} //t )f ,/// ,//,//,. /- f/y o/tev //of/}/,,/,,/. ///./ VY/./ /// .if.,/ ,/,//,, >//,/ f //,;;, //,., / F , TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. * . ._ 'SU- ft < THE THIRD EDITION,^--' 1 1*~ /-ru*-** I will dwell in folitude amidft the ruins of cities: I will enquire, of the monuments of antiquity, what was the wifdom of former ages : I will a(k the afhes of legiflators, what caufes have erefted and overthrown empires ; what are the principles of national profperity and misfortune : what the maxims upon which the peace of fociety and the happinefs f .man ought to be founded ? Ch. iv. p. 24. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. M.DCC.XCVI. StacK Annex i! PREFACE. -/ H E plan of this publication was formed nearly ten years ago ; and allujions to it may be feen in the Preface to 'Travels in Syria and Egypt, as well as at the end of that work, publifoed in 1787. The performance was in fome forwardnefs when the events of 1788 in France interrupted it. Perfuaded that a de~ velopement of the theory of political truth could not fufficiently acquit a citizen of his debt to fociety, the author wiJJjcd to add practice; and that particularly at a time when a Jingle arm was of confequence in the defence of the general caufe. The fame dejire of public benefit which induced him tofufpend his work t has fine e en- gaged him to refume it; and though it may not poffefs the fame merit as if it had appeared a 3 v i PREFACE. under the circumjhinces that gave rife to it, yet he : that at a time when new paf- Jions arc burning forth, paffions that mu/l com- municate their activity to the religious opinions of men,' it is cf importance to difeminate fuch moral truth a: are calculated to operate as a fort of curb end rejlraint. It is with this view be has endeavoured to give to thefe truths, hitherto treated as abjhacJ, a form likely to gain them a reception . It was found impojfibk .' tofiock the violent prejudices of fome reader s\ ' the work, fo far from being the fruit of a diferderly and perturbed fpirit, has been dictated by a fine ere love of order and humanity. After reading this performance it will be ajked, boiv it was poflible, in 1784, to have had an idea of what did not take place till the year 1790? Thefolution is Jimple : in the original plan, the legijlator was ajiftitious and hypo- thetical being : in tlx prefent, the author has. fubjlituted an exifting legiflator ; and the re- ality has only made the fubjett additionally interejling. IN VO INVOCATION. OOLITARY Ruins, facred Tombs, ,ye mouldering and filent Walls, all hail ! To you I addrefs my INVOCA- TION. While the vulgar flirink from your afpe6t with fecret terror, my heart finds in the contemplation a thoufand delicious fentiments, athou^ fand admirable recollections. Preg- nant, I may truly call you, with ufeful leffons, with pathetic and irrefiftible a 4 advice viii INVOCATION. advice to the man who knows how to confuit you. A while ago the whole world bowed the neck in filence before the tyrants that op- prefled it ; and yet in that hopelefs moment you already proclaimed the truths that tyrants hold in abhor- rence : mixing the duft of the proud- eft kings with that of the meaneft flaves, you called upon us to contem- plate this example of EQUALITY. From your caverns, whither the mufmg and anxious love of LIBERTY led me, I faw efcape its venerable fhade, and with unexpected felicity dired its Highland marflial my fteps the way to renovated France. Tombs, INVOCATION. ix Tombs, what virtues and potency- do you exhibit ! Tyrants tremble at your afpecl ; you poifon with fecret alarm their impious pleafures ; they turn from you with impatience, and, coward like, endeavour to forget you amid the fumptuoufnefs of their pa- laces. It is you that bring home the rod of juftice to the powerful op- preffor ; it is you that wreft the ill- gotten gold from the mercilefs ex- tortioner, and avenge thecaufe of him that has none to help ; you com- penfate the narrow enjoyments of the poor, by dafhing with care the goblet of the rich ; to the unfortu- nate you offer a laft and inviolable afylum ; x INVOCATION. afylum ; in fine, you give to the foul that juft equilibrium of ftrength and tendernefs, which conftitutes the wifdom of the fage and the fcience of life. The wife man looks towards you, and fcorns to amafs vain gran- deur and ufelefs riches with which s he mud foon part : you check his lawlefs flights, without difarming his adventure and his courage ; he feels the neceflity of pafiing through the period affigned him, and he gives employment to his hours, and makes ufe of the goods that fortune has af- i figned him. Thus do you rein in the wild failles of cupidity, calm the fever of tumultuous enjoyment, free the INVOCATION. xi the mind from the anarchy of the paffions, and raife it above thofe little interefts which torment the mafs of mankind. We afcend the eminence you afford us, and, viewing with one glance the limits of nations and the fuccefiion of ages, are incapable of any affections but fuch as are fublime, and entertain no ideas but thofe of virtue and glory. Alas ! when this uncertain dream of life fhall be over, what then will avail all our bufy paf- {ions, unlefs they have left behind them the footfteps of utility ! Ye Ruins, I will return once more to attend your lefibns ! I will refume my place in the midft of your wide fpreading xii INVOCATION. fpreading folitude. I will leave the tragic fcene of the paffions, will love my fpecies rather from recollection than adtual furvey, will employ my activity in promoting their happinefs, and compoie my own happinefs of the pleafing remembrance that I have haftened theirs. CONTENTS. C ONTENTS. CHAP. I. JL H E Tour pagt I CHAP. II. Meditations - ... 6 CHAP. III. The Apparition - - -14 CHAP. IV. The Hemifphere - 23 CHAP. V. Condition of man in the Univerfe - "33 CHAP. VI. Original flate of Man s 37 CHAP. VII. Principles of Society - - - 40 CHAP. VIII. Source of the evils of Society - - - 4.4 CHAP. ^ CONTENTS. CHAP. IX. Origin of Government and Laws - - page 48 CHAP. X. G eneral caufcs of the profperi ty of Nations 53 CHAP. XL General caufes of the profperity and ruin of ancient States - - . 61 CHAP. XII. Leflbns taught by ancient, repeated in modern Times 77 CHAP. XIII. \ViIJ the Human Race be ever in a better condition than at prefcnt ? - - 5, 103 CHAP. XIV. Grand obftacle to Improvement - - 117 CHAP. XV. New Age - 1 25 CHAP. XVI. . :c and legiflative People - - _ 132 CHAP. XVJI. ortal bafis of all Right and all Law - - 136 CHAP. XVIII. -Conftefhation and confpiracy of Tyrant^ - - 141 CHAP. XIX. ticncul aiTcmbly of the pcuple- - _ 146 CHAP. CON T.E NTS. xv CHAP. XX. Investigation of Truth - page 154 CHAP. XXI. Problem of religious contradictions - - 172 CHAP. XXII. Origin and genealogy of religious ideas - 218 SECT. I. Origin of the idea of God : worftiip of the elements and the phyfical powers of Nature 226 SECT. II. Second fyftem : Worfljip of the ftars, or Sabeifm 231 SECT. III. "fljiird fyftem : Worfhip of fyrabols, or Idolatry ^37 SECT. IV. Fourth Tyftem : Worfhip of two principles, or Dualifm "- - 253 SECT. V. Myftical or moral worfhip, or the fyftem of a future Hate - - 259 SECT. VI. Sixth fyftem: the animated World, or worfhip of the univerfe under different emblems - \ - 266 SECT. VII. Seventh fyftem : Worfhip of the SOUL of the WORLD, that is, the element of fire, the vital principle of the univerfe - 271 SECT. CONTENTS. SECT. VJIF. Eighth fyftem : The world a machine : vvorfhip of the Demi-ourgos, or fupreme artificer page 274 SECT. IX. Religion of Mofes, or worfhip of the foul of the world (You-piter) - 2 79 SECT. X. Religion of Zoroafter - - - - 2 8i SECT. XI. Budoifrr, or religion of the Samaneans - 282 SECT.' XII. Braminifm, or the Indian fyftem - ibid. SECT. Xin. Chriftianity, or the allegorical worfhip of the fun under the cabaliftical names of CHRIS-EN *>r CHRIST, and Yes -us or JESUS - - 283 CHAP. XXIII. End of all Religions the fame 297 CHAP. XXIV. Solution of the problem of contradictions - 315 THE THE A SURVEY OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. CHAP. I. THE TOU. IN the eleventh year of the reign of Abd-ul Hamid, fen of Ahmed, emperor of the Turks; when the Nogaian Tartars were driven from the Crimea, and a MufTulman prince, of the blood of Gengis Khan, became the vaiTal and guard of 'a woman, aChriftian,and a queen*; I journeyed in the empire of the Ottomans, and traverfed the provinces which formerly were kingdoms of Egypt and of Syria. * That is to fay, in the year 1784. The reader is re- quefted not to lofe fight of this epocha. See the notes at the end of the volume. B Directing A SURVEY OF THE Directing all my attention to what con- cerns the happinefs of mankind in a itate of . I entered cities, and ftudied the man- ners of their inhabitants; I gained admiflion into palaces, and obferved the conduit of thole who govern; I wandered over the country, and examined the condition of the pea Ian ts: and no where perceiving aught but robbery and devaflation, tyranny and wretchednels, my heart was opprefTed with forrow and indignation. Every day I found in my route fields aban- doned by the plough, villages deferted, and cities in ruins. Frequently I met with an- tiquemonuments ; wrecks of temples, pa- laces, and fortifications; pillars, aqueducts, iepulchres. By thefe objects my thoughts were directed to paft ages, and my mind ab- ibrbed in Icrious and profound meditation. Arrived at Hamfa on the borders of the Orontes, and being at no great diftance from the city of Palmyra, fituated in the defert, I refolved to examine for myfelf its boalted monuments. After three days travel in bar- . ivn folitude, and having palled through a y filled with grottoes and tombs, my eves REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 3 eyes were fuddenly (truck, on leaving this valley and entering a plain, with a moft afto- mfhmg fcene of ruins. It confined of a countlefs multitude of fuperb columns ftand- ing erect, and which, like the avenues of our parks, extended in regular files farther than the eye could reach. Among thefe columns magnificent edifices were obfervable, forne entire, others in a irate half demolimed. The ground was covered on all fides with frag- ments of fimilar buildings, cornices, capitals, {hafts, entablatures, and pilafters, all con- tracted of a marble of admirable whitenefs and exquifite workmanship. After a walk of three quarters of an hour along thefe ruins, I entered the inclofure of a vaft edifice which had formerly been a temple dedicated to the fun; and I accepted the hofpitality of feme poor Arabian peafants, who had eftablimed their huts in the very area of the temple. Here I refolved for forne days to remain, that I might contemplate, at leifure, the beauty of fo many ftupendous works. Every day I vifited fome of the monu- ments which covered the plain ; and one evening that, my mind loft in reflection, I had B 2 advanced j A SURVEY OF THE advanced as far as the Valley of Sepulchre S ;\ afcended the heights that bound it, and from which the eye commands at once the whole of the ruins and the immenfity of the defert. . . . The fun had juft funk below the horizon; a ftreak of red ftill marked the place of his defcent, behind the diftant mountains of Sy- ria : the full moon, appearing with bright- nefs upon a ground of deep blue, rofe in the eaft from the fmooth bank of the Euphrates: the fky was unclouded; the air calm and icrene ; the expiring light of day ferved to foften the horror of approaching darknefs ; the refrefhing breeze of the night gratefully relieved the intolerable fultrinefs of the day that had preceded it ; the fhepherds had led the camels to their ftalls; the grey firmament bounded the filent landfcape ; through the whole defert every thing was marked with flillnefs, undiflurbed but by the mournful cries of the bird of night, and of fome cha- cah *. . . . The duik increafed, and already I could diftinguifh nothing more than .the * An animal confiderably like the fox, but lefe cunning, and of a frightful afpeft. It lives upon dead bodies, aird rclcs and ruins are the places of its habitation. pale REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. J pale phantoms of walls and columns. ... The folitarinefs of the fituation, the ferenity of evening, and the grandeur of thefcene, im- preffcd my mind with religious thoughtful- nefs. The view of an illuilrious city de- ferted, the remembrance of paft times, their comparifon with the prefent ftate of things, all combined to raife my heart to a ftrain of fublime meditations. I fat down on the bafe of a column ; and there, my elbow on my knee, and my head refting on my hand, fometimes turning my eyes towards the de- fert, and fometimes fixing them on the ruins, I fell into a profound reverie. B 3 CHAP. 6 A SURVEV OF THE CHAP. II, MEDITATIONS. HERE, faid I to myfelf, an opulent city once flour imed ; this was the feat of a power- ful empire. Yes, thefe places, now fo defert, a living multitude formerly animated, and an active crowd circulated in the ftreets which at prefent are fo folitary. Within thofe walls, where a mournful filence reigns, the noife of the arts and the fhouts of joy and feftivity continually refounded. Thefe heaps of marble formed regular palaces, thefe proftrate pillars were the majeftic orna- ments of temples, thefe ruinous galleries pre- fent the outlines of public places. There a numerous people aflembled for the refpecl- ablc duties of its worfhip, or the anxious cares of its fubfiftence : there induftry, the fruitful inventor of fources of enjoyment, collected together the riches of every climate, and the purple of Tyre was exchanged for tiie precious thread of Serica j the foft tiffues O.f REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. J of Caffimere for the fumptuous carpets of Lydia ; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Arabia ; the gold of Ophir for the pewter of Thule (#). . . . And now a mournful fkeleton is all that fubfifts of this opulent city, and nothing re- mains of its powerful government but a vain and obfcure remembrance ! To the tumul- tuous throng which crowded under thefe porticos, the folitude of death has fucceeded. The filence of the tomb is fubftituted for the hum of public, places. The opulence of a commercial city is changed into hideous poverty. The palaces of kings are become the receptacle of deer, and unclean reptiles inhabit the fancluary of the Gods. . . .What glory is here eclipfed, and how many labours are annihilated ! . . . Thus peridi the works o/ men, and thus do nations and empires vanifli away ! The hiftory of paft times ftrongly pre- fented itfelf to my thoughts. I called to mind thole diftant ages when twenty cele- brated nations inhabited the country around me. I pl&ured to myfelf the Ailyrian on the banks of the Tygris, the Chaldean on B 4 thofe S A SURVEV OF THE thofc of the Euphrates, the Perfmn \vhofe power extended from the Indus to the Me- diterranean. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damafcus and Idumea j of Jerufalem and Samaria ; and the warlike ftates of the Phi- lillines ; and the commercial republics of 'Phenicia. This Syria, faid I to mylelf, now almoft depopulated, then contained a hun- dred flourifhing cities, and abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets (b). Every where one might have feen cultivated fields, frequented roads, and crowded habitations. Ah I what are become of thofe ages of abundance and of life ? What are become of fo many productions of the hand of man ? "Where are thofe ramparts of Nineveh, thofe walls of Babylon, thofe palaces of Perfepoli?, thofe temples of Ealbec and of Jerufalem ? Where are thofe fleets of Tyre, thofe dock- yards of Arad, thcfe work-fnops of Sidon, and that multitude of mariners, pilots, mer- chants, and foldiers ? Where thofe hufband- men, thofe harvefts, that picture of animated nature of which the earth feemed proud ? Alas ! I have traverfed this defolate country, I have vifited the places that were the theatre REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 9 theatre of fo much fplendour, and I have nothing beheld but folltude and defertion ! I looked for thofe ancient people and their works, and all I could find was a faint trace, like to what the foot of a paffenger leaves on the fand. The temples are thrown down, the palaces demoliined, the ports filled up, the towns deitroyed, and the earth, ftript of inhabitants, feems a dreary burying-place. . . . , Great God ! from whence proceed fuch melancholy revolutions ? For what caufe is the fortune of thefe countries fo ftrikingly changed ? Why are fo many cities deflroy- ed ? Why is not that ancient population re-produced and perpetuated ? Thus abforbed in contemplation, new ideas continually prefented themfelvoe to my thoughts. Every thing, continued I, mif- leads my judgment, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty. 'When thefe coun- tries enjoyed what confHtutes the glory and felicity of mankind, they were an unbelieving people who inhabited them: it was the Phe- nician, offering human facrifices to Moloch, who brought together within his walls the riches of every climate; it was the Chaldean, proftrating 10 A SURVEY OF THE himfelf before a ferpent *, who iubjugatcd opulent cities, and laid watte the j of kings and the temples of the Gods ; it was the Perfian, the worfliipper of fire, who collected the tributes of a hundred na- tions; they were the inhabitants of this very city, adorers of the fun and ilars, who creeled fo many monuments of affluence and luxury. Numerous flocks, fertile fields, abundant harvefts, every thing that fliould have been the reward of piety, was in the hands of 'idola- ters: and now that a fatifving and holy peo- ple occupy the countries, nothing is to be feen but folitude and fterility. The earth under thefe b/ejl'dhmds produces only briars and wormwood. Man lows in anguifh, and reaps vexation and cares ; war, famine, and peftilcnce, ailault him in turn. Yet, are net ie the children of the prophets ? This Chriftian, thisMuflulman, this Jew, are they not the elect of Heaven, loaded with gifts and miracles r Why then is this race, belov- ed of the Divinity, deprived of the favours which were formerly ihowered upon the The dragon Bel, Heathen ? REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. II Heathen ? Why do thefe lands, confecrated by the blood of the martyrs, no longer boaft their former temperature and fertility ? Why have thofe favours been banifhed as it were, and transferred for fo many ages to other nations and different climes ? And here, purfuing the courfe of vicifii- tudes which have in turn tranfmitted the fceptre of the world to people fo various in manners and religion, from thofe of ancient Alia down to the more recent ones of Europe, my native country, defignat&l by this name, was awakened in my mind, and turning my eyes towards it, all my thoughts fixed upon the fituation in which I had left it *. I recollected its fields fo richly culti- vated, its roads fo admirably executed, its towns inhabited by an immenfe multitude, its im'ps fcattered over every ocean, its ports filled with the produce of either India; and comparing the activity of its commerce, the extent of its navigation, the magnificence of its buildings, the arts and induflry of its in- habitants, with all that Egypt and Syria In the yea: 1 782, at the clofe of the American war. could j2 A SURVEY OF THE could formerly boafl of a fimilar nature, I nlcalcii mylelf with the idea thatj.had found in modern Europe the pail fplendour of Afia : But the charm of my reverie was prefently dillblved by the latl flep in the companion. Reflecting that if the places before me had once exhibited this animated picture : who, laid I to myfelf, can allure me that their preient defolation will, not one day be the lot of our own country ? who knows but that hereafter ibme traveller like myfelf will lit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder fea, where" now, in the tumult of enjoyment, the heart and the eyes are too flow to take in the multitude of fenfations j who knows but he will fit down folitary amid filent ruins, and weep a people inurned, and their greatnefs changed into an empty name ? The idea brought tears into my eyes -, and covering my head with the flap of my gar- ment, I gave myfelf up to the moil gloomy meditations on human affairs. Unhappy man ! faid I in my grief, a blind fatality plays with thy defliny (c) ! a fatal neceffity rules by chance the lot of mortals ! But, no: they are REVOLUTIONS O? EMPIRES. jj are the decrees of celeftial juflice that are accompliihing ! A myfterious God exercifes his incompreheniible judgments ! he has doubtlefs pronounced a fecret malediction againfl the earth ; he has ftruck with a curfe the prefent race of men, in revenge of paft generations. Oh ! who fhall dare to fathom the depths of the Divinity? And I remained immoveable, plunged in profound melancholy,. - CHAP. A SURVEY OF THE CHAP. III. THE APPARITION. IN the mean time a noife ftruck my ear, like to the agitation of a flowing robe, and the flow fteps of a foot, upon the dry and ru filing grafs. Alarmed, I drew my mantle from my head ; and calling round me a timid glance, fuddenly, by the obfcure light of the moon, through the pillars and ruins of a temple, I thought I law, at my left, a pale apparition, enveloped in an immenfe dra- pery, -fimilar to what fpecbres are painted when ifluing out of the tombs. I ihuddered ; and while in this troubled (late, I. was hefi- tating whether to fly, or afcertain the reality of the vifion, a hollow voice, in grave and folemn accents, thus addrefied me : How long will man importune the heavens with unjuft complaint? How long, with vain clamours, will he accufe Fate as the author of his calamities ? Will he then never open his eyes REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 1$ eyes to the light, and his heart to the infinu- ations of truth and reafon ! This truth every where prefents itfelf in radiant brightnefs ; and he does not fee it ! The voice of reafon \ ftrikes his ear ; and he does not hear it ! Un- jufl man ! if you can for a moment, fufpend the delufion which fafcinates your fenfes ; if your heart be capable of comprehending the language of argumentation, interrogate thefe ruins ! read the leffons which they prefent to you '.....And you, iacred temples! venerable tombs ! walls once glorious ! the witneffes of twenty different ages, appear in the caufe of nature herfelf ! come to the tribunal of found underftanding, to bear testimony againft an unjuil accufation, to confound the declama- tions of falfe wifdom or hypocritical piety, and avenge the heavens and the earth of man who calumniates them ! What is this blind fatality, that, without order or laws, fports with the lot of mortals ? What this unjuft neceffity, which confounds the ilfue of actions, be they thofe of prudence or thofe of folly ? In what confifts the male- dictions of Heaven denounced againft theft; countries ? Where is the divine curie that perpetuates j6 A SURVEY OF THE pctuates this fcenc of defolation ? Monu- nts of paft ages ! fay, have the heavens changed their laws, and the earth its courfe? Has the fun extinguished his fires in the region of fpace ? Do the feas no longer fend forth clouds? Are the rain and the dew fixed in the air ? Do the mountains retain their fprings ? Are the Irreams dried up ? and do the plants no more bear fruit and feed ? An- fwer, race of falfehood and iniquity, has God troubled the primitive and invariable order which he himfelf affigned to nature ? Has heaven denied to the earth, and the earth to its inhabitants, the bleffings that were for- merly difpenfed ? If the creation has re- mained the fame, if its fources and its inftru- ments are exactly what they once were, wherefore mould not the prefent race have every thing within their reach that their anceftors enjoyed ? Falfely do you accufe Fate and the Divinity: injurioufly do you re- fer to God the caufe of your evils. Tell me, perverfe and hypocritical race, if thefe places are defolate, if powerful cities are reduced to folitude, is it he that has occafioned the rum ? Is it his hand that ha.s thrown down thefe REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. \J thefe walls, Tapped thefe temples, mutilated thefe pillars ? or is it the hand of man ? Is it the arm of God that has introduced the fword into the city andfet fire to the country, murdered the people, burned the harvefts, rooted up the trees, and ravaged thepaftures? or is it the arm of man ? And when, after this devastation, famine has ilarted up, is it the vengeance of God that has fent it, or the mad fury of mortals ? When, during the famine, the people are fed with unwholefome provifion, and peftilence enfues, is it inflicted by the anger of Heaven, or brought about by human imprudence ! When war, famine, and peflilence united have fwept away the inha- bitants, and the land is become a defert, is it God who has depopulated it? Is it his rapa- city that plunders the labourer, ravages the productive fields, and lays wafte the coun- try | or the rapacity of thofe wh^ govern ? Is it his pride that creates murderous wars, or the pride of kings and theu; minifters ? Is it the venality of his decifions that overthrows the fortune of families, or the venality of the organs of the laws ? Are they his paffions that, under a thoufand forms, torment in- C dividuals jg A SURVEY OF THE dividuals and nations; or the paflions of human beings ? -And if in the anguilh of their misfortunes they perceive not the re- medies, is it the ignorance of God that is in fault, or their own ignorance ? Ceafe, then, to accufe the decrees of Fate or the judg- ments of Heaven ! If God is good, will he be the author of your punimment? If he is juft, will he be the accomplice of your crimes? No, no; the caprice of which man complains, is not the caprice of deftiny : the darknefs that miileads his reafon, is not the darknefs of God; the fource of his calamities^ is not in the diftant heavens, but near to him upon the earth; it is not concealed in the bofom of the divinity;, it refides in hitn- felf, man bears it in his heart. You murmur, and fay: Why have an un- believing people enjoyed the bleffings of hea- ven and of the earth ? Why is a holy and chofen race kfs fortunate than impious generations ? Deluded man! where is the contradi&ion at which you take offence ? Where the incon- fiftency in which you fuppofe the juflice of God to he involved? Take the balance of bleffings and calamities, of caufes and effects,, and REVOLUTIONS OF ExMPIRES. 19 aiid tell me When thofe infidels obferved the laws of the earth and the heavens, when they regulated their intelligent labours by the order of the feafons and the courfe of the flars, ought God to have troubled the equili- brium of the world to defeat their prudence ? When they cultivated with care and toil the face of the country around you, Ought he to have turned afide the rain, to have withheld the fertilizing dews, and caufed thorns to fpring up ? When, to render this parched and barren foil productive, their induftry conftructed aqueducts, dug canals, and brought the diftant waters acrofs the deferts, ought he to have blighted the harvefts which art had created ; to have defolated a country that had been peopled in peace; to have de^ molimed the towns which labour had caufed to flourish ; in fine, to have deranged and confounded the order eftablifhed by the wifdom of man ? And what is this infidelity which founded empires by prudence, de- fended them by courage, and ftrengthened them by juftice ; which raifed magnificent cities, formed vaft ports, drained peftikntial marihes, covered the fea with /hips, the earth C 2 with - 20 A SURVEY OP THE \vith inhabitants, and, like the creative fpirit, diffufed life and motion through the world* If fuch is impiety, what is true belief? Does holinefs confift in definition ? Is then the God that peoples the air with birds, the earth with animals, and the waters with rep- tiles ; the God that animates univerfal na- ture, a God that delights in ruins and fepul- chres ? Does he afk devaftation for homage, and conflagration for facrifice ? Would he have groans for hymns, murderers to worship him, and a defert and ravaged world for his temple r Yet fuch, holy in&faithjul genera- tion, are your works ! Thefe are the fruits of your piety ! You have mafTacred the peo- ple, reduced cities to afkes, deftroyed all traces of cultivation, made the earth a foli- tude; and you demand the reward of your la- bours ! Miracles are not too much for your advantage ! For you the peafants that you have murdered mould be revived ; the walls you have thrown down mould rife again; the harvefts you have ravaged mould flourifli; the conduits that you have broken down fhould be renewed ; the laws of heaven and earth, thofe laws which God has eftablifhed for the difplay REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 21 difplay of his greatnefs and his magnificence, thofe laws anterior to all revelations and to all prophets, thofe laws which paffion cannot alter, and ignorance cannot pervert, mould be fuperfeded. Paffion knows them not ; ignorance, which obferves no caufe and pre- dicts no effect, has faid in the foolimnefs of her heart : " Every thing comes from " chance -, a blind fatality diftributes good " and evil upon the earth ; fuccefs is not to " the prudent, nor felicity to the wife/' Or elfe, affuming the language of hypoerify, me has faid : " Every thing comes from " God ; and it is his fovereign pleafure. to " deceive the fage, and to confound the " judicious," .And fhe has contemplated the imaginary fcene with complacency. " Good !" fhe has exclaimed. " I then am " as well endowed as the fcience that de- *' fpifes me ! The cold prudence which " evermore haunts and torments me, I will " render ufelefs by a lucky intervention of " Providence." Cupidity has joined the chorus. " I too will opprefs the weak ; I *' will wring from him the fruits of his " labour : for fuch is the decree of Heaven, C 3 " fuch 22 A SURVEY OF THE " fuch the omnipotent will of fate." For myfelf, I fvvear by all laws human and divine, by the laws of die human heart, that the hypocrite and the deceiver mall be .them- felves deceived; the unjuft man fhall perifh in his rapacity, and the tyrant in his ufurpa- tion : the fun fhall change its courfe, before folly mail prevail over wifdom and fcience, before ftupidity fhall furpafs prudence in the delicate art of procuring to man his true enjoyments, and of building his happinefs upon a folid foundation. CHAP, DEVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. CHAP. IV. THE HEMISPHERE. 1 H u s fpoke the Apparition. Aftonimed at his difcourfe, and my heart agitated by a diverfity of reflections, I was for fome time filent. At length, afTuming the courage to fpeak, I thus addrefled him : O Genius of tombs and ruins ! yoiir fudden appearance and your fe verity have thrown my fenfes into diforder, but the juilnefs of your reafoning reftores confidence to my foul. Pardon my ignorance. Alas ! if man is blind, can that which conftitutes his torment be alfo his crime? I was unable to diftinguifh the voice of reafon > but the moment it was known to me, I gave it welcome. Oh ! if you can read my heart, you know how defirous it is of truth, and with what ardour it feeks it j you know that it is in this purfuit I am now found jn thefe remote places. Alas ! I have wan- dered over the earth, I have vifited cities and C 4 countries ; 24 . A SURVEY OF THE countries; and perceiving every where mi- .md defolation, the fentiment of the evils by which my fellow creatures are tormented has deeply afflicted my 'mind ! I have laid to myfclf with a figh: Is man, then, created to be the viclim of pain and anguifh ? And I hive meditated upon human evils, that I might find out their remedy. I have faid, I will feparate mylelf from corrupt focieties ; I will remove far from palaces where the foul is depraved by fatiety, and from cottages where it is humbled by mifery. I will dwell in folitude amidft the ruins of cities : I will enquire of the monuments of antiquity what was the wifdom of former ages : in the very bofom of fepulchres -I will invoke the fpi- rit that formerly in Afia gave fplendour to ftates and glory to their people: J will en- quire of the afhes of legiflators what cauies have erected and overthrown empires ; what are the principles of national profperity and misfortune ; what the maxims upon which the peace of fociety and the happincfs of man ought to be founded. I flopped ; and calling down my eyes, 1 waited the reply of the Genius. . Peace and happinefs, REVOLUTIONS OP EMPIRES. 25 happinefs, laid he, defcend upon him who pradtifes juftice ! Young man, fince your heart fearches after truth.with fincerity; finee you candiftinguim her form through the mifl of prejudices which blind the eyes, your en- quiry mail not be vain : I will difplay to your view this truth of which you are in purfuit; I will mow to your reafon the knowledge which you denre ; I will reveal to you the wifdom of the tombs, and the fcience of ages Then approaching me, and placing his hand upon my head, Rife, mortal, faid he, and difengage yourfelf from that corporeal frame with which you are incurnbered In- fantry, penetrated as with a celeftial flame, the ties that fix us to the earth feemed to be loofened ; and lifted by the wing of the Genius, I felt myfelf like a light vapour con- veyed in the uppermoit region. There, from above the atmofphere, looking down towards the earth I had quitted, I beheld a fcene entirely new. Under my feet, float- ing in empty fpace, a globe fimilar to that of the rnoon, but fmaller, and lefs luminous, prefented to me one of its faces * ; and this * See Plate I. reprefenting half the terreftrial globe. face f6 A StTRVFY OF THE face had the appearance of a difk variegat- ed with fpots, fome of them white and ne- bulous, others brown, green and grey ; and while I exerted my powers in diicerning and difcriminating thefe fpots Dilciple of truth, laid the Genius to me, have you any recollection of this fpeftacle ? O Genius, I replied, if I did not perceive the moon in a : Irent part of the heavens, I mould flip- j-ofe the orb below me to be that planet ; for its aopearance refembles perfectly the mcon viewed through a telefcope at the time of an cclipie : one might be apt to think the va- fiegated fpots to be feas and continents, Yes, Lid he to me, they are the feas and continents of the very hemifphere you in- habit. \Vhat, exclaimed I, is that the Earth that is inhabited by human beings ? It i?, replied he. That brown fpace which occupies irregularly a considerable portion of the difk, and nearly furrounds it on all fides, is what you call the main ocean, which, from the fouth pole advancing towards the equator, firft forms the great gulf of Africa and India, then ft retches to the eaft acrofs the Malay Ifland?, as far as the confines of Tartary, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 27 Tartary, while at the weft it inclofes the continents of Africa and of Europe, reach- ing to the north of Afia. Under our feet, that peninfula of a fquare figure is the defert country of Arabia, and on the left you perceive that great continent, fcarcely lefs barren in its interior parts, and only verdant as it approaches the fea, the in- habitants of which are diftinguifhed by a fable complexion *. To the north, and on the other fide of an irregular and narrow fea-f~, are the tracts of Europe, rich in fertile meadows and in all the luxuriance of culti- vation. To the right from the Cafpian, ex- tend the rugged furface and fnow-topt hills of Tartary. In bringing back the eye agaia to the fpot over which we are elevated, you fee a large white fpace, the melancholy and uniform defert of Gobi, cutting off the em- pire of China from the reft of the world. China itfelf is that furrowed furface which feems by a fudden obliquity to efcape from the view. Farther on, thofe vaft tongues of land and fcattered points, are the peninfula, * Africa. ^ The Mediterranean. * and 2 8 A SURVEY OF THE and iflands of the Malayans, the unfortunate proprietors of aromatics and perfumes. Still nearer you obfcrve a triangle which projects flrongly into the fea, and is the too famous peninfula of India ( from which to deduce his evils. In the ge- neral order of the univerfe^ his condition is doubtlefs fubjected to inconveniencies, and his exigence over-ruled by fuperior powers; but thefe powers are neither the decrees of a blind defliny, nor the caprices of fantafKc beings. Man is governed, like the world of which he forms a part, by natural laws, re- gular in their operation, confequent in their effects, immutable in their efTence; and thefe laws, the common fource of good and evil, are neither written in the diftant ftars, nor concealed in myfterious codes : inherent in the nature of all terreflrial beings, identified D with. 4 A SURVEY OP THE with their exigence, they are at all times and in all places prefent to the human mind; they act upon the fenfes, inform the" intellect, and annex to every action its puniftiment and its reward. Let man ftudy thefe laws, let him under/land his own nature, and the nature of the beings that furround him, and he will know the fprings of his deftiny, the caufes of his evils, and the remedies to be applied. When the fecret power that animates the univerfe, formed the globe of the earth, he ftamped on the beings which compofe it ef-* fential properties, that became the rule of their individual action, the tie of their reci- rccal connections, and the caufe of the har- mony of the whole. He hereby eftablifhed a regular order of caufes and effects, of prin- ciples and confequences, which, under an appearance of chance, governs the univerfe, and maintains the equilibrium of the world. Thus he gave to fire motion and activity, t6 air elalKcity, to matter weight and denfity; he made air lighter than water, metals hea- vier than earth, wood lefs cohefive than fteel ; he ordered the flame to afcend, the /lone to fall, the plant to vegetate ; to 'man, whom REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 35 whom he decreed to expofe to the encoun- ter of fo many fubftances, and yet wilhed to preferve his frail exigence, he gave the fa- culty of perception. By this faculty^ every action injurious to his life gives him a fen- fation of pain and evil, and every favourable action a fenfation of pleafure and good. By thefe impreffions, fornetimes led to avoid what is ofFenfive to his fenfes, and fometimes attracted towards the objects that footheand gratify them, man has been neceffitated to love and preferve his exiftence. Self-love, the delire of happinefs, and an averfion to painj are the efTential and primary laws that nature herfelf impofed on man, that the ruling p'owef , whatever it be, has eftablimed to govern him : and thefe laws, like thofe of motion in the phyfical world, are the fimple and prolific principle of every thing that takes place in the moral world. Such then is the condition of man : ort one fide, fubjected to the action of the ele- ments around him, he is expofed to a variety of inevitable evils ; and if in this decree Na- ture appears too fevere, on the other hand, juft and even indulgent, (he has not only D 2 tempered 36 A SURVEY OF THE tempered thole evils with an equal portion of benefits, me has moreover given him the power of augmenting the one, and diminifh- ing the other. She has feemingly faid to him, "" Feeble work of my hands, 1 owe you " nothing, and I give you life. The world " in which I place you was not made on " your account, and yet I grant you the ufc " of it. You will: find in it a mixture of " good and evil. It is for you to difHnguiih " them ; you muft direct your own iieps in " the paths of flowers and of thorns. Be the " arbitrator of your lot ; I place your deiliny " in your hancls." Yes, man is become the artificer of his fate; it is himfelfwho has created in turn the viciiiitudes of his fortune, his fuccefles and his diiappoint- ments -, and if, when he reflects on the for-> rows which he has aflbciated to human life, he has reafon to lament his weakneli and his folly, he has perhaps ftill more right to preiunae upon his force, and be confident in his energies, when he recollects from what point he has fet out, and to what heights he has been capable of elevating himfelf. CHAP, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 37 CHAP. VI. ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 1 N the origin of things, man, formed equal* ly naked both as to body and mind, found himfelf thrown by chance upon a land con- futed and favage. An orphan, deferted by the unknown power that had produced him, he faw no fupernatural beings at hand to ad- vertife him of wants that he owed merely to his fenfes,and inform him of duties fpringing fo)ely from thofe wants. Like other ani- mals, without experience of the paft, with- out knowledge of the future, he wandered in for efts, guided and governed purely by the affections of his nature. By the pain of hunger he was directed to feek food, and he provided for his fubfiftence ; by the incle- mencies of the weather, the defire was ex- cited of covering his body, and he made himfelf cloathing : by the attraction of a powerful pleafure, he approached a fellow- being, and perpetuated his fpecies> D 3 Thus 38 A SURVEY OF THE Thus the imprefliors he received from external objects, awakening his faculties, developed by degrees his underftanuing, and began to inftruct his profound igno- rance : his wants called forth his induftry; his dangers formed his mind to courage 5 he learned to diftinguifh ufeful from pernicious plants, to refift the elements, to feize upon his prey, to defend his life - t and his mifery was alleviated. Thusfe/f-hve, aver/ion to pain, and defire of happinefs, were the fimple and powerful motives which drew man from the favage and barbarous ftate in which Nature had placed him : and now that his life is fown with enjoyment, that he can every day count upon fome pleafure, he may applaud himfelf and fay:. " It is I who have produced the *' bleffings that encompafs me j I am the " fabricator of my own felicity > a fecurc " habitation, commodious raiment, an abun- " dance of wholefbme provifion in rich va- " riety, fmiling valleys, fertile hills, popu- ' lous empires, thele are the works of my " hand j but for me, the earth, given up to *' diforder, would have been nothing mote " thai^ REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 39 ** than a poifonous fwamp, a favage foreft, ft and a hideous defert !" True, mortal creator ! I pay thee homage J Thou haft meafured the extent of the heavens, and counted the ftars, thou haft drawn the light- ning from the clouds j conquered the fury of the fea and the tempeft, and fubjedted all the elements to thy will ! But, oh ! how many errors are mixed with thefe fublim? energies ! D4 CHAP. 40 A SURVEY OF THE CHAP. VII. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIETY. AN the mean time, wandering in woods and upon the borders of rivers, in purfuit of deer and of fi{h, the firft human beings, hunters and fifhermen, befet with dangers, aflailed by enemies, tormented by hunger, by reptiles, and by the animals they chafed, felt their individual weaknefs ; and, impelled by a common want of fafety, and a common. fentiment of the fame evils, they united their powers and their ftrength. When one man was expofed to danger, numbers fuccoure4 and defended him ; when one failed in pro- viiion, another mared with him his prey. Men thus aflbciated for the fecurity of their exigence, for the augmentation of their fa- culties, for the protection of their enjoy- ment ; and the principle of fociety was that Afterwards, inflrucled by the repeated ex- perience of diverfe accidents, by the fatigues of REVOLUTIONS OP EMPIRES. 4! of a wandering life, by the anxiety refulting from frequent fcarcity, men reafoned with themfelves, and faid : " Why mould we con- " fume our days in fearqh of the fcatterei " fruits which a parfimonious foil affords ? *' Why weary ourfelves in the purfuit of *' prey that efcape us in the woods or the (( waters ? Let us afTemble under our hand " the animals that nourim us -, let us apply *' our cares to the increafe and defence of *' them. Their produce will afford us a fup- *' ply of food, with their fpoils we may " clothe ourfelves, and we mail live exempt *' from the fatigues of the day, and folicitude " for the morrow." And aiding each other, they feized the nimble kid and the timid flieep; they tamed the patient camel, the fe- rocious bull, and the"impetuous horfe; and applauding themfelves on the fuccefs of their induftry, they fat down in the joy of their hearts, and began to tafte repofe and tranquil- lity : and thusfe/f-!ove, the principle of all their reafoning, was the inftigator to every art and every enjoyment. Now that men could pafs their days in ieifure,andthe communication of their ideas, they 42 A SURVEY OF THE they turned upon the earth, upon the hea- vens, and upon themfelves an eye of curiofity and refledion. They obferved the courfe of the feafons, the adion of the elements, the properties of fruits and plants; and they ap- plied their minds to the multiplication of their enjoyments, Remarking in certain countries the nature of feeds, which contain within themfelves the faculty of re* producing the parent plant, they employed to their own advantage this property of Nature : they com- mitted to the earth barley, wheat, and rice, and reaped a produce equal to their moil fan- guine hopes. Thus they found the means of obtaining within a fmall compafs, and without the neceffity of perpetual wander- ings, a plentiful and durable flock of pro- vifion ; and encouraged by this difcovery, they prepared for themfelves fixed habita- tions, they conftruded houfes, villages, and towns j they aiTumed the form of tribes and of nations : and thus wa.sjel/-tove rendered the parent of every thing that genius has effeded, or human power performed. By the fole aid then of his faculties, has man been able to raifehimfelf to the aflonifh- ing REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 43 ing height of his prefent fortune. Too Jiappy would have been his lot, had he, fcru- puloufly obf'erving the law imprinted on his nature, conftantly fulfilled the object of it! But, by a fatal imprudence, fometimes over- looking and fometimes tranfgrefling its li- mits, he plunged in an abyfs of errors an4 misfortunes ; zn&f elf- love, now difordered, and now blind, was converted into a prolific fource pf calamities. 44 A SURVEY OF TUB CHAP. VIII. SOURCE OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY. IN reality, fcarcely were the faculties of men expanded, than, feized by the attraction ofcobjects which flatter the fenfes, they gave themfelves up to unbridled defires. The fweet fenfations which nature had annexed to their true wants, to attach them to life, no longer fufliced. Not fatisfied with the fruits which the earth offered them, or their in- duflry produced, they were defirous of heap- ing up enjoyments, and they coveted thole which their fellow-creatures pofleffed. A ftrong man rofe up againfl a weak one to tear from him the profit of his labour : the weak man foljcited the fuccour of a neigh- bour, weak like himfelf, to repel the violence. The ilrong man in his turn affociated him- felf with another ftrong man, and they faid : " Why mould we fatigue cur arms in pro- " ducing enjoyments which we find in the " }iands of the feeble, who are unable to de- " fend REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 4$ " fend themielves ? Let us unite, and plun- " der them. They mall toil for us, and we " mall enjoy in indolence the fruit of their " exertions." The flrong thus afTociating for the purpofe of opprelTion, and the weak for reliftance, men reciprocally tormented each other, and a fatal and general difcord was efhblifted upon the earth, in which the paffions, afTurmng a thoufand new forms, have never ceafed to generate a regular train of calamities. Thus that very principle of felf-love, which, when retrained within the limits of prudence, was a fource of improvement and felicity, became transformed, in its blind and difordered ftate, into a contagious poifon. Cupidity, the daughter and companion of ignorance, has produced all the mifchiefs that have defolated the globe. Yes, ignorance and the love of accumu- lation, thefe are the two fources of all the plagues that infeft the life of man I They have infpifed him with falfe ideas of his happinefs, and prompted him to mifconftrue and infringe the laws of nature, as they re- lated to the connection between him and exterior 46 A SURVEY OP THE exterior objects. Through them his conduct- has been injurious to his own exiftence, and he has thus violated the duty he owes to himfelf; they have fortified his heart againft compaflion, and his mind againft the dictates of juftice, and he has thus violated the duty he owes to others. By ignorance and inor- dinate defire, man has armed himfelf againft man, family againft family, tribe againft tribe, and the earth is converted into a bloody theatre of difcord and robbery. They have fo'wn the feeds of fecret war in the bofom of every ftate, divided the citizens from each other, and the fame fo- ciety is conftituted of oppreftbrs and op- prefled, of mailers and flaves. They have taught the heads of nations, with audacious infolence, to turn the arms of the fociety againft itlelf, and to build upon mercenary avidity the fabric of political defpotifm : or they have taught a more hypocritical and deep-laid project, that impofed, as the dictate of heaven, lying fanctioris and a facrilegious yoke : thus rendering avarice the fource of credulity. In fine, they have corrupted every idea of good and eviljuft and unjufty REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 47 unjuft, virtue and vice : they have milled nations in a never-ending labyrinth of cala- mity and miftake. Ignorance and the love of accumulation !....Thefe are the malevo- lent beings that have laid wafte the earth ; thefe are the decrees of fate that have over- turned empires; thefe are the celefHal ma- ledictions that have ffruck thofe walls once fo glorious, and converted the fplendouf of a populous city into a fad fpeftacle of ruins!... Since then it was from his own bofom all the evils proceeded that have vexed the life of man, it was there alfo he ought to have fought the remedies, where only they are to be found. CHAP. 48 A SURVEY OF TH& CHAP. IX. THE ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT ANDLAWS.< IN truth; the period foon arrived when men, tired cf the ills they occafioned each other, fighed after peace ; and reflecting on the nature ?nd caufes of thofe ills, they faid : " \Ve mutually injure one another by our " '.iffions, and from a deiire to grafp every " thing we in reality poHefs nothing. What " one ravifhes to-day, another tears from " him to-morrow, and our cupidity rebounds " upon dur own heads. Let us eftablifli " arbitrators, who fhall decide our claims " and appeafe our variances. When the " ftrong riles up againfl the weak, the arbi- if trator mall repel him ; and the life and " property of each being under a common " guarantee and protection^ we ihall enjoy " all the bleffings of nature." Conventions, tacit or exprefled, were thus introduced into fociety, and became the rule of the actions of individuals., the meakire of their REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 49 their claims, and the law of their reciprocal relations. Chiefs were appointed to enforce the obfervance of the compact, and to thefe the people entrufted the balance of .rights, and the fvvord to punifh violations. Then a happy equilibrium of powers and of a&ion was eftablimed, which conftituted the public fafety. The names of equity and juftice were acknowledged and revered. Every man, able to enjoy in peace the fruits of his labour, gave himfelf up to all the energies of his foul; and activity, awakened and kept alive by the reality or the hope of enjoyment, forced art and nature to difplay all their treafures. The fields were covered with harvefls, the valleys with flocks, the hills with vines, the fea with fhips, and man was happy and powerful upon the earth. The diforder his imprudence had caufed, his wifdom thus remedied. But this wifdom was ftill the erTeft of the laws of nature in the organization of his being. It was to fe- cure his own enjoyments, that he was led to refpedl: thofe of another, and the defire of E accumulation A SURVEY OF THE accumulation found its corrective in ei>- Hghtened felf-love. Self-love, the eternal fpring of action in every individual, was thus the neceffary bafis of all aflbciations ; and upon the obfervance of this natural law has the fate of every na- tion depended. Have the factitious and conventional laws of any fociety accorded xvith this law, and correfponded to its de- mands ? In that cafe every man, prompted by an overpowering inftincr,, has exerted all the faculties of his nature, and the public felicity has been the refult of the various portions of individual felicity. Have thefe laws, on the contrary, retrained the effort of man in his purfuit of happinefs ? In that cafe his heart, deprived of all its natural motives, has languifhed in inaction, and the opprei- iion of individuals has engendered general weaknefs. Self-love, impetuous and ram, renders man the enemy of man, and of confequence perpetually tends to the diflblution of fociety. It is for the art of legiflation, and for the virtue of minifters, to temper the grafping * felfifhnefs REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 5! felfifhnefs of individuals, to keep each man's deiire to poflefs every thing in a nice equi- poife, and thus to render the fubjefrs happy, in order that, in the flruggle of this with any other fociety, all the members mould have an equal intereft in the prefervation and defence of the commonwealth. From hence it follows, that the internal fplendour and profperity of empires, have been in proportion to the equity of their go- vernments ; and their external power re- fpeclively, in proportion to the number of perfons interefted in the maintenance of the political conftitution, and their degree of in- tereft in that maintenance. On the other hand, the multiplication of men by complicating their ties, having ren- dered the demarcation of their rights a point of difficult decifion ; the perpetual play of the paffions having given rife to 1 unexpected incidents; the conventions that were formed having proved vicious, inadequate, or null ; the authors of the laws having either mifun- derftood the objecl: of them, or diffembled it, and the perfons appointed to execute them, inflead of retraining the inordinate E 2 defires TJ2 A SURVEY OF THE defircs of others, having abandoned them- fclves to the fway of their own avidity fo- ciety has,bythefe caufes united, been thrown into trouble and diforder - y and defective laws andunjuft governments, the refult of cupi- dity and ignorance, have been the founda- tion of the misfortunes of the people, and the fubverfion of flates. CHAP. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 53 CHAP. X. GENERAL CAUSES OF THE PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT STATES. OUCH, O man, who enquireft after wifdom, have been the caufes of the revolutions of thofe ancient ftates of which you contem- plate the ruins ! Upon whatever fpot I fix my view, or to whatever period my thoughts recur, the fame principles of elevation and decline, of profperity and deftrudl:ion,prefent themfelves to the mind. If a people were powerful, if an empire flourished, it was be- caufe the laws of convention were conform- able to thofe of nature; becaufe the govern- ment procured to every man refpe6tively the free ufe of his faculties, the equal fecurity of his perfon and property. On the contrary, if an empire has fallen to ruin or difappeared, it is becaufe the laws were vicious or imper- fect, or a corrupt government has checked their operation. If laws and government, at firft rational and juft, have afterwards become E 3 depraved. 54 A SURVEY OF THE depraved, it is becaufe the alternative of good and evil derives from the nature of the heart of man, from the fucceffion of his in- clinations, the progrefs of his knowledge, the combination of events and circumftances ; as the hiflory of the human fpecies proves. In the infancy of nations, when men ftill lived in forefts, all fubjecl: to the fame wants, and endowed with the fame faculties, they were nearly equal in ftrength ; and this equality was a circomftance highly advan- tageous to the formation of fociety. Each individual finding himielf independent of every other, no one was the (lave, and no one had the idea of being matter of another. Untaught man knew neither fervitude nor tyranny. Supplied with the means of pro- viding fufficiency for his lubiillence, he thought not of borrowing from ftrangers. Owing nothing, and exacting nothing, he judged of the rights of others by his own. Ignorant alfo of the art of multiplying en- joyments, he provided only what was necef- fary; and fuperfluity being unknown to him, thedcfire toengrofs ofconfequehce remained unexcitcd; cr if excited, as it attacked others in REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 55 in thofe poilefiions that were wholly indif- penfible, it was refifted with energy, and the very fore fight of this refinance maintained a falutary and iminoveable equilibrium. Thus original equality, without the aid of convention, maintained perfonal liberty, fecured individual property, and produced order and good manners. Each man labour- ed feparately and for himfelf : and his heart being occupied, he wandered not in purfuit of unlawful delires. His enjoyments were few, but his wants were fatisfied : and as nature had made thefe wants lefs extenfive than his ability, the labour of his hands foon produced abundance; abundance popu- lation ; the arts developed themfelves, culti- vation extended, and the earth, covered with numerous inhabitants, was divided into dif- ferent domains, The relations of men becoming compli- cated, the interior order of fociety was more difficult to maintain. Time and induftry having created affluence, cupidity awoke from its flumber ; and as equality, eafy be^ tween individuals, could not fubfifl between families, the national balance was deltroyed. It 56 A SURVEY OF THE It was neceffary to fupply the lofs by means of an artificial balance ; it was neceflary to appoint chiefs, and eflablifh laws; but as thefe were occafioned by cupidity, in the ex- perience of primitive times they could not but partake of the origin from which they fprung. Various circumftances however con- curred to temper the diforder, and make it indifpenfible for governments to be juft. States being at firft weak, and having ex- ternal enemies to fear, it was in reality of importance to the chiefs not to opprefs the fubject. By diminifliing the intereft of the citizens in their government, they would have diminished their means of refinance ; they would have facilitated foreign invafion, and thus endangered their own exiftence for fuperfluous enjoyments. Internally, the character of the people was repellent to tyranny. Men had too long con- tracted habits of independence ; their wants were too limited, and the confcioufnefs of their own ilrength too infeparable from their minds. States being clofely knit together, it was difficult to divide the citizens, in order to opprefs REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 57 opprefs fome by means of others. Their communication with each other was too eafy, and their interefts too iimple and evident. Befide, every man being at once proprietor and cultivator, he had no inducement to fell himfelf, and the defpot would have been un- able to find mercenaries. If diiTenfions arofe, it was between family and family, one fa&ion with another; and a confiderable number had ftill one common intereft. Difputes, it is true, were in this cafe more warm, but the fear of foreign in- vafion appeafed the difcord. If the oppref- fion of a party was effected, the earth being open before it, and men, ftill fimple in their manners, rinding every where the fame ad- vantages, the party migrated and carried their independence to another quarter. Ancient ftates then enjoyed in themfelves numerous means of profperity and power. As every man found his well-being in the conftitution of his country, he felt a lively intereft in its prefervation ; and if a foreign power invaded it, having his habitation and his field to defend, he carried to the combat the ardour of a perfonal caufe, and his pa- triotic j8 A SURVEY OF THE triotic exertions were prompted by felf-de- fence. As every action ufeful to the public ex- cited its eileem and gratitude> each was ea- ger to be ufeful, and talents and civil virtues were multiplied by felf-love. As every citizen was called upon indifcri- minately to contribute his proportion of pro- perty and perfonal effort, the armies and the treafuries of the ftate were inexhauftible. As the earth was free, and its pofleffion eafy and fecure, every man was a proprie- tor, and the divifion of property, by render- ing luxury impoflible, preferved the purity of manners. As everyman ploughed his own field, cul- tivation was more active, provilions more abundant, and individual opulence confti- tuted the public wealth. As abundance of provifion rendered fub- fiftence eafy, population rapidly increafed, and ftates quickly arrived at their plenitude. As the produce was greater than the con- fumption, the defire of commerce flarted up, and exchanges were made between different nations, which were an additional flimulus to their REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES- 59 their activity, and increafed their reciprocal enjoyments. In fine, as certain places in certain epo- chas combined the advantage of good go- vernment with that of being placed in the road of circulation and commerce, they be- came rich magazines of trade, and powerful feats of dominion. It was in this manner that the riches of India and Europe, accu- mulated upon the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, gave fucceffive exigence to the fplendour of a thoufand metropolises, The people, become rich, applied their fuperfluity of means to labours of public uti- lity; and this was, in every flate, the a?ra of thofe works, the magnificence of which aftc- nimes the mind ; thofe wells of Tyre (/), thofe artificial banks of the Euphrates, thofe con- duits of Medea (>), thofe fortrelTes of the Defert, thofe aqueducts of Palmyra, thofe temples, thofe porticos. . . . And thefe im- menfe labours were little oppreflive to the nations that completed them, becaufe they were the fruit of the equal and united effort of individuals free to act and ardent to defire. Thus 60 A SURVEY OF THE Thus ancient ftates profpered, becaufe fo- cial institutions were conformable to the true laws of nature", and becaufe the fubje&s of thofe Hates, enjoying liberty and the fecurity of their perfons and their property, could difplay all the extent of their faculties, and all the energy of felf-love. CHAP. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 6l CHAP. XL GENERAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN OF ANCIENT STATES. X N the mean time the inordinate defire of accumulation had excited a conftant and univerfal ftruggle among men, and this ftruggle, prompting individuals a'nd focie- ties to reciprocal invafions, occafioned per- petual commoticns and fucceffive revolu- tions. At firft, in the favage and barbarous ftate of the firft human beings, this inordinate defire, daring and ferocious in its nature, taught rapine, violence, and murder; and the progrefs of civilization was -for a long time at a ftand. Afterwards, when focieties began to be formed, the effect of bad habits communi- cating itfelf to Taws and government, civil inftitutions became corrupt, and arbitrary and factitious rights were eftablifhed, which gave the people depraved ideas of juftice and morality. Becaufe 62 A SURVEY OIT TH2 Becaufe one man, for example, wasflrong- cr than another, this inequality, the refult of accident, wnstaken.for the kw of nature (/) ; and becaufe the life of the weak was in his rc'.vcr, and he did not take it from him, he arrogated over his perfon the abfurd right of property, and individual ilavery prepared the way for the ilavery of nations. Becaufe the chief of a family could exer- cife an abfolute authority in his own ho.ufe, he made his inclinations and affections the fole rule of his conduct ; he conferred and withheld the conveniences and enjoyments of life without refpect to the law of equality or juftice, and paternal tyranny kid thefoim- dation of political defpotifm (m). In focieties formed upon fuch bafes, time and induflry having developed riches, inordi- nate defirc, reftricted by the laws, became artificial without being lefs active. Under the mafk of union and civil peace, it engen- dered in the boibm of every flatc an inteftinc war, in which the citizens divided into op- pote corps of orders, claiTes, and families, aimed to appropriate to themfelves, under the name 'of Jupreme power, the ability of grafping REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 6j grafping and controlling every thing at the will of their paffions. It is this fpirit of ra- pacity, the difguifes of which are innume- rable, but its operation and end uniformly the fame, that has been the perpetual fcourge of nations. Sometimes oppofi ng focial compact, or de- ftroying that which already exifted, it has abandoned the inhabitants of a country to the tumultuous mock of all their jarring principles ; and the difiblved ftates, under the name of anarchy, have been torment- ed by the paffions of every individual mem- ber. Sometimes a people jealous of its liberty, having appointed agents to adminifter, thefe agents have alTumed to themfelves the powers of which they were only the guardians; have employed the public funds in corrupting elections, gaining partizans, and dividing the people againft itfelf. By thefe means, from temporary, they have become perpetual, from elective, hereditary magiftrates ; and the ftate, agitated by the intrigues of the ambitious, by the bribes of the wealthy leaders of factions, by the venality of the indolent poor, by the empiricifm of declaim- ers, 64 A SURVEY OF THE crs, has been troubled with all the incon- vei iences of democracy. In one country , the chiefs, equal in fti ength, mutually afraid of each other, have formed vile compacts and coalitions, and portioning out power, rank, honours, have arrogated to themfelves privileges and immunities ; have creeled themfelves into feparate bodies and diftincl: claffes ; have tyrannifed in common over the people, and, under the name of arijhcracy, the flate has been tormented by the paffions of the wealthy and the great. In another country, tending to the fame end by different vncans,focred impojlors have taken advantage of the credulity of the igno- rant. In the fecrecy of temples, and behind the veil of altars, they have made the Gods fpeak and a6t; have delivered oracles, worked pretended miracles, ordered facrifices, impof- ed offerings, prefcribed endowments; and, under the name of theocracy and religion, the ftate has been tormented by the pallions of priefts. Sometimes, weary of its diforders or of its tyrants, a najion, to diminim the fourcesof its evils, gave itfelf a fingle matter. In that cafe, if the powers of the prince were limited, his REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 65 'his only defire was to extend them ; if in- definite, he abufed the trufl that was con- fided to him i and, under the name of mo- narchy, the flate was tormented by the paf- fions of kings and princes. Then the factious, taking advantage of the general difcontent, flattered the people with the hope of a better matter; they feattered gifts and promifes, dethroned the defpot to fubftitute themfelves in his ftead; and dif- putes for the fucceffion or the divifion of power, have tormented the ftate with the dif- orders and devaflations of civil In fine, among thefe rivals, one individual more artful or more fortunate than the reft, gaining the afcendancy, concentred the whole power in himfelf. By a fingular phe- nomenon, one man obtained the maftery over millions of his fellow- creatures, againfl their will, and without their confent -, and thus the art of tyranny appears alfo to have been the offspring of inordinate defire. Observing the fpirit of egotifm that divided mankind, the ambitious adroitly fomented this fpirit : he flattered the vanity of one, excited the jeaioufy of another, favoured the avarice of a. F third, 66 A SURVfe? d* TriE third, enflamed the refentment of a fourth/ irritated the patfions of all. By oppofmg interefts or prejudices, he fowed the feeds of divifions and hatred. He promifed to the poor the fpoil of the rich, to the rich the fubjugation of the poor; threatened this man by that, one clafs by another ; and ifo* lating the citizens by diftruft, he formed his own ftrength cut of their weaknefs, and im- pofed on them the yoke of opinion, the knots of which they tied with their own hands. By means of the army he extorted contribu- tions > by the contributions he difpofed of the army 3 by the corresponding play of money and places, he bound all the people with a chain that was not to be broken, and the ftates which they compofed fell into the flow decay of defpotifm. Thus did one and the fame fpring, vary- ing its a&ion under all the forms that have been enumerated, inceflantly attack the con- tinuity of ftates, and an eternal circle of vi- cifiitudes have fprung from an eternal circle of paffions. This conftant fpirit of egotifm operated two principal effects equally deftrudtive : the one, REVOLUTIONS OP EMPIRES. 67 one, that by dividing focieties into all their fractions, a flate of debility was produced, which facilitated their diflblution ; the other, that always tending to concentre the power in a fingle hand, it oceafioned a fucceffive abforption of focieties and ftates, fatal to their peace and to their common exift- cnce (;?). Juft as in a fingle ftate, the nation had been abforbed in a party, that party in a family, and that family in an individual, there alfo exifted an abforption of a iimilar kind between flate and ftate, attended with all the mifchiefs in the relative fituation of na- tions, that the other produced in the civil relation of individuals. One city fubjedled its neighbour city, and the refult of thecon- quefl was a province ; province fwallowed up province, and thus produced a kingdom; between two kingdoms a conqueft took place, and thus furnimed an empire of un- weildy bulk. Did the internal force of thefe ftates increafe in proportion to their mafs? On the contrary, it was diminimed; and far from the condition of the people being hap- pier, it became every day more oppreffive and F 2 wretched, 68 A SURVEY OF THE wretched, by caufes inevitably flowing from the nature of things. Becaufe, as the boundaries of ftate's be- came extended, their adminiftration became more complicated and difficult; and to give motion to the mafs it was necefTary to in- creafe the prerogatives of the fovereign, and all proportion was thus annihilated between the duty of governors and their power. Becaufe defpots, feeling their weaknefs, dreaded all thofe circumftances that deve- loped the force of nations, and made it their ftudy to attenuate it. Becaufe Rations, eihanged from each other by the prejudices of ignorance and the fero- city of hatred, feconded the perverfity of governments, and employing a {landing force for reciprocal offence, aggravated their fla- very. Becaufe, in proportion as the balance be- tween ftates was broken, it became eafy for the ilrong to overwhelm the weak. Becaufe, in proportion as flate became blended with ftate, the people were ftripped of their laws, their cuftoms, every thing by which they were diftinguiihed from each other, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 69 other, and thus loft the great mover filfijk- nefs y which gave them energy. And defpots, confidering empires in the light of domains, and the people as their property, abandoned themfelves to depreda- tions, and the licentioufnefs of the moft ar- .bitrary authority, And all the force and wealth of nations were converted into a fupply for individual expence and perfonal caprice ; and kings, in the wearifomenefs of fatiety, followed the dilates of every factitious and depraved tafte (0). They mutt have gardens conftrucl:- ed upon arches, and rivers carried to the fummit of mountains ; for them fertile fields muft be changed into parks for deer, lakes formed where there was no water, and rocks elevated in thofe lakes; they muft have pa- laces connructed of marble and porphyry, und the furniture ornamented with gold and diamonds. Millions of hands were thus em- ployed in fterile labours; and the luxury of princes being imitated by their parafites, and defcending ftep by ftep to the loweft ranks, became a general iburce of corruption and cmpoverimment. F 3 And jO A SURVEY OF THE And the ordinary tributes being no longer adequate to the infatiable thirft of enjoy- ment, they were augmented: the confe- quer.ce of which was, that the cultivator, finding his toil increafe without any indem- nity, loft his courage j the merchant, feeing himfclf robbed, took a difgufl to induftry j. the multitudCjCondemned to a ilate of poverty,, exerted themfelves no farther than the pro- curement of neceflaries required, and every fpecies of productive activity was at a ftand. And the furcharge of taxes rendering the pofleilion of lands burthenfome, the humble proprietor abandoned his field, or fold it to the man of opulence 5 and the mafs of wealth centered in a few individuals. As the laws and in dilutions favoured this accumulation, nations were divided into a fmall body of indolent rich, and a multiude of mercenary poor. The people, reduced to indigence, debafed themfelves ; the great, cloyed with fuperfluity, became depraved; and the num- ber of citizens interefted in the prefcrvation of the ftate decreafing, its flrength and exiftence were by fo much the more pre- carious. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. Jl In another view, as there was nothing to excite emulation or encourage inftruction, the minds of men funk into profound igno- rance. The adminiftration of affairs being fecret and myfterious, there exifted no means of re- form or hope of better times; and as the chiefs ruled only by violence and fraud, the people confidered them but as a faction of public enemies, and all harmony between the governed and the governors was at an end. The ftates of opulent Afia become ener- vated by ail the fe vices, it happened at length that the vagrant am} poor inhabitants of the deferts and the mountains adjacent, coveted the enjoyments of the fertile plains^ and inftigated by a common cupidity, they at- tacked polifhed empires, and overturned the thrones of defpots. Such revolutions were rapid and eafy, becaufe the policy of tyrants had enfeebled the citizens, razed the for- trefTes, deflrpyed the warlike fpirit of refift- ance, an.d becaufe the oppreiTed fubject was without perfonal intereft, and the mercenary foldier without courage. Hordes of barbarians having reduced ^v.hole F 4 nations 7 2 A SURVEY OF THE nations to a ilate of ilavery, it followed that empires, formed of a conquering and a vanquifhed people, united in their bofom two chiles of men eiTentially oppofite and inimical to each other. All the principles of focietv were diflblved. There was no longer either a common interefl, or public fpirit : on the contrary, a diftin&ion of cails and conditions was eflahliihed, that reduced the maintenance of diforder to a regular fyilem ; and accordingly as a man was defcended from this or that blood, he was born vailal or tyrant, live flock or proprietor. The oppreffors being in this cafe lefs numerous than the opprefTed, it became ne- ceflaiyj in order to fupport this falfe equi- librium, to bring the fcience of tyranny to perfection. The art of governing was now nothing more than that of fubjecting the many to the few. To obtain an obedience fo contrary to wilindt., it was neceilary to eftablili the moil fevere penalties ; and the cruelty of the laws rendered the manners atrocious. The diilindtion of perfons alfo eiUblifhing in the ilate two codes of juilice, two fpecies of rights, the people, placed between, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 73 between the natural inclinations of their hearts, and the oath they were obliged to pronounce, had two contradictory con- fciences ; and their ideas of juft and unjuft had no longer any foundation in the under- {landing. Under fuch a fyftem the people fell into a ftate of depreflion and defpair ; and the accidents of nature increafing the prepon- derance of evil, terrified at this groupe of calamities, they referred the caufes of them to fuperior and invifible powers : becaufe they had tyrants upon earth, they fuppofed there to be tyrants in heaven 5 and fu perdi- tion came in aid to aggravate the difafters of nations. Hence originated gloomy and mifanthro- pic fyflems of religion, which painted the Gods malignant and envious like human de- fpots. To appeafe them, man offered the fa- crifice of all his enjoyments, puniLhed him- felf with privations, and overturned the laws of nature. Confidering his pleafures as crimes, his fufferings as expiations, he en- deavoured to cherifh a paffion for pain, and to renounce felf-love ; he perfecuted his fenfcs ; 74 A SURVEY OF THE fenfes, detefled his life, and by a felf^dc* nving and unfccial fyftem of morals, na- tions were plunged in the fluggilhnefs of death. But as provident nature had endowed the heart of man with inexhauiUble hope, per- ceiving his defires difappointtd of happinefs here, he purfa^d it elfewhere ; by a fweet illufion, he formed to himielf another coun- try, an afylum, where, out of the reach of tyrants, he fhould regain all his rights. Hence a new diforder arofe. Smitten with his imaginary world, man defpiied the world of nature : for chimerical hopes he neglected the rsality. He no longer ccnlidered his life but as a fatiguing journey, a painful dream; his body as a prifon that withheld him from his iVl'^ty; the earth as a place of exile and pilgrimage, which he difdained to cultivate. A facred iloth then eftablifhsd itfelf iathe world; the fields were deferted, waf^e lands increased, empires were difpeo- pled,n.onuments neglected, and every where ignorance, fuperftition and fanaticiirn unit- ing their baleful effects, multiplied devafta- tions and ruins. Thus, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 7$ Thus, agitated by their own paffions, men, whether in their individual capacity, or as collective bodies, always rapacious and improvident, paffing from tyranny to flavery, from pride to abje&nefs, from preemption to defpair, have been themfelves the eternal inftruments of their misfortunes. Such was the fimplicity of the principles that regulated the fate of ancient ftates; fuch was the feries of caufes and effects, confe- cutive and connected with each other, ac- cording to which they rofe or fell in the fcale of human welfare, juft as the phylical caufes of the human heart were therein obferved or infringed. A hundred divers nations, a hundred powerful empires, in their inceffant viciflitudes, have read again and again thefe inftructive leflbns to mankind . . . And thefe leflbns are mute and forgotten ! The dif- eafes of pail times have appeared again in the prefent ! The heads of the different governments have pra&ifed again, without reftraint, exploded projects of deception and defpotifm ! The people have wandered as before in the labyrinths of fuperftition and ignorance ! And 76 A SURVEY OF THE And what, added the Genius, calling up his energies afrefh, is the confequence of all this r Since experience is ufelefs, fince 1*- lutary examples are forgotten, the fcenes which were adted before are now about to -enewed ; revolutions will again agitate people and empires ; powerful thrones will, as before, be overturned - y and terrible ca- taftrophes remind the human fpecies, that the lav/s of nature, and the precepts of wifdom and truth, cannot be trampled upon jn vain. CHAP. DEVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 77 CHAP. XII. LESSONS TAUGHT BY ANCIENT, RE- PEATED IN MODERN TIMES. 