to the pope, to his son the Duke de Valentinois, or to Lucretia's husband, Alphonso of Arragon, who was considered by many as impotent. The conversation immediately became animated and gay. Cardinal Bembo relates a portion of it. "My little Pica," says the pope, "whom do you think the father of my grandson?" "I think your son-in-law," replied Pica. "What! how can you possibly believe such nonsense?" "I believe it by faith." “But surely you know that an impotent man cannot be a father." "Faith," replied Pica, "consists in believing things because they are impossible; and, besides, the honour of your house demands that Lucretia's son should not be reputed the offspring of incest. You require me to believe more incomprehensible mysteries. Am I not bound to believe that a serpent spoke; that from that time all mankind were damned; that the ass of Balaam also spoke with great eloqnence; and that the walls of Jericho fell down at the sound of trumpets?" Pica thus proceeded with a long train of all the prodigious things in which he believed. Alexander absolutely fell back upon his sofa with laughing. "I believe all that as well as you," says he, "for I well FALSITY, properly speaking, is the contrary to truth; not intentional lying. It is said that there were a hundred thousand men destroyed by the great earthquake at Lisbon; this is not a lieit is a falsity. Falsity is much more common than error; falsity falls more on facts, and error on opinions. It is an error to believe that the sun turns round the earth; but it is a falsity to advance that Louis XIV. dictated the will of Charles II. The falsity of a deed is a much greater crime than a simple hie; it is a legal imposture-a fraud committed with the pen. A man has a false mind when he always takes things in a wrong sense, when, nou 476 FALSITY OF HUMAN VIRTUES.-FANATICISM. considering the whole, he attributes to one side of an object that which belongs to the other, and when this defect of judgment has become habitual. False-heartedness is, when a person is accustomed to flatter, and to utter sentiments which he does not possess; this is worse than dissimulation, and is that which the Latins call simulatio. There is much falsity in historians; error among philosophers. Falsities abound in all polemical writings, and still more in satirical ones. False minds are insupportable, and false hearts are horrible. FALSITY OF HUMAN VIRTUES. WHEN the Duke de la Rochefoucauld wrote his Thoughts on Self-Love, and discovered this great spring of human action, one M. Esprit of the Oratory, wrote a book, entitled "Of the Falsity of Human Virtues." This author says, that there is no virtue but by grace; and he terminates each chapter by referring to Christian charity. So that, according to M. Esprit, neither Cato, Aristides, Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus, were good men, who can be found only among the Christians. Among the Christians, again, there is no virtue except among the Catholics; and even among the Catholics, the Jesuits must be excepted as the enemies of the Oratory;―ergo, virtue is scarcely to be found anywhere except among the enemies of the Jesuits. What is virtue, my friend? It is to do good; let us then do it, and that will suffice. But we give thee credit for the motive. What, then! according to thee, there is no difference between the Presisent de Thou and Ravaillac? between Cicero and that Popilius whose life he saved, and who afterwards cut off his head for money; and thou wilt pronounce Epictetus and Porphyrius rogues, because they did not follow our dogmas? Such insolence is disgusting; but I will say no more, for I am getting angry. FANATICISM. SECTION I. FANATICISM is the effect of a false conscience, which makes religion subservient to the caprices of the imagination, and the excesses of the passions. It arises, in general, from legislators entertaining too narrow views, or from their extending their regulations beyond the limits within which alone they were intended to operate. Their laws are made merely for a select society. When extended by zeal to a whole people, and transferred by ambition from one climate to another, some changes of institution should take place, some accommodation to persons, places, and circumstances. But what, in fact, has been the case? Certain minds, constituted in a great degree like those of the small original flock, have received a system with equal ardour, and become its apostles, and even its assert-martyrs, rather than abate a single iota of its demands. Others, on the contrary, less ardent, or more attached to their prejudices of education, have struggled with energy against the new yoke, and consented to receive it only after considerable softenings and mitigations: hence the schism between rigorists and moderates, by which all are urged on to vehemence and madness-the one party for servitude, and the other for freedom." This M. Esprit commences by ing, that prudence is not a virtue; and his reason is, that it is often deceived. It is as if he had said, that Cæsar was not a great captain because he was conquered at Dirachium. If M. Esprit had been a philosopher, he would not have examined prudence as a virtue, but as a talent-as a useful and happy quality; for a great rascal may be very prudent, and I have known many such. Oh the age of pretending that Nul n'aura de vertu que nous et nos amis ! Let us imagine an immense rotunde, a pantheon, with innumerable altars placed under its dome. Let us figure to ourselves a devotee of every sect, whether tremble before them. That almost desat present subsisting or extinct, at thepotic power which the enthusiasm of a feet of that divinity which he worships in single person exercises over a multitude his own peculiar way, under all the ex- who see or hear him; tne ardour comtravagant forms which human imaginationmunicated to each other by assembled has been able to invent. On the right minds; numberless strong and agitating we perceive one stretched on his back influences acting in such circumstances, upon a mat, absorbed in contemplation, augmented by each individual's personal and awaiting the moment when the divine anxiety and distress, require but a short light shall come forth to inform his soul. time to operate, in order to produce uniOn the left is a prostrate energumen{versal delirium. Only let a single people striking his forehead against the ground, be thus fascinated and agitated under the with a view to obtain from it an abundant { guidance of a few impostors, the seduction produce. Here we see a man with the will spread with the speed of wild-fire, air and manner of a mountebank, dancing { prodigies will be multiplied beyond calover the grave of him whom he invokes.culation, and whole communities be led There we observe a penitent, motionless astray for ever. When the human mind and mute as the statue before which he has once quitted the luminous track has bent himself in humiliation. One, pointed out by nature, it returns to it no on the principle that God will not blushmore; it wanders round the truth, but at his own resemblance, displays openly never obtains of it more than a few faint what modesty universally conceals; an- glimmerings, which, mingling with the other, as if the artist would shudder at false lights of surrounding superstition, the sight of his own work, covers with an { leave it, in fact, in complete and palpable impenetrable veil his whole person and obscurity. countenance; another turns his back upon the south, because from that quarter blows the devil's tempest. Another stretches out his arms towards the east, because there God first shows his radiant face. Young women, suffused with tears, bruise and gash their lovely persons under the idea of assuaging the demon of desire, although by means tending in fact rather to strengthen his influence; others again, in opposite attitudes, solicit the approaches of the Divinity. One young man, in order to mortify the most urgent of his feelings, attaches to particular parts of his frame large iron rings, as heavy as he can bear; another checks still more effectually the tempter's violence, by human amputation, and suspends the bleeding sacrifice upon the altar. It is dreadful to observe, how the opinion, that the wrath of heaven might be appeased by human massacre, spread, after being once started, through almost every religion; and what various reasons have been given for the sacrifice, as though, in order to preclude, if possible, the escape of any one from extirpation. Sometimes they are enemies, who must be immolated to Mars the exterminator. The Scythians slay upon the altars of this deity a hundredth part of their prisoners of war; and from this usage attending victory, we may form some judgment of the justice of war: accordingly, among other nations, it was engaged in solely to in-supply these human sacrifices, so that, having first been instituted, as it would seem, to expiate the horrors of war, they at length came to serve as a justification of them. Let us observe them quit the temple, and, full of the inspiration of their respective deities, spread the terror and delusion over the face of the earth. They divide the world between them; and the four extremities of it are almost instantly in flames nations obey them, and kings Sometimes a barbarous deity requires victims from among the just and good. The Getæ eagerly dispute the honour of personally conveying to Zamolxis the vows and devotions of their country. |