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highest place, and banishing unconcern- dispatches a bull to some German, to edly sometimes Arius and sometimes enable him to hold five or six bishoprics Athanasius. He put himself at the head at once. The reason, we are told, is, that of Christianity without being a Christian; the German bishops have no cure of souls. for at that time baptism was essential to The chancellor of France is the first perany person's becoming one; he was only son in the state; but he cannot sit at a catechumen. The usage of waiting for table with the king, at least he could not the approach of death before immersing till lately, although a colonel, who is in the water of regeneration, was begin- scarcely perhaps a gentleman (gentilning to decline with respect to private in-homme), may enjoy that distinction. The dividuals. If Constantine, by delaying wife of a provincial governor is a queen his baptism till near the point of death, in the province, but merely a citizen's entertained the notion that he might com-wife at court. mit every act with impunity in the hope of a complete expiation, it was unfortunate for the human race that such an opinion should have ever suggested itself to the mind of a man in possession of uncontrolled power.

CONTRADICTIONS.

SECTION I.

Persons convicted of the crime of nonconformity are publicly roasted, and in all our colleges the second eclogue of Virgil is explained with great gravity, including Corydon's declarations of love to the beautiful Alexis; and it is remarked to the boys, that although Alexis be fair and Amyntas brown, yet Amyntas may I still deserve the preference.

If an unfortunate philosopher, without intending the least harm, takes it into his head that the earth turns round, or to imagine that light comes from the sun, or to suppose that matter may contain some

THE more we see of the world, the more we see it abounding in contradictions and inconsistencies. To begin with the Grand Turk; he orders every head that he dislikes to be struck off, and canother properties than those we are acvery rarely preserve his own.

If we pass from the Grand Turk to the Holy Father, he confirms the election of emperors, and has kings among his vassals; but he is not so powerful as a duke of Savoy. He expedites orders for America and Africa, yet could not withhold the slightest of its privileges from the republic of Lucca. The emperor is the king of the Romans; but the right of their king consists in holding the pope's stirrup, and handing the water to him at

mass.

The English serve their monarch upon their knees, but they depose, imprison, and behead him.

Men who make a vow of poverty, gain in consequence an income of about two hundred thousand crowns; and, in virtue of their vow of humility, they become absolute sovereigns. The plurality of benefices with care of souls is severely denounced at Rome, yet every day it

quainted with, he is cried down as a blasphemer, and a disturber of the public peace; and yet there are translations in usum Delphini of the "Tusculan Questions" of Cicero, and of Lucretius, which are two complete courses of irreligion.

Courts of justice no longer believe that persons are possessed by devils, and laugh at sorcerers; but Gauffredi and Grandier were burnt for sorcery; and one half of a parliament wanted to sentence to the stake a monk accused of having bewitched a girl of eighteen by breathing upon her.

The sceptical philosopher Bayle was persecuted, even in Holland. La Motte le Vayer, more of a sceptic but less of a philosopher, was preceptor of the king Louis XIV., and of the king's brother. Gourville was hanged in effigy at Paris, while a French minister in Germany.

The celebrated atheist Spinoza lived and died in peace. Vanini, who had merely written against Aristotle, was burnt

CONTRADICTIONS.

pensing with the observance of the laws;" and, finally, another in which the pope is said to be a magician, who makes people believe that three are one, and that the bread we eat is not bread, &c. &c.

as an atheist he has, in consequence, Rabelais was printed "cum privilegio obtained the honour of making one article and a free course was allowed to the in the histories of the learned, and in all{"Turkish Spy," and even to the "Perthe dictionaries, which in fact constitute sian Letters;" that volatile, ingenious, immense repositories of lies, mixed up and daring work, in which there is one with a very small portion of truth. Open whole letter in favour of suicide; another, these books, and you will there find not in which we find these words, "If we merely that Vanini publicly taught athe-suppose such a thing as religion;" a third, ism in his writings, but that twelve pro- in which it is expressly said, that "the fessors of his sect went with him to Na-bishops have no other functions than disples with the intention of everywhere making proselytes. Afterwards, open the books of Vanini, and you will be astonished to find in them nothing but proofs of the existence of God. Read the following passage, taken from his " Amphitheatrum," a work equally unknown and condemned:-" God is his own original and boundary, without end and without beginning, requiring neither the one nor the other, and Father of all beginning and end; he ever exists, but not in time; to him there has been no past, and will be no future; he reigns everywhere, without being in any place; immoveable without rest, rapid without motion; he is all, and out of all; he is in all, without being enclosed; out of everything, without being excluded from anything; good, but without quality; entire, but without parts; immutable, while changing the whole universe his will is his power; absolute, there is nothing of him of what is merely possible, all in him is real; he is the first, the middle, and the last; finally, although constituting all, he is above all beings, out of them, within them, beyond them, before them, and after them." such a profession of faith that Vanini was It was after declared an atheist. Upon what grounds was he condemned?-simply upon the deposition of a man named Francon. In vain did his books depose in favour of him; a single enemy deprived him of life, and stigmatised his name throughout Europe.