1 N this manner did the Genius addrefs me. Struck with the reafonablenefs and cohe- rence of his difcourfe, and a multiplicity of ideas crowding upon my mind, which, while they thwarted my habits, led myjudgment at the fame time captive,! remained abforbed in profound filence. Meanwhile, as in this fombre and thoughtful difpoiltion I kept my eyes fixed upon Afia, clouds of fmoke and of flames at the north, on the mores of the Black Sea, and in the fields of the Crimea, fuddenly attracted my attention. They ap- peared to alcend at once from every part of the peninfula, and paffing by the-iithmus to the continent, they purfued their courfe, as if driven by an eafterly wind, along the miry lake of Afoph, and were loft in the verdant plains of the Coban. Obferving more at- tentively the courfe of thefe clouds, I per- ceived ^5 A SURVEY OF THE ceived that they were preceded or followed by fwarms of living beings, which, like ants difturbed by the foot of a paflenger, were in lively action. Sometimes they feemed to move towards and rum againit each other, and numbers after the concuffion remained motionlefs. Difquieted at this fpectacle, I Xvas endeavouring to diftinguifh the objects, when the Genius faid to me : Do you fee thofe fires which fpread over the earth, and are you acquainted with their caufes and effects ? O Genius, I replied, I fee columns of flame and fmoke, and as it were infects lhat accompany them ; but difcerning with difficulty, as I do, the mattes of towns and monuments, howcanldiftinguifh fuch petty creatures ? I can fee nothing more than that thefe infects feem to carry on a fort of mock battles; they advance, they approach towards each other, they attack, they purfue. It is no mockery, faid the Genius, it is the thing itfelf. And what name, replied I, (hall we give to thefe fooliih animalcuta that deftroy each other? Do they live only for a day, and is this mort life further abridged by violence and murder ? The Genius then once more touched OF EMPIRES. ^9 touched my eyes and my ears. Liften, faid lie to me* and obferve. Immediately, turn- ing my eyes in the fame direction, alas ! faid I, tranfpierced. with anguifti, thefe columns of flame, thefe infecls, O Genius ! they are men, ^nd the ravages of war ! Thefe tor- rents of flame afcend from towns and Vil- lages fet on fire ! I fee the horfemen that light them. I fee them fvvord in hand over- run the country. Old men, women, and children, in confufed multitudes, fly before them. I fee other horfemen, who, with their pikes upon their moulders, accompany and direct them : I can even diftinguifh by their led horfes, by their kalpacks, and by their tufts of hair (/>), that they are Tartars ; and without doubt thofe who purfue them in tri- angular hats and green uniforms are Mufco* vites. I underftand the whole: I perceive that the war has juft broken out afrefh be- tween the empire of the Czars and the Sul- tans. Not yet, replied the Genius ; this is only the prelude. Thefe Tartars have been, and would ftill be troublefome neighbours -, the Mufcovites are ridding themfelves of them. Their country is an object of conve- 7 nience 80 A SURVEY OF THE jiience to their lefs uncivilized enemies -> it rounds and makes complete their domi- nions ; and as the firft ftep in the project that has been conceived, the throne of the Guerais is overturned. In reality I favv the Ruffian flag hoifted over the Crimea, and their veiTels fcattered upon the Euxine. Meanwhile, at the cries of the fugitive Tartars, the MufTulman empire was in comr- motion. " Our brethren," exclaimed the children of Mahomet, " are driven from their " habitations ; the people of the prophet are " outraged; infidels are in pofTeffion of a con- *' fecratedland (q), and profane the temples " oflflamifm! Let us arm ourfelves to avenge " the glory of God and our own caufe." A general preparation for war then took place in the two empires. Armed men, pro- vilions, ammunition, and all the murderous accoutrements of battle, were every where allembled. My attention was particularly attracted by the immenfe crowds that in either nation thronged to the temples. On one fide the Muffulmans, aflembled before their moiques, walhed their hands and feet, 6 pared REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. Si pared their nails, and combed their beard : then fpreading carpets upon the ground, and turning themfelves towards the fcuth, with their arms fometimes crolTed and fometimes extended, they performed their genuflections and proftrations. Recollecting the difafters they had experienced during the laft war, they cried : " God of clemency and pity, haft " thou then abandoned thy faithful people ? ** Why doft thou, who has promifed to thy " prophet the dominion of nations, and lig- " nalized religion by fo many triumphs, de- " liver up true believers to the fword of in- fidels?" And the Imans and the Santons faid to the people: "It is the chaftifement of " your tins. You eat pork, you drink wine, " you touch things that are unclean : God " has punifhed you. Do penance ; purify " yoiirfelves ; fay your creed* -, faft from the " riling of the fun to its fetting; give the *' tenth of your goods to the mofques ; go *' to Mecca ; and God will make your arms " victorious." Then, afTuming courage, the people gave a general fhout. " There is but * There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet. G one 82 A SURVEY OF THE " one God," laid they in a tranfport of rage, " and Mahomet is his prophet ! accurfed be " everyone that believeth not! .... Indul- " ^cntGodJ grant us -the favour to exter- " minate thele Chriftians': it is for thy glory " we %ht, and by our death we are mar- " tyrs to thy name." And having offer- ed facrifices, they prepared themfelves for battle. On the other hand, the Ruffians on their knees exclaimed : " Let us give thanks to " God, and celebrate his power : he has " ftrengthened our arm to humble his ene- " mies. Beneficent God ! incline thine ear " to our prayers. To pleafe thec we will " for three days eat neither meat nor eggs. " Permit us to exterminate thefe impious " Mahometans, and overthrow their empire, !C and we will give thee the tenth of the fpoil, " and erect new temples to thy honour." The priefts then filled the churches with fmoke, and faid to the people : " We pray for you, and God accepts our incenfe, and ' blefles your arms. Continue to fail and ' to fight; tell us the faults you have fecret- 1 ly committed; beftow your goods on the " church; REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 3 ** church ; we will abfolve you of your iins, .. *5 and youfhall die in a flate of grace." And they fprinkled water on the people, diftri- buted among them little bones of departed faints to ferve as amulets and talifmansj and the people breathed nothing but war and destruction. Struck with this contrafKng picture of the fame paffions, and lamenting to myfelf their pernicious confequences, I was reflecting on the difficulty the common Judge would find in complying with fuch oppofite demands, when the Genius, from an impulfe of anger, vehemently exclaimed : What madnefs is this which ftrikes my ear ? What blind and fatal infanity potteries the human mind ? Sacrilegious prayers, re- turn to the earth from whence you came ! Ye concave heavens, repel thefe murderous vows, thefe impious thankfgivings I Is it thus, O man, you worfhip the Divinity ? And do you think that he, whom you call Father of all, can receive with complacence the homage of free-booters and murderers? Ye conquerors, with what fentinients dees he behold your arms reeking with blood that he G 2 has 84. A SURVEY OF THE has created ? Ye conquered, what hope car* you place in ufelefs moans? Is he a man that he Should change, or the fon of man that he Ihould repent?" Is he governed like you by vengeance and companion, by rage and by wearinefs ! Bafe idea, how much unworthy of the Being of Beings ! Hear thefe men, and you would imagine that God is a Being ca- pricious and mutablej that now he loves, and now he hates ; that he chaftifes one, and in- dulges another ; that hatred is engendered and nourished in his bofomj that he fpreads fnares for men, and delights in the fatal ef- feds of imprudence ; that he permits ill, and punimes it ; that he forefees guilt, and ac- quiefces ; that he is to be bought with gifts like a partial judge; that he reverfes his edicls like an undifcerning defpot ; that he gives and revokes his favours becaufe it is his will, and.is to be appeafed only by fervility like a favage tyrant. I now completely underftand what is the deceit of mankind, who have pretended that God made man in his own image, and who have really made God in theirs; who have afcribed to him their weak- nefs, their errors, and their vices; and in the conclufion, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 85 conclufion, furprifed at the contradictory nature of their own aflertions, have attempt- ed to cloke it with hypocritical humility, and the pretended impotence of human rea- fbn, calling the delirium of their own under- ftandings the facred myfteries of heaven. They have faid, God is without variable- nefs, and they pray to him to change. They have faid that he is incomprehenfible, and they have undertaken to be interpreters of his. will. A race of impoftors has made its appear * ance upon the earth, who, pretending to be in the confidence of God, and taking upon themfelves the office of inflru&ing the peo- ple, have opened the flood-gates of faliehood and iniquity. They have affixed merit to actions which either are indifferent or ab- furd. They have dignified with the appella- tion of virtue the observance of certain pof- tures, and the repetition of certain words and names. They have taught the impiety of eating certain meats on certain days ra- ther than on others. It is thps the Jew would fooner die than work on the fabbath. It is thus the Perfian would endure fuffocation G 3 before 86 A SURVEY OF THE before he would blow the fire with his breath. It is thus the Indian places fu- preme perfection in fmearing himfelf with cow-dung, and myfterioufly pronouncing the word Aitm (r). It is thus the MufTul- man belie ves himfelf purified from allhis fins by the ablution of his head and his arms ; and difputes, fabre in hand, whether he ought to begin the ceremony at the elbow (j) or the points of his fingers. It is thus the Chriftian would believe himfelf damned, were he to eat the juice of animal food in- ftead of milk or butter. What fublime and truly ccleftial doctrines ! What purity of morals, and how worthy of apoftlemip and martyrdom ! I will crofs the feas to teach thefe admirable laws to favage people and diftant nations. I will fay to them: " Chil- " dren of nature, how long will you wander " in the paths of ipriorance ? How long will " you be blind to the true principles of mo- " rality and religion ? Vifit civilized na- " tions, and take leffons of pious and learn- " cd people. Thc ; will teach you, that, to ' pleafe God, you mutt in certain months " of the year faint all day with hunger and t-hirft. REVOLUTIOlfcS OF EMPIRES. 87 c< thirft. They will teach you how you " may fhed the blood of your neighbour, " and purify yourfelves from the flain, by " repeating a profeffion of faith, and mak- " ing a methodical ablution : how you may " rob him of his goods, and be abfolved " from the guilt, by {baring them with cer- " tain perfons whole profeffion it is to live " in idlenefs upon the labour of others." Sovereign and myfterious Power of the Univerfe ! fecret Mover of Nature ! uni- verfal Soul of every thing that lives ! infinite and incomprehenfible Being, whom, under fo many forms, mortals have ignorantly wor- {hipped ! God, who in the immenfity of the heavens doft guide revolving worlds, and people the abyfs of ipace with millions of funs : fay, what appearance do thole human iniedts, which I can with difficulty diftin- guiili upon the earth, make in thy eyes ? When thou directeft the ftars in their orbits, what to thee are the worms that crawl in the duft ? Of what importance to thy infinite greatnefs are their diftinctions of fe&s and parties ? And how art thou concerned with the fubtleties engendered by their folly? G 4 And 88 A SURVEY OF THE And you, credulous men, fhew me the elncacy uf your practices! During the many a - * is arrived. The cry of war ilrikes my ear, and the cataftrophe is about to commence. In vain the Sultan draws out his armies j his igrforant foldiers are beaten and fcattered. In vain he calls upon his fubjecfts : their hearts are callous ; his fubjects reply : " It " is decreed - y and what is it to us who is " to be our matter ? we cannot lofe by the " change." In vain thefe true believers in- voke heaven and the prophet, the prophet is dead, and heaven without pity anfvvers : " Ceaie to call upon me. You are the au- " thors of your calamities, find yourfelves " their remedy. Nature has eftablifhed '* laws, it becomes you to pra.ctife them. " Examine and reflect upon the events that " take place, and profit by experience. It " is the folly of man that works his dcftruc- ; lion \ it is his wifdom that mutt fave him. " The REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. JCI "The people are ignorant ; let them get un- " derftanding: their chiefs are depraved; let " them correct their vices and amend their " lives, for fuch is the decree of nature : " Since the evils of fociety flow from IGNO- " RANGE and INORDINATE DESIRE, men " will never ceafe to be tormented till they "Jhall become intelligent and wife; till they " foall praflife the art of juftice> founded on " a knowledge of the various relations in '* which they jland, and the laws of their own (< organization *." CHAP. * A fingular moral phenomenon made its appearance m Europe in the year 1788. A great nation, jealous of its liberty, contracted a fondnefs for a nation the enemy of liberty ; a nation friendly to the arts for a nation that detefts them ; a mild and tolerant nation for a perfecuting and fanatic onej a focial and gay nation for a nation whofe chara&eriftic are gloom and mifanthropy ; in a word, the French were fmitten with a paflion for. the Turks : they were defirous of engaging in a war for them, and that at a time when a revolution in their own country was juft at its commencement. A man who perceived the true nature of the fituation, wrote a book to difluade them from the war : it was immediately pre- tended that he was paid by the government, which in reality wimed the war, and which was upon the point of fiiutting him up in a ftate prifon. Another man wrote H 3 to A SURVEY OF THE CHAP. XIII. WILL THE HUMAN RACE BE EVER Itf A BETTER CONDITION THAN AT PRESENT. OPPRESSED with forrow at the predic- tions of the Genius, and the fe verity of his reafoning : Unhappy nations, cried I, bvfrft- ing to recommend the war : he was applauded, and his word was taken in payment for the icience, the pojitenefs and i-.nportancc of the Turks. It is true that he believed in his own thcii?, for he had found among them people who caft a nativity, and akhcmifts who ruined his fortune ; as he .found Martinifis at Paris, who enabled him to fup with SefoftriSj and Magnetifcrs who concluded with de- ftroying his exigence. Notwithftanding this, the Turks were beaten by the Ruffians, and the man who then pre iicled the fall of their empire, periifts in the predic- tion. The rcfult of this fall will be a complete change of the political fyftem, as far as it relates to the coall of the Mediterranean. If, however, the r 1 rench become important in proportion as they become free, and if they make ufe of the advantage they will obtain, their progrefs may eal;!y prove of the moft honourable fort, inafmuch as, by the wife decrees of fate, the true intereft of man- kind evermore accords with their true morality. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 103 ing into tears ! Unhappy my own lot ! I now defpair of the felicity of man ! fince his evils flow from his own heart, fince he muft himfelf apply the remedy, woe for ever to his exiftence ! For what can reftrain the inordinate defire of the powerful ? Who mail enlighten the ignorance of the weak I Who inflrutl the multitude in the know- ledge of its rights, and force the chiefs to difcharge the duties of their ftation ? Indivi- dual will not ceafe to opprefs individual, one nation to attack another nation, and never will the day of profperity and glory again dawn upon thefe countries. Alas ! con- querors will come; they will drive away the oppreflbrs, and will eftablim themfelves in their place j but, fucceeding to their power, they will fucceed alfo to their rapacity, and the earth will have changed its tyrants, without leffening the tyranny, Then turning towards the Genius : O Genius ! faid I, defpair has taken hold of my heart. W T hile you have inftrucled me in the nature of man, the depravity of go- vernors, and the abjeclnefs of thofe who H 4 are J04 A SURVEY OF THE are governed, have given me a difguft to life ; and iir.ce there is no alternative but to be the accomplice or the victim of op- preffion, what has the Virtuous man to do but to join his aflies to thole of the tombs ! The Genius, fixing upon me a look of Icverity mixed with companion, was filent. After a few minutes he replied : Is it then in dying that virtue confifts ? The wicked man is indefatigable in the confummation of vice, and the juft dilheartened at the firft obftacle which ftands in the way of doing good ! . . . , But fqch is the human heart : luccefs intoxicates it to prefumption, dilap- pointment dejects and terrifies it. Always the victim of the i'enfation of the moment, it judges not of tilings by their nature but by the impulfe of paffion. . . . Mortal, who defpaireft of the human race, upon what profound calculation of reafonings and events is your judgment formed ? Have you fcru- tinized the organization of fenfible beings, to determine with precifion whether the fprings that incline them to happinefs are weaker than thofe which repel ? or rather, viewing REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. IO* viewing at a glance the hiftory of the fpecies, and judging of the future by the example of the paft, have you hence difcovered with certainty, that all proficiency is impoilibie ? Let me afk : Have focieties, lince their origin, made no ftep towards in ft ruction and a better ftate of things ? Are men ftill in the woods, deftitute of every thing, igno- rant, ftupid, and ferocious ? Are there no . nations advanced beyond the period, when nothing was to be feen upon the face of the globe but (avage freeboo'ters or favage ilaves ? If individuals have at certain times, and in certain places, become better, why mould not the mafs improve ? If particular focieties have attained a coniiderable degree of per- fection, why fhould not the progreis of the general fociety advance ? If firft obfcacles have been overcome, why mould fucceed- ing ones be infurmountabk ? But you are of opinion that the human race is degenerating? Guard yourfelf againft the illufion and paradoxes of mifanthropy. DifTatisfied with the prefent, man fuppofes in the paft a perfection which does not exift, and I0 6 A SURVEY OF THE and which is merely the difcolcration of his chagrin. He praiies the dead from enmity to the living, and employs the bones of the fathers as an instrument of chaflifement again ft the children. To eftablilh this principle of a retrograde perfection, it is necefTary that we mould con- tradict the testimony of facts and reafon. Nor is this all ; the fads of hiftory might indeed be equivocal, but it is farther necef- fary that we mould contradict the living fact of the nature of man ; that we mould aflbrt that he is born with a perfect fcience in the ufe of his fenfes ; that, previous to expe- rience, he is able to diftinguilh poifon from aliment ; that the fagacity of the infant is greater than that of his bearded progenitor; that the blind man can walk with more affunince than the man endued with light ; that man, the creature of civilization, is lets favoured by circumflances than the canni- bal; in a word, that there is no truth in the efcifting gradation of infraction and ex- perience. Ycung ir.an, believe the voice of tombs and REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 107 and the teftimony of monuments. There are countries which have doubtlefs fallen off from what they were at certain epochas : but if the understanding were to analyfe thoroughly the wifdom and felicity of their inhabitants at thofe periods, their glory would be found to have lefs of reality than of fplendour; it would be feen, that even in the moft celebrated ftates of antiquity, there exifted enormous vices and cruel abufes, the precife caufe of their instability ; that in general the principles of government were atrocious ; that, from people to people, audacious robbery, barbarous wars, and im- placable animoiities were prevalent (#) ; that natural right was unknown ; that morality was perverted by fenfelefs fanaticifm and de- plorable fuperftition ; that a dream, a vilion, ail oracle, were the frequent occafion of the moil terrible commotions. Nations are not perhaps yet free from the power of thefe evils ; but their force is at leaft diminiihed, and the experience of part times has not been wholly loft. Within the three laft ' centuries efpeciaily, the light of knowledge has I -.5 A SURVEY OF THE has been increafed and diileminated; civili- zation, aided by various happy circumstances, has perceptibly advanced, and even inconve- niences and abufes have proved advantageous to it : for ifconqueits have extended king- doms and ftates beyond due bounds, the people of different countries, uniting under the fame yoke, have loft that fpirit of ei- trangement and divifion which made them all enemies to one another. If the hands of power have been ftrengthened, an additional degree of fyftem and harmony has at leaf! been introduced in its exercife. If wars have become more general in the mafs of their influence and operation, they have been lefs deftruclive in their details. If the peo- ple carry to the combat lefs perfonality and lefs exertion, their ftruggles are lefs fangui- nary and ferocious. If they are lefs free, they are lefs turbulent ; if they are more effeminate, they are more pacific. Defpo- tifm itfelf feems not to have been unpro- ductive of advantages : for if the govern- ment has been abfolute, it has been lefs per- turbed and tempcftuous; if thrones have been REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. been regarded as hereditary property, they have excited lefs dilTention, and expofed the people to fewer convulficns j inline, if clef- pots, with timid and myfterious jealoufy have interdi the fpecies at large, particularly in certain countries, have been evidently gainers : nor can this improvement fail to proceed, fince its two principal obftacles, thofe which have hitherto rendered it fo llow, and frequently retrograde, the diffi- culty of tranfmitting ideas from age to age, and communicating them rapidly from man to" man, have been removed. With 110 A SURVEY OF THE With the people of antiquity, every can- ton and every city, having a language pecu- liar to itfelf, flood aloof from the reft, and the refult was favourable to ignorance and anarchy : they had no communication of idtas, no participation of discoveries, no harmony of interefts or of will, no unity of action or conduct. Befide, the only means of diffafing and tranfmitting ideas being that of fpeech, fugitive and limited, and that of writing, flow of execution, expenfivc, and acquired by few, there refulted an ex- treme difficulty as to inilruclion in the firfl inftance, the lofs of advantages one genera- tion might derive from the experience of another, inftability, retrogradation of fci- ence, and one unvaried fcene of chaos and childhood. On the contrary, in the modern world, and particularly in . Europe, great nations having allied themfelves by a fort of uni- verfal language, the firm of opinion has been placed upon a broader bails ; the minds of men have fympathifed, their hearts have en- larged ; we have feen agreement in think- ing, and concord in ailing: in fine, that 2 facred REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. Ill facred art, that memorable gift of celefKal genius, the prefs, furnifhed a means of com- municating, of diffufing at one inftant any idea to millions of the fpecies, and of giving it a permanence which all the power of ty- rants has been able neither to fufpend nor to fupprefs. Hence has the vaft mafs of innru'ftion perpetually increafed ; hence has the atmofphere of truth continually grown brighter, and a ftrength of mind been pro- duced that is in no fear of counteraction. And this improvement is the neceffary effect of the laws of nature; for by the law of fenfation, man as invincibly tends to make himfelf happy, as the flame to afcend, the flone to gravitate, the water to gain its level. His ignorance is the obftacle which mifleads him as to the means, and deceives him re- i peeling caufes and effects. By force of experience he will become enlightened; by force of errors he will fet himfelf ri^ht; he O ' will become wife and good, becaufe it is his intereft to be fo : and ideas communicating themfelves through a nation, whole claffe* will be inftructed, fcience will be univer- fally 112 A SURVEY OF THE Jally familiar, and all men will underhand what are the principles of individual happi- neis and of public felicity -, they will under- hand what are their refpe&ive relations, their rights, and their duties, in the focial order; they will no longer be the dupes of inordinate defire ; they will perceive that morality is a branch of the fcience of phy- fics, compofed it is true of elements com- plicated in their operation, but fimple and invariable in their nature, as being no other than the elements of human organization it- felf. They will feel the necefTity of being moderate and juft, becaufe therein confiftp the advantage and fecurity of each ; that to wifh to enjoy at the expence of another is a falfe calculation of ignorance, becaufe the refult of fuch proceeding, are reprifals, en- mity, and revenge; and that difhonefty is invariably the offspring of folly. Individuals will feel that private happi- nefs is allied to the happinefs of ibciety : The weak, that inftead of dividing their interefts, they ought to unite, becaufe equa- lity conilkutes their ftrength : The REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 113 The rich, that the rneafure of enjoyment Is limited by the conftitution of the organs, ;and that laffitude follows fatiety : The poor, that the higheft degree of hu- man felicity coniifts in peace of mind and the due employment of time : Public opinion, reaching kings on their thrones, will oblige them to keep themfelves within the bounds of a regular authority : Chance itfelr, ferving the caufe of nations, will give them fometimes incapable chiefs, who, through weakneh, will fuff^r them to become free ; and fometimes enlightened chiefs, who will virtuoufty emancipate them: Individuality will be a term of greater com- prehenfion, and nations, free and enlightened will hereafter become one complex individu- al, as iingle men are novv: the confequences will be proportioned to the ftate of things. The communication of knowledge will ex- fend from fociety to fociety, till it compre- hends the whole earth. Bvthe law of :mi- tation the example of one people will be followed by others, who will adopt its fpirit and its laws. Defpots themfelves, per- ceiving that they can no longer maintain I their 114 A SURVEY OF THE their power without juftice and beneficence, will be induced, both from neceffity and ri- valfliip, to foften the rigour of their govern- ment; and civilization will be univerfal. Among nations there will be eftablifhed an equilibrium of force, which, confining them within the limits of jufl refpect for their reciprocal rights, will put an end to the barbarous practice of war, and induce them to fubmit to civil arbitration the decifion of their difputes (/) ; and the whole fpecies will become one grand fociety, one individual family governed by the fame fpirit, by com- mon laws, and enjoying all the felicity of which human nature is capable. This great work will doubtlefs be long accomplifhing, becaufe it is neceffary that one and the fame motion mould be commu- nicated to the various parts of an immenfe body; that the fame' leaven fhould aflimilate an enormous mafs of heterogeneous elements : but this motion will effectually operate. Al- ready fociety at large, having pafled through the fame ftages as particular focieties have done, promifes to lead to the fame refults. At firft, diiconnected in its parts, each in- dividual REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES, 115 dividual flood alone -, and this intellectual folitnde conflituted its age of anarchy and childhood. Divided afterwards into fecflions of irregular fize, as chance directed, which have -been called i'tates and kingdoms, it has experienced the fatal effects which refult from the inequality of wealth and condi- tions ; and the ariftocracy by which great empires have domineered over their depen- dencies, have former* its fecond age. In pro^ cefs of time* thefe paramount chiefs of the globe have difputed with each other for fupe- rionty, and then was feen the period of fac- tions and civil broils. And now the parties, tired of their dilcords and feeling the want; of laws, figh for the epocha ot order and tran- quillity. Let but a virtuous chief arife, a powerful and juft people appear, and the earth will arrive at fupreme power. It waits a legiflative people -, this is the object of its wifhes and its prayers, and my heart hears its voice, i . . . Then turning to the quarter of the Weft : Yes, continued he, a hollow noife already ftrikes my ear j the cry of liberty, uttered upon the farther more of the Atlan- tic, has reached to the old continent. At J 2 this Jj6 A SURVEY OF THE this cry a fecret murmur againft oppreflion is excited in a powerful nation ; a falutary alarm takes place refpedting its fituation ; it enquires what it is and what it ought to be 5 it examines into its rights, its refources, and what has been the conduct of its chiefs .... One day, one reflection more .... and an immenie agitation will arife, a new age will make its appearance, an age of afloniihment to vulgar minds, of furprife and dread to tyrants, of emancipation to a great people, and of hope to the whole world. CHAP, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. I IJ CHAP. XIV. GRAND OBSTACLE TO IMPROVEMENT. J H E Genius ftopt. My mind however, preoccupied with gloomy forebodings, yield- ed not to perfuafion ; but fearful of offend- ing him by oppofition, I made no reply. After a mort interval; fixing on me a look that tranfpierced my foul : You are filent, faid he, and your heart is agitated with thoughts which it dares not utter ! Con- fufed and terrified : O Genius, I made an- fwer, pardon my weaknefs : truth alone has doubtlefs proceeded from your lips; but your celeftial intelligence can diftinguifh its traits, where to my grofs faculties there appear no- thing but clouds. I acknowledge it, con- viction has not penetrated my foul, and I feared that my doubts might give you of- fence. And what is doubt, replied he, that it fhould be regarded as a crime ? Has man the power of thinking contrary to the im- preflions that are made upon him? If a truth I 3 be fl8 A SURVEY OF THE be palpable, and its obfervance important, let us pity the man who does not perceive it : hi pur.imment will infallibly fpring from his blindnefs. If it be uncertain and equivocal, how is he to find in it what does not exift ? To believe without evidence and demonftra- tion is an aft of ignorance and folly. The credulous man involves himfelf in a labyrinth of contradictions; the man of fenfe examines and difcufies every queftion, that he may be confident in his opinions ; he can endure con- tradiction, becaufefrom the collilion evidence arifes. Violence is the argument of falfe- hood j and to impofe a creed authoritatively, is the index and proceeding of a tyrant. Emboldened by thefe fentiments, I re- plied : O Genius, fince my reafon is free, I ftrive.in vain to welcome the flattering hope with which you would conlble me. The fenfible and virtuous foul is prone enough to be hurried away by dreams of fancied hap- pinefs ; but a cruel reality inceiTantly recals its attention to fufFering and wretchednefs. The more I meditate on the nature of man, the more I examine the prefent ftateof focie- ty, the .lefs poflible does it appear to me that REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 119 that a world of wifdom and felicity mould ever be realized. I furvey the face of our \vhole hemifphere, and no where can I per- ceive the germ of a happy revolution. All Afia is buried in the moft profound dark- nefs. The Chinefe, fubjected to an info- lent defpotifm (z), dependent for their for- tune upon the deciiion of lots, and held in awe by ftrokes of the bamboo, enilaved by the immutability of their code, and by the irremediable vice of their language, offer to my view an abortive civilization and a race of automata. The Indian, fettered by pre- judice, and manacled by the inviolable infti- tution of his calls, vegetates in an incurable apathy. The Tartar, wandering or fixed, at all times ignorant and ferocious, lives in the barbarity of his anceflors. The Arab, endowed with a happy genius, lofes its force and the fruit of his labour in the anarchy of his tribes, and the jealoufy of his families. The African, degraded from the llate of man, feems irremediably devoted to fervi- tude. In the North I fee nothing but ferfs, reduced to the level of cattle, the live flock pf the eflate upon which they live ( i ). Ig- I 4 norance, 120 A SURVEY OF THE norance, tyranny, and wretchednefs have every where ilruck the nations with itupor j and vicious hahiis, depraving the natural fenfes, have deftroyed the very inftind: of happinefs and truth. In fome countries of Europe, indeed, reaion begins to expand its wings y but even there, is the knowledge of individual minds common to the nation ? Has the fuperiority of the government been turned to the advantage of the people ? And thefe people, who call themfelves polimed, are they not thofe who three centuries ago filled the earth with their injuflice ? Are they not thole who, under the pretext of com- merce, laid India wafte, difpeopled a new continent, and who at prefent fubjecl: Africa to the moft inhuman flavery ? Can liberty fpring up out of the bofom of defpots, and juftice be adminiftered by the hands of ra- pacity and avarice ? O Genius ! I have be- htld civilized countries, and the illufion of their, wifdom has vanished from my fight. I faw riches accumulated in the hands of a few individuals, and the multitude poor and deftitute. I faw all right and power concentered in certain dalles, and the mafs of REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 121 of the people paffive and dependent. I faw the palaces of princes, but no incorporation of individuals as fach, no common-hall of nations. I perceived the deep attention that was given to the interests of government; but no public intereft, no fympathetic fpirit. I faw that the whole fcience of thofewho com- mand confifted in prudently opprefiing; and the refined fervitude of polimed nations only appeared to me the more irremediable. With one obftacle in particular my mind was fenfibly ftruck. In Purveying the globe* I perceived that it was divided into twenty different fyftems of religious worfhip. Each nation has received, or formed for itfelf, op- pofite opinions, and afcribing to itielf ex- clufively the truth, has imagined every other to be in error. But if, as is the fact, in this difcordance the majority deceive them- felves, and deceive themfelves with fincerity, it follows that the human mind as readily imbibes falfehood as truth; and in that cafe how is it to be enlightened ? How are preju- dices to be extirpated that firft take root in the mind ? How is the bandage to be re- moved from the eyes, when the firft article in 122 A SURVEY OF THE in every creed, the firft dogma of all religions, is the prcfcription of doubt, of examination, and of the right of private judgment? How is truth to make itfelf known ? If fhe refort to the demonstration of argument, pu'lilla- nimous man appeals againft evidence to his confcience. If me call in the aid of divine authority, already prepoilefled, he oppofes an authority of a fimilar kind, and treats all in- novation as blafphemy. Thus, in his blind- nefs, riveting the chains upon himfelf, does he become the fport of his ignorance and pamons. To diflblve thefe fatal mackles, a miraculous concurrence of happy circum- fiances would be neceflary. It would be necefTary that a whole nation, cured of the delirium of fuperftition, mould no longer be liable to the impreffions of fanaticifm; that, freed from the yoke of a falfe doctrine, it mould voluntarily embrace the genuine fyf- tem of morality and reafon; that it mould be- come at once courageous and prudent, wife and docile j that every individual, acquainted with his rights, mould fcrupuloufly obferve their limits; and the poor mould know how to refill reduction, and the rich the allure- ments REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 123 ments of avarice; that there mould be found upright and difinterefted chiefs ; that its tyrants ihould be feized with a fpirit of madnefs and folly ; that the people, reco- vering their powers, fhould perceive their inability to exercife them, and confent to appoint delegates ; that having firft created their magiftrates, they fhould know both how to refpeft and how to judge them; that in the rapid renovation of a whole nation pervaded with abufe, each individual, re- moved from his former habits, fhould fuffer patiently the pains and felf-denials annexed; in fine, that the nation mould have the cou- rage to conquer its liberty, the wifdom to fecure it, the power to defend it, and the ge- nerofity to communicate it. Can fober judg- ment expect this combination of circum- fiances ? Should fortune in the infinite va- riety of her caprices produce them, is it likely that I mould live to fee that day ? Will not this frame long before that have mouldered in the tomb ? Here, opprefled with forrow, my heart deprived me of utterance. The Genius made po reply; but in a low tone of voice I heard hiir J24 A SURVEY OF THE him fay to himfelf: " Let us revive the hope " of this man; for if he who loves his fellow- " creatures be fufTered to defpair, what is to " become of nations ? The paft is perhaps " but too much calculated to dejed him. " Let us then anticipate futurity; let us un- " veil the aftonilhing age that is about to " arife, that virtue, feeing the end of its " wifhes, animated with new vigour, may " redouble its efforts to haften the accQm.T plifhment of it," CHAP. