pher, he would not have treated of prudence as a virtue, but as a talent, a happy and useful qua, lity; for a villain may be very prudent, and I have known such. The madness of pretend. ing that virtue is the portion only of us and our partisans !

What is virtue, my friend? It is doing good. Do me some, and that is enough; as for your motive, that you may keep to yourself. How! According to you, there is no difference between the president de Thou and Ravaillac; between Cicero and that wretch Popilius, whose life he had saved, and who yet hired himself to cut off his head? You will pronounce Epictetus and Porphyry to be rascals, because they did not hold with our doctrines? Such insolence is quite shocking; but I have done, lest I grow

warm.

FANATICISM.

FANATICISM is to superstition what a delirium is to a fever, and fury to anger: he whe has extasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities, and his imaginations for prophecies, is an enthusiast; and he who sticks not at supporting his folly by murder, is a fanatic. Bartho lomew Diaz, a fugitive at Nuremberg, who was firmly convinced that the pope is the Anti Christ in the Revelations, and that he has the mark of the beast, was only an enthusiast; whereas his brother, who set out from Rome with the godly intention of murdering him, and who actually did murder him for God's sake, was one of the most execrable fanatics that superstition could form.

Polieuctes,

Polieuctes, who on a Pagan festival, went into the temple, pulling down and breaking the images and other ornaments, shewed himself a fanatic, less horrible, indeed, than Diaz, but equally rash and imprudent. The murderers of Francis Duke of Guise, of William Prince of Orange, of the Kings Henry III. and Henry IV. and of so many others, were demoniacs, agitated by the same evil spirit as Diaz.

The most detestable instance of fanaticism is that of the citizens of Paris, who, on the feast of St. Bartholomew, could massacre their fellow citizens for not going to mass.

Some are fanatics in cool blood: these are the judges who can sentence people to death without any other guilt than for not being in their way of thinking: these judges are the more guilty, and the more deserving of universal execration, as not being under a fit of rage like the Clements, the Chatels, the Ravaillacs, the Gerards, the Damiens, one would think they might listen to reason.

When once fanaticism has touched the brain, the distemper is desperate. I have seen convulsionists, who, in speaking of the miracles of St. Paris, grew hot involuntarily; their eyes glared, they trembled in all their limbs, their countenance was quite disfigured with rancour, and they unquestionably would have killed any one who had contradicted them.

The only remedy to this infectious disease is a philosophical temper, which spreading through society, at length softens manners, and obviates the accesses of the distemper; for whenever it gets ground, the best way is to fly from it, and stay till the air be purified. The laws and religion

M 2

gion are no preservative against this mental pestilence. Religion, so far from being a salutary aliment in these cases, in infected brains becomes poison. These unhappy creatures dwell continually on the example of Ehud, who assassinated King Eglon; of Judith, who cut off Holophernes's head when lying with him; and of Samuel hewing King Agag in pieces. They are not aware that these instances, however respectable in antiquity, are abominable in our times: they foment their phrenzy with religion, which absolutely condemns it.

The laws, likewise, have proved very ineffectual against this spiritual rage; it is, indeed, like reading an order of council to a lunatic. These creatures are firmly persuaded that the spirit by which they are actuated is above all laws, and that their enthusiasm is the only law they are to regard.

What can be answered to a person who tells you that he had rather obey God than men, and who, in consequence of that choice, is certain of gaining heaven by cutting your throat?

The leaders of fanatics, and who put the dagger into their hands, are usually designing knaves; they are like the old man of the mountain, who, according to history, gave weak persons a foretaste of the joys of paradise, promising them an eternity of such enjoyments, provided they would go and murder all those whom he should name to them. In the whole world, there has been but one religion clear of fanaticism, which is that of the Chinese literati. As to the sects of philosophers, instead of being infected with this pestilence, they were a remedy and preservative against it for the effect of philosophy is

to

to compose the soul, and fanaticism is incompatible with tranquility. As to our holy religion having been so often corrupted by these infernal impulses, it is the folly of men that is to be blamed.

FRAUD.

WHETHER PIOUS FRAUDS ARE ALLOWABLE?

BAMBABEF, the Fakir, one day met a disciple of Confutsee, whom we call Confucius; and this disciple's name was Ouang: Bambabef maintained that it is proper sometimes to deceive the people, and Ouang insisted that we are never to deceive any one. The substance of their dispute was as follows:

BAM. We are to imitate the Supreme Being, who does not shew us things as they are; he shews us the sun in a diameter of only two or three feet, though that body be a million of times larger than the earth; he shews us the moon and the stars as fixed on one and the same blue ground, though they are at different and immense distances; he would have a square tower appear round to us afar off; he would have the fire seem hot to us, though it be neither hot nor cold; in a word, he encompasses us with errors suitable to our nature.

Ou. What you call error is no such thing. That sun, which is placed millions of millions of lis (1) from our globe, is not that sun we see, M 3

(1) A lis signifies 124 paces.

we

we cannot have any real sight but of the sun which reflects itself on our retina in a determinate angle. Our eyes were not given us for the knowledge of dimensions and distances; this requires other instruments and operations.

Bambabef stared at such language; but Ouang, being endued with an uncommon patience, explained to him the theory of optics; and Bambabef, having a clear head, acquiesced in the demonstrations produced by Confutsee's disciple, and then returned to the dispute in these terms.

BAM. If God does not deceive us by the medium of our senses, as I thought; you must own, however, that physicians always cheat children for their good; they will tell them they are giving them sugar, when, at the same time, it is rhubarb, so that I, as a Fakir, may deceive the people, they having no more knowledge or understanding than children.

OU. I have two sons, and never have I deceived them. When they are sick, I say to them this physic is very bitter, but you must pluck up a good heart and take it, the more bitter the more good will it do you; were it sweet it would hurt you: I never allowed their governesses or preceptors to frighten them with ghosts and apparitions, with hobgoblins and wizards: and thus they are grown up to be brave and sensible young men,

BAM. The common people are not born with the like happy talents and dispositions as your family.

Ou. All men are alike, they are born with the same propensities; it is the Fakirs who vitiate human nature.

BAM. We do teach them errors, I own, but

it