The little book called "Cymbalum Mundi," which is merely a cold imitation of Lucian, and which has not the most slight or remote reference to Christianity, was condemned to be burnt. But

frequently deceive himself, but who never The Abbé St. Pierre, a man who could wrote without a view to the public good, and whose works were called by Cardinal Dubois, "The dreams of an honest citizen;"-the Abbè St. Pierre, I say, was unanimously expelled from the French academy, for having, in some political work, preferred the establishment of councils under the regency, to that of secretaries of state under Louis the Four{teenth; and for saying that, towards the close of that glorious reign, the finances were wretchedly conducted. The author of the Persian Letters has not mentioned Louis XIV. in his book, except to say, that he was a magician who could make his subjects believe that paper was money; that he liked no government but that of Turkey; that he preferred a man who handed him a napkin, to a man who had gained him battles; that he had conferred a pension on a man who had run away other who had run away four; that he two leagues, and a government upon anwas overwhelmed with poverty, although it is said, in the same letter, that his finances are inexhaustible. Observe then, I repeat, all that this writer, in the only work then known to be his, has said of academy. We may add, too, as a climax Louis XIV., the patron of the French of contradiction, that that society admitted him as a member for having turned them into ridicule; for, of all the books by which the public have been entertained

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at the expense of the society, there is not pointing to such offices, that they have one in which it has been treated more dis- been bestowed gratis and without purrespectfully than in the Persian Letters. chase, while the receipt for the sum given See that letter wherein he says, "The for them is attached to the commission members of this body have no other busi- itself. Would not our Asiatic be surness than incessantly to chatter; pane-prised, also, to see comedians salaried by gyric comes and takes its place as it were sovereigns, and excommunicated by spontaneously in their eternal gabble," priests? He would enquire why a ple&c. After having thus treated this so- beian lieutenant-general, who had won ciety, they praise him, on his introduction, battles, should be subject to the taille, for his skill in drawing likenesses. like a peasant; and a sheriff (echevin) should be considered, at least in reference to this point, as noble as a Montmorency? Why, while regular dramas are forbidden to be performed during a week sacred to edification, merry-andrews are permitted to offend even the least delicate ears with their ribaldry? He would almost every where see our usages in opposition to our laws; and were we to travel to Asia, we { should discover the existence of exactly similar contradictions.

Men are everywhere inconsistent alike. They have made laws by piece-meal, as breaches are repaired in walls. Here the eldest sons take everything they are able from the younger ones; there all share equally. Sometimes the church

Were I disposed to continue the research into the contrarieties to be found in the empire of letters, I might give the history of every man of learning or wit; just in the same manner as, if I were inclined to detail the contradictions existing in society, it would be necessary to write the history of mankind. An Asiatic, who should travel to Europe, might well consider us as Pagans: our week-days bear the names of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus; and the nuptials of Cupid and Psyche are painted in the pope's palace: but, particularly, were this Asiatic to attend at our opera, he would not hesitate in concluding it to be a festival in honour of the Pagan deities. { If he endeavoured to gain more precise has ordered duels, sometimes it has anainformation respecting our manners, he thematised them. The partisans and the would experience still greater astonish-opponents of Aristotle have been both ment; he would see, in Spain, that a excommunicated in their turn; as have, severe law forbids any foreigner from hav- also, the wearers or long hair and short ing the slightest share, however indirect, hair. There has been but one perfect in the commerce of America; and that, law in the world, and that was designed notwithstanding, foreigners-through the to regulate a species of folly,-that is to medium of Spanish factors-carry on a { say, play. The laws of play are the only commerce with it to the extent of fifteen ones which admit of no exception, relaxmillions a-year. Thus Spain can be en-ation, change or tyranny. A man who riched only by the violation of a law has been a lacquey, if he plays at lansalways subsisting and always evaded. quénet with kings, is paid with perfect He would see that, in another country, readiness when he wins. In other cases the government establish and encourage the law is everywhere a sword, with which a company for trading to the Indies; the strongest party cuts in pieces the while the divines of that country have de- weakest. clared the receiving a dividend upon the In the mean time, the world goes on as shares offensive in the sight of God. He if everything was wisely arranged; irwould see, that the offices of a judge, a regularity is part of our nature. Our socommander, a privy counsellor, are pur-cial world is like the natural globe, rude chased; he would be unable to compre- and unshapely, but possessing a princihend why it is stated in the patents ap- ple of preservation : it would be folly to

wish that mountains, seas, and rivers were traced in regular and finished forms; it would be a still greater folly to expect from man the perfection of wisdom; it would be as weak as to wish to attach wings to dogs or horns to eagles.

We have just been instancing a variety of contradictions in our usages, our manners, and our laws. but we have not yet said enough.

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which the whole imperial court consider in such cases to be supreme.

It is certainly not Roman, since the emperor has not any residence at Rome.