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. I2J CHAP. XV. NEW AGE. OCARCELY had the Genius uttered to himfelf thefe words than an immenfe noife proceeded from the Weft, and turning my eyes to that quarter, I perceived at the extre- mity of the Mediterranean, in the country of one of the European nations, a prodigious movement, fimilar to what exifts in the bo- fom of a large city when, pervaded withfedi- tion, an innumerable people, like waves, fluc- tuate in the fhreets and public places. My ear, ftruck with their cries, which afcend^ ed to the very heavens, diftjnguimed at in- tervals thefe phrafes : thefe are our.inviolable code, " thefe names mall infcribe our ftandard." Immediately the people raifed a mighty flandard, varied v/ith three colours, and upon which thofe three words were written. They unfurled it over the throne of the legiflators, and now for the firft time the fymbol of univerfal and equal jufHce appeared upon the earth. In front of the throne the peo- ple built an altar, on which they placed gol- den fcales, a fword, and a book, with this legend: 140 A SURVEY OF THE legend: TO EQ^JAL LAW, THE PROTEC- TOR, AND THE JUDGE. They then drew round the throne a vaft amphitheatre, and the nation feated itielf to hear the publica- tion of the law. Millions of men, in a to be divided into more than eight or ten different fyflems of religion, and I then defpaired of conciliation : how can I now hope for concord when I behold thoufands of different parties! Thefe, however, re- plied the Genius, are but a part of what exift; and yet they would be intolerant ! As the groupes advanced to take their fta- tions, the Genius, pointing out to me the fymbols and attributes of each, thus explain- ed to me their meaning. That firfl groupe, faid he, with a green ftandard, on which you fee difplayed a crofs, a bandage, and a fabre, is formed of the fol- lowers of the Arabian prophet. To believe in a God (without knowing what he is) ; to have faith in the words of a man (without underffonding the language in which he fpeaks) ; to travel into a defert in order to pray to the Deity (who is every where); to wafh the hands with water (and not abftain from blood) ; to faft all day (and practife intemperance at night) ; to give alms of their own property (and to plunder the property of their neighbour) : fuch are the means of perfection inftituted by Mahomet, fuch the 156 A SURVEY OF THE fignals and characterises of his true fol- lowers ; and whoever profefTes not thefe tenets, is considered as a reprobate, has the iacred anathema denounced againft him, and Is devoted to the /word. A God of clemency, the author of life, has, according to them, inftituted thefe laws of oppreffion and mur- der ; has inftituted them for the whole uni- verfe, though he has condefcended to reveal ihem but to one man ; has eftabliihed them from all eternity, though they were made lna\vn by him but yeflerday. Thde laws sreiurricient for all the purpofes of life, and yet a volume is added to them ; this volume v/cs to diffufe I'-ght, to exhibit evidence, to lead to perfection and happinefs, arid yet, in the very life-time of its prophet, its pages, bounding with obicure, am- biguous, and c fiory paflages, needed explanation ar.d commentaries ; and the per- ior.s who undertook to interpret them, vary- ing in opinion, Became divided into fedls and parties oppcfite and inimical to each other. One maintains that Ali is the true fuccefTor, and another takes the part of Omar and Aboubekre. This denies the eternity of the Koran, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 1^7 Koran, that the necefiky of ablutions and prayers. The Carmite profcribes pilgri- mage, and allows the ufe of wine ; the Hake- mite preaches the doctrine of tranfmigration, and thus are there feels to the number of fe- venty-two, of which you may enumerate the different fbmdards (6). In this dlfcord- ance, each afcribing the evidence exclufively to itfelf, and ftigmatizing the reft with he- refy and rebellion, has turned againft them its fanguinary zeal. And this religion, which celebrates a beneficent and merciful God, the common parent of the whole human race, converted irito a torch of difcord and an in- centive to war, has never ceafed for twelve hundred years to whelm the earth in blood, and fpread ravage and delblation from one extremity of the ancient hemiiphere to the other (7). The men you fee diilinguimed by their vaft white turbans, their hanging fl eeves and long rofaries, are the Imans, the Mollas, and the Muftis ; and not far from them ars the Dervifes with a pointed bonnet, and the Santons with their facred tonfure. They utter with vehemence their feveral confef- fions 158 A SURVEY O? Tttfi fions of faith ; they difpute with eagerne/3 refpecting the more orlefs important fources of impurity ; the mode of performing ablu^ tions j the attributes and perfections of God) the Chaitan and the good and evil Genii } death ; the refurre&ion ; the interrogatory which fucceeds the tomb ; the paflage of the perilous bridge, and its hair-breadth efcapes j the balance of good and bad works ; the pains of hell, and the joys of paradife. By the fide of thefe, that ftill more nu- merous groupe, with jftandards of a white ground ftrewed with croffes, confifts of the worfhippers of Jefus. Acknowledging the fame God as the MufTulmans, founding their belief on the fame books, admitting like them a firft man, who loft the whole human race by eating an apple, they yet feel to- wards them a holy horror; and from motives of piety, thefe two feels reciprocally treat each other as impious men and blafphemers. Their chief point of diffenfion is, that the Chriftian, after admitting the unity and in^ diviiibility of God, proceeds to divide him into three perfons, making of each an entire and complete God, and yet preferving an identical REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. identical whole : he adds, that this Being, who fills the univerfe, reduced himfelf to the ftature and form of a man, and aiTumed material, perimable, and limited organs, without ceafing to be immaterial, eternal, and infinite. The MufTulman, on the contrary, not able to comprehend thefe myfteries, though he readily conceives of the eternity of the Koran, and the miffion of the prophet, treats them as abfurdities, and rejects them, as the vifions of a difordered brain. Hence refult the moft implacable animofities. Divided among themfelves, the Chriftian feels are not lefs numerous than thofe of the MuiTulman religion ; and the quarrels that agitate them are by fo much the more vio- lent, (ince the objects for which they contend being inacceffible to the fenfes, and of con- fequence incapable of demonftration, the opinions of each fectary can have no other foundation than that of his will or caprice. Thus agreeing that God is an incompre- henfible and unknown being, they neverthe- lefs difpute refpecting his efTence, his mode of acting, and his attributes. Agreeing that his fuppofed transformation into man, is an enigma l6o A SURVEY OF THE enigma above the human under Handing, they ftill difpute reflecting the confufion or the distinction of two wills and two natures, the change of fubftance, the real or fictitious prefence, the mode of incarnation, &c. 6cc. Hence innumerable fedts, of which two or three hundred have already perilled, and three or four hundred others ilill exift, and are reprefented by that multitude of colours in which your fight is bewildered. The firft in order, furrounded by a groupe abfurd and difcordant in their attire, red, purple, black, white, and fpeckled, with heads whol- ly or partially maved, or with their hair fhort, with red caps, fquare caps, here with mitres, there with beards, is the flandard of the Roman pontiff, who, applying to the prieft- hood the pre-eminence of his city in the civil order, has erected his fupremacy into a point of religion, and made of his pride an article of faith. At the right, you fee the Greek Pontiff, who, proud of the rivalfhip let up by his metropolis, oppofes equal preteniions, and fupports them againfl the Weftern church, by the fuperior antiquity of that of the Eaft. At REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. l6l At the left, are the Standards of two recent chiefs *, who, throwing off a yoke that was become tyrannical, have, in their reform, erected altars againft altars, and gained half Europe from the Pope. Behind them are the inferior fects into which thefe grand parties are again fubdivided, the Neftorians, the Eutycheans, the Jacobites, the Icono- clafts, the Anabaptifts, the Prefbyterians, the Wiclifites, the Ofiandrins, the Manicheans, the Pietifts, the Adamites, the Enthufiafts, the Quakers, the Weepers, together with a hundred others (8)5 all of diftinct parties, of a perfecuting fpirit when ftrong, tolerant when weak, hating each other in the name of a God of peace, forming to themfelves an exclufive paradife in a religion of univerfal charity, each dooming the reft, in another world, to endlefs torments, arid realizing here the imaginary hell of futurity. Next to this groupe, obferving a fingle ilandard of a hyacinth colour, round which were gathered men in all the various drefles of Europe and Afia : Here, faid I to the Genius, we mall at leaft .find unanimity. * Luther and Calvin. M At A SURVEY OF THE At firft fight, replied he, and from an in- cidental and temporary circumftance this would feem to be the cafe : but do you not know what fyftem of worfhip it is ? Then perceiving in Hebrew letters the mono- gram of God, and branches of the palm- tree in the hands of the Rabbins ; Are not thefe, faid I, the children of Mofes, difperfed ever the earth, and who, holding every na- tion in abhorrence, have been themfelves univerfally defpifed and perfecuted ? Yes, replied the Genius, and it is for this very reafoh that, having neither time nor liberty to dtfpute, they have prelerved the appear- ance of unanimity. But in their re-union^ no fooner mall they compare their princi- ples, and reafon upon their opinions, than they will be divided, as formerly, at leaft into- two principal fedts *, one of which, taking advantage of the filence of their legiflator, and confining itielf to the literal fenfe of his books, will deny every dogma not therein clearly underflood, and of confequence will reject as inventions, the immortality of the foul, its transmigration into an abode of hap- * The Sadducees and the Pharifees. pinefs- REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 163 pincfs or feat of pain, its refurrection, the laft judgment, the exiftence of angels, the revolt of a fallen fpirit, and the poetical fyf- tem of a world to come : and this favoured people, whofe perfection confifls in the cut- ting orT a morfel of their flelli, this atom of people that in the ocean of mankind is but as a ihiall wave, and that pretends that the whole was made for them alone, will far- ther reduce by one half, in confequence of their fchifm, their already trivial weight in the baknce of the univerfe. The Genius then directed my attention to another groupe, the individuals of which were clothed in white robes, had a veil co- vering the mouth, and were ranged round a ftandard of the colour of the clouds gilded by the riling fun. On this ftandard was painted a globe, one hemifphere of which was black and the other white. The fate of thefe difciples of Zoroafter (9), conti- nued he, this obfcure remnant of a people once fo powerful, will be fimilar to that of the Jews. Difperfed as they are at prefent among other nations, and perfecuted by all, they receive without difcuflion the precepts M 2 that 164 A SURVEY OF THE that are taught them : but fo foon as their Mobed and their Devours (10) mall be reftored to their full prerogatives, the con- troverfy will be revived refpecting the good and the bad principle, the combats of Or- muz, God of light, and Ahrimanes, God of darknefs ; the literal or allegorical fenfes of thefe combats -, the good and evil Genii ; the worfhip of fire and the elements -, pol- lution and purification ; the refurrection of the body, or the foul, or both (n); the renovation of the prefent world, or the pro- duction of a new which is to fucceed it. The Parfes will ever divide themfelves into fects, by fo much the more numerous as their families mall have contracted different manners or opinions during their difperfion. Next to thefe are ftandards which exhibit upon a blue ground monftrous figures of human bodies, double, triple, or quadruple, with the heads of lions, boars, and elephants, and tails of rimes, tortoifes, &c. Thefe are the ftandards of the Indian fects, who find their Gods amidft the animal creation, and the fouls or' their kindred in reptiles and infects. Ihefe men anxioufly fupport hof- pitals REVOLUTIONS OF E.MPIRES. 165 pitals for the reception of hawks, ferpents, and rats, and look, with horror upon their brethren of mankind ! They purify them - felves with the dung and urine of a cow, and conlider themfelves as polluted by the touch of a heretic ! They wear a net over their mouths, .left by accident a fly mould get down their throat, and they Ihould thus interrupt the progrefs of a purified fpirit in Its purgatory ; but with all this humanity in unintelligible cafes, they think themfelves obliged to let a Paria (12) perifh with hun- ger rather than relieve him ! They wormip the fame Gods, but inlift themfelves under hoftile ftandards. This firft ftandard, feparated from the raft, and on which you fee reprefented a figure with four heads, is the ftandard of Brama, who, though the Creator of the univerfe, has neither followers nor temples, and who, reduced to ferve as a pedeftal to the Lingatn (13), receives no other mark of attention than a little water fprinkled every morning over his moulder by the Bramin, and a barren fong in his praife. The fecond ftandard on which you fee M 3 painted j66 A SURVEY OF THE painted a kite, his body fcarlet and his head white, is that of the Vichenou, who, though preferver of the univerfe, has patted a part of his life in malevolent actions. Some- times you fee him under the hideous forms of a boar and a lion tearing the entrails of mankind ; fometimes under that of a horfe (14), foon to appear upon the face of the earth, with a fabre in his hand, to deflroy the prefent inhabitants of the world, to darken the ftars, to drive the planets from their fpheres, to make the whole earth, and to oblige the mighty ferpent to vomit a flame which mall confume the globes. The third ftandard is that of Chiven, the deftroyer of all things, the God of defola- tion, and who neverthelefs has for his em- blem the inftrument of production ; he is the moft deteftable of the three, and he has the greateft number of followers. Proud of his attribute and character, his partizans in their devotions (15) exprefs every fort of contempt for the other Gods, his equals and his brothers, and imitating the incon- fiftency that charafterifes him, they profefs modefly and chaflity, and at the fame time publicly REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 167 publicly crown with flowers, and bathe with milk and honey, the obfcene image of the Lingam. Behind them came the lefs magnificent ftandards of a multitude of Gods, male, fe- male, and hermaphrodite, related to and connected with the three principal, who pafs their lives in inteftine war, and are in this refpect imitated by their worfhippers. Thefe Gods have need of nothing, and receive of- ferings witheut ceaiing. Their attributes are omnipotence and ubiquity, and a Bramin with fome petty charm imprifons them in an image, or in a pitcher, and retails their favours according to his will and pleafure. At a ftill greater diftance you will obferve a multitude of other ftandards, which, upon a yellow ground, common to them all, have different emblems figured, and are the ftand- ards of one God, who, under various names, is acknowledged by the nations of the I^afL The Chinefe worihip him under the name of Fot (16) ; the Japanefe denominate him Budfo ; the inhabitants of Ceylon, Beddhou-, the people of Laos, Cbekia -, the Peguan, fbta; the Siamefe, Sommona-Kodotn , the M 4 people 168 A SURVEY OF THE people of Thibet, Budd and La\ all of them agree as to moft points of his hiftory ; they celebrate his penitence, his fuffe rings, his fafts, his functions of mediator and expiator, the enmity of another God his adverfary, the combats of that adverfary and his de- feat: but they difagree refpecting the means of recommending themfelves to his favour, refpecting rites and ceremonies, refpecting the dogmas of their interior and their public doctrine. Thus the Japanefe Bonze, in a yellow robe, and with his head uncovered, preaches the eternity of fouls and their fuc- ceffive tranfmigration into different bodies ; while his rival, the Sintoift, denies that the foul can exift independently of the fenfes (17), and maintains that it is the mere re- fult of the organization with which it is connected, and with which it perifhes, as the found of a flute is annihilated when you break it in pieces. Near him the Siamefe, with fhaved eye-brows, and with the Ta- lipat fcreen in his hand (18), recommends alms-giving, purifications and offerings, at the very time that he believes in blind ne- ceffity and immutable fate. The Chinefe Ho-Chang REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 169 Ho-Chang facrifices to the fouls of his an- ceflors, while his neighbour, the follower of Confucius, pretends to difcover his future deftiny by the toffing of counters and the conjunction of the ftars (19). Obferve thib infant attended by a numerous crowd 'of priefts with yellow garments and bonnets : he is the grand Lama, and the God of Thi- bet has juft become incarnate in his perfon (20). He however has a rival on the banks of the Baikal $ nor is the Calmuc Tartar in this refpedt any way behind the Tartar of La-fa. They are agreed 'in this important dodtrine, that God can become incarnate only in a human body, and fcorn the ftupi- dity of the Indian, who looks down with reverence upon cow- dung, though they themfelves preferve with no lefs awe the excrements of their pontiff (21). As thefe ftandards parTed, an innumerable crowd of others prefented themfelves to our eyes, and the Genius exclaimed : I mould never come to a conclufion, were I to detail to you all the different fyftems of belief which divide thefe nations. Here the Tartar Hordes adore, under the figure of animals, infe&s, A SURVEY OF THE infeds, and birds, the good and the evil Genii, who, under a principal but indolent divinity, govern the univerfe, by their ido- latry giving us an image of the ancient pa- ganifm of the weitern world. You fee the ftrange drefs of their Chamans, a robe of leather fringed with little bells and rattles, embroidered with idols of iron, claws of birds, fkins of ferpents, and heads of owls : they are agitated with artificial convullions, and with magical cries evoke the dead to deceive the living. In this place you be- hold the footy inhabitants of Africa, who, while they wormip their Fetiches, entertain the fame opinions. The inhabitant of Juida adores God under the figure of an enormous ferpenr, which for their misfortune the fwine regard as a delicious morfel (22). The Teleutean dreffes the figure of his God in a variety of gaudy colours, like a Ruffian foldier ; and the Kamchadale, find- ing that every thing goes on ill in this world and under his climate, reprefents God to himfelf under the figure of an ill-natured and arbitrary old man (23), fmoking his pipe and fitting in his traineau employed hi the REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. the hunting of foxes and martins. In fine, there are a hundred'other favage nations* who, entertaining none of thefe ideas of civilized countries refpeding God, the foul, and a future ilate ; exercife no fpecies of worfhip, and yet are not lefs favoured with the gifts of nature, in the irreligion to which nature has deftined them. CHAP, 2/2 A SURVEY OF THE C H A P. XXL pROBLtM OF DELICIOUS CONTRADIC- TIONS. TILE different groupes having taken their fhtions, and- profound filence iucceeding to the confufed uproar of the multitude, the legislators faid; " Chiefs and doftors of the " people ! you perceive how the various (( nations of mankind, living apart, have hi^ " therto purfued different paths, each be- " lieving its own to be that of truth. If " truth, however, is one, and your opinions " are oppofite, it is manifeft that ibme of " you muft be in error : and (ince fo many " men deceive themfelves, what individual " (hall dare fay, I am not miftaken ? Begin, " then, by being indulgent refpecfting your " difputes and diflentions. Let us all feek " truth, as if none of us had pofTeiTion of it. " The opinions which to this day have go- " verned the earth, produced by chance, " difleminated in obfcurity, admitted with- " out difcuflion, credited from a love of " novelty REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 173 " novelty and imitation, have in a manner " clandeftinely ufurped their empire. It is " time, if they are founded in reality, to " give them the folemn ftamp of certainty, " and to legitimate their exiftence. Let us " this day cite them to a common and ge- " neral examination ; let each make known " his creed ; let the united aflembly be the "judge, and let us acknowledge that to be *' the only true one, which is proper for the " whole human race." Then, in order of pofition, the firft ftand- ard at the left being defired to fpeak : " There can be no doubt," faid they, " that '* ours is the only true and infallible doc- " trine. In the firft place, it is revealed by God himfelf." " So alfo is ours," exclaimed all the other ftandards, " and there can be no room for " doubt." " But it is at leaft necefi'ary to explain it," faid the legiilators, " for it is impoffible for w us to believe any , thing of which we are " ignorant." " Our doctrine," refumed the firft ftand- ard, " is proved by numerous fadls, by a " crowd of miracles, by refurre cations from " the 174 A SURVEY OF THE * the dead, by torrents fuddenly dried up, " mountains removed from their iituations, &c. &c." " We alfo," cried the reft, " are in poflef- " fion of miracles without number /'and each began to recite the moft incredible things. " Their miracles," replied the firft ftand- ard, " are imaginary, or the preftiges of the " evil fpirit who has deluded them." To this it was anfwered by the others : " They are yours, on the contrary, that are " imaginary $" and each fpeaking of himfelf added : " Ours are the only true ones, all " other miracles are falfe." " Have you living witnefles of their " truth ?" the legiflators afked. " No," they.univerfally anfwered : " they " are ancient facts, of which the witneiTes " are dead, but thefe facts are recorded." " Be it fo," replied the legiflators : " but " as they contradict each other, who {hall " reconcile them ?" " Juft arbiters !" cried one of the ftand- ards, " as a proof that our witneiTes have " feen the truth, they died in confirmation ' of it ; and our creed is fealed with the " blood of martyrs." " So REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. " So alfo is ours," exclaimed the reft : " we have thoufands of martyrs, who have " died in the moft agonizing tortures, with- " out in a fmgle inftance abjuring the truth." And the Chriflians of every fed:, the Muf- fulmans, the Indians, the Japanefe, recount- ed endlefs legends of confeflbrs, martyrs, penitents, &c. One of thefe parties having denied the marry rology of the others : " We are ready," cried they, " to die ourfelves to prove the " infallibility of our creed/' Inftantly a crowd of men of every feet and of every religion, prefented themfelves to endure whatever torments might be in- flicted on them ; and numbers of them be- gan to tear their arms, and to beat their head and their breaft, without difcovering any fymptom of pain. But the legiflators putting a ftop to this violence: " O men!" faid they to them, cried every groupe, " who thus gratuitoufly " commits outrage? By what right does he " pretend, as conqueror and tyrant, to im- . " pofe his creed on mankind ? Has not God " created us as well as him with eyes, under- " ftanding,andreafon ? Have we notan equal " right to make ufe of them in determining This paflage contains the fenfe and nearly the very words of the firft chapter of the Koran ; and the reader will obferve in general, that, in the pidures that follow, the writer has endeavoured to give as accurately as poflible the letter and fpirit of the opinions of each party. " what REYOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. IJ<) ff what we ought to reject, and what to be- " lieve ? If he have the right to attack, have *' not we the right to defend ourfelves? If he " be content to believe without examination, " are we therefore not to 'employ our reafon *' in the choice of our creed ? " And what is thisjp/endiddo&rme which " fears the light? What this apoftle of a God " of clemency who preaches only carnage " and murder? What this God ofjufticewho " punimes a blindnefs which himfelf has " caufed ? If violence and perfecution are the '* arguments of truth, mildnefs and charity " muft they be the indices of falfehood ?" A man advancing from the next groupe then faid to the Iman : < 6 Admitting that " Mahomet is the apoftle of the better doc- " trine, the prophet of the true religion, " condefcend to tell us s in pra6tifmg this " doclrine whom we are to follow, his fon- *' in-law All, or his vicars Omar and Abou- " bekre (24) ?" At the mention of thefe names a terrible fchifm arofe among the MufTulmans. The partifans of Omar and of Ali, treating each other as heretics and blafphemers, were N 2 equally A SURVEY OF THE equally lavifh of execrations. The difpute even became fo violent, that it wa& neceiTary for the neighbouring groupes to interpofe to prevent their coming to blows. > Some degree of tranquillity being at length refiored, the legiflators faid to the Imans : " You fee what are the confequences which " re Cult from your principles ! were they " carried into practice, you would by your " enmity deftroy each other till not an in- 4t dividual would remain : and is it not the " firft law of God, that man fhould live ?" Then addrefling themfelves to the other groupes : " This fpirit of intolerance and " exclufion," faid they, " is doubtlefs ihock- " ing to every idea of juftice, and deftroys " the whole bafis of morals and fociety: (hall " we not, however, before we entirely reject ' this code, agree to hear fome of its dogmas " recited, that we may not decide from ' forms only, without having inveftigated " the religion itfelf?" The groupes having confented to the pro- pofal, the Iman began to explain to them how God, who before time had fpoken to the nations funk in idolatry by twenty-four thoufand REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. l8l thoufand prophets, had at length fent the laft, the extract and perfection of all the reft, Mahomet, in whom was vefted the falvation of peace : he informed them that to prevent the word of truth from being any more per- verted by infidels, the divine clemency had written with its own fingers the chapters of the Koran ; and that the Koran, by virtue of its character of the word of God, was, like its author, uncreated and eternal. He proceeded to explain to them the dogmas of Iflamifm; that this book had been tranfmitted from heaven leaf by leaf in twenty-four thoufand miraculous vifions of the angel Gabriel; that the angel announced his approach by a fmall frill knocking, which threw the prophet into a cold fweatj that Mahomet had in one night traverfed ninety heavens, mounted upon the animal called Borak,one half woman and one half horfe ; that being endowed with the gift ( of miracles, he walked in the funmjne unattended by a fhadow, caufed with a fingle word trees already withered to refume their verdure, filled the wells and the citterns with water, and cut in two equal parts the body of the moon; that, authorized by a commirlion N 3 from A SURVEY OF THE from heaven, he had propagated, fword in hand, a religion the moft worthy of God for its fublimity,the mofl fuitable to man for the fimplicity of its injunctions, confifting indeed only of eight or ten principal dodrines, fuch as the unity of God; the authority of Maho- met, the only prophet of God ; our duty to pray five times in a day ; to faft one month in the year; to repair to Mecca once at leaft in our lives ; to pay the tenth of all that we poffefs ; to drink no wine, to eat no pork, and to make war upon the infidels (25) ; upon which conditions every Muffblman, be- ing himfelf an apoftle and a martyr, mould enjoy in this life a thoufand bleffings, and in the world to come, after a folemn trial, his foul being weighed in the balance of good works, his abfolution pronounced by the two black angels, and hisprogrefs performed over the bridge that croffes the infernal pit, as nar- row as a hair and as keen as a razor, mould be received in the feat of delights, bathed in rivers of milk and honey, embalmed in the perfumes of India and Arabia, and live in uninterrupted commerce with thofe chafte females, the celeflial Houris, who prefent a perpetually REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 183 perpetually renewed virginity to the elect, who preferve a perpetual vigour. An involuntary fmile was vifible in the countenance of every one at this relation ; and the various groupes, reafoningupon theie articles of belief, unanimoufly faid : " Is it " poffible for reafonable beings to have faith " in fuch reveries ? Might one not fuppofc *' that a chapter had been juft read to us , REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 197 * pretenfions, you are, in your fpiritual and ** immaterial fyftem, only the blundering et followers of Zoroafter !" Having thus commenced his difcourfe, the Mobed went on to the detail of his religion ; and fupporting his fentiments by quotations from the Zadder and the Zendavefla, he re- counted in the fame order as they are found in the book of Genefis, the creation of the world in fix gabans (29) ; the formation of a rlrft man and a firfl woman in a peculiar and celefbial. habitation, under the reign of perfect good; the introduction of evil into the world by the great lizard, the emblem of Ahri manes > the revolt and combat of this magnificent genius of darknefs, againft Ormuz the be- nevolent God of light 5 the diftribution of angels into white and black, good and ill ; their hierarchy confiding of cherubim, fera- phim, thrones, dominions, &c. ; the end of the world at the clofe of fix thoufand years - 9 the coming of the Lamb, the regenerator of nature j the new world ; the life to come in an abode of felicity or anguim; the paflage of fouls over the bridge of the abyfs ; the celebration of the myfteries of Mithra ; the O 3 unleavened 198 A SURVEY OF THF; unleavened bread that is fet apart for the ini- tiated : the baptifrn of new-born children ; extreme imcticn and auricular confeffion (30) ; in a word, he repeated fo many arti- cles analogous to thofe of the three preced- ing religions, that his difcourfe feemed to be a commentary or a continuation of the Koran or the Apocalypfe. But the Jewiih, Chriftian, and Mahome- tan doctors excepted to this detail, and treat- ing the Parfes as idolatrous wormippers of fi;e, charged them with falfehood, invention, and alteration of facts. A violent difpute then aroie refpecting the dates of events, their order and faccemon, refpecting the origin of opinions, their tranfmifTion from one people to another, the authenticity cf the books which eflablifh them, the epccha when thefe books were compofed, the character of their compilers, the value of their teflimony ; and the various parties proving, each againft the reft, contradictions, improbabilities, and the counterfeit nature of their books,accuied one another of having founded their creed upon popular rumours, upon vague traditions, up- cn abfurd fables, invented by folly, and ad- mitted REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 199 mitted without examination by unknown, ignorant, or partial writers, at doubtful pe- riods, and different from thofe to which i r partifans referred them. A loud rumour was now excited under the ftandards of the various Indian fects, and the Bramins, entering their proteft againft the claims of the Jews and the Parfes, Hud : " What are thefe upitart and almoft un- "without " having received my doctrine, becomes f< again and again an inhabitant of the earth, " till he (hall have embraced it." The Lama was going on with his ex- tracts when the Chriftians interrupted him, obferving, that this religion was an altera- tion of theirs ; that Fot was Jefus hirnfelf disfigured, and that the Lamas were nothing more than a degenerate feel of the Nefto- rians and Manicheans. Bat the Lama (36), lupported by all the Chamans, Bonzes, Gonnis, Tala- potns of Siam, of Ceylon, of Japan, and of China, demonilrated to the Chrif- tians from their own Theologians, that the doctrine of the Samaneans was known through the Eaft upwards of a thou- fand years before Chriftianity exifted ; that their name was cited ppevious to the reign of REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 209 of Alexander, and that that of Boutta or BedJou could be traced to a more remote antiquity than that of Jefus " And now, faid they, retorting upon the Chriftians, " do you prove to us that you are not your- " felves degenerated Samaneans ; that the " man whom you confider as the author of " your feft is not F6t himfelf in a different " form. Demonftrate his exiftence by hif- '* torical monuments of fo remote a period " as thofe which we have adduced (37); " for as it appears to be founded on no au- " thentic teftimony, we abfolutely deny its " truth ; and we maintain that your gofpels " are taken from the books of the Mythriacs " of Perfia, and the Efienians of Syria, who " were themfelves only reformed Sama- " neans (38)." Thefe words excited a general outcry on the part of the Chriftians, and a new dif- pute more violent than any preceding one was on the point of taking place, when a groupe of Chincfe Chamans, and Talapoins of Siam came forward, pretending that they could eafily adjuft every difference, and pro- duce in the aficmbly a uniformity of opi- P nion, 2IO A SURVEY OF THE nion, and one of them fpeaking for the reft, faid : " It is time that we {bould put an " end to all thefe frivolous difputes, by " drawing afide the veil and expoiing to " your view the interior and fecret doctrine " which Fot himfelf, on his death-bed, re- tf vealed to his difciples (39). Thefe va- " rious theological opinions are mere chi- " meras ; thefe accounts of the attributes. " actions and life of the Gods are nothing " more than allegories and myfterious fym- " bols, under which moral ideas, and the " knowledge of the operations of nature ii> " the action of the elements and the revo- " lutions of the planets, are ingenioufly de- " picled. " The truth is r that there is no reality in " any thing; that all is illufion, appearance, ** a dream ; that the moral metemfychofis is " nothing more than a figurative fenfe of " the phyfical metemfychofis, of. that fuc- ' cefiive motion by which the elements of * which a body is compofed, and which " never perim, pafs, when the body itlelf ' is diflblved, into a thoufand others, and " form new combinations. The foul is '* merely REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 211 * merely the vital principle refulting from '" the properties of matter, and the action of " the elements in bodies, in which they ** create a fpontaneous movement. To fup-< * ( pofe that this refult of organization,which " is born with it, developed with it, fleeps " with it, continues to exift when organiza- " tion is no more, is a romance that may be " pleating enough, but that is certainly. chi- " merical. God himfelf is nothing more " than the principal mover, the occult power " diffufed through every thing that has bc- " ing, the fum of its laws and its properties, " the animating principle, in a word, the " foul of the univerfe ; which, by reafon of *' the infinite diverfity of its connections and '* operations, confidered fometirnes as fimple " and fometirnes as multiple, fometirnes as " active and fometimes as paffivej has ever " prefented to the human mind an infolv- ** able enigma. What we can comprehend with greateft perfpicuity is, that matter does not perim ; that it porTeiTes efTential properties, by which the world is go- *' verned in a mode fimilar to that of a liv- ** ing and organifed being ; that, with re- P 2 " fpect 212 A SURVEY OF THE " fpedl to man, the knowledge of its laws ig " what cenftitutes his wifdom ; that in their ' obfervance confift virtue and merit ; and " evil, fin, vice, in the ignorance and viola- " tion of them j that happinefs and misfor- " tune are the refpedlive refult of this ob- " fervance or neglect, by the fame necefftty " that occafions light fubfbances to afcend, *' heavy, ones to fall, and by a fatality of " caufes and effects, the chain of which ex-- " tends from the fmallefl atom to the ftars of " greateil