Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

I speak not here of an error; but of the only good, the only necessary, the only proved, and the second revealed.

Had it been possible for the human mind to have admitted a religion-I will not say at all approaching ours-but not so bad as all the other religions in the world-what would that religion have been? Would it not have been that, which should propose to us the adoration of the supreme, only, infinite, eternal Being, the former of the world, who gives it motion and life, "cui nec simile, nec secundum ?” That which should re-unite us to this Being of beings as the reward of our virtues, and separate us from him as the chastisement of our crimes?

That which should admit very few of the dogmas invented by unreasoning pride; those eternal subjects of disputation; and should teach a pure morality, about which there should never be any dispute?

"

That which should not make the essence of worship consist in vain ceremonies, as that of spitting into your mouth, or of taking from you one end of your prepuce, or of depriving you of one of your testicles,-seeing that a man may fulfil all the social duties with two testicles and an entire foreskin, and without another's spitting into his mouth?

That of serving one's neighbour for the love of God, instead of persecuting and butchering him in God's name? That which should tolerate all others, and which, meriting thus the goodwill of all, should alone be capable of making mankind a nation of brethren?

That which should have august ceremonies, to strike the vulgar, without having mysteries to disgust the wise and irritate the incredulous?

That which should offer men more encouragements to the social virtues than expiations for social crimes? That which should ensure to its ministers a revenue large enough for their decent maintenance, but should never allow them to usurp dignities and power that might make them tyrants? That which should establish commodious retreats for sickness and old age, but never for idleness?

VOL. V.

2 M

A great part of this religion is already in the hearts of several princes; and it will prevail when the articles of perpetual peace proposed by the abbé de St. Pierre, shall be signed by all potentates.

SECTION II.

Last night I was meditating;. I was absorbed in the contemplation of nature, admiring the immensity, the courses, the relations of those infinite globes, which are above the admiration of the vulgar.

I admired still more the intelligence that presides over this vast machinery. I said to myself-A man must be blind not to be impressed by this spectacle; he must be stupid not to recognise its author; he must be mad not to adore him. What tribute of adoration ought I to render him? Should not this tribute be the same throughout the extent of space, since the same Supreme Power reigns equally in all that extent?

Does not a thinking being, inhabiting a star of the milky way, owe him the same homage as the thinking being on this little globe where we are? Light is the same to the dog-star as to us; morality too must be the same.

If a feeling and thinking being in the dog-star is born of a tender father and mother, who have laboured for his welfare, he owes them as much love and duty as we here owe to our parents. If any one in the milky way sees another lame and indigent, and does not relieve him, though able to do it, he is guilty in the sight of every globe.

The heart has everywhere the same duties; on the steps of the throne of God, if he has a throne, and at the bottom of the great abyss, if there be an abyss.

I was wrapt in these reflections, when one of those genii who fill the spaces between worlds, came down to me. I recognised the same aërial creature that had formerly appeared to me, to inform me that the judgments of God are different from ours, and how much a good action is preferable to controversy.*

He transported me into a desart covered all over

* See DOGMA.

with bones piled one upon another; and between these heaps of dead there were avenues of evergreen trees, and at the end of each avenue, a tall man of august aspect gazing with compassion on these sad remains.

Alas! my archangel, said I, whither have you brought me? "To desolation," answered he. And who are those fine old patriarchs whom I see motionless and melancholy at the end of those green avenues, and who seem to weep over this immense multitude of dead? "Poor human creature! thou shalt know," replied the genius; "but first, thou must weep."

He began with the first heap. "These," said he, "are the twenty-three thousand Jews who danced before a calf, together with the twenty-four thousand who were slain while ravishing Midianitish women: the number of the slaughtered for similar offences or mistakes, amounts to nearly three hundred thousand.

"At the following avenues are the bones of christians, butchered by one another on account of metaphysical disputes. They are divided into several piles of four centuries each: it was necessary to separate them; for had they been all together, they would have reached the sky."