In England, people wait upon the king kneeling. The constant maxim is, "The king can do no wrong;" his mi

Examples taken from History, from sacred Scripture, from numerous Authors,nisters only can deserve blame; he is as &c. infallible in his actions as the pope in his judgments. Such is the fundamental, the" salique” law of England. Yet the parliament sat in judgment on its king, Edward II., who had been vanquished and taken prisoner by his wife: he was declared to have done all possible "wrong," and deprived of all his rights to the crown. Sir William Tressel went to him in prison, and made him the fol{lowing complimental address:

Everything, particularly in Europe, has been made in the same manner as harlequin's habit. His master, when he wanted to have a dress made for him, had not a piece of cloth, and therefore took old cuttings of all sorts of colours. Harlequin was laughed at, but then he was clothed.

The Germans are a brave nation, whom neither the Germanicuses nor the Trajans were ever able completely to subjugate. All the German nations that dwelt beyond the Elbe were invincible, although badly armed; and from these gloomy climes issued forth, in part, the avengers of the world. Germany, far from constituting the Roman empire, has been instrumental in destroying it.

This empire had found a refuge at Constantinople, when a German, (an Austracian) went from Aix la Chapelle to Rome, to strip the Greek Cæsars of the remainder of their possessions in Italy. He assumed the name of Caesar, Imperator; but neither he nor his successors even ventured to reside at Rome. That capital could not either boast or regret that, from the time of Augustulus, the final excrement of the genuine Roman empire, a single Cæsar had lived and been buried within its walls.

It is difficult to suppose the empire can be "holy," as it professes three different religions, of which two are declared impious, abominable, damnable, and damned, by the court of Rome,

"I, William Tressel, as proxy for the parliament and the whole English nation, revoke the homage formerly paid you; I put you to defiance, and deprive you of royal power, and from this time forth we will hold no allegiance to you.'

The parliament tried and sentenced King Richard II., grandson of the great Edward III. Thirty-one articles of accusation were brought against him, among which, two are not a little singular :-that he had borrowed money and not repaid it; and that he had asserted, before witnesses, that he was master of the lives and properties of his subjects.

The parliament deposed Henry VI., who, undoubtedly, was exceedingly wrong, but in a somewhat different sense : he was imbecile.

The parliament declared Edward IV. a traitor, and confiscated his goods; and afterwards, on his being successful, restored him.

As for Richard III. he undoubtedly committed more wrong than all the others he was a Nero, but a bold one: and the parliament did not declare his wrongs till after he was slain.

The house of commons imputed to Charles I. more wrongs than he was justly chargeable with, and brought him

to the scaffold.

Parliament voted that

James II. had committed very gross flagrant wrongs, and particularly that of withdrawing himself from the kingdom. It declared the throne vacant; that is, it deposed him.

Of Contradictions in Things and Men.

If any literary society is inclined to undertake a history of contradictions, I will subscribe for twenty folio volumes.

The world displays nothing but contraIn the present day, Junius writes to dictions. What would be necessary to the King of England, that he is faulty input an end to them?-To assemble the being good and wise. If these are not contradictions, I know not where to find

them.

states-general of the human race. But, according to the nature and constitution of mankind, it would be a new contradiction were they to agree. Bring together all the rabbis in the world, and there would not be two different minds among them.

Of Contradictions in certain Rites. Next to those great political contradictions, which are subdivided into innumerable little ones, nothing more forcibly moveable beings in the world-geomeI know only two descriptions of imattracts our notice than the contradiction tricians and brute animals; they are apparent in reference to some of our rites.guided by two invariable rules-demonWe hate Judaism. No longer than fifteenstration and instinct: some disputes, inyears ago, Jews were still burnt at the deed, have occurred between geometristake. We consider them as murderers cians, but brutes have never varied. of our God, and yet we assemble every Sunday to chant Jewish psalms and canticles: it is only owing to our ignorance of the language, that we do not recite them in Hebrew. But the fifteen first bishops, the priests, deacons, and congregation of Jerusalem, which was the cradle of the Christian religion, always recited the Jewish psalms in the Jewish idiom of the Syriac language; and, till the time of the Caliph Omar, almost all the Christians, from Tyre to Aleppo, prayed in that Jewish idiom. At present, any one reciting the psalms as they were originally composed, or chanting them in the Jewish language, would be suspected of being a circumcised Jew, and might be burnt as one; at least, not more than twenty years since, that would have been his fate, although Jesus Christ was circumcised, as were also his apostles and disciples. I set aside the mysterious doctrines of our holy religion-everything that is an object of faith-everything that we ought to approach only with awe and submission. I look only at externals; I refer simply to observances: I ask if anything was ever more contradictory?

Of the Contradictions in Men and
Things.

The contrasts, the lights and shades, in which men are represented in history, are not contradictions; they are faithful { portraits of human nature.

Every day, both censure and admiration are applied to Alexander, the murderer of Clitus, but the avenger of Greece; the conqueror of Persia, and the founder of Alexandria:

To Cæsar, the debauchee, who robbed the public treasury of Rome to enslave his country; but whose clemency was equal to his valour, and whose genius was equal to his courage:

To Mahomet, the impostor and robber; but the only legislator of religion that ever displayed courage, or founded a great empire:

To the enthusiast Cromwell, at once knave and fanatic, the murderer of his king by form of law; but equally profound as a politician, and valiant as a warrior.

A thousand contrasts frequently present themselves at once to the mind, and these

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