magnitude and elevation (40)." A crowd of Theologians of every feel in- itantly exclaimed, that this doctrine was rank materialifm,anci thofe who profefTed it im- pious Atheifts, enemies both of God and man, wfyo ought to be extirpated from the- earth. " Strange reafoning," replied the Chamans. " Suppofing us to be miftaken, * which is by no means impoffible, fince it "is one of the attributes of the human mind " to be fubjecl>tb iiluiion, what right have " you to deprive beings like yourfelves of ' the life which God has given them ? If " heaven confiders us as culpable, and looks * upon us with horror, why does it difpenfe " to REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 213 " to us the fame bleffings as to you ! If it ** treats us with endurance, what right have " you to be lefs indulgent ? Pious men, " who fpeak of God with fo much certainty " and confidence, condefcend to tell us what " he is ; explain, fo that we may comprc- " hend them, thofc abftracl and mctaphy* " fical beings which you call God and the " foul ; fubftances without matter, exift> " ence without body, life without organs or " fenfations. If you difcover thefe beings s by means of your fenfes, render them in {f like manner perceptible to us. If you " fpeak of them only upon teftimony and tf tradition, fhow us a uniform recital, and " give an identical and determinate balis to " your creed," There now arofe a warm controyerfy be- tween the Theologians reflecting the nature of God and his mode of acting and mani- fefting himfelf 5 refpecting the foul and its union with the body, whether it has exift- ence previous to the organs, or from the time of their formation only; refpecting the life to come and another world; and every feel:, every fchcol, every individual, differing P 3 from 214 A SURVEY OF THE from the reft as to all theie points, and a finning for its diflent plaufible reafons and refpectable but oppofite authorities, they were all involved in an inextricable laby-. rinth of contradictions. At length, the legiflators having reftored filence, recalled the difpute to its true object, and faid : " Leaders and inftructors of the " people, you came hither for the purpofe " of investigating truth *, and at firft every *' one of you, confident in his own infalli- " bility, demanded an implicit faith : pre- fently, however, you felt the contrariety " of your opinions, and confented to fuhmit " them to a fair comparifon and a common, " rule of evidence. You proceeded to ex- " pole your proofs : you began with the " allegation of fads ; but it prefently ap- *' peared that every religion and every feel: " had its miracles and its martyrs, and had " an equal cloud of witnefles to boaft, who " were ready to prove the rectitude of their " fentiments by the facrifice of their lives. " Upon this firft point therefore the balance '* remained equal. " YoiVnext pafTed to proofs of reafoning : the REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 21$ * c the fame arguments were alternately ap- ff plied to the fupport of oppofite propoli- " tions ; the fame afTertions, equally gratui- (t tous were fucceffively advanced and re- " pelled ; every one was found to have an " equal reafon for denying his aflenf to the " fyitem of the others. A farther confe- " quence that arofe from thus confronting " your fyftems was, that, notwithstanding " their difljmilitude in fome points, their " refemblance in others was not lefs ftrik- " ing. Each of you claimed the firft de- " poiit and the original difcovery -, each of * you taxed his neighbour with adulteration '* and plagiarifm -, and a previous queftion " to the embracing of any of your doclrines " appeared to refult from the hiftory of opi- *' nions. *' A ftill greater embarraffment arofe " when you entered into the explication of " your doctrines : the more affiduous were " your endeavours, the more confufed did *' they appear; they reiled upon a balis in- ft acceffible to human underftanding, of " confequence you had no means to judge * f of their validity, and you readily admitted P 4 that, 2 i6 A SURVEY OP THE ' that, in afferting them, you were the echos " of your fathers. Hence it became impor- " tant to know how they had come into the " hands of that former generation, who had " no means of learning them different from ' yourfelves. Thus the tranfmiffion of theo- " logical ideas from country to country, and " their firft rife in the human underftanding, *' were equally myfterious, and the queftion " became every moment more complicated " with metaphyfical fubtlety and antiquarian " refearch. " But as thefe opinions, however extra- " ordinary, have fome origin j as all ideas, " even the moft abftracled and fantaftical, " have in nature fome phyfical model, we " muft afcend to that origin in order to dif- " cover what this model is, and how the " underftanding came by thofe ideas of " Deity, the foul and immaterial beings, ' that are fo obfcure, and which form the ' foundation of fo many religious fyftems ; " we muft trace their lineal defcent and the :< alterations they have undergone in their " various fucceffions and ramifications. If < therefore there are in this aflembly men " who REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 217 *' who have made thefe objects their pecu- " liar ftudy, let them come forward and en- " deavour to difpel, in the prefer ^ A the (t nations of the earth, the pbfcurity of opi- " nions in which for fo long a period they ** have all wandered." CHAP, A SURTEY OF TH CHAP. XXIL * ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS. T thefe words a new groupe, formed in an iuftant of individuals from every ftandard, but undjftinguifhed by any, advanced in the land, and one of the members, fpeaking in the name of the general body, faid : " Legiflators, friends pf evidence and of truth ! *' That the fubjedl of which we treat ihould be involved in fo many clouds, is by no means aftonifiiing, fince, befide the diffi- culties that are peculiar to it, thought itfelf has, till this moment, ever had fhackles im- pofed upon it s and free enquiry, by the in- tolerance of every religious fyftem, been interdicted. But now that thought is un- reftrained, and may develope all its powers, we will expofe in the face of day, and fub- mit to the common judgment of affembled nations, fuch rational truths as unprejudiced minds REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 2J minds have by long and laborious ftudy dif- covered : and this, not with the defign of impelling them as a creed, but from a defire of provoking new lights, and obtaining bet-r ter information. " Chiefs and infbuctors of the people, you are not ignorant of the profound obfcu- rity in which the nature, origin, and hiilory of the dogmas you teach are inveloped. Impofed by force and authority, inculcated by education, maintained by the influence of example, they were perpetuated from age to age, and habit and inattention flrength- ened their empire. But if man, enlight- ened by experience and reflection, fummoa to thel>ar of mature examination the preju- dices of his infancy, he prefently difcovers a multitude of incongruities and contradictions which awaken his fagacity, and call fortfy |he exertion of his reafoning powers. " At firft, remarking the various and op- polite creeds into which nations are divided, we are led boldly to reject the infallibility claimed by each 5 ancl arming ourfelves al- ternately with their reciprocal pretenlions, to conceive that the fenfes and the underhand- ing 20 A SURVEY OF THE ing emanating direcftly from God, are a law not lefs facred, and a guide not lefs fure than the indire have been disfigured and changed from their original nature by -accidental caufes depen- dent on the human mind, by the confufion of figns made ufe of in the reprefentation of objects, by the equivocation of words, the defeat of language, and the imperfection of writing. Thefe Gods, for example, who act fuch fmgular parts in every fyftem, are no other than the phyfical powers of nature, the elements, the winds, the meteors, the ftars, all which have been perfonified by the neceflary mechanifm of language, and the* manner in which objects are conceived by the under flan ding. Their life, their man- ners, their actions, are only the operation of the fame powers, and the whole of their pretended hiftory no more than a defcription of their various phenomena, traced by the fir/I naturalift that obferved them, but taken in a contrary fenfe by the vulgar who did not underfland it, or by fucceeding genera- 8 tion DEVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 22g tions who forgot it. In a word, all the theological dogmas refpedting the origin of the world, the nature of God, the revela- tion of his laws, the manife Ration of 'his perfon, are but recitals of aftronomical facls, figurative and emblematical narratives of* the motion and influence of the heavenly bodies. The very idea itfelf of the Divi- nity, which is at prefent fo obfcure, ab- ftra&ed, and metaphyfical, was in its origin merely a compofit of the powers of the ma- terial univerfe, confidered fometimes analy- tically, as they appear in their agents and their phenomena, and fometimes fyntheti- cally, as forming one whole, and exhibiting an harmonious relation in all its parts. Thus the name God has been beftow,ed fometimes- tipon the wind, upon fire, water, and the elements ; fometimes upon the fun, the flars, the planets* and their influences ; fometimes upon the univerfe at large, and the matter K)f which the world is compofed j fometimes upon abftracl and metaphyfical properties, fuch as fpace, duration, motion, and intelligence ; but in every in(lance, the idea of a deity has not flowed from the mi- r raculous revelation of an invifibie world, but 224 A SURVEY OF THE but has been the natural refult of human reflection, has followed the progrefs and un- dergone the changes of the fucceflive im- provement of intellect, and has had for its fubjecl: the vifible univerfe and its different agents. " It is then in vain that nations refer the origin of their religion to heavenly infpira- tion ; it is in vain that they pretend to de- fcribe a fupernatural flate of things as firfl in the order of events : the original barba- rous flate of mankind, attefled by their own monuments (41), belies all their affertions. Thefe afTertions are ftill more victor iouily, refuted by confidering this great principle, that man receives no ideas but through the me- dium of his ftnfes (42) : for from hence it appears, that every fyftem which afcribes human wifdom to any other fource than experience and fenfation, includes in it a v?e(>ov irgoleoov, and repreients the lafl refults of understanding as earlieft in the order of time. If we examine the different religious fyftems which have been formed refpe&ing the adlion of the Gods, and the orgin of the world, we mall clifcover at every turn an anticipation in the order of narrating things, which REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 225 which could only be fuggefted by fubfe- quent reflection. Reafon, then, embolden- ed by thefe contradictions, hefitates not to reject whatever does not accord with the na- ture of things, and accepts nothing for hifto- rical truth that is not capable of being efta- blifhed by argument and ratiocination. Its ideas and fuggeftions are as follow : "Before any nation received from a neigh- bour nation dogmas already invented; before one generation inherited the ideas of another, none of thefe complicated fyftems had exift- ence. The firft men, the children of nature, whofe confcioufneis was anterior to expe- rience, -and who brought no preconceived knowledge into the world with them, were born without any idea of thofe articles of faith which are the refult of learned con- tention j of thofe religious rites which had relation to arts and practices not yet in exift- ence ; of thofe precepts which fuppofe the pamons already developed ; of thofe laws which have reference to a language and a focial order hereafter to be produced ; of that God, whofe attributes are abftractions of the knowledge of nature, and the idea 'of whofe 226 A SURVEY OF THE whofe conduct is fuggefted by tfae experience of a defpotic government; in fine, of that foul and thofe fpiritual exigences which are faid not to be the object of the fenfes, but which, however, we mutt for ever have re- mained unacquainted with, if our fenfes had not introduced them to us. Previoufly to arriving at thefe notions, an immenfe ca- talogue of exifting facts mult have been ob- ferved. Man, criginally favage, miift have learned from repeated trials the ufe of his organs. Succeflive generations muft have invented and refined upon the means of fub- fiftence; and the underftanding, at liberty to difengage itfelf frem the wants of nature, muft have rifen to the complicated art of comparing ideas, digefting reafonings, and lei zing upon abftract funilitudes. S E c r . I . Origin of the idea of God : W-orjhip of the elements, and the +>hyfical powers of r.cture. " IT \v'as not till after having furmounted thofe obftacles, and run a long career in the night of hiftory, that man, receding on his fbte, began to perceive his fubjedion to forces REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 22J forces fuperior to his own and independent of his will. The fbn gave him light and warmth j fire burned, thunder terrified, the \vinds biiffetted, water overwhelmed him; all the various natural exiftences acted upon him in a manner not to be refilled. For a long time, an automaton, he remained paf- five, without enquiring into the caufe of this adion ; but the very moment he was defirous of accounting to himfelf for it, aflo- nifhment feized his mind; and paffing from the furprjfe of a firfl thought to the reverie of curiofitv, he formed a chain of reafon- ing. * l At firft, confidering only the action of the elements upon him, he inferred, relative - ly to himfelf, an idea of weaknefs, of fub- jeclion, and relatively to them, an idea of power, of domination ; and this idea was the primitive and fundamental type of all his conceptions of the Divinity. " The action of the natural exiftences, in the fecond place, excited in him fenfations of pleafure or pain, of good or evil ; by virtue of his organization, he conceived love or averfion for them, he defired or dreaded their pre fence j 228 A SURVEY OF THE prefence ; and fear or hope was the principle of every idea of religion. " Afterwards, judging every thing by companion, and remarking in thofe beings a motion fpontaneous like his own, he fup- pofed there to be a will, an intelligence in- herent in that motion, of a nature fimilar to what exifled in himfelf ; and hence, by way of inference, he flarted a frefh argument. Having experienced that certain modes of be- haviour towards hisfellow-creatures wrought a change in their affections and governed their conduct, he applied thofe practices to the powerful beings of the univerfe. " When '* my fellow- creature of fuperior ftrength," faid he to himfelf, " is difpofed to injure me, *M humble my felf before him, and my prayer " has the art of appeafing him. I will pray " to the powerful beings that ftrike me. I " will fupplicate the faculties of the winds, " the planets, the waters, and they will hear ' me. I will conjure them to avert the ca- " lamities, and to grant me the bleffings w which are at their difpofal. My tears will " move, my offerings propitiate them, and I w lhall enjoy complete felicity." And, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 229 *' And, fimple in the infancy of his reafon, man fpoke to the fun and the moon, he ani- mated with his underftandingandhispaffions , the great agents of nature > he thought hy vain, founds and ufelefs practices to change their inflexible laws. Fatal error ! He defired that the water fhould afcend, the mountains be removed, the ilone mount in the air; andfub- ftituting a fantaftic to a real world, he confii- tutedforhimfelf beings of opinion, to the ter- ror of his mind and the torment of his race. <( Thus the ideas of God and religion fprung, like all others, from phyfical objects, and were in the underftanding of man the produce of his fenfations, his wants, the cir- cumftances of his life, and the progreflive ilate of his knowledge. " As thefe ideas had natural beings for their firft models, it refulted from hence that the Divinity was originally as various and manifold as the forms under which he feem- ed to act : each being was a Power, a Ge- nius, and the firfl men found the univerfe crowded with innumerable Gods. " In like manner the ideas of the Divi^ nity having had for motors the affections of 230 A SURVEY OF THE die human heart, they underwent an order of divifion calculated from the fenfations of pain and pleafure, of love and hatred : the powers of nature, the Gods, the Genii, were clafTed into benign and maleficent, into good and evil ones: and this conrlitutes the uni- verfality of thefe two ideas in every fyflem of religion. o " Thefe ideas, analogous to the condition of their inventors, were for a long time confufed and grofs. Wandering in woods, befet with wants, defKtute of refources, men in their favage ftate had no Icifure to make comparifons and draw conclufions. Suffer- ing more ills than they tafted enjoyments, their moft h-abitnal fentiment was fear, their theology terror, their worihip confined to certain modes of falutation, of offerings which they prefented to beings whom they fuppofed to be ferocious and greedy like thcmfelves. In their flate of equality and independence, no one took upon him the of- fice of mediator with Gods as infubordinate and poor as himfelf. No one having any fu- per3uity to ciiipofe of, there exifted no pa- rafite under the name of prieft, nor tribute under REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 23! under the name of victim, nor empire un- der the name of altar ; their dogma and mo- rality, jumbled together, were only felf-pre- fervation ; and their religion, an arbitrary idea without influence on the mutual re- lations exifting between men, was but a vain homage paid to the vifible powers of nature. and even of the planets, which, by their appear- ance and difappearance on the horizon and the nodurnal hemifphcre, formed the minut- eft REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. eft divifions. In a word it was neceflfary to eftablifh an entire fyftem of aftronomy, to form an almanac > and from this labour there quickly and fpontaneouily refulted a new manner of coniidering the dominant and go- verning powers. Having cbferved that the productions of the earth bore a regular and conftant connexion with the phenomena of the heavens; that the birth, growth, and decay of each plant, were allied to the ap- pearance, exaltation and decline of the fame planet, the fame groupe of flars ; in fhort, that the langour or activity of vegetation feemed to depend on celeftial influences, men began to infer from this an idea of action, of power, in thofe bodies, fuperior to terreftrial beings ; and the ftars difpenfing fcarcity or abundance, became powers, Genii (45), Gods, authors of good and evil. " As the ilate of fociety had already intro- duced a methodical hierarchy of ranks, em- ployments and conditions, men, continuing to reafon from comparifon, transferred their new acquired notions to their theology, and the refult was a complicated fyftem of gra- dual Divinities, in which the fun, as the firft God, A SURVEY OF THE God, was a military chief, a political king; the moon, a queen, his confort; the planets, iervants, bearers of commands, mefTengers : and the multitude of ftars, a nation, an army of heroes, of Genii, appointed to govern the world under the command of their officers ; every individual had a name, functions, attri- butes, drawn from its connections and influ- ences, and even a fex derived from the gen- der of its appellation (46). " As the fUte of fociety had introduced certain ufages and complex practices, wor- fliip, leading the van, adopted fimilar ones. Ceremonies, fimple and private at firil, be- came public and folemn ; offerings were more rich and more numerous; rites more metho- dical; places 6f afiembly, chapels and temples were erected ; officers, pontiffs, created to adminifter; forms and epochas were fettled ; and religion became a civil act, a political tie. But in this developement it altered not its firft principles, and the idea of God was flill that of phyfical beings, operating good or ill, that is to fay, impreffing fenfaticns of pain or pleafure : the dogma was the know- ledge of their laws or modes of acting; virtue ana REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 235 and fin the obfervance or infringement of thofe laws; and morality, in its native fim- pliciry, a judicious practice of all that is conducive to the preservation of exiftence, to the well-being of the individual and of his fellow- creatures (47). " Should it bs aiked at what epoch this fyftem took birth, we (hall anfwer, fupported by the authority of the monuments of aftro- nomy itfelf, that its principles can be traced back with certainty to a period of nearly fcventeen thoufand years (48). Should we farther be aiked to what people or nation it ou^ht to be attributed, AVC fhall reply, that thofe felf-fame monuments, feconded by unanimous tradition, attribute it to the firft tribes of Egypt. And when reafon finds in that region a concurrence of all the phyfical circumftances calculated to give rife to it; when it finds at once a zone of heaven, in vicinity of the tropic, equally free from the rains of the equator, and the fogs of the north (49) ; when it finds there the central point of the antique fphere ; a lalubrious climate ; an irnmenfe yet manageable river; a land fertile without art, without fatigue ; inundated, 236 A SURVEY OF THE inundated, without peftilential exhalations ; fituate between two feas which lave the mores of the richeft countries it becomes manifeft that the inhabitant of the diflricts of the Nile, inclined to agriculture from the nature of his foil j to commerce, from the facility of communication ; to geometry, from the annual neceffity of meafuring his poiTefr fions ; to aftronomy, from the ftate of his heaven, ever open to obfervation, mufl firfl have parled from the favage to the focial fiate, and conlequently attained that phyfical and moral knowledge proper to civilized man. " It was thus, upon the diflant mores of the Nile, and among a nation of fable com- plexion, that the complex fyftem of the wo'r- fhip of the ilars, as connected with the pro- duce of the foil and the labours of agriculture, was conftrudted. The worfhip of the ftars under dieir proper forms, or their natural at- tributes, was a fimple procefs of the human underflanding ; but in a fhort time the mul- tiplicity of objects', their relations, their action and re-action, having confounded the jdeas. and the figns that reprefented them, a confequence REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 237 confequence refultedas abfurd in its nature as pernicious in its tendency. SECT. III. Third Syftert: or idu "FROM the initant this agricolar race had turned an eye of obfervation on the ftars, they found it neceflary to diitinguifh in- dividuals or groupes, and to ailign to each a proper name. A conilderable difficulty here prefented itfelf ; for on the one hand, the celeftial bodies, fimilar in form, offered no peculiar character by which to denominate them; and on the other hand, language, poor and in a flate of infancy, had no expref- iions for fo many new and metaphyfical ideas. The ufual flimulus of genius, neceflity, con- quered all obftacles. Having remarked that in the annual revolution, the renewal and periodical appearance of the productions of the earth were conftantly connected with the rifmg and fetting of certain ftars, and with- their poiition relatively to the fun, the mind, by a natural median ifm, affociated in its thought terreftrialandceleftialobjefls, which had in fact a certain alliance -, and applying to 2-8 A SURVEY OF THE } to them the fame fign, it gave to the liars and the gpoupes it formed of them, the very names of the terreftrial objects to which they bore affinity (50). " Thus the Ethiopian of Thebes called fhrscf inundation, or QI Aquarius, thofe under which the river began to overflow * ; ftars of the ox or bull, thofe under which it was convenient to plough the earth ; flxrs of the lion, thofe under which that animal, driven by thirft from the deferts, made his appear- ance on -,the banks of the Nile ; fears of the fheaf, or of the harvefl maid, thofe under which the harvefts were got in ; fears of the Limbs, flars of the goat, thofe under which thofe valuable animals brought forth their young; and thus was a rfr. part of the diffi- culty refoived. " On the other hand, man r having remark- ed in the beings that furrounded him certain qualities peculiar to each fpecies, and having invented a name by which to dcfign them, fpeedily difcovered an ingenious mode of ge- neralizing his ideas, and transferring the name * This muft have been June. See Note (46). already REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 239 already invented to every thing bearing a ii- milar or analogous property or agency, en- riched his language with a multiplicity of metaphors and tropes. " Thus the fame Ethiopian, having ob- ferved that the return of the inundation an- fwered conftantly to the appearance of a very beautiful ftar towards the fource of the Nile, which feemed to warn the hufbandman againfl being furprifed by the waters, he compared this action with that of the animal who by barring gives notice of danger, and called this flar the dog, the barker (Syr ins): In the fame manner he called fears of the crab, thofe which fhosved themfelves when the fun, having reached the bounds of the tropic, returned backwards and lide ways like the crab or Cancer; ftars of the wild goat, thofe which, the fun being arrived at its great- eft altitude, at the top of the horary gnomon, imitated the action of that animal who delights in climbing the higheft rocks; flars of the ba- lance, thoie which, the days and nights being of the fame length, feemed to obferve an equi-, librium like that inflriirnent ; (lars of the fcor- pion, thofe Which were perceptible when cer- tain reguhr winds brought a burning vapour like 240 A SURVEY OF THE like the poifon of the fcorpion. In the fame manner he called by the name of rings and ferpents the figured traces of the orbits of the flars and planets (51); and this was the ge- neral means of appellation of all the hea- venly bodies, taken in groupes or indivi- dually, according to their connection with rural and terreftrial operations, and the ana- logies which every nation found them to bear to the labours of the field and the ob- jects of their climate and foil. te From this proceeding it refulted, that abject and terreftrial beings entered into ailb- ciation with the" fuperior and powerful beings of the heavens ; and this afTociation became more rivetted every day by the very confli- tution of language and the meehanifm of the mind. Men would fay, by a natural meta- phor : " The bull fpreads upon the earth the " germins of fecundity (in fpring) ; and " brings back abundance by the revival of "vegetation. The lamb (or ram) delivers " the heavens from the malevolent Genii of " winter; and faves the world from the fer- " pent (emblem of the wet feafon). The " icorpion pours out his venom upon the " earth, and fpreads difeafes and death, &c." This REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 24! " This language, underftood by every body, was at firft attended with no incon- venience - y but, in procefs of time, when the almanac had been regulated, the people, who could do without further obfervation of the fides, loft fight of the motive which led to the adoption of thefe expreffions j and the allegory flill remaining in the practices of life, became a fatal ftumbling-block to the underftanding and reafon. Habituated to join to fymbols the ideas of their models, the mind finally confounded them ; then thofe fame animals which the imagination had raifed to heaven, defcended again on the earth ; but in this return, decked in the livery and invefied with the attributes of the ftars, they impofed upon their own authors. The people, imagining that they faw their Gods before them, found it a more eafy tafk to offer up their prayers. They demanded of the ram of their flock, the influence which they expected from the celeftial ramj they prayed the fcorpion not to pour out his venom upon Nature ; they revered the fifh of the river, the crab of the fea, and the fcarabeus of the flirne ; and by a feries of R corrupt, 242 A SURVEY OF THE corrupt, but infeparable analogies, they themfelves in a labyrinth of confequent ab- furdities. " Such was the origin of this ancient and fingular wormip of animals ; fuch the train of ideas by which the character of the Di- vinity became common to the meaneft of the brute creation ; and thus was formed the vaft, complicated, and learned theolo- gical fyftem which, from the banks of the Nile, conveyed from country to country by commerce, war, and concrueft, invaded all the old world ; and which, modified by times r by circumftances, and by prejudices,. is ftill to be found among a hundred nations* and fubfifts to this day as the fecret and in- feparable bafis of the theology of thofc even who defpife and rejedt it." At thefe words, murmurs being heard in various groupes : " I repeat it," continued the orator. " People of Africa ! hence,, for example, has arifen among you the ado- ration of your Fetecbes, plants, animals,, pebbles, bits of wood, before which your anceftors would never have been fo abfurd as to proflrate themfelves, if they had not feen REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 243 feen in them talifmans, partaking of the nature of the ftars (52). Nations of Tar- tary ! this is equally the origin of your Marmouzets, and of the whole train of ani- mals with which your Chamans ornament their magic robes. This is the origin of thofe figures of birds and ferpents, which all the favage nations, with myftic and fa- cred ceremonies, imprint on their fkin. In- dians ! it is in vain you cover yourfelves with the veil of myftery : the hawk of your God Vichenou is but one of the thoufand emblems of the fun in Egypt, and his incar- nations in a fim, boar, lion, turtle, together with all his monftrous adventures, are no- thing more than the metamorphofes of the fame ftar, which, paffing fucceffively through the figns of the twelve animals *, was fup- pofed to affume their forms, and to act their aftronomical parts (53). Japanefe ! your bull which breaks the egg of the world, is merely that of the heavens, which, in times of yore, opened the age of the creation, the equinox of Spring. Rabbins, Jews ! that fame bull is the Apis worshipped in Egypt, * The Zodiac. R 2 and 244 A SURVEY OF THE and which your ancestors adored in the kbJ of the golden calf. It is alfo your bull, children of Zoroafter ! that, facrificed in the fymbolic myfteries of Mithra, ihed a blood fertilizing to the world. Laftly, your bull of the Apocalypfe, Chriilians ! with his wings, the fymbol of the air, has no other origin : your lamb of God, immolated, like the bull of Mithra, for the falvation of the world, is the felf-fame fun in the fign of the celeftial ram, which, in a fubfequent age, opening the equinox in his turn, was deem- ed to have rid the world of the reign of evil, that is to fay, of the ferpent, of the large fnake, the mother of winter and emblem of the Ahrimanes or Satan of the Perfians, your inftitutors. Yes, vainly does your im- prudent zeal confign idolaters to the tor- ments of the Tartarus which they have in- vented : the whole bans of your fyflem is nothing more than the worfhip of the ftar of day, whofe attributes you have heaped upon your chief perfonage. It is the fun which, under the name of Orus, was born, like your God, in the arms of the celeftial virgin, and palled through an obfcure, in- digen t, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 245 d-igent, and deftitute childhood, anfwering to the feafon of cold and froft. It is the fun, which, under the name of Ofiris, per- fecuted by Typhon and the tyrants of the air, was put to death, laid in a dark tomb, the emblem of the hemifphere of winter, and which, rifing afterwards from the infe- rior zone to the higheft point of the hea- vens, awoke triumphant over giants and the deftroying angels. Ye priefts ! from whom the murmurs proceed, you wear yourfelves its figns all over your bodies. Your tonfure is the difk of the fun -, your ftole its Zodiac (54)3 your rofaries the fymbols of the ftars and planets. Pontiffs and prelates ! your mitre, your crofier, your mantle, are the emblems of Ofiris ; and that crucifix of which you boaft the myftery, without com- prehending it, is the crofs of Serapis, traced by the hands of Egyptian priefts on the plan of the figurative world, which, paffing through the equinoxes and the tropics, be- came the emblem of future life and refur- reftion, becaufe it touched the gates of ivory and horn through which the foul was to pafs in its way to heaven." R 3 Here 246 A SURVEY OF THE Here the doctors of the different groupes looked with aftonifhment at one another, but none of them breaking filence, the orator continued. " Three principal caufes concurred to produce this confufion of ideas. Firft, the neceflity, on account of the infant ftate of language, of making ufe of figurative ex- preffions to depidt the relations of things j expreffions that, paffing afterwards from a proper to a general, from a phyfical to a moral fenfe, occafioned, by their equivocal and fynonymous terms, a multiplicity of miftakes, " Thus having at firft faid, that the fun furmounted arid pafled in its courfe through the twelve animals, they afterwards fuppofed that it combated,conquered,and killed them, and from this was compofed the hiftorical Hfe of Hercules. " Having faid that it regulated the period of rural operations, of feed time and of har- vefl; that it diftributed the feafons, ran through the climates, fwayed the earth, &c, it was taken for a legiflative king, a con- quering warrior, and hence they formed the 5 ftories REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. ftories of Ofiris, of Bacchus, and other fimi- lar Gods. " Having faid that a planet entered into a fign, the conjunction was denominated a marriage, adultery, inceft (55): having far- ther faid, that it was buried, becaufe it funk below the horizon, returned to light and gained its flate of eminence, they gave it the epithet of dead, rifen again, carried into heaven, &c. " The fecond caufe of confufion was the material figures themfelves, by which thoughts were originally painted, and which, under the name of hieroglyphics, or facred characters, were the firft invention of the mind. Thus to denote an inundation, and the neceffity of preferving one's-felf from it, they painted a boat, the veiTel Argo j to cxprefs the wind, they painted a bird's wing; to fpecify the feafon, the month, they deli- neated the bird of paffage, infect, or animal, which made its appearance at that epoch ; to exprefs winter they drew a hog, or a ferpent, which are fond of moift and miry places. The combination of thefe figures had alfb a meaning, and was fubftituted for R 4 words 248 A SURVEY OF THE words and phrafes * (56). But as there was nothing fixed or precife in this fort of lan- guage, as the number of thofe figures and their combinations became exceiTive and burdenfome to the memory, confufions and falfe interpretations were the firft and ob- vious reiult. Genius having afterwards in- ^^^+ vented the more fimple art of applying figns to founds, of which the number is limited, and of painting the word inflead of the thought, hieroglyphic pictures were, by means of alphabetical writing, brought into difufe ; and from day to day their forgotten fignifications made way for a variety of il- lufions, equivoques, and errors. " Laftly, the civil organization of the firfl ftates was a third caufe of confufion. In- deed, when the people began to apply them- felves to agriculture, the formation of the rural calendar requiring continual aftrono- mical obfervations, it was neceflary to chufe individuals whole province it mould be to watch the appearance and felting of certain ftars, to give notice of the return of the in- undation, of particular winds and rains, and * See the examples cited in note (45). the REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 249 the proper time for lowing every fpecies of grain. Thefe men, on account of their of- iice, were exempted from the common oc- cupations, and the fociety provided for their fubfifhence. In this fituation, folely occu- pied in making obiervations, they foon pene- trated the great phenomena of nature, and dived into the fecret of various of her ope- rations. They became acquainted with the courfe of the ftars and planets ; the connec- tion which their abfence and*eturn had with the productions of the earth and the activity -of vegetation : the medicinal or nutritive properties of fruits and plants ; the action, of the elements, and their reciprocal affinities. But, as there were no means of communi- cating this knowledge otherwife than by the painful and laborious one of oral inftruction, they imparted it only to their friends and kindred; and hence refulted a concentration of fcience in certain families, who, on this account arlumed to themfelves exclufive pri- vileges, and a fpirit of corporation and fepa- rate diftinction fatal to the public weal. By this continued fucceffion of the fame labours and enquiries, the progrefs of knowledge it .is true was haftened, but, by the myitery that A SURVEY OF THE that accompanied it, the people, plunged daily in the thickeft darknefs, became more fuperftitious and more flavim. Seeing human beings produce certain phenomena,announce, as it were at will, eclipfes and comets, cure difeafes, handle noxious ferpents, they fup- pofed them to have intercourfe with celeftial powers; and, to obtain the good or have the ills averted which they expected from thofe powers, they adopted thefe extraordinary human beingss mediators and interpreters. And thus were eftablifhed in the very bofom of ftates facrilegious corporations of hypo- critical and deceitful men, who arrogated to themfelves every kind of power; and priefts, being at once aftronomers, divines, natura- lifts, phyficians, necromancers, interpreters of the Gods, oracles of the people, rivals of kings or their accomplices, instituted under the name of religion an empire of my fiery, which to this very hour has proved ruinous to the nations of mankind." At thefe words the priefts of all the groupes interrupted the orator ; with loud cries, they accufed him of impiety, irreligion, blafphemy, and were unwilling he ihould proceed: but the legiflators having obferved, that REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 25! that what he related was merely a narrative of hiftorical fads j that if thofe fads were falfe or forged, it would be an eafy matter to refute them ; and that if