What! exclaimed I, have brethren thus treated their brethren? and have I the misfortune to be one of this brotherhood?

"Here," said the spirit, "are the twelve millions of Americans, slain in their own country for not having been baptised." Ah! my God! why were not these frightful skeletons left to whiten in the hemisphere were the bodies were born, and where they were murdered in so many various ways? Why are all these abominable monuments of barbarity and fanaticism assembled here? "For thy instruction."

Since thou art willing to instruct me, said I to the genius, tell me if there be any other people than the christians and the Jews, whom zeal and religion, unhappily turned into fanaticism, have prompted to so many horrible cruelties? "Yes," said he; "the mahometans have been stained by the same inhuman acts, but rarely; and when their victims have cried out

'amman!' (mercy!) and have offered them tribute, they have pardoned them.

"As for other nations, not one of them, since the beginning of the world, has ever made a purely religious war. Now, follow me." I followed.

A little beyond these heaps of dead, we found other heaps: these were bags of gold and silver; and each pile had its label: "Substance of the heretics massacred in the eighteenth century, in the seventeenth, in the sixteenth," and so on. "Gold and silver of the slaughtered Americans," &c. &c. and all these piles were surmounted by crosses, mitres, crosiers, and tiaras, enriched with jewels.

What! my genius, was it then to possess these riches, that these carcases were accumulated? "Yes, my son."

I shed tears; and when by my grief I had merited to be taken to the end of the green avenues, he conducted me thither.

"Contemplate," said he, "the heroes of humanity who have been the benefactors of the earth, and who united to banish from the world, as far as they were able, violence and rapine. Question them."

I went up to the first of this band; on his head was a crown, and in his hand a small censer. I humbly asked him his name. "I," said he, "am Numa Pompilius: I succeeded a robber, and had robbers to govern: I taught them virtue and the worship of God; after me they repeatedly forgot both. I forbade any image to be placed in the temples, because the divinity who animates nature cannot be represented. During my reign, the Romans had neither wars nor seditions; and my religion did nothing but good. Every neighbouring people came to honour my funeral, which has happened to me alone

[ocr errors]

I made my obeisance, and passed on to the second. This was a fine old man, of about an hundred, clad in a white robe; his middle finger was placed on his lip, and with the other hand he was scattering beans behind him. In him I recognised Pythagoras. He assured me, that he had never had a golden thigh, and

that he had never been a cock, but that he had governed the Crotonians with as much justice as Numa had governed the Romans about the same time, which justice was the most necessary and the rarest thing in the world. I learned, that the Pythagoreans examined their consciences twice a day. What good people! and how far are we behind them! Yet we, who for thirteen hundred years have been nothing but assassins, assert that these wise men were proud.

To please Pythagoras, I said not a word to him, but went on to Zoroaster, who was engaged in concentrating the celestial fire in the focus of a concave mirror, in the centre of a vestibule with an hundred gates, each one leading to wisdom. On the principal of these gates,* I read these words, which are the abstract of all morality, and cut short all the disputes of the casuists :

"When thou art in doubt whether an action is good or bad, abstain from it."

Certainly, said I to my genius, the barbarians who immolated all the victims whose bones I have seen, had not read these fine words.

Then we saw Zaleucus, Thales, Anaximander, and all the other sages who had sought truth and practised virtue.

When we came to Socrates, I quickly recognised him by his broken nose. Well, said I, you then are among the confidants of the Most High! All the inhabitants of Europe, excepting the Turks and the Crim Tartars, who know nothing, pronounce your name with reverence. So much is that great name venerated, so much is it loved, that it has been sought to discover those of your persecutors. Melitus and Anitus are known because of you, as Ravaillae is known because of Henry IV.; but of Anitus I know only the name. I know not precisely who that villain was by whom you were calumniated, and who suc

Zoroaster's precepts are called gates, and are one hundred in

number.
+ See XENOPHON.

« AnteriorContinua »