every one were not allowed the perfect liberty to declare his opinion, it would be impomble to arrive at truth- he thus went on with his difcourfe. " From all thefe caufes,and the perpetual afibciation of diffimilar ideas, there followed a ftrange mafs of diforders in theology, mo- rality, and tradition. And firft, becaufe the fears were reprefented by animals, the quali- ties of the animals, their likings, their fym- pathies, their averfions, were transferred to the Gods and fuppofed to be their actions. Thus the God Ichneumon made war againft the God crocodile ; the God wolf wanted to eat the God fheep ; the God ftork de- voured the God ferpent; and the Deity be- came a ftrange, whimiical, ferocious being, whofe idea milled the judgment of man, and corrupted both his morals and his reafon. *' Again, as every family, every nation, in the fpirit of its worfhip adopted a particular ftar or conilellation for its patron, the affec- tions and antipathies of the emblematical brute 252 A SURVEY OF THE brute were transferred to the fectaries of this worship ; and the partifans of the God dog were enemies to thofe of the God wolf; the worfhippers of the God bull, abhorred thofe who fed upon beef, and religion became the author of combats and animofities, the fenfe- kfs caufe of frenzy and fuperftition (57). " Farther, the names of the animal ftars having, on account of this fame patronage, been conferred on nations, countries, moun- tains, and rivers, thofe objects were alfo taken for Gods ; and hence there arofe a medley of geographical, historical, and my- thological beings, by which all tradition was involved in confufion. " In fine, from the analogy of their fup- pofed actions the planetary gods having been taken for men, heroes, and kings; kings and heroes took in their turn the actions of the Gods for models, and became, from imita~ tion, warlike, conquering, fanguinary, proud, lafcivious, indolent ; and religion coniecrat- ed the crimes of defpots, and perverted the principles of governments. SECT. REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 253 SECT. IV. Fourth fyftem : Worjhlp of two principles, or Dualifm. " MEANWHILE the agronomical priefts, enjoying in their temples peace and abun- dance, made every day frefh progrefs in the fciences ; and the fyftem of the world gra- dually difplaying itfelf before their eyes, they ftarted fucceffively various hypothefes as to its agents and effects, which became fo many iyflems of theology. " The navigators of the maritime nations, and the caravans of the Afiatic and African Nomades, having given them a knowledge of the earth from the Fortunate Iflands to Serica, and from the Baltic to the iburces of the Nile, they difcovered, by a comparifon of the different Zones, the rotundity of the globe, which gave rife to a new theory, Obferving that all the operations of Nature, during the annual period, were fummed up in two principal ones, thaj: of producing and that of deftroying; that upon the major part of the globe, each of thefe operations was equally accomplished from one to the other equinox \ that is to fay, that during the fix months 254 A SURVEY OF THfc months of fummer all was in a ftate of* pro- creation and increafe, and during the fix months of winter all in a ftate of languor and nearly dead, they fuppofed nature to con- tain two contrary powers always ftruggling with and refitting each other ; and confider- ing in the fame light the celeftial fphere, they divided the pictures, by which they re- prefented it into two halves or hemifpheres, fo that thofe conftellations which appeared in the fummer heaven formed a direct and fuperior empire, and thofe in the winter heaven an opposite and inferior one. Now as the fummer conftellations were accompa- nied with the feafon of long, warm, and un- clouded days, together with that of fruits and harvefts, they were deemed to be the powers of light, fecundity, and creation j and by tranfition from a phyfical to a moral fenfe, to be Genii, angels of fcience, bene- ficence, purity, virtue : in like manner the winter conftellations, being attended with long nights and the polar fogs, were regard- ed as genii of darknefs, deftrudtion, death, and, by limilar tranfition, as angels of wick- cdnefs, ignorance, fin, vice. By this difpo- REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. ^255 fal, heaven was divided into two domains, two factions ; and the analogy of human ideas opened already a vaft career to the flights of imagination , but a particular circumftance determined, if it did not oc- cafion the miftake and illulion. (Confult Plate II. at the end of the volume.) " In the projection of the celeftial fphere drawn by aftronomical priefts (58), the Zo- diac and the conftellations difpofed in a cir- cular order, prefented their halves in dia- metrical oppofition: the winter hemifphere was adverfe, contrary, oppofite to, being the Antipodes of, that of fummer. By the con- tinued metaphor thefe words were converted into a moral fenfe, and the adverfe angels and Genii became rebels and enemies (59). From that period the whole aftronomical hiftory of the conftellations was turned into a political hiftory; the heavens became a human ftate, where every thing happened as it does on earth. Now as the exifting ftates, for the moft part defpotic, had their monarchs, and as the fun was the apparent fovereign of the fkies, the fummer hemi- fphere (empire of light), and its conftella- tions (a nation of white angels), hid for king 256 A SURVEY OF THE king an enlightened, intelligent, creative, benign God - t and as every rebellious faction xnuft have its chief, the hemifphere of win- ter (the fubterraneous empire of darknefs and woe), together with its ftars (a nation of black angels, giants, or demons), had for leader a malignant Genius, whofe part was affigned, by the different people of the earth, to that ftar which appeared to them the moft remarkable. In Egypt it was origi- ginally the Scorpion, the firfl fign of the Zodiac after the Balance, and the hoary chief of the wintry figns: then it was the bear or the polar afs, called Typhon, that is to fay, deluge (60), on account of the rains which poured down upon the earth during the do- minion of that ftar. In Perfia, at a fubfe- quent period (61 ), it was the ferpent, which, under the name of Ahrimanes, formed the bafis of the fyftem of Zoroafter ; and it is the fame, Chriftians and Jews, that is become your ferpent of Eve (the celertial origin), and that of the crofs; in both cafes the em- blem of Satan, the great adverfary of the Ancient of Days, fung by Daniel. In Syria it was the hog or wild boar, enemy of Ado- nis, becaufe in that country the office of the Northern REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 57 Northern bear was made to devolve upon the animal whofe fondnefs for mire and dirt is emblematical of winter. And it is for this reafon that you, children of Mofes and of Mahomet, hold this animal in abhorrence, in imitation of the priefts of Memphis and Bal- bec, who detefted him as the murderer of their God the fun. This is likewife, O In- dians ! the type of your Chib-en, which was once the Pluto of your brethren the Greeks and Romans ; your Brama alfo (God the cre- ator), is only the Persian Ormuzd, and the Ofiris of Egypt, whofe very name exprefTes a creative power, producer of forms. And thefe Gods were worshipped in a manner analogous to their real or fictitious attributes ; and this worfhip, on account of the difference of its objects, was divided into two diftindt branches. In one, the benign God received a worfhip of joy and love ; whence are de- rived all religious acts of a gay nature (62), feilivals, dances, banquets, offerings of flowers, milk, honey, perfumes ; in a word, of every thing that delights the fenfes~ and the foul. In the other, the malign God, on the contrary j received a worfhip of fear and S pain ; 258 A SURVEY OF THt pain ; whence originated all religious acts of the fombre kind (63), tears, grief, mourn- ing, felf-denial, blood- offerings, and cruel Sacrifices. " From the fame fource flowed the divi- fion of terreftrial beings into pure and im- pure, facred of abominable, according as their fpecies- was found among the refpective conciliations of the two Gods, and made a part of their domains. This produced, on one hand, the fuperfKtions of pollution and puri- fication; and on the other, the pretended effi- cacious virtues of amulets and talifmans. " You nowunderftand," continued the ora- tor, addreffing himfelf to the Indians, Perfi- ans, Jews, Chriftians and Muflulmans, "you now under/land the origin of thofe ideas of combats and rebellion, which equally per- vade your refpeftive mythology. You per- ceive what is meant by white and black an- gels ; by the cherubs and feraphs with heads of an eagle, a lion or a bull; the Deus, de- vils or demons with horns of goats and tails of makes ; the thrones and dominions, ranged in fevcn orders or gradations, like the ferver* fpheres of the planets ; all o them beings acting ' REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 259 acting the fame parts, partaking of the fame attributes in the Vedas, the Bibles, or the Zendavefta; whether their chief be Ormuzd or Brama, Typhon or Chib-en, Michael or Satan; whether their form be that of giants with a hundred arms and feet of ferpents, or that of Gods metamorphofed into lions, florks, bulls and cats, as they appear in the facred tales of the Greeks and Egyptians : you perceive the fucceflive genealogy of thefe ideas, and how in proportion to their remotenefs from their fources, and as the mind cf man became refined, their grofs forms were purified, and reduced to a ftatc lefs mocking and repulfive. " But, juft as the fyftem of two oppofite principles or deities originated in that of fymbols ; in the fame manner you will find a new fyftem fpring out of this, to which it ferved in its turn as a foundation and fupport." SECT. V. Myjlical or moral worfcip, or the Jyjlem of a future jlate . " IN reality, when the vulgar heard talk of a new heaven and another world, they foon S 2 gave 260 A SURVEY OF THE gave a body to thefe fictions; they eredled orf it a folid ftage and real fcenes ; and theif notions of geography and aftronomy ferved to frrengthen, if they did not give rife ttf the allufion. " On the one hand, the Phenician naviga- tors, thofe who pafled the pillars of Hercules to fetch the pewter of Thule and the amber of the Baltic, related that at the extremity of the world, the boundaries of the ocean (the Mediterranean), where the fun fets to the countries of Afia, there were fortunate Iflands, the abode of an everlafting fpring ; and at a farther difrance, hyperborean re- gions, placed under the earth (relatively to the tropics), where reigned an eternal night *. From thefe ftories, badly underftood, and no doubt confufedly related, the imagination of the people compofed theElyfian Fields (64), delightful fports in a world below, having their heaven, their fun and their ftars'j and Tartarus, a place of darknefs, humidity, mire, and chilling froft. Now, inafmuch as man- kind, inquifitive about all that of which they * Nights of fix months duration. are REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. z6l are ignorant, and delirous of a protracted ex- igence, had already exerted their faculties refpecting what was to become of them after death ; inafmuch as they had early reafoned upon that principle of life which animates the body, and which quits it without changing the form of the body, and had conceived to themfelves airy fubftances, phantoms and fhades, they loved to believe that they mould refume in the fubterranean world that life which it was fo painful to lofe ; and this abode appeared commqdious for the recep- tion of thofe beloved objects which they could not prevail on themfelves to renounce, " On the other hand, the aftrological and philofophical priefts told fuch ftories of their heavens as perfectly quadrated with thefe fictions. Having, in their metaphorical lan- guage, denominated the equinoxes and fol- frices the gates of heaven, or the entrance of the feafons, they explained the terreftrial phenomena by faying, that through the gate of horn (firft the bull, afterwards the ram), vivifying fires defcended, which, in fpring, gave life to vegetation , and aquatic Spirits, ' which caufed, at the folftice, the overflowing 83 of 262 A SURVEY OF THE of the Nile : that through the gate of ivory (originally the Bowman, or Sagittarius, then the Balance) and through that of Capricorn, or the urn, the emanations or influences of the heavens returned to their fource and re- afcended to their origin; and the milky Way which pafTed through the doors of the fel- ftices, feemed to them to have been placed there on purpofe to be their road and ve- hicle (65). The celeflial fcene farther pre- fented, according to their Atlas, a river (the Nile, defignated by the windings of the Hydra) ; together with a barge (the vefTel Argo), and the dog Sirius, both bearing re- lation to that river of which they forboded the overflowing. Thefe circumftances ad* ded to the preceding ones, increafed the pro- bability of the fiction ; and thus, to arrive at Tartarus or Elyfium, fouls were obliged to crofs the rivers Styx and Acheron, in the boat of Charon the ferryman, and to pafs through the dcors of horn and ivory, which were guarded by the maftiff Cerbe- rus. At length a civil ulage was joined to -all thefe inventions, and gave them con- liilency. The REVOLUTIONS OP EMPIRES. 263 ** The inhabitants of Egypt having re- marked that the putrefaction of dead bodies became in their burning climate the fource of peftilence and difeafes, the cuftom was introduced in a great number of ftates, of burying the dead at a diftance from the inhabited diftridts, in the defert which lies at the Weft. To arrive there it was necef- iary to crofs the canals of the river in a boat, and to pay a toll to the ferryman, otherwife the body, remaining unburied, would have been left a prey to wild hearts. This cuftom fuggefted to ; her civil and religious legifla- tors, a powerful means of affecting the man- ners of her inhabitants -, and addrefling fa- vage and uncultivated men with the motives of filial piety and reverence for the dead, they introduced, as a necefTary condition, the undergoing that previous trial which fhould decide whether the deceafed deferv- ed to be admitted upon the footing of his fa- mily honours into the black city. Such an idea too well accorded with the reft of the bufmefs not to be incorporated with it : it accordingly entered for an article into relir gious creeds, and hell had its Minos and its S 4 Radaman- 264 A SURVEY OF THE Radnmanthus, with the wand, the chair, the guards and the urn, after the exact model of this civil tranfaction. The Divinity then, for the firil time, became a fubject of moral and political confideration, a legiflator, by fo much the more formidable as, while his judgment was final and his decrees without appeal, he was unapproachable to his fub- jedts. This mythological and fabulous cre- ation, compofed as it was of fcajttexed and difcordanf parts, then became a fource of future punishments and rewards, in which divine juftice was fuppofed to correct the vices and errors of this tranfitory ftate. A fpiritual and myftical fyftem, fuch as I have mentioned, acquired fo much the more cre- dit as it applied itfelf to the mind by every argument fuited to it. The oppreifed looked thither for an indemnification; and enter- tained the confoling hope of vengeance ; the oppreflbr expected by the coftlinefs of his offerings to fecure to himfelf impunity, and at the fame time employed this principle to infpire the vulgar with timidity : kings and priells, the heads of the people, faw in it a new fonrce of power, as they referred, to themfelves REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 26$ themfelves the privilege of awarding the favours or the cenfure of the great judge of all, according to the opinion they fliould in- culcate of the odioufnefs of crimes and the meritorioufnefs of virtue. " Thus, then, an inviiible and imaginary world entered into competition with that which was real. Such, O Perfians, was the origin of your renovated earth, your city of refurrection, placed under the equator, and diftingulfhed from all other cities by this iingular attribute, that the bodies of its in- habitants cad no made (66). Such, O Jews and Chriilians, difciples of the Perfians, was the fource of your new Jerufalem, your para- dife and your heaven, modelled upon the aurological heaven of Hermes. Meanwhile, your hell, O ye MuiTulmans, a fubterraneous pit furmounted by a .bridge, your balance of fouls and good works, your judgment pro- nounced by the angels Monkir and Nekir, derives its attributes from the myflerious ceremonies of the cave of Mithra (67) ; and your heaven is exactly coincident with that of* Oiiris, Ormudz and Brama." SECT. 2 66 SECT. VI. Sixth Syjlem: The animated world, or ivorfiip of the univerfe under different emblems. " WHILE the nations were loling them^ felves in the dark labyrinth of mythology and fables, the phyfiological priefts, purfuing their ftudies and enquiries about the order and difpofition of the univerfe, came to frefh refults, and fet up frefh fyftems of powers and moving caufes. " Long confined to fimple appearances, they had only feen in the motion of the-ftars an unknown play of luminous bodies, which they fuppofed to roll round the earth, the central point of all the fpheres ; but from the moment they had difcovered the rotun- dity of our planet, the confequences of this firft fa& led them to other confiderations, and from inference to inference they rofe to the higheft conceptions of aftronomy and phyfics. ( In truth, having conceived the enlight- ened and fimple idea, that the celeftial globe is a fmall circle infcrihed in the greater circle o of the heavens, the theory of the concentral circles REVortmoNs OF EMPIRES. 267 circles naturally prefented itfelf to their hy- pothefis, to refolve the unknown circle of the terreftrial globe by known points of the ce- leftial circle ; and the meafure of one or fe- veral degrees of the meridian, gave precifely the total circumference. Then taking for compafs the diameter of the earth, a fortu- nate genius defcribed with aufpicious bold- nefs the immenfe orbits of the heavens j and, by an unheard of abstraction, man, who fcarcely peoples the grain of fand of which he is the inhabitant, embraced the infinite diftances of the flars, and launched himfelf into the abyfs of fpace and duration. There a new order of the univerfe prefented itfelf, of which the petty globe that he inhabited no longer appeared to him to be the center: this important part was transferred to the enor- mous mafs of the fun, which became the in- flamed pivot of eight circumjacent fpheres, the movements of which were henceforward fubmitted to exact calculation. " The human mind had already done a great deal, by undertaking to refolve the difpofition and order of the great beings of nature ; but pot contented with this firft effort, it wimed alfo -268 A SURVEY OF THE alibto refolve its mechanifm, and difcover i$s origin and motive principle. And here it is that, involved in the abftraft and metaphy- fical depths of motion and its firft caufe, of the Inherent or communicated properties of matter, together with its fuccefiive forms and extent, or, in other words, of boundlefs fpace and time, thefe phyfiological divines loft themfelves in a chaos of fubtle argument ,and fcholaftic controverfy. . " The adion of the fun upon terreftrial bodies, having firft led them to consider its fubftance as pure and elementary fire, they made it the focus and refervoir of an ocean of igneous and luminous fluid, which, under the name of ether, filled the univerfe, and nourifhed the beings contained therein. They afterwards difcovered, by the analyfis of a more accurate philofophy, this fire, or a fire fimilar to it, entering into the compofition of all bodies, and perceived that it was the grand agent in that fpontaneous motion, which in animals is denominated life, and in plants vegetation. From hence they were led to conceive of the mechanifm and aftion of the univerfe,as of a homogeneous WHOLE., a fingle REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 269 a fmgle body, whofe parts, however diitant in place, had a reciprocal connection with each other (69) j and of the world as a living fubftance, animated by the organical circu- lation of an ingneous or rather electrical fluid (70), which, by an analogy borrowed from men and animals, was fuppofed to have the fun for its heart (71 ). " Meanwhile, among the theological phi- lofophers,one feet beginning from thefe prin- ciples, the refult of experiment, faid: That nothing was annihilated in the world; that the elements were unperifhable ; that they changed their combinations, but not their nature ; that the life and death of beings were- nothing more than the varied modifi- cations of the fame atoms ; that matter con- tained in itfelf properties, which were the caufe of all its modes of exifting; that the world was eternal (72), having no bounds either of fpace or duration. Others faid : That the whole univerfe was God ; and, ac- cording to them, God was at once effect and caufe, agent and patient, moving principle and thing moved, having for laws the inva- riable properties which conftitute fatality ; and 270 A SURVEY OF THE and they defignated their idea fometimes by the emblem of PAN (the GREAT ALL) / or of Jupiter, with a ftarry front, a planetary body, and feet of animals ; or by the fymbol of the Orphic egg *, whofe yolk fufpended in the middle of a liquid encompafled by a vault, reprefented the globe of the fun fwimming in ether in the middle of the vault of heaven (73); or by the emblem of a large round ferpent, figurative of the heavens, where they placed the firft princicle of mo- tion, and for that reafon of an azure colour, lludded with gold fpots (the ftars), and de- vouring his tail, that is, re-entering into him- felf, by winding continually like the revolu- tions of the fpheres ; or by the emblem of a man, with his feet preffed and tied together to denote immutable exiftence, covered with a mantle of all colours, like the appearance of nature, and wearing on his head a fphere of gold (74), figurative of the fphere of the pla- nets; or by that of another man fometimes lea ted upon the flower of Lotos, borne uponthe abyfs.of the waters* at others reclined upon Vide CEdip, .ffigypt. torn. II. p. 205. a pile REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. a pile oftwelvecufhions, fignifyingthe twelve celeftial figns. And this, O nations of India, Japan, Siam, Thibet, and China, is the theo- logy, which, invented by the Egyptians, has, been tranfmitted down and preferved among yourfelves, in the pictures you give of Brama, Beddou, Sommanacodom, and Omito. This, O ye Jews and Chriftians, is the counterpart of an opinion, of which you have retained a certain portion, when you defcribe God as f&e breath of life moving upon the face of the wa- ters, alluding to the wind (75), which at t|ie origin of the world, that is, at the departure of the fpheres from the fign of the Crab, an^ nounced the overflowing of the Nile, and feemed to be the preliminary of creation." SECT. VII. Seventh Syjiem: Worjhip of the SotfL of the WORLD, that is, the element of fire, the vital principle of the untverfe* " BUT a third fetof the theological phi- lofophers, difgufted with the idea of a being at once effect and caufe, agent and patient, and uniting in one and the fame nature all contrary attributes, diftinguifhed the moving principle from the thing moved; and laying 7 *t 272 A SURVEY OF THE it down as a datum that matter was in itfelf inert, they pretended that it received its pro- perties from a diitindl agent of which it was only the envelope or cafe. Some made this aent the igneous principle, the acknow- ledged -author of all motion j-others made it the fluid called ether, becaufe it was thought to be more active and fubtile : now, as they denominated the vital and motive principle in animals, a foul, a fpirit ; and as they al- ways reafoned by comparifon, and particu- larly by ccmparifon with human exiltence^ they gave to the motive principle of the whole univerfethe name of foul, intelligence, fpirit; and God was the vital fpirit, which* diffufed through allbeines, animated the va-ft O O ' body of the world. This idea was repre- fented fometirnes by You-piter, efience of motion and animation, principle of exiftence, or rather exiftence itfelf (76) ; at other times by Vulcan, or Pbtba, elementary principle of fire, or by the altar of Vefta, placed -cen- trally in her temple, like the fun in the fpheres ; and again by Knepb, a human being drefled in deep 'blue, holding in his hands a fceptre and a girdle (the Zodiac), wearing on his REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 73 his head a cap with feathers, to exprefs the fugacity of thought, and producing from hi3 mouth the great egg (77). " As a confequence from this fyftem, every being containing in itfelf a portion of the! igneous or etherial fluid, the univerfal and common mover, and that fluid, foul of the world, being the Deity, it followed that the fouls of all beings were a part of God him- felf, partaking of all his attributes, that is; being an indivifible, fimple, and immortal fubftance $ and hence is derived the whole fyftem of the immortality of the foul, which at firft was eternity (78). Hence alfo its tranfmigrations known by the name of me- tempfychofis,thatis tofay,paflage of the vital principle from One body to another; an ide s a which fprung from the real tranfmigration of the material elements. Such, O Indians, Budfoifts, Chriftians, Mufl til mans, was the origin of all your ideas of the fpirituality of the foul ! Such was the fource of the reve- ries of Pythagoras and Plato, your inftitutors, and who were themfelves but the echoes of another, the laft feel: of vifionaryphilofophers that it is neceflary to examine. T SECT. 274 A SURVEY OF THE SECT. VIII. Eighth Jyftcm: The world a ma- chine : worjhip of the Dem'-ourgos, or fupreme artificer. " HITHERTO ths theologians, in exer- ciling their faculties on the detached and fubtile fubftances of ether and the igneous principle, had not however ceafed to treat of exigences palpable and perceptible to* the fenfes, and their theology had conti- nued to be the theory of phyfical powers, placed fometimes exclusively in the ftars, and fometimesdnTeminated through the univerfe. But at the period at which we are arrived^ fome fuperficial minds, loiing the chain of ideas which had directed thefe profound en- quiries, cr ignorant of the facts which ferved as their bafis, rendered abortive all the refults that had been obtained from them, by the introduction of a itrange and novel chimera. They pretended that the univerfe, the hea- vens, the ftars, the fun, differed in no re- fpect from an ordinary machine ; and applying to this hypothecs a comparifon drawn from the works of art, they erected an edifice of the moil whimfical fophifms. "A machine," aid- REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 275 faid they, " cannot form itfelf, there mult be *' a workman to conftrudl it ; its very exift- " ence implies this. The world is a machine: *' it has therefore an artificer (79)." " Hence the Demi-oitrgos, or fupreme ar- tificer, the autocrator and fovereign of the univerfe. It was in vain that the ancient phi- lofophy objected to the hypothecs, that this artificer did not ftand in lefs need of parents and an author, and that afcheme, which add-^ cd only one link to the chain by taking the attribute of eternity from the world and giving it to the creator, was of little value. Thefe innovators, not contented with a firft para- dox, added a fecond, and applying to their ar- tificer the theory of human underftanding, pretended that the Demt-ourgos fafhioned his machine upon an archetype or idea extant in. his mind. In a word, juft as their matters, the natural philofophers, had placed the primunt mobile in the fphere of the fixed ftars, under the appellation of intelligence an4 reafon, fo their apes, the fpiritualifts, adopting the fame principle, made it an attribute of the Demi-ourgos t reprefenting this being as a dif- tincl: fubflance, necerTarily exuling, to which T 2 they 276 A SURVEY OF THE they applied the terms of Metis or Logos, in? other words, underftandingandfpeech. Se- parately from this being, they held the exifl> ence of a folar principle, or foul of the world, which, taken with the preceding, made three gradations of divine perfonages ; firft, the Demi-Qurgo/i or fupreme artificer ; fecondly, the Logos, underfhanding or fpeech : and thirdly, the fpirit or foul of the world (80). And this,OChriftians,is the fiction on which you have founded your doctrine of the Trini- ty; this is the fyftem, which, born a Heretic in the Egyptian temples, tranfmitted a Hea- then to the fchools of Greece and Italy, is now Catholic or Orthodox by the converiion of its partifans, the difciples of Pythagoras and Plato, to Chriftianity. " Thus the Deity, after having been origi- nally confidered as the fenfible and various action of meteors and the elements ; then as the combined power of the ftars, confidered in their relation to terreftrial objects ; then as thofe terreftrial objects themfelves, in con- fequence of confounding fymbols with the things they-reprefented ; then as the com- plex power of Nature, in her two principal operations REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 277 operations of production and deftruclion ; then as the animated world without diftinc- tion of agent and patient, caufe and effe<5t ; then as the folar principlj or element of fire acknowledged as the fole caufe of motion the Deity, I fay, confidered under all thefe different views, became at laft a chimerical and abflract being - y a fcholaftic fubtlety of fubftance without form, of body without figure ; a true delirium of the mind beyond the power of reafon at all to comprehend. But in this its laft transformation, it feeks in vain to conceal itfelf from the fenfes : the feal of its origin is indelibly ftamped upon it. All its attributes, borrowed from the phyfical attributes of the univerfe, as immenfity, eter- nity, indivifibility, incomprehenfiblenefs; or from the moral qualities of man,asgoodnefs, juftice, majefty; and its very names (81), 'derived from the phyfical beings which were its types, particularly the fun, the planets, and the world, prefent to us continually, in fpite of thofe who would corrupt and dif- guife it, infallible marks gf its genuine na- ture. ts Such is the chain of ideas through which T 3 the 278 A SURVEY OF the human mind had already run at a period anterior to the pofitive recitals of hiftory j and fmce their fyftematic form proves them to have been the refult of one fcene of ftudy and inycftigation, every thing inclines us to place the theatre of invefKgation, where Its primitive elements were generated, in Egypt. There their progrefs was rapid, becaufe the> idle curiofity of the theological philofophers had, in the retirement of the temples, no other food than the enigma of the univerfe, which was ever prefent to their minds; and becaufe, in the political diffentions which long difunited that country, each ftate had its college of priefts, who, being in turns auxiliaries or rivals, haftened by their dif- putes the progrefs of fcience and difcovery (82).-. " On the borders of the Nile there hap- pened at that diftant period, what has fmce been repeated all over the globe. In pro- portion as each f, (tern was formed, it excited by its novelty quarrels and fchifms : then, gaining credit even by perfecution, it either deflroyed anterior ideas, or incorporated it- fclf with and modified them. But political inftitutiouc REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 279 Institutions taking place, all opinions, by the aggregation of ftates and mixture of different people, were at length confounded -, and the chain of ideas being loft, theology, plunged in a chaos, became a mere logogryph of old traditions no longer underftood. Religion, lofing its objecl:, was now nothing more than a political expedient by which to rule the credulous vulgar $ and was embraced either by men credulous themfelves and the dupes of their own vilions, or by bold and energe- tic fpirits, who formed vaft projects of ambition/' SECT. IX. 'Religion of Mofes, or ivorjhip of the foul of the world ( Ton-pit er). "OF this latter defcription was the He- brew legiflator, who, defirous of feparating his nation from every other, and of forming a diftint and exclufive empire, conceived the deiign of takingfor its bafis religious pre- judices, and of erecting round it a facred rampart of rites and opinions. But in vain did he profcribe the worfhip of fymbols, the reigning religion, at that time, in Lower Egypt and Phenicia (83) : his God was not T4 OB 280 A SURVEY OF THE on that account the lefs an Egyptian God, of the invention of thpfe priefts whofe difciplc Mofes had been; and Taboub (84), detected by his very name, which means e {fence of beings, and by his Jtymbol, the fiery bufh, is nothing more than the foul of the world, the principle of motion, which Greece mortly after adopted under the fame denomination in her Tou-piter, generative principle, and under that of Ei, exiftence (85)5 \yhichthe Thebans confecrated by the name otKneph ; which Sais wormipped under the emblem of Ifis veiled, with this infcription, I am all that has been, all that is, and all that -will be, and no mortal has drawn afulc ;ny veil-, which Py- thagoras honoured under the appellation of F<^,and which the Stoic philofophy defined with precifion, by calling it the principle of fire. In vain did Mofes wifh to blot from his religion whatever could bring to remern^- brance the worfhip of the ftars ; a multi- plicity of traits in fpite of his exertions ftill remained to point it out : the feven lamps of the great candleftick, the twelve ftones or figns of the Urim of the high- prieft, the of the two equinoxes, each of which at that REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 281 that epocha formed a year, the ceremony of the lamb or celeftial ram, then at its fifteenth^ degree ; laftly, the name of Ofiris even pre- ferved in his fong (86), and the ark or coffer, an imitation of the tomb in which that God was inclofed -, all thefe remain to bear record to the genealogy of his ideas, and their deri- vation from the common fource." S E c T . X. Religion of Zoroafter. " ZOROASTER was alfo a man of the fame bold and energetic ftamp, who, five centuries after Mofes, and in the time of David, revived and moralized among the Medes and Badlrians the whole Egyptian fyftem of Ofiris, under the names of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes. He called the reign of fummer, virtue and good j the reign of win- ter, fin and evil ; the renovation of nature in fpring, creation ; the revival of the fpheres in the fecular periods of the conjunction, re- furreclion j and his future life, hell, paradife, were the Tartarus and Elyfium of the an- cient aftrologers and geographers; in a word, he only confecrated the already exifting re- veries of the my flic fyftem,'' SECT. 282 A SURVEY OF THE SECT. XL Budojfm, or religion of the Samaneans. IN the fame rank muft be included the promulgators of the fepulchral doctrine of the Samaneans, who, on the balls of the me- tempfychofis, raifed the mifanthropic fyflem of felf- renunciation and denial, who, laying it down as a principle, that the body is only a prifon where the foul lives in impure con- finement; that life is but a dream, an illu- fion, and the world a place of paflage to an- other country, to a life without end ; placed virtue and perfection in abfolute infenfibility, in the abnegation of phyfical organs, in the annihilation of all being: whence refulted the fafts, penances, macerations, folitude, con- templations, and all the deplorable practices of the mad-headed Anchorets." S E c T . X 1 1 . Brawinifm, or the Indian fyftem. " FINALLY, of the fame caft were the founders of the Indian fyftem, who, refining after Zoroafter upon the two principles of creation and deftruction, introduced an inter- mediate one, that of confervation, and upon their trinity in unity, of Brama, Chiven, and Bichenou, REVOLUTIONS OP EMPIRES. 283 B'chenou, accumulated a multitude of tra- ditional alk^ores. and the alembicated fub- O 1 tlec'es of their Tjetaphyfics." " Thefe are the materials which, fcatter- ed through Afia, there exifted for many ages, when, by a fortuitous courfe of events and circumftances, new combinations of them were introduced on the banks of the Euphra- tes, and on the mores of the Mediterranean." SECT. XIII. ^brijlianity, or the allegorical worjhip of the Sun, under the cabalijlical names of CHRIS -EN or CHRIST, #WYcs- us or JESUS. " IN conftituting a feparate people, Mofes had vainly imagined that he mould guard them from the influence of every foreign ^dea : but an invincible inclination, founded on .affinity of origin, continually called back the Hebrews to the worfhip of the neigh- bouring nations ', and the relations of com- merce that neceflarily fublifted between them, tended every day to ftrengthen the propenfity. While the Mofaic inftitution maintained its ground, the coercion of government and the laws, was a confiderable obftacle to the inlet of 284 A SURVEY OF THE of innovations ; yet even then the principal places were full of idols, and God the fun had his chariot and horfes painted in the palaces of kings, and in the very temple of Yahouh : but when the conquefts of the kings of Nineveh and Babylon had difTolved the bands of public power, the people left to themfelves, and folicited by their conque? rors, no longer kept a reflraint on their in- clinations, and profane opinions were openly profeffed in Judea, At firft the Aflyrian colonies, placed in the fituation of the old tribes, rilled the kingdom of Samaria with the dogmas of the Magi, which foon pene- trated into Judea. Afterwards Jerufalem having been fubjugated, the Egyptians, Sy- rians and Arabs, entering this open country ? introduced their tenets, and the religion of Mofes thus underwent a fecond alteration. In like manner the priefls and great men, removing to Babylon, and educated in the fcience of the Chaldeans, imbibed, during a - refidencg of feventy years, every principle of their theology, and from that moment the dogmas of the evil Genius (Satan), of the .archangel Michael (87), of the Ancient of Days REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. $85 Days (Ormuzd), of the rebellious angels, the celeftial combats, the immortality of the foul, and the refurrection, dogmas unknown to Mofes, or rejected by him, fmce he obferves a perfect filence respecting them, became naturalized among the Jews. " On their return to their country, the emigrants brought back with them thefe ideas ; and at firft the innovations occasioned difputes between their partifans, the Phari- fees, and the adherents to the ancient na- tional wor/hip, the Sadducees : but the for- mer, feconded by the inclination of the peo- ple, and the habits they had already con- tracted, and fupported by the authority of the Perfians, their deliverers, finally gained the afcendancy, and the theology of Zoro- after was confecrated by the children of Mofes (88). " A fortuitous analogy between two lead- _ing ideas, proved particularly favourable to this coalition, and formed the bafis of a laft fyftem, not lefs furprifing in its fortune than in the caufes of its formation. . " From the time that the AlTyrians had deftroyed the kingdom o^Samaria, fome fa- gacious 2 86 A SURVEY OF THE gacious fpirits forefaw, announced, and pre- dicted the fame fate to Jerufalem : and all their predictions were {tamped by this parti- cularity, that they always concluded with prayers for a happy re-eftablifhment and re- generation, which were in like manner fpoken of in the way of prophefies. The enthuliafm of the Hierophants had figured a royal de- liverer, who was to re-eftablifh the nation in its ancient glory : the Hebrews were again to become a powerful and conquering people, and Jerufalem the capital of an empire that was to extend over the whole world. " Events having realised the firfl part of thofe predictions, the ruin of Jerufalem, the people clung to the fecond with a firmnefs of belief proportioned to their misfortunes; and the afflicted Jews waited with the im- patience of want and of den're for that victo- rious king and deliverer that was to come, in order to fave the nation of Mofes, and re- ftore the throne of David. " The facred and mythological traditions of precedent times had fpread over all Afia a tenet perfectly analogous. A great mediator, a final judge, a future faviour, was fpoken of* i who, REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 287 who, as king, God, and victorious legiilator, was to reftore the golden age upon earth (89), to deliver the world from evil, and regain for mankind the reign of good, the kingdom of peace and happinefs. Thefe ideas and ex- premons were in every mouth, and they con- foled the people under that deplorable flate of real fuffering into which they had been plunged by fucceflive cbnqueils and con- querors, and the barbarous defpotifm of their governments. This refemblance between the oracles of different nations and the pre- dictions of the prophets, excited the attention of the Jews ; and the prophets had doubt- lefs been careful to infufe into their pictures, the fpirit and ftyle of the facred books em- ployed in the Pagan myfteries. The arri- val of a great ambafTador, of a final faviour, was therefore the general expectation in Ju- dea, when at length a fingular circumftance was made to determine the precife period of his coming. " It was recorded in the facred books of the Perlians and the Chaldeans, that the world, compofed of a total revolution of twelve thoufand periods, was divided into two 28& A SURVEY OF THE two partial revolutions, of which one, the age and reign of good, was to terminate at the expiration of fix thoufand, and the other,' the a~e and reign of evil, at the expiration of another fix thoufand. " Their firft authors had meant by tfiefe recitals, the annual revolution of the great celeftial orb (a revolution compofed of twelve months or figns each divided into a thoufand parts), and the two fyftematic periods of winter and fummer, each confirming equally of fix thoufand. But thefe equivocal expref- fions having been erroneouily explained, and having received an abfolute and moral, in- ftead of their allrological and phyfical fenfey the refult was, that the annual was taken" for a fecular world, the thoufand periods for a thoufand years j and judging, from the ap- pearance of things, that the prefent was' the age of misfortune, they inferred that it would terminate at the expiration of the fix thouiand pretended years (90). " Now, according to the Jewifh compu- tation, fix thoufand years had already nearly elapfed fmcc the fuppofed creation of the world (91). This coincidence produced confiderabltf REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 289 eonfiderable fermentation in the minds of the people. Nothing was thought of but the approaching termination." The Hiero- phants were interrogated, and their facred books examined* The great Mediator and final Judge was expected, and his advent de- fired, that an end may be put to fo many calamities* This was fo much the fabjecl: of converfation, that fome one was faid to have feen him, and a rumour of this kind Was all that was wanting to eftablim a ge- neral certainty. The popular report be- came a demon ftrated fact ; the imaginary being was realized; and all the circum- ftances of mythological tradition being in fome manner connected with this phantom, the refult was an authentic and regular hif- tory, which from henceforth it was blaf- phemy to doubt. " In this mythological hiftory the fol- lowing traditions were recorded : " That, " in the beginning, a man and a 'woman had> " by their fall, brought fm and evil infj the (( world" (Examine plate II.) " By this was denoted the agronomical fa and under the cloak of piety you devour the of- ferings made to Gods who cannot eat, and the fubftance of the people, obtained by in- duftry and toil." " And you," replied the Bramins, the Bon- zes, and the Chamans, " fell to the credulous ftirvdvor vain prayers for the fouls of his dead relatives. With your indulgences and abfo lutions you have arrogated to yourfelves the power and functions of Gcd himfelf: and making a traffic of his grace, you have put heaven up to auction, and have founded, by your fyftem of e.xpiation, a tariff cf crimes that has perverted the confciences of men (102)." X 3 " Add 310 A SURVEY OF THE " Add to this," faid the Imans, " that with thefe men has originated the moft iniidious of all vvickcdnefs, the abfurd and impious obligation of recounting to them' the mod impenetrable fecrets of actions, of thoughts, of 'celliites, (confeffion) ; by means of which their infolent curioiity has carried its inqui- fition even to the facred fandtuary of the nuptial bed (103), and the inviolable afylum of the heart." By thus reproaching each other, the chiefs of the different worships revealedall the crimes of their miniftry, all the hidden vices of their profefiion, and it appeared that the fpirir, the iyftem of conduct, the actions and manners of priefts were, among all nations, uniformly the fame : that, every where they had formed fecretaiTcciations,corporatjonsof individuals, enemies to the reft of the fociety (104) : that they had attributed to themlelves cer- tain prerogatives and immunities, in order to be exempt frcm the burthens which fell up- on the other clalTes : that they /hared nei- ther the toil of the labourer, nor the perils of the foldier, nor the viciffitudes of the merchant : that they led a life of celibacy, to .REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. 311 to avoid domertic inconveniences and cares : that, under the garb of poverty, they found the fecret of becoming rich, and of procuring every enjoyment: that under the name of mendicants, they collected imports more con- fiderable than thofe paid to princes: that under the appellation of gifts and offerings, they obtained a certain revenue unaccompa- nied with trouble or expence : that upon the pretext of feclufion and devotion, they lived in indolence and licentioufnefs : that they had made alms a virtue, that they might fubfift in comfort upon the labour of other men: that they had invented the ce- remonies of worfhip to attract the reverence of the people, calling themfelves the medi- ators and interpreters of the Gods, with the fole view of affirming all his power ; and that for this purpofe, according to the knowledge or ignorance of thofe upon whom they had to work, they made themfelves, by turns, artrologers, carters of planets, augurers, ma- gicians (106), necromancers, quacks, cour- tiers, confeffors of princes, always aiming at influence for their own exclufive advantage: that fometimes they had exalted the pre- X 4 rogativc 312 A SURVEY OF THE rogative of kings, and held their perfons to be facred, to obtain their favour or participate in. their power : that at others they had de- cried this doctrine and preached the murder of tyrants (refer ving it to themfelves to fpe- cify the tyranny), in order to be revenged of the flights and difobedience they had expe- rienced from them: that at all times they had called by the name of impiety what prov- ed injurious to the'r intereft j had oppofed public inftrufti on, that they might monopo- lize i'dencej and, in fhort, had univerfally found the fecret of living in tranquillity amid ft the anarchy they occafioned ; lecure, under ths^efpotifm they functioned j in indo- lence, amidft the induftry they recommend- ed; and in abundance, in the very bofom of f a- city; andallthis, by carrying on thefingu- 1* r commerce of felling words and geflures to the credulous, who paid for them as for commodities of the greateft value (107). .Then the people, feized with fury, were upon the point of tearing to pieces the men who had deceived them ; but the legifldtors, arre&ng this fally of violence, and addreffing the chiefs and doclors, faid: "And is it thus, O in- DEVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES. ^I| O inftitutors of the people, that you hive nufled and abufed them ?" And the terrified priefls replied: ). Babylon^ the ruins of which are trodden un- der f:ot of men. It appears that Babylon occupied on the Eaftx-rn Bank of the Euphrates a fpace of ground fix leagues in length. Throughout this fpace bricks are found, 'ans of which daily additions are made to the town of Helle. Upon many of thefe are characters written with a nail limilar to thofe of Perfcpolis. I am indebted for fiicts to M. de Bcaucharnp, grand vicar of Babylon, a traveller equally diftinguiihed for his knowledge of aftro- ncmy and his veracity. Page 59. (1). Thofe -wells of Tyre, See refpeding thefe monuments, my Travels into Syria, vol. ii. p. 214. Tb'fe artificial banks of the Euphrates. From the town or village of ' Samaouat the courfe of the Euphrates is accompanied with a double bank, which deicends as far as it-, junction with the Tygris, and from thence to the k.i, being a length of about a hundred leagues French Pure. The heighth of thefe artificial banks is not uni- form, NOTES. 335 form, but increafes as you advance from the fea ; it may be eftimated at from twe've to fifteen feet. But for them, the inundation of the liver would bury the country around, which is flat, to r.n extent of twenty or twenty- five leagues ; and even, notwithftanding thefe banks, there has been in modern times an overflow which has covered the whole triangle formed by the junction of this river to the Tigris, being a fpace of country of 130 fquare leagues. By the ftagnation of thefe waters an epidemical difeafe of the moil fatal nature was occafioned. It follows from hence, I. That all the flat country bordering upon thefe rivers was originally a marfh ; 2. That this marfn could not have been inhabited previoufly to the conftruc- tion of the banks in cueftion ; 3. That thefe banks could not have been the work but of a population prior as to date : and the elevation of Babylon therefore muft have been poftericr to that of Nineveh, as I think I have chro- nologically demonflrated in the memoir above cited. See Encyclopedic, vol. xiii. of Antiquities. Page id. (k). Thofe conduits cf~A4edea, The modern Aderbidjan, which was apart of Medea, ^he mountains of Kourdeftan, and thofe of Diarbekr, abound with fubterranean canr.ls, by means of which the ancient in- habitants conveyed water to their parched foil in order to fertilize it, It was regarded as a meritorious al, and a religious duty prefcribed by Zoroafter, who, inftead of preaching celibacy, mortifications, and other pretended virtues of the Monkiih fort, repeats continually in the pailages that are preferred refpeting him in the Sad-der arid the Zend-avefta, " That the aclioh. moft pleafing to " God is to plough and cultivate the earth, to water it " with running ftre.ams, to multiply vegetation and living " beings, 336 NOTES. " beings, to have numerous flocks, young ard fruitful c < virgins, a multitude of children, &c. &c." Page 62. (I). This inequa^t)^ the rfult of accident, was taken fof the law cf nature. Almoft all the ancient philo- tbphers and politicians have laid it down as a principle, that men are born unequal, that nature has created fome to be free, and others ro be ilaves. Expreilions of .this kind are to be found in Ariftotle, and even ]:\ Plato, called the divine, doubtlefs in the fame fenfe as the my- thological reveries which he promulgated. Witt: all the people of anticuity, the Gauls, the Romans, the Athe- nians, the right of the ftrongeft was the right of na- tions ; an 1 e fame principle are derived all the political diforJers and public national crimes that at pre- fent exift. Page id. (m). Paternal tyranny laid the foundation of political defpot ifm. Upon this fingle expreillon it would be eafy to write a long and important chapter. We might prove in it, beyond contradiction, that all the abuf'js of national governments have fprang from thofe of domeftic government, from that government called patriarchal, which fuperficial minds have extolled without having analyzed it. Numbcrlefs fals demonftrate, that with every infant people, in every favage and barbarous ftate, the father, the chief of the family, is a defpot, and a cruel and infolent defpot. The wife is his (lave, the children his fervants. This king fleeps or fmokes his pipe, while his wife and daughters perform all the drudgery of the houfe, and even that of tillage and culti- vation, as far as occupations of this nature are praclifed in fuch focieties ; and no fooner have the boys acquired ftrength, than they are allowed to teat the females and make NOTES. 337 tnake them ferve and wait upon them as they do upon their fathers. Similar to this is the ftate of our own un- civilized peafants. In proportion as civilization fpreads, the manners become milder, and the condition of the women improves, till, by a contrary excefs, they arrive at dominion, and then a nation becomes effeminate and corrupt. It is remarkable, that parental authority i^ great accoiding as the government is defpotic. China, India, and Turkey are {triking examples of this. One would fuppofe that tyrants gave themfdves accomplices, and interefted fubakern defpots to maintain their authority. In opposition to this the Romans will be cited j but it re- mains to be proved that the Romans were men truly free ; and their quick pafiage from their republican do- fpotifm to their abje6l fcrvility under the emperors, gives room at leait for coniiderable doubts as to that freedom. Page 67. (72). dkvays tending to concenter the power In & finglc band. It is remarkable, that this has in all in-r fiances been the constant progrefs of focieties: beginning with a ftate of anarchy or democracy, that is, with a great tlivifion of power, they have palled to ariftocracy, and from aristocracy to monarchy. Does it not hence follow, that thofe who coniritute- {rates under the democratic form, deftine them to undergo all the intervening troubles be- tween that and monarchy ; and that the fupreme admi- niftration by a fingle chief is the moft natural govern- ment, as well as that beft calculated for peace ? Page 69. (0). And kings followed the dictates of every depraved tajle. It is equally worthy of remark, that the conduct and manners of princes and kings of every coun- try and every age, are found to be precifely the fame at Z fimilar 33 8 NOTES. iiir.ilar period, whether of the formation or diflblution sf empires. Hiftory every where prefects the fame pictures of luxury and jolly; of prrrks, gardens, lakes, rocks y palaces, furniture, excefS of the table, wine, women, concluding with brutality. The abfurd rock in the garden of Verfeilles has alone coft three millions. I have fometimes calculated what .might have been done with the expencc of the three pyramids of Gizah, and I have found that it would eafily have conft rueled, from the Red Sea to Alexandria, a canal 150 feet y/ide and 30 deep, completely covered in with cut ftor.es and a parapet, together with 'a fortified and commercial town, confining of 400 houtes furnifned with cifterns. What difference in point of utility between fuch a canal and thefe pyramids ? Page 79. (/>). By tb circled korfes^ sV. A Tartar horfe- man has always two horfcs, of which he kads one in band. . . . The Kalpak is a bonnet made of the fkin of a fheep or other animal. The part of the head covered by this bonnet is {haved, with the exception of a tuft about the,fize of a crown-piece, and which is fuffered to grow* to the length of feven or eight inches, precifely where our prieils place their tonfure. It is by this tuft of hair, worn by the majority of Muffulmans, that the angel of the tomb is to take the eledl and carry them into Para- dife. Page 80. (q). Infidtli are inpojjejjion of a consecrated land, It is not in the power of the fultan to cede tq a foreign power a province inhabited by TRUE BELIEVERS. The people, mitigated by the lawyers, would not fail to revolt. This is one reafon which has led thofc who know th& Turks, NOTE S.' 339 Turks, to regard as chimerical the ceding of Candia, Cyprus, and Egypt, projected by certain European po- tentate?. Page 86. (r). Prsncunc /tfj myjlerioujly the word Auni, This word is in the religion of the Hindoos a facred em- blem of the Divinity. It is only to be pronounced in fecret, without being heard by any one. It is formed of three letters, of which the firlr, <;, fignines the principle of all, the creator, Brama ; the fecond, #, the confervator, Vichenou; and the laft, TTZ, the deftroyer, who puts an end to all, Chiven. It is pronounced like the monofyllable 6m, and exprefies the unity of thofe three Gods. The idea is precii'dy that of the Alpha and Omega mentioned in the Nevv Teftarnent. Page id. (j). Jy^ciber he ought to begin the ceremony at the etixc, ^:, This is one of the grand points of fchifm between the partizans of Omar and thofe of Ali. Sup- pofe two Mahometans to meet on a journey, and to ac- coft each other with brotherly affection : the hour of prayer arrives; one begins his ablution at his fingers, the other at the elbow, and inftantly they are mortal enemies. O fublime importance of religious opinions ! O profound ,phi!ofophy of the authors of them ! Page 99. [t]. The horde of Oguzians. Before the Turks took the name of their chief Othman I. they bore that of Oguzians ; and it was under this appellation that they were driven out of Tartary by Gengis, and came from the borders of Gihoun to fettle themfelves in Anatolia. Page 100. (.v). A general anarchy iakeplace^ as happened in the empire of the Sophis. In Perfia, after the death of Thamas-Koulikan, each province had its chief, and for Z 2 forty ^40 NOTE S. forty years thefe chiefs were in a conftant ftate of In this view the Turks do not fay without reafon: " Ten years of a tyrant arc lefs dcffruvlive than a fingle night " of anarchy." ' J Page 107. (AT). From people to people larbarrws wan were prevalent. Read the hiilory of the wars of Rome and Carth:>g.e,of Sparta and Mefiina, of Athens and Syracufe, of the Hebrews and the Fheniciaas : yet thefc are the na- tions of which antiquity boafts as being mod polifhed ! Page 114. (y}. Tbs declfan of their difputes. What is a people ? An individual of the fociety at large. What a war? A due! between two individual people. In what manner ought a fociety to act when two of its members fight ? Interfere and reconcile, or reprefs them. In the days of the Abbe de Saint-Pierre this was treated as a dream, but happily for the human race it begins to be realized. Page 119. (z). T/JL' Chinefe fubjeged to an infeknt dcf- jCtifni. The emperor of Chins calls himfclf the fon of heaven, that is, of God ; for in the opinion of the Chinefc, the material heaven, the arbiter of fatality, is the Deity himfelf. " The emperor only (hows himfelf once in ten u months, left the people, accuftomed to fee him, might " lofe their refpe6l ; for he holds it as a maxim, that " power can only be fupported by force, that the people " have no idea of juftice, and are not to be governed but " by coercion." Narrative of two Mahometan Travellers in 851 and 877, iranflated by the Abbe Renaudot in 1718. Notwithstanding what is aflerted by the miffiomaries, this fituation has undergone no change. The bamboo frill reigns in China, and the /on of heaven baftinades, for NOTES. 341 for the mod trivial fault, the Mandarin, who, inln's turn, 'baftinades the people. The Jefuits may tell us that this is x the bell governed country in the world, and its inha- bitants the happieft of men : but a fingle letter from Amyot has convinced me, that China is a truly Turkish, government, and the account of Sonnerat confirms it. See Vol. II. of Forage aux Indes, in 410. The irremediable vice of their language. As long as the Chinefe fhall in writing make ufe of their prefent cha- radiers, they can be expected to make no progrefs in civilization. The necefiary introdu&orylrep muft be the giving them an alphabetlike our own, or the fub'ftituting in the room of their language that of the Tartars : the improvement made in the latter by M. de Lengles, is calculated to 'introduce this change. See the Mantcbou alphabet) the production ef a mind truly Jearned in the formation of language. Page 119. ( i.) In the North 1 fee nothing but frrfs re r duced to the level of cattle. When this was written the revolution in Poland had not taken place. I beg leave to apologife to the virtuous nobles and the enlightened prince "by whom it was effected. Page 12?. (2.) And govern yourfehcs. This dialogue between the people and the indolent clafTes, rs applicable t'o every fociety ; it contains the feeds of all the political vices and diforders that prevail, and which may thus be defined ; men who do nothing, and who.devour the fub- llance of others ; and men who arrogate to themfelves particular rights and exclufive privileges of wealth and indolence. Compare the Mamlouks of Egypt, the nobi- lity of Europe, the Nairs of India, the Emirs of Arabia, the Patricians of Rome, the Chriftian clergy, the Imans, Z 3 '** 342 N Q T E S. the Bramins, the Bonzes, the Lamas, &c. &c. and yen witt find in all the fame characteristic feature, " Men " living in idlenefs at the expcnce of thofe who labour." Page 138. (2). Equality and liberty conjlifaie the pbyfical bafis* In the declaration of rights there is an inverfion of ideas in the firft article, liberty being placed before equa- lity from which it in reality fprings. This defect is not to be wondered at'; the fcience cf the rights cf man is a new fcience; it was invented yeflerday by the Ameri- cans, to-day the French are perfecting it, but there yet remains a great deal to be done. In the ideas that con- flit'ute it there is a genealogical order which, from its bafis, phyfical equality, to the rninuteft and moll: remote branches of government, ought to proceed in an unin- terrupted feries of inferences. This will be demonftrated in the fecond part of :his work. Page 147. (4.) d vaft hat of the leaves cf the palpi-tree. , This fpecies of the palm-tree is called Latanler. Its leaf, fimilar to a fan-mount, grows upon a flalk iiluing directly from the earth. A fpecimen may be feen in the botanic garden. Pa^e 148. (5*) The contemplation cf one fpecies thus in- finitely varied. A hail of cofbumas in one of the galleries of the Louvre, would in every point v of view be an in- terefling eftablifliment : it would furnifh an admirable treat -to the'curiofity of a great number of men, excellent models to the art'ilt, and ufcful fubjecls of meditation to the phyfician, the philofophcr, and the legiflator. Picture to yourfJf a collection of the various faces and figures of every country "and nation, exhibiting accurately colour, features and form : what a field for inveiligation and en- quiry as to the influence of climate, manners, aliment, &c. ! NOTE S, 343 &c. ! It might truly be ftyled the fcience of man ! Buffon has attempted a chapter of this nature, but it only ferves to exhibit more ftrikingly our a&ual ignorance. Such a collection it is faid is begun at Peterfburg, but it is faid at the fame time, to be as imperfect as the vocabulary of the 300 languages. The enterprise would be worthy of the French' nation. Page 157. (6). Thus are there fetis to the number ofjf* venty-two. The Muflulmans enumerate in common fe- venty-two fets; but I read, while I refided among them, a work which gave an account of more than eighty, all equally wife and important. Page id. (7). Ha: never ceafedfor twelve hundred years. Read the hiftory of Ifiamifm by its own writers, and you will be convinced that one of the principal caufes of the v/ars which have defolated Afia and Africa fmce the days of Mahomet, has been the apoftolical fanaticifm of its doctrine. Casfar has been fuppofed to have deftroyed three millions of men : it would be interefting to make a iimilar calculation refpedting every founder of a religious fyftem. Page 161. (8). The Neftorlans^ the EutycheaKS, and a hundred others. Confult upon this fubjecl: Diftionnaire des Herefics par F Abbe Pluquct^ in two volumes, 8vo ; a work admirably calculated to irifpire the mind with phi- lofophy, in the fenfe that the Lacedemonians taught their children temperance, by fhewing to them the drunken Heliotes. Page 163. (9). Difciples of Zoroafter. They are the Parfes, better known by the opprobrious name of Gaures or Guebres, another word for infidels. They are in Afia Z 4 what 344 NOTES. what the Jews are in Europe. The name of their pope or high pricft is Mobed. Page 164. (IG). Their Dcficurs ; that is to fay, their priefts. See, refpe&ing the rites of this religion, Henry Lord, Hyde^ and the Zendavejla. Their coftuma is a robe with a belt of four knots, and a veil over the mourh for fear of polluting the fire with their breath. Page id. (ll) The refurnfiion of the botiy^ or the foul) or L'tb. The Zoroafrrians are divided between two opinions, one party believing that both foul and body will rife, the other, that it will be the foul only. The Chriftians and Mahometans have embraced the rnoft folid _of the two. Pae 165. (12). Tkcyws&r a net over their mouths^ &c . According to the fyftem of the Metempfychofis, a foul, to undergo^pnnfication, pa/Fes into the body of fome infect or animal. It is of importance not to difturb this penance, as the work muft in that cafe" begin afrefh. ..*. Paria. This is ths name of a oaft or tribe reputed unclean, bc- -caufethey eat of what has enjoyed life. Page id. (13). Bratna. reduced to ferue as a pedc/laiio the Lixgfim. See Stnrurfft, Voyage aux Ixdcs. Vol. I. Page 166. (14). Hideous forms of a loar^ a lion* Tbefeape^e incarnations of Vichenou, or metamorphofes of the fun. He Is. to come at the end of the world, that is, at the expiration of the great period, in the form of a horfe, like the four.horfes of the apocalypfe. Page id. (15). In their devction^ 6ff. When a fccrary of Ciiiven hears the name of Vichenou pronounced, he flops his earsj flies, 'and purifies himfelf. Page 167. (16). The Cbituft vwrjbip bin under the name tf NOTES. 345 if Fot. The original name of this God is Bait^ which i.\ Hebrew fignifies an egg. The Arabs pronounce in Baidhy giving to the db an emphatic found which makes it approach to dz. Kempfer, an accurate traveller, writes ; t Budfo^ which muft be pronounced Boudfff, whence is derived the name of Budfoift and of Bonze, applied to the priefts. ' Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromata, writes it Bcdott) as it is pronounced alfo by the Chingulais; and Saint Jerome ; Boudda and Boutta. At Thibet they call it Budd : and hence the name of the country called Boud~tan and Ti-budd: it was in this province that this fyftem of religion was firft inculcated in Upper Afia ; La is a corruption of Allah) the name of God in the Syriac language, from which many of the Eaftern dialects appear to be derived. The Chincie having neither b nor dj have fupplied their place byf and /, and have there- fore faid Fout. Pa^e 1 68. (17). Tbiit the foul can. exlft independently of the fenfes. See in Kempfer the do in the fifth ani- mals i and in the fixth man : correfponding with the account in Genefis. For particulars fee Hyde, cb. 9. and Henry l+rd, cb. 2. Qn the religion of the ancient Perftam. It is remarkable, that the fame tradition is found in the facred books .of the Etrurian?, which relate, " that the " Fabricator of all things had comprifed the duration of " his work in a period of twelve thoufand years, which " period was diftributed to the twelve houfes of the fun/' In the firft thoufand, God. made heaven and earth; in the fecond, the firmament ; in the third, the (ea and the waters ; in the fourth, the fun, moon, and (tars ; in the fifth, the foul of animals, birds, and reptiles ; in the fixth, man. See Suidas, at the word Tyrrbena ; which fhows firft, the identity of their theological and aftrological opinions ; and fecondly, the identity, or rather confuficn cf ideas, between abfolute and fyfterriatical creation, that is, the periods afllgned for renewing the face of nature, which were at firil the period of the year, and afterwards periods of 60, of 600, of 25,000, of 36,000, and of 432,000 years. Page 198. (30). Auricular confeJ/Jon, &c. The mo- dern Parfes and the ancient Mithriacs, who are the fame fet, obferve all the Chriftian facraments, even the Ir.yhig on of hands in confirmation. tc The prieft of Mithra," fays Teitullian (de Proefcriptione, c. 40.) " promifes ab- e Pedes^ the Cbajlre^ an d the Pourans. Thefe are the facred volumes of the Hindoos ; they are fometimes written fcdamS) Pouranam;, Cbaftran^ be- caufe the Hindoos, like the Perfians, are accuftomed to give a nafal found to the terminations of their words, which we reprefent by the affixes on and an, and the Portuguefe by the affixes cm and am. Many of thefe books have been translated, thanks to the liberal fpirit of Mr. Haftings, who has founded at Calcutta a literary fociety and a printing prefs. At the fame time, how- ever, that we exprefs our gratitude to .this fociety, we inuft be permitted to complain of its exclufive fpirit, the number of copies printed of each book being fuch as it is irnpoflible to purchafe them even in England; they arc wholly in the hands of the Eaft India proprietors. Scarcely N O T E S. 3.51 Scarcely even is the Afiatic Mifcellany known in Europe, and a man muft be very learned in oriental antiquity be- fore he fo much as hears of the Jones's, the Wilkins's and the Halhed's, &c. As to the facrcd books of the* Hindoos, all that are yet in our hands are the Bhagvat Geeta, the Ezour-Vcdam, the Bugcivadam, and certain ,;nrients of the Chaftres printed at the eud of the Rh.i2;vat Geeta. Thefe books are in Indoflan what the 3 Old and New Touament are in Chriftendorn, the Korau in Turkey, the Sad-der and the Zendavefla among the Parfes, See. When I have taken an extenfive furvey of their contents, I have fornetimes afked myfelf, what would be the lofs to the human race if a new Omar con- demned them to the flames ; and unable to difcover any mifchief that would enfue, I call the imaginary cheft .that contains them, the box of Pandora. Page 201. (32). Erama^ Blcbcn or Fl^hcrou^ Cblb or Ctriven. Theic names are differently pronounced ac- cording to the different dialects : thus they fay Brcmma^ Ercuma. Elcben has been turned in to by the eafy exchange of a B for a V-> and inio by means of a grammatical affix. In the fame mar. Chlb-t which is fynonymous with Satan, and ad- veifary, is frequently written Cbib-a and Ct-h-en; he is called alfo Rouder and Routr-en^ that is, the deitroyer. Page id. (33). In the jhc,pe of a tortcifs. This is the ccnfrellution tcfiudo^ or the lyre y which was at firflc a tortoife, on account of its flow motion round the Pole ; then a lyre, becaufe k is the {hell of this reptile on which the firings of the lyre are mounted. See an memoir of M. Dupuls^ fur VOngine des in 4/0. Page 204. (34). That you have borrowed the ancitKt Paganifm 352 NOTES. Paganifm of the Weflern world. Ail the ancient opinious of the Egyptian and Grecian theologians are to be found in India, and they appear to have been introduced, by means of the commerce of Arabia and the vicinity of Perfia, time immemorial. Page 205. (35)* Breathed ufttn toe face of the waters. This cofmogony of the Lamas, the Bonzes, and even the ; .r,s, as Henry Lord afferts, is literally that of the-an- cient Egyptians. The Egyptians," fays Porphyry, " call u Kmpb^ intelligence, or efficient^ caufe of the univerfe. They relate thst this God vomitted an egg, from which " was produced another God named Phiha or Vulcan, u (igneous principle, or the fun,) and they add, that this & egg is the world." Eufeb. Presp. Evang. p. 115." " They reprefent," fays the fame author in another place, " the God Kxeph, or efficient caufe x undar the form " of a man in deep blue (the colour of the fky), having " in his hand fc fceptre, a belt round his body, and a fmall "bonnet rcyal of light feathers on his head, to dcncio u how very fubtile and fugacious the idea of that being " is." Upon which I hall obferve, that Knepk in He- bre\v fignihcs a wing, a feather, and that this colour of fky-blue is to be found in the majority of the Indian Got!<, and i?, under the name of Narayan, one of their moft diftinguifhing epithets. Page 208. (36). That the Lamas vcere a degenerate fal of the Nejtcrians. This is aflerted by our mifllonarief, and among others by Georgi in his unfinifhed work of the Thibetan alphabet : but if it can be proved that the Mankhcfms were but plagiarifls, ?.nd the ignorant echo of a doctrine that exifted fifteen hundred years before them, what becomes of the declarations of Georgi ? See upon this fubjecl Beaufob. Hi/f. du Manitheifnu* But NOTES, 353 But the Lama demon/lrated, &c. The eaftern writers in general agree in placing the birth of Bedou 1027 years before Jefus Chrift, which makes him the cotemporary of Zoroafter, with whom, in my opinion, they confound him. It is certain that his dodlrine notorioufly exifted at that epoch: it is found entire in that of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and the Indian gymnofophifts. But the gymnofophifts are cited at the time of Alexander as an ancient fel already divided into Brachmans and Sami- neans. See Bardejanes en Saint Jerome, Epitre a Jovian, Pythagoras lived in the ninth century before Jefus (Thrift j See Chronology of the Twelve dges \ and Orpheus is of ftill greater antiquity. If, as is the cafe, the dodtrine of Pythagoras and that of Orpheus are of Egyptian origin, that of Bedou goes back to the common fource ; and in reality the Egyptian priefts recite that Hermes, as he was dying, faid : " I have hitherto lived an exile from my " country, to which I now return. Weep not for me, ". I afcend to the celeftial aboJe, where each of you will "follow in his turn: there God is: this life is only " death." Chalcidius in Tbimaum. Such was the profef- fion of faith of the Samaneans, the feciaries of Orpheus, and the Pythagoreans. Farther, Hermes is no other than Bedou himfelf; for among the Indians, Chinefe, Lamas, &c. the planet Mercury, and the correfponding day of the week (Wednesday) bear the name of Bedou : and this accounts for his being placed jn the rank of mythological beings, and discovers the iilufion of his pretended existence as a man, fince it is evident that Mercury was not a human being, but the Genius or Decan, who, placed at the fummer folftice, opened the A a Egyptian j 54 . NOTE S. Egyptian year : hence his attributes taken from the conciliation Syrius, and his name of Anubis, as well as that of Efculapiu?, having the figure of a man and the head of a dog : hence his ferpent, which is the Hydra, emblem of the Nile (Hydor, humidity) ; and from this ferpent he feems to have derived his name of Hermes, as Remes [with a.fibin) y in the oriental languages, fignifies ierpent. Now Bedou and Hermes being the lame names, it is manifeft of what antiquity is the fyftem afcribed to the former. As to the name of Samanean, it is pree-ifely that of Chaman preferved in Tartary, China, and India. The interpretation given to it is, man of the. woods, a hermit mortifying thejjefhy fuch being the charac- teriftic of this feel: ; but its literal meaning is celeftiat (Samaoui), and explains the fyftem of thofe who are called by it. This fyftem is the fame as that of the fetlaries of Orpheus, of the ElTenians > of the ancient Anchorets of Perfia and the whole Eaftern country. See Porphyry, de Abjlln. Animal. Thefe celeftiai and penitent men, carried in India their infanity to fuch an extreme, as to with not to touch the earth, and they accordingly- lived in cages fufpended to trees, where the people, whofe admiration was not lefs abfurd> brought them provifions. During the night there were frequent rob- beries, rapes and murders, and it was at length dif- covered that they were committed by thofe men, who, defcending from their cages, thus indemnified themfclves for thetr reftraint during the day. The Bramins, their rivals, embraced the opportunity of exterminating them ; and from that time their name in India has been fynony- mous with hypocrite. See Hi/I, dela Cb:ne y in 5 vols. NOTES. 355 410. at the note page 50 ; HI ft. de Huns^ 1 vols. ; and Preface to the Ezour-Fedam. Page 209. (37). Demon/irate his exljlence, f?r. There are abfolutely no other monuments of the exiftence of Jefus Chnft as a human being, than a paffage in Jofephus (Antiq, Jud. lib. 1 8. c. 3.), a fingle phrafe in Tacitus, (Annal. lib. 15. c. 44.), and the Gofpels. But the pafTage in Jofephus is unanimoufly acknowledged to be apocry- phal, and to have been interpolated towards the clofe of the third century, (See Trad, de Jofepbe, par M. Gillet] 5 and that of Tacitus is fo vague, and fo evidently taken from the depofition of the Chriftians before the tribunals, that it may be ranked in the .clafs of evangelical records. It remains to enquire of what authority are thefe records. 44 All the world knows," fays Fauftus, who, though a Manichean, was one of the rnoft learned men of the third century, " All the world knows, that the Gofpels " were neither written by Jefus Chrift, nor his apoftles, 44 but by certain unknown perfons, who, rightly judging 4< that tSey (hould not obtain belief refpeting things 44 which they had not feen, placed at the head of their <4 recitals the names of contemporary apoftles." See Beavfob. vol. i. and Hi ft. des Apologises de la Relig. Chret, far Burigni, a fagacious writer, who has demonftrated the abfolute uncertainty of th<^fe foundations of the Chrif- tian religion i fo that the exiftence of J:fus is no better proved than that of Oliris and Hercules, or that of Fof or Bedou, with whom, fays M, de Guignes, the Chinefe continually confound him, for they never call Jefue by any other name than Fpr. Hljl. de Huns. Page id. (38.) Tour Gofpels are taken from the bosks of the Mitbriflcs. That is to fay, from the pious romances A a formed 356 NOTES. formed out of the facred legends of the Myfteries of Mithra, Ceres, Ifis, &c. ; from whence are equally de- rived the books of the Hindoos and the Bonzes. Our miflionaries have long remarked a finking refembiance between thoie books and the Gofpels. M. Wilkins ex- preffly mentions it in a note in the Bhagvat-Geeta. All agree that Krifna, Fot, and Jefus, have the fame charac- teriftic features; but religious prejudice- has flood in the way of drawing from this circumftance the proper and natural inference. To time and reafon muft it be left to difplay the truth. Page 210. (39). The interior and fecret doftrine. The Budfoifts have two doctrines, the one public and ollen- fible, the other interior and fecret, precifely like the Egyptian prh ft s. It may be alked, why this diftin&ion ? It is, that as the public doctrine recommends offerings, expiations, endowments, c. the priefls find their pro- lit in teaching it to the people ; whereas the other, teach- ing the vanity of worldly things, and attended with no lucre, it is thought proper to make it known only to adepts. Can the teachers and fo!io\vers of this religion, be better clafled than under the heads of knavery and credulity ? Page 212. (40). That bappinefs and misfortune^ tic. Thefe are the expreflions of La Lotibere, in his de- fcription of the kingdom of Slam and the theology of the Bonzes. Their dogmas, compared with thcfe of the ancient philofophers of Greece and Italy, give a com- plete repretbntation of the whole fyftem of the Stoics and Epicureans, mixed with aflrological fuperftitions, and fome traits of Pythagorifm. Page 224. (41). The original ' barbarous Jiatt cf mankind. It NOTE S. 357 It is the unanimous teftimony of hiftory, and even of legends, that the firft human beings were every where feva2;e, and that it v/as to civili.ze them, and teach them to make -bread, that the Gods manifefted them- felves. Page;V. (42). Man receives no ideas but through the me- dium ofhisfenfcs. The rock on which all the ancients have fplit, and which has occasioned all their errors, has been their fuppoiing the idea of God to be innate and co- eternal witii,the foul ; and hence all the reveries developed in Plato and Jamblicus. See the Timxus, the Phedon^ and De Myjl* jEgyptiorum, feel. i. c. 3. , . Page 231. (43). Record of all the monuments of antiquity. It clearly refults, fays Plutarch, from the verfes of Orpheus and the facred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians, that the ancient theology, not only of the Greeks,but of all nations, was nothing more than a fyftem of phyfics, a picture of the operations of nature, wrapped up in myiterious allegories and enigmatical fymbols, in a manner that the ignorant multitude attended rather to their apparent than to their hidden meaning, and even in what they underftood of the latter, fuppofed there to be fome- thing more deep than what they perceived. Fragment sf a work of Plutarch now loft, quoted by Eufebius^ Pra- par. Evang. lib, 3. ch, I. p. 83. The majority of philofophers, fays Porphyry, and among others Chjsremon (who lived in Egypt in the firft age of Chriftianity), imagine there never to have been any other world than the one we fee, and acknow- ledge no other Gods of all thofe recognized by the Egyptians, than fuch as are commonly called planets, %ns of the Zodiac, and conftellations j whofe afpecls, A a 3 that 35 8 NOTES. that is, rifing and fetting, an; fuppofed to influence the fortunes of men ; to which they add, their divisions of the fi^ns into decans and diipenfers ot time, whom they ftyle lords of the afcendant, M'hofe names, virtues in tae re- lieving diftempers, riling, fetting, and prefages of fu.ure events, are the fuDjecls of almanacks ; (for be it oMerved, that me Egyptian prices hud almanacks the exafl counter- part of Matthew Lanfberg's) for when the priefts affirmed that the fun was the architect cf the univerfe, Chzremon prefently concludes that all their narratives refpedting Ills and Oiiris, together with their other facred fables, referred in part to the planets, trie phafes of the moon, and the revolution of the fun, and in part to the ftars of the daily and nightly hemifpHeres and the river Nilej in a word, in all cafes to phyfical and natural exiftences, and never to fuch as might be immaterial and incorporeal. . . . All ihefe philofophers believe, that the a&s of our will, and the motion of our bodies, depend upon thofe of the ftars to which they are fubjected, and they refer every thing to the laws of phyfical neceflity, which they call deftiny or Faium^ fuppofmg a chain of caufes and effects which binds, iy I know not what con- nection, all beings together, from the meanett atom to the (upreme power and primary influence of the Gods j fo that, whether in their temples or in their idols, the only fubject of worfhip is the power of deftiny. Por- phyr. Ep[ft. ad Janebonem. Page 232. (44). 'Jhepraftice of agriculture required the ctyervatiin and knowledge of the heavens. It continues to be repeated every day, on the indirect authority of the book of Genc..s, that aftronomy was the invention of die chiJ- ds to their idols, and to make them come from heaven at their pleafure. They threatened the fun and moon, if they were difobedient, to reveal the fecret myfteries, to fhake the {kics, &c. &c. Eufeb. Pracep. Evang. p. 198, and lamllicus de Myjhrih gypt. Page id. ( 5 3 ) . Thtfun was fuppojed to a flume their forms (the forms of the twelve animals). Thefe are the very words of lamblicus de Symbolis ^Egyptioruir,, c. 2. fel. 7. The fan was the giand Proteus, the univerfal nietu- snorphift. Page 245. ( 54). Tour tonfure is the difk of the fun. The Arabs, fays Herodotus, fhave their heads in a circle and about the temple?, in imitation of Bacchus (that is the fun,) who (haves himfJf, they fay, in this manner. Jere- miah fpeaks alfo of this cuftom. The tuft cf hair which, the Mahometans prcferve, is taken aifo from the fun, who was painted by the Egyptians at the winter folftice, as having but a fmgle hair on his head. . . . Tour ftole its , The robes of the goddefs of Syria and of Diana of N O T S. 363 of Ephefus, from whence are borrowed the dreFs oP 1 priefts, have the twelve ?nimals of the Zodiac painted on them Rofaries are found upon all the Indian idols, constructed more than four thoufand years ago ; and their ufe in the Eatr. has been univerfal for time imme- morial The crofter is precifely the ftaff of Bootes or Ofiris (See Plate If.) All the Lamas wear the mitre or cap in the fhape of a cone, which was an emblem of the fun. Page 247. (55.) Having faid that a planet entered into a Jign^ their conjunffion was denominated a marriage^ &c. Thefe are the very words of Plutarch in his account of Ifis and Ofiris. The Hebrews fay, in fpeaking of the ge- nerations of the Patriarchs, et ingreffus eft in earn. From this continual equivoque of ancient language, proceeds every mi (lake. Page 248. (56). The combination of thefe figures bad alfa a meaning. The reader will doubtkfs fee, with pleafure, fome examples of ancient hieroglyphics. " The Egyptians (fays Hor-appoloJ reprefent eternity by the figure of the fun and moon. They defignate the world by a blue ferpent with yellow fcales (ftars, it is the Chinefc Dragon). If they were delirous of expreffing the year, they drew a picture of Ifis, who is alfo in their language calLd Sothis, or dog-ftar, one of the firft con- ftellations, by the rifing of which the year commences : its infcription at Sais was, It is I that rife in the conRtlla* tion of the Dog. " They alfo reprefent the year by a palm-tree, and the month by one of its branches; becaufe it is the nature of this tree to produce a branch every month. They farther jreprcfent it by the fourth part of an acre of land." (The whole 364 NOTES. jvholc acre divided into four denotes the bi:Tt.\t.!e period of four years. The abbreviation of this figure of a field in four ciivifions> is manifeftiy the letter ha or bet, the feventh in the Samaritan alphabet; and in general all the letters of the alphabet are merely agronomical hiero- glyphics : and it is for this rcafun that the mode of writing is from right to left, like the march of the liars). " They denote a prophet by the image of a .dog, be- caufe the dog-ftar (Anwbis) by its rifing gives notic. ct the inundation. Noull in Hebrew fignifies prophet. They reprcfent inundation by a lion, becaufe it I place under that fign : and hence, fays P'uL-.Fch, the cuftom of placing at the gates of temples figures of lions with water i fiL-ing from their mouths. Th:y e:;prcfe the idea of God and Deftiny by a flar. They alfo reprefenj God, fays Porphyry, by a black ftone, becaufe his nature is dark and obfcure. All white things exprds ihe celeftial and luminous Gods : all circular ones the world, the moon, the fun, the deftinics : all femicircub.r ones, as bcnvs ::efcents, are alfo defcriptive of the moon. Fire and the Gods of Olympus, they reprefent by pyramids and obeliiks : (the r^nie of the fun Baal is., found .in this latter word) : the fun, by a cone (the mitre of Ofiris) : the c;.rth, by ?. cylinder (v/hich revolves) : the generative power of ihe air, by the phalus^ and that of the earth, by a triangle, emblem cf the female organ. Eujeb. Pr&ccp, Evang. p. 98. " Clay (fays lamblicus de Symbclis, feel. 7. c. 2.) de- notes matter, the generative and nutrimental power, every thing which receives the warmth and fermentation of life. " A man fitting upon, the Lotos or Nenuphar , reprefents the moving fpirit (the fun), which, in like manner as the N- O T E S. 365 the plant lives in the wafer without any communication with clay, exifts equally diftinct from matter, fwimming in empty fpace, reiling on itfclf : it is round alfo in all its parts like the leaves, the flowers and the fruit of the Lotos. (Brama has the eyes of the Lotos, fays Chafter Neadirfen, to denote his intelligence: his eye fwims over every thing, like the flowers of the Lotos on .the waters). A man at the helm of a (hip, adds lamblicus, is defcriptive of the fun which governs all. And Porphyry tells us, that the fun is alfo reprefented by a man in a fhip refling upon an amphibious crocodile (emblem of air and water). " At Elephantine they worlhipped the figure of a man in a fitting pofture, painted blue, having the head of a ram, and the horns of a goat which encompafled a difk : all which reprefented the fun and moon's conjunction at the fign of the ram ; the blue colour denoting the power of the moon at the period of junction, to raife water into clouds. Eufeb. Pnscep. Evang. p. i;6. " The hawk is an emblem of the fun and of light, on account of his rapid flight, and his foaring into the higheft regions of the air where light abounds. " A fiih is the emblem of averfion, and the Hippopota- mus of violence, becaufe it is faid to kill its father and ra- vHh its mother. Hence, fays Plutarch, the emblematical infcription of the temple of Sais, where" we fes painted on the veftibule, I. A child. 2. An old man. 3. A hawk. 4. A fiih. 5. A hippopotamus; which fignify, I. Entrance (into life). 2. Departure. 3. God. 4. Hatred. 5. In- juftice. (See Ifis & Ofins}. " The Egyptians, adds he, reprefcnt the world by a Scarabeus, becaafe this infect puihes, in a direction con- trary 3 66 NOTES. trary to that In which it proceeds, a ball containing its eggs, juft as the heaven of the fixed ftars caufes the revo- lution of the fun (the yolk of an egg) in an oppofite di- rection to its own. They reprefent the world alfo by the number five y being that of the elements, which, fays Diodorus, are^ earth, water, air, fire, and ether or fpiritus. The Indians have the f.ime number of elements, and according to Macrobius*s Myftics they are the fupreme God, or pri * mum. mobile^ the intelligence, or mens^ born of him, the foul of the world which proceeds from him, the celeftial fphercs and all things terreftrial. Hence, adds Plu- tarch, the analogy between the Greek pente, fivcj and fan^ all. tc The afs," fays he again, M is the emblem of Typhon, feecaufe like that animal he is of a reddifh colour. Now Typhon fignifies whatever is of a mirey or clayey nature ; (and in Hebrew I find the three words, clay, ra/, and humidity, ftench." Apud, Eujeb. Prtsp. Ev.p. 173. u The Egyptians," fays Plutarch, " only offer bloody vic- tims to Typhon. They facrifice to him a red ox, and the animal immolated is held in execration, and loaded with.all die fins of the people." (The goat of Mofes). See I/is and OJiris. Divifion of terrejlnal beingt into pure and impure^ fa- cred and abominable. Strabo fays, fpeaking of Mofes and the Jews, " Circumcifion and the prohibition of certain kinds of meat fprung from fuperftition." And I obferve, refpecting the ceremony of circumcifion, that its object was to take from the fymbol of Ofiris (Phal* lus] the pretended obftacle to fecundity ; an obftaclc which bore the feal of Typhon, " whofe nature," fays Plutarch, " is made up of all that hinders, oppofes^ caufes objlruttion" Page 260. (64). Elyfian-fiiUs. Aliz^ in the Phenician- or Hebrew language fignifies dancing and joyous. Page 262. (65). The Milky way. See Macrob. Son* Scip. c. 12 j and Note (78). Page NOTES. 371 Page 265. (66). The bodies of its inhabitants caft no Jbade. There is on this fubje \ .-, ; and the Bonzes are thofe very Orphics wiv :': Tiutarch reprefents as quacks^ who ate no meat, vended talifmans, and little itones, and de- ceived individuals, and even governments themfelves. * D See a learned Memoir of Freret Jur les Orphiqiies y dead. tk* Infer ip. vol. 23. in 4^ Page id. (74). Wearing on bis head a fpkere of gold. See Porphyry in Eufebius^ Prap. Evang. lib. 3. p. 115. Page. 27 1. (75). Alluding to the wind. The Northern or NOTES. 375 tit Eleftan wind, which commences regularly at the folftice, with the inundation. Page 272. (76). Tbu-piter. This is the true pronun- ciation of the Jupiter of the Latins. . . . Exiftence itfelf. This is the fighification of the word You. See Note (84). Page 273. (77). Producing the great egg. SeeNote (35). Page/V, (78). The immortality of the foul, which at firjl was eternity. In the fyftem of the firft fpiritualifts, the foul was not created with, or at the fame time as the body, in order to be inferted in it : its exiftence was fuppofed to be anterior and from all eternity. Such, in a few words, is the doctrine of Macrobius on this head. Som. Scip. paffim. " There exifts a luminous, igneous, fubtle fluid, which, under the name of ether and fpiritus, fills the univerfe. It is the efTential principle and agent of motion and life, it is the Deity, When an earthly body is to be animated, a fmall round particle of this fluid gravitates through the milky way towards the lunar fphere, where, when it arrives, it unites with a grofler air, and becomes fit to .iflbciate with matter: it then enters and entirely fills the body, animates it, fuffers, grows, increafes, and dimi- nifhes with it ; laftly, when the body dies, and its grofs elements diflblve, this incorruptible particle takes its leave of it, and returns to the grand ocean of ether, if not retained by its union with the lunar air : it is this air or gas, which, retaining the fhape of the body, be- comes a phantom or ghoft, the perfect reprefentation of the deceafed. The Greeks called this phantom the image or idol of the foul j the Pythagoreans, its chariot, its frame; and the Rabbinical fchool, its veflel, or boat. When a man had conducted himfelf well in this w.orld, his B b 4 whole 37 6 NOTES. whole foul, that is, its chariot and ether, afcended to the rnoon, where a reparation took place : the chariot lived in the lunar Elyfium, and the ether returned to the fixed fphere, that is, to God : for the fixed heaven, fays Ma- crobius, was by many called by the name of God (c. 14..) If a man had not lived virtuoufly, the foul remained on earth to undergo purification, and was to wander to and fro, like the ghofts of Homer, to whom this doctrine muft have been known, fmce he wrote after the time of Pherecydes and Pythagoras, who were is promulgators in Greece. Heredotus, upon this occafion, fays, that the whole romance of the foul and its tranfmigrations was invented by the Egyptians, and propagated in Greece by men, who pretended to be its authors. I know their names, adds he, but fhall not mention them (lib. 2..). Cicero, however has pofitively informed us, that it was Pherecydes, mailer of Pythagoras. TufcuL lib. i.Jeft. 16. -l^ow admitting that this fyftem was at that period a novelty, it accounts for Solomon's treating it as a fable, who lived 130 years before Pherecydes. " Who know- eth," fays he, u the fpirit of a man that it goeth up- wards? I faid in my heart concerning the efta'ce of the fons of men, that God might manifeft them, and that they might fee that they themfelves are beafts. For that which befalleth the fons of men, befaileth beafts ; even one thing befalleth them ; as the one dieth, fo dicth the other ; yea they have all one breath, fo that a man hath no pre-eminence above a bead : for all is vanity." Eccics. c. iii- v. 18. And fuch had been the opinion of Mcfes, as a tranf- lator of Herodotus (M. Archer of the Academy of In- feriptions), juftjy obferves in note 389 of the fccond book, where NOTES. 377 where he fays alfo, that the immortality of the foul was not introduced among the Hebrews till their intercourfe with the Aflyrians. In other refpe&s, the whole Pytha- gorean fyftem, properly analyfed, appears to be merely a fyftem of phyfics badly underftood. Page 275. (79). The world is a machine', it has there- fore an artificer. All the arguments of the fpiritualifts are founded on this. See Macroblus^ at the end of the fecoiid book, and Plato^ with the comments . of Marcilius Fi- cinus. Page 276. (80). Tlie dcrm-ourgos, the logos^ and thefpi- rit. Thefe are the real types of the Chriftian Trinity. See Note (99). Page 277. (81). Its very names. In our laft analy- fis we found all the names of the Deity to be derived from fome material object in which it was fuppofed to refide. We have given a considerable number of in- Itances; let us add one more relative to our word God. This is known to be the Deus of the Latins, and the Theos of the Greeks. Now by the confeflion of Plato (in Cratylo)) of Macrobitis (Saturn^ lib. j. c. 24), and of Plutarch (Ifts & O/Jm), its root is thein, which fignifies to wander, like planein, that is to fay, it is fynonimous with planets ; becaufe, all our authors, both the ancient Greeks and barbarians particularly worshipped the pla- nets. I know that fuch enquiries into etymologies have been much decried : but if, as is the cafe, words are the reprefcntative figns of ideas, the genealogy of the one becomes that of the other, and a, good etymological dictionary would be the moil perfect hiftory of the hu- man underftanding. It would only be necefTary in this enquiry to obferve certain precautions, which have hitherto 378 NOTES. hitherto been neglected, and particularly to make an exa& comparifon of the value of the letters of the dif- ferent alphabets. But, to continue our fubjec~r, we fhall add, that in the Phenician language, the word thah (with ain] fignifies alfb to wander, and appears to be the derivation oftne'in. If we fuppofe Deus to be derived from the Greek Zeus^ a proper name of Tou-piter, having zavjy I live, for its root, its fenfe will be precifely that of yon, and will mean foul of the world, igneous principle. See Note (84). Div-tis y which only fignifies Genius, God of the fecond order, appears to me to come from the oriental word div fubftituted for dib^ wolf and chacal, one of the emblems of the fun. At Thebes, fays Ma- crobius, the fun was painted under the form of a wolf or chacai, for there are no wolves in Egypt. The reafon of this emblem, doubtlefs, is that the chacal, like the cock, announces by its cries the fun's rifmg; and this reafon is confirmed by the analogy of the words lykos y wolf, and lyke, light of the morning, whence conies lux, DittS) which is to be underftood alfo of the fun, muft be derived from d'th^ a hawk. " The Egyptians," fays Porphyry (Eufeb. Prtzcep. Evang. p. 92.) u reprefent the fun under the emblem of a hawk, becaufe this bird foars to the higheft regions of air where light abounds. *' And in reality we continually fee at Cairo large flights of thefe birds, hovering in the air, from whence they defcend not but to (run us with their fhrieks, which are like the monofyllable dih : and here, as in the preceding example, we find an analogy between the word dics y day, lightj and Dius, God, Sun. Page 278. (8l). The progrefs of fcience and difcovery. One of the proofs that all thefe fyftems were invented in 5 Egyp^ NOTES. 379 Egypt, is, that this is the only country where we fee a complete body of doctrine formed from the remoteft an- tiquity. Clemens Alexandrinus has tranlhiitted to us (Stromaf. lib. 6.), a curious detail of the 42 volumes which were borne in the proceflion of Ifis. " The prieft," fays he, "or chanter, carries one of the fymbolic inftruments of tc mufic, and two of the books of Mercury 5 one contain- tc ing hymns of the Gods, the other the lift of kings. " Next to him the horofcope (the regulator of time), u carries a palm and a dial, fymbols of aftrology ; he *' muft know by heart the four books of Mercury which but in order to render it more complete, we (hall demonftrate the fio-pirication to be the fnrne. O In Hebrew, that is to fay, in one of the dialects of the common language of Lower Afia, Tahouh is the participle of the verb h'th^ to exift, to be, and fignifiesexifting; in other words, the principle of life, the mover or even motion (the univerfal foul of beings). Now what is Jupiter ? Let us hear the Greeks and Latins explain their theology. " The Egyptian?," fays Diodorus, after Ma- natho, prieft of Memphis, " in giving names to the five elements, called^)/?//, or ether, Toupiter^ on account of the true meaning of that word : forfpirit is the fource of life, author of the vital principle in animals ; and for this reafon they confidered him as the father, the generator of beings." For the fame reafon Homer fays, father, and king of men and gods (Diod. lib. i.fefi. I.) " Theologians," fays Macrobius, " confider You-piter as the foul of the world." Hence the words of Virgil : " Mufes let us begin with You-piter; the world is full of You-piter" (Somn. Scip. ch. 17.) And in the Satur- nalia he fays, " Jupiter is the fun himfelf." It was this alfo which made Virgil fay : " The Spirit nourishes the life (of beings), and the foul difFufed through the vaft 41 members 38* NOTES. " members (of the univerfe), agitates the whole mafs, ** and forms but one immenfe body." . 100. - The following pafiage of the geographer and philofo- pher Strabo, removes every doubt as to the identity of the ideas of Mofes and thofe of the heathen theolo- gians, Mofes, NOTES. 383 " Mofes, who was one of the Egyptian priefts, taught his followers, that it was an egregious error to reprefent the Deity under the form of animals, as the Egyptians did, or in the fhape of man, as was the pra&ice of the Greeks and Africans. That alone is the Deity, faid he, which conftitutes heaven, earth, and every living thing ; that which we call the world^ the/aw of all things^ nature ; and no reafonable perfon will think of reprefenting fuch a being by the image of any one of the objedts around us. It is for this reafon, that, rejecting every fpecies of images or idols, Mofes wifhed the Deity to be wormipped with- out emblems, and according to his proper nature ; and he accordingly ordered a temple worthy of him to be ereU ed, &c." Geograpb. lib. i6.p. 1104, edition of 1707. The theology of Mofes has, then, differed in no refpedfc from that of his followers, that is to fay, from that of the Stoics and Epicureans, who confuler the Deity as the foul of the world. This philofophy appears to have taken birth, or to have been difteminated when Abraham came into Egypt (200 years before Mofes), fmce he quitted his fyitem of idols for that of the God Tahouh ; fo that we may place its promulgation about the feventeenth or eighteenth century before Chriftj which correfponds with what we have faid, Note (78). As to the hiftory of Mofes, Diodorus, properly repre- fents it when he fays, lib. 34 & 40, " That the Jews " were driven out of Egypt at a time of dearth, when the " country was full of foreigners, and that Mofes, a man * c of extraordinary prudence and courage, feized this and Samaonni (Simeon), they have granted me my prayer^ to wit, the Elohim. The reafon cf this etymology is to be found in the religious creeds of the wives of Jacob, whofe gods were the tara- phlm of Laban, that is, the angels of the Perfians, and the Egyptian decans. Page id. (91). Six tbcufand years had already nearly elapfed Jince the fuppofed creation of tbi world. According to the computation of the Seventy, the period elapfed con- fifted of about 5,600 years, and this computation was principally followed. It is well known how much, in the firft ages of the church, this opinion of the end of the world agitated the minds of men. huthe fequel, the ge- neral councils, encouraged by finding that the general con- flagration did not come, pronounced the expectation that prevailed heretical, and its believers were called Millena- rians ; a circumftance curious enough, fmce it is evi- dent from the hiftory of the Gofpels that Jefus Chrift was a Millenarian, and of confequence a heretic. Page 290. (92). Conjldlation of the ferpent. "The Perfians," fays Chardin, call the compilation of the ferpent Ophiuais^ ferpent of Eve: and this ferpent Ophi- " ucus or Ophioneus plays a fimilar part in the theology of " the Phenicians," for Pherecydes, their difciple, and the matter of Pythagoras, faid " that Ophioneus ferpentinus had * been chief of the rebels againft Jupiter.'* See Marf. C c 2 Ficin. 3 88 NOTES. Ficin. Apol. Socrat. p. m. 797. col. 2. I (hall add that apbah (with aim) fignifies in Hebrew ferpent. Page id. (93). Seduced the man. In a phyiical fenfe to feduce, feducere^ means only to attradt, to draw after us. Page id. (94). Fiflure of Mithra. See this pi&ure in Hyde, page in, edition of 1760. Page 291. (95). Ptrfeus rifts on the oppoftte fide. Ra- ther the head of Medufa ; that head of a woman once 16 beautiful, which Perfeus cut off, and which he holds in his hand, is only that of the virgin, whofe head finks below the horizon at the very moment that Perfeus rifes j and the ferpents which furround it are Ophiucus and the Polar Dragon, who then occupy the zenith. This (hews us in what manner the ancients compofed all their figures and rabies. They took fuch conftellations as they found at the fame time on the circle of the horizon, and col- lecting the different parts, they formed groupes which ferved them as an almanac in hieroglyphic characters. Such is the fecret of all their picture?, and the folution of all their mythological monfters. The Virgin is alfo Andromeda, delivered by Perfeus from the whale that purfue; her (pro-fequitur.) Page id. (96). By a ckafte virgin. Such was the pic- ture of the Perfian fphere, cited by Aben Ezra in the Cce- turn Poeticum of Blaeu, p. 71. The pifture of the firft " decan of the Virgin," fays that writer, " reprefents a " beautiful virgin with flowing hair, fitting in a chair, " with two ears of corn in her hand, and fuckling an infant, " called Jefus by fome nations, and Chrift in Greek." In the library of the king of France is a manufcript in Arabic, marked 1165, in which is a pifture of the twelve fjgns j NOTES. 389 figns; and that of the Virgin reprefents a young woman with an infant by her fide : the whole fcene indeed of the birth of Jefus is to be found in the adjacent part of the heavens. The ftable is the conftellation of the charioteer and the goat, formerly Capricorn; a conftellation called frafepe Jovis Heniochi^Jlable of hit; and the word hit is found in the name lou-feph (Jofeph). At no great dif- tance is the afs of Typhon (the great (he-bear), and the ox or bull, the ancient attendants of the manger. Peter the porter, is Janus with his keys and bald forehead : the twelve apoftles are the genii of the twelve months, &c. This Virgin has a&ed very different parts in the various fyftems of mythology: (he has been the Ifis of the Egyp- tians, who faid of her in one of their infcriptions cited by Julian, the fruit I have brought forth is the fun. The majority of traits drawn by Plutarch apply to her, in the fame manner as thofe of Ofiris apply to Bootes : alfo the feven principal ftars of the (he-bear, called David's chariot, were called the chariot of Ofiris (See Kirker) ; and the crown that is fituated behind, formed of ivy, was called Chen Ofiris) the tree of Ofiris. The Virgin has likewife been Ceres, whofe myfteries were the fame wi:h thofe of Jfis and Mithra; (he has been the Diana of the Ephe- iians ; the great goddefs of Syria, Cybele, druwn by lions; Minerva, the mother of Bacchus; Aftraea, a chafte vir- gin taken up into heaven at the end of the golden age ; Thems, at whofe feet is the balance that was put in her hands ; the Sybil of Virgil, who defcends into hell, or finks below the hemifphere with a branch in her hand, &c. Page 292. (97). Rofe again in the firmament. Refurgere t to rife a fecond time, cannot fignify to return to life, but C C3 in NOTES. in a metaphorical fenfe ; but we fee continually miftakes of this kind refult from the ambiguous meaning of the words made ufe of in ancient tradition. Page id. (98}. Chris, or conftruator. The Greeks ufed to exprefs by X, or Spanifh iota, the afpirated ha of the Orient -I?, who faid haris. In Hebrew heres fignifies the fun, but in Arabic the meaning of the radical word is, to guard, to preferve, and of karis, guardian, preferver. It is the proper epithet of Vichenou, which demonftrates at once the identity of the Indian and Chriftian Trinities, and their common origin. It is manifeftly but one fyftem, which, divided into two branches, one extending to the eaftj and the other to the weft, aflumed two different forms : its principal trunk is the Pythagorean fyftem of the foul of the world, or lou-piter. The epithet />/kr, or father, having been applied to the dami-ourgos of Plato, gave rife to an ambiguity which caufed an enquiry to be made refpecling the fon of this father. In the opinion cf the philofo^hers the fon was underftanding, Non s and Logos, from which the Latins made their Verbum. And thus we clearly perceive the origin of the eternal father and of the Vcrbum his fon, proceeding from him (Mens ex Deo nata, fays Macrobius) : thzanima orfpiritus. mundi was the Holy Ghoft ; and it is for this reafon that Manes, Bafilides, Valentinius, and other pretended heretics of the firft ages, who traced things to their fburce, (aid, that God the Father was the fupreme inacceffible light (that of the heaven, the prlmum mobile^ or the aplanes) ; the Son the fecondary light refident in the fun, and the Holy Ghoft the atmofphere of the earth (See Beaufob.V o\. II. p. 586): hence, among the Syrians, the reprefentatioa of the Holy Ghoft by a dove, the bird of Venus Urania, that is, ofc the NOTES. 39 j the air. The Syrians (fays Nigidius d. German::^) afTert that a dove fat for a certain number of days on the ogg of 3 n\h, and that from this incubation Venus was born : Sextus Empiricus alfoobferves (I-]ft. Pyrrh. lib. 3. c. 23.) that the Syrians abftain from eating doves ; which inti- mates to us a period commencing in the fign Pifces, in the winter folflice. We may farther obferve, that if Chris eomes from Harifch by a chin, it will fignify artificer^ an epithet belonging to the fun. Thefe variations^ which muft have embarraffcd the ancient?, prove it to be the real type of Jefus, as had been already remarked in the time of Tertullian. " Aiany," fays this writer, " fuppofe with ' { greater probability that the fun is our God, and they re- " fer us to the religion of the Perfians." dpohget. c. 16. Page 293. (99)- One of the folar periods. See a curious ode to the Sun, by Martlanus Capella, translated by Ge- belin. Page 304. (100). Human fcicri/ices. Read the cold declaration of Eufebius fPrap. Evang. lib. I.' p. u.) who pretends that, fmce the coming of Chrift, there have neither been wars, nor tyrants, nor cannibals, nor fodo- mites, nor perfons committing inceft, nor favages devour- ing their parents, &c. When we read thefe fathers of the church, we are aftonimed at their infmcerity or in- fatuation. Page 306. (lOi). Seft of Samaneans. The equality of mankind in a ftate of nature, and in the eyes of God, was one of the principal tenets of the Samanean?, and they appear to be the only ancients that entertained this opi- Page 309. (102.) Perverted the confciences of men. As long as it {hall be poflible to obtain purification from C c 4 crimes, 392 NOTES. crimes, and exemption from punifhment by means of money or other frivolous practices ; as long as kings and great men fhall fuppofe that building temples or infti- tuting foundations, will abfolve them from the guilt of oppreflion and homicide ; as long as individuals (hall ima- gine that they may rob and cheat, provided they obferve faft during Lent, go to confeffion, and receive extreme unction, it is impoflible there fhould exift in fociety any morality or virtue ; and it is from a deep conviction of truth, that a modern philofopher has called the doctrine of expiations la verole desfocictes. Page 310. (103). Has carried its In quijrtion even to the facredfanfiuary of the nuptial bed. The Muffulmans, who fuppofe women to haye no fouls, are (hocked at the idea of confeffion, and fay ; How can an honeft man think of liftening to the recital of the actions or the fecret thoughts of a woman ? May we not alfo afk, on the other hand, how can an honeft woman confent to reveal them ? Page id. ( 104). That every where they had formed fecret ajjociations, enemies to the reft of the fociety. That we may underftand the general feelings of priefts refpecting the reft of mankind, whom they always call by the name of the people, kt us hear one of the doctors of the church. ' The people," faysBifhopSynnefius, in Cafoit. page 315, c are defirous of being deceived, we cannot act other wife *' refpecting them. The cafe was fimilar with the ancient priefts of Egypt, and for this reafon they fhut them- " felves up in their temples, and there compofed their myftcries out of the reach of the eye of the people.'i And forgetting what he has juft before faid, he add^| ** For had the people been in the fecret, they might Have " been offended at the deception played upon them. Iii the NOTES. 393 " the mean time how is it poflible to conduct onefelf ** otherwife with the people fo long as they are the " people ? For my own part, to myfelf I fhall always be " a philofopher, but in dealing with the mafs of man- kind I fhall be a prieft." " A litde jargon," fays Gregory Nazianzen to St. Jerome (H : eron. ad Nep.) " is all that is neceflary to *' impofe on the people. The lefs they comprehend, the 39 Z D. Demi-ourgos, worfhip of the Democracy - " , Defpotifm ... 65, 336 Doubt not a crime Dualifm - - a $5 E. Egypt, firft civilized country Lower, whence peopled various religions originated from - - - 353 Empires, revolutions of , caufes of the profperity of - - - - 5 r 57 . revolutions of - - - - 5J> Ethiopia, ancient " 3 28 i 33 . the cradle of fcience - Etymology, obfervations on - Euphrates 7 INDEX. Euphrates, banks of the, artificial - - . Evils occafioned by mah, not by God - F.' Fatalifm, remark? on . . -128 French about to engage In a war for the Turks, nits - 101 ' revolution - . * G. Genefis, remarks on fome parts of . 24.8 386 God not the caufe of our evils - . . - ' 14. origin of the idea of mylterious name of . . on the name of - - . Government, origin of * - .. various kinds of - . - 63. corruptions of progrefsof . . 336,337 ..... '63,19! H. Hieroglyphics ...... , Idolatry - . .. . - ^foorceof - , . . ~. ^'i In.provement, grand obflacle to . . . - 11- Indian fects - . . lft , . ft c + r lit *4> '^9? 2o2 His, books borne in the proceffion of * - _ . 37Q Jefus, etymology of the name of ...... 2 Qi ^ Udaifm - - - x6 2 , ,90,^79 K. Kings, obfervations ou - . *. .... 33/> 395 L. arna, rehpon of the .... t6 Lan-s, origin of . . ^ /' g I obfervations on Liberty originates from equality - - . jS M. Mahometanifm .'. . A ^ ,.* T p_ ,_, , Man, the caufe of his Own misfortunes . "' . ' ^ \ - condition of, in the univerfe * *- k original ftate of . *? -- how brought into a ftate of focietV - . I leurce of the evils attendant on, in lociety - - I, in a ftate of improvement - . . - idl *-^- grand obftacle to the improveitient of ^-^rf . I3 6,348 Man, INDEX. Page Man,- natural equality of - - - - - 137,336 Mithriacs, aacleat, the fame with the moder.i 1'arfes ug Monarchy - > - 64, 337 Moles, religion of - - 162,190,279, 381 - ~ on the antiquity of the books afcribed to - - 34.7 Myueries, ancient - 372 modern - 374, 393 Myftical, or moral worfliip ----- 259 O. Oph'r, fituation of- - - - - - 327 Opinion, whence arife difference and agreement of - 315 Orphics, who - * * 374 P. P?.rfcs - _ - 163, 194,281 People, free and legiflative -. 13* rights of the - - - 136 Periia, unfortunate (late of, after the deat ; A of Thamas K ai.ikaa - - - 339 Prieftcrat't, origin of - 248 - ; every where the fame - - - - 310,392 Privileged orders 127,248,341 R. Religions, various - 15^ .. derived from Egypt - - - 3?3 end of all, the lame - 2^7 Religious ideas, origin of - 218, 294 Revolutions of empires - - - a caufes of - 53, 6r Romans, on the freedom of the - - - 337 S. Sabeifm - - 231 Samaneans, religion of the 282, 391 Science, cradle of - 235,331 Self love, the principle of fociety - - 40 etfefts of .. 40, 45, 50 Slavery, obfervations on - - 62 Societies, fccret, remarks on ~ 393 Society, origin of - 40 - fource of the evils of - 44 evils of, how to be avoided - - 100 -*- on privileged orders in - -127, 341 Solomon, trade of - - 332 Soul of the world, worfllip of the - - 271, 279, 381 aac.eiit opinions concern.ng the - - - 375 Soul, INDEX. Page Soul, immortality of the, not taught by Mofes - - 376 Spheres of the ancients > ^j State, future, origin of the doftrine of a - - - 259 States, caufes of the revolutions of 53> 6 r -rife of - - t > 4 t> 90 - ancient, caufes of the profperity of - - - 57 revolutions and ruin of - 6t weakened by enlargement - - - 67 caufes of the fall of . - Q2 Syria, populoufnefs of - - _ _ -328 T. Talifmans - - - 361 Tartars, evacuate the Crimea on its being incorporated with Ruffia - - - - 327 drefs, &c. of - - . 338 Thebes - - - -29 Theocracy - - - - - 64. Trade of the aneients - - . - 33 2 Trinity, origin of the docVine of the - - - .-276 Truth, inquiry into - - - - 172 Turks, Sultan of the, cannot cede land to unbelievers 338 ' U. V. Univerfe, worfhip of the, under different emblems - 266 .Venality - - - - . - 94 W. War, obfervations on - - - 340 World, on the creation of the - - - 348 antiquity of the - - 360, 385 Worilup of the elements, and the phyfical powers of nature, 22 7 fymbols - - - - _ 237 - two principles - - - - - 253 myftical or moral - zzq ,. . , ... of the univerfe under different emblems - 266 ' " foul of the world, or of the element of re - _ : 2 7 r 279 Demi-ourgos, or fupreme artificer 274, Z. Zoroafter, religion of - - - - - 163,194,281,335 2 ; B& x ?ATi .