fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth have been set on edge.”

This was expressly contradicting Moses, who, in Numbers, chap. xxviii. declares, that the children shall bear the iniquity of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

Farther, Ezekiel, chap. xx. makes the Lord say, that he gave to the Jews, " precepts which were not good." This was the principal reason of the synagogue's prohibiting young persons from reading Ezekiel, as it might bring them to doubt of the irrefragability of the Mosaic laws.

The cavillers of our times are still more astonished, at the manner of the prophet's describing the wickedness of Jerusalem, in chap. xvi. where he introduces the Lord, speaking to a girl and the Lord said to the girl, "In the day thou wast born, thy navel-string was not cut; thou wast neither salted nor swaddled: I pitied thee: thou art grown up, thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown: I passed by thee, and looked upon thee; behold, thy time was the time of love. I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: thou becamest mine; I washed thee with water, and anointed thee with oil; I clothed thee, and shod thee; I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silks; I decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on thy hands, and a chain on thy neck; I put a jewel on thy forehead, and ear-rings in thy ears, and a crown on thy head, &c. But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot, because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by: thou hast built an eminent place; thou hast prostituted thyself in public places; thou hast spread thy legs to every one that passed by; and thou hast lain with Egyptians; and, lastly, thou hast paid thy lovers, and hast made presents to them, to lie with thee; and, in paying, instead of being paid, thou hast done the reverse of other girls. There is a proverb, Like mother, like daughter; and the like is said of thee."

A mo

Still greater clamour is raised against chap. xxiii. ther had two daughters, who parted with their virginity very early in life; the name of the elder, was Aholah, and that of the younger, Aholibah :-" Aholah, doated on young lords, and captains, and rulers; she committed whoredom with the Egyptians in her youth. Aholibah, her sister, was more corrupt in her whoredoms than she, with captains, and rulers, clothed most gorgeously; horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men: she has discovered her nakedness, she has increased her whoredoms, she has eagerly

sought the embraces of those, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.”

These descriptions, which appear scandalous to so many weak minds, signify no more than the sins of Jerusalem and Samaria. Expressions, to us, indelicate, and obscure, were not so at that time. The like plainness openly shows itself in other passages of Scripture. It often speaks of "opening the womb." The terms, in which are expressed the junction of Boaz with Ruth, and of Judah with his daughter-in-law, in Hebrew, have nothing unseemly in them; but would be very much so in our language.

He, who is not ashamed of being naked, does not cover himself. Where was the shame of naming the genitals in those times, when it was customary on any important promise, to touch the genitals of him to whom the promise was made? It was a mark of respect, a symbol of fidelity; as, formerly, among us, the feudal tenants put their hands between those of their paramounts.

We have thought fit to render the genitals, by thigh: Eliezer puts his hand under Abraham's thigh; the like Joseph does to Jacob. This had been a custom of very great antiquity in Egypt; and, so far were that people from annexing shame and turpitude, to what we dare neither expose nor name, that they carried, in procession, a large figure of the virile member, called Phallum, in thanksgiving to the gods for their goodness, in making that member the instrument of human propagation.

All this sufficiently proves, that our ideas of decency and purity do not correspond with those of other nations. At what period of time did politeness prevail among the Romans, more than in the Augustine, age? Yet Horace, the ornament of that age, and in a moral piece, roundly says,

"Nec metuo, ne dum futuo vir rure recurrat.”

Augustus makes use of the same expression in an epigram against Fulvia.

He who, among us, should openly pronounce the word synonimous with futuo, would be looked on with as much contempt as a drunken porter: this word, and several others, made use of by Horace, and other elegant authors, appear to us still more indecent than Ezekiel's expressions. Whether we read ancient authors, or travel in distant countries, let us

lay aside all our prejudices. Nature is every where the same, and customs every where different.

FABLES.

ARE not the most ancient fables manifestly allegorical? The first we know of, according to our chronology, is that related in the ninth chapter of the book of Judges. The trees were about to choose a king: the olive would not quit the care of its oil, nor the fig-tree of its figs, nor the vine-tree of its rich juice; and all the other trees had their fruit no less at heart; so that, the thistle, being good for nothing, and having prickles which could do hurt, made itself king.

The Pagan fable of Venus, as we have it in Hesiod, is an allegory of all nature. The generative parts fell from the sky on the sea shore: Venus receives her being from this precious spume; her first name signifies, "Lover of generation." Can there be a more sensible image? This Venus is the goddess of beauty; beauty is no longer amiable, than when accompanied by the graces; beauty gives rise to love; love has shafts which every heart has felt: he is hood-winked, to conceal the faults of the object beloved.

Wisdom is conceived in the brain of the sovereign of the gods, under the name of Minerva: the soul of man is a divine fire, which Minerva shows to Prometheus, and he makes use of this divine fire to animate man.

Every body must perceive, in these fables, a lively portraiture of nature. Most of the other fables are, either corruptions of ancient histories, or the chimeras of imagination. It is with ancient fables, as with modern tales; some are of the moral kind, and quite charming, and there are others as insipid.

FALSITY OF HUMAN VIRTUES.

WHEN the duc de la Rochefoucault had published his Thoughts on Self-love, one M. Esprit, of the Oratory, wrote a captious book, entitled, The Falsity of Human Virtues. This genius says, there is no such thing as virtue; but, at the close of every chapter, kindly refers his readers to Christian charity : so that, according to M. Esprit, neither Cato, nor Aristides, nor Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus, were good men; and the reason is, these are only to be found among Christians. Again, among Christians, the Catholics are the only virtuous; and, among the Catholics, the Jesuits, (enemies to the Oratorians,)

should have been excepted; therefore, there is scarcely any virtue on earth, but among the enemies of the Jesuits!

This Sieur Esprit sets out with saying, that prudence is not a virtue; and his reason is, because it is often mistaken: which is as much as to say, Cæsar was nothing of a soldier, because he had the worst of it at Dyrachium. Had this reverend gentleman been a philosopher, he would have treated of prudence, not as a virtue, but a talent, a happy and useful quality for a villain may be very prudent, and I have known such. What folly to pretend, 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; your motive you may keep to yourself. How! according to you, there is no difference, between the president De Thou and Ravaillac; between Cicero and the 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

Is, to supersition, what delirium is to fever, and fury to anger: he who has ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities, and imaginations for prophecies, is an enthusiast; and he, who sticks not at supporting his folly by murder, is a fanatic. Bartholomew Diaz, a fugitive at Nuremberg, who was firmly convinced, that the pope is the Anti-christ of 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 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, who, on a Pagan festival, went into the temple, pulling down and breaking the images and other ornaments, showed 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 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

Some

massacre their fellow-citizens for not going to mass. are fanatics in cool blood: these are the judges, who can sentence people to death, without any other guilt, than for not being of their way of thinking: they are the more guilty and deserving of universal execration, as, not being under a fit of rage, like the Clements, the Chatels, the Ravaillacs, the Gerards, and 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 countenances were disfigured with rancour, and they, unquestionably, would have killed any one who had contradicted them.

The only remedy to this infectious disease is, a philosophic 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. Laws and religion are no preservative against this mental pestilence. Religion, so far from being a salutary aliment in these cases, in infected brains, becomes a 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 like reading an order of council to a lunatic. They are firmly persuaded, that the spirit which actuates them, is above all law, and that their enthusiasm is the only one they are to regard. What can be answered to a person, who tells you, he had rather obey God than man; and who, in consequence of this, is certain of gaining heaven, by cutting your throat?

The instigators of fanatics are generally 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, if they would murder all those whom he should name. There has been but one religion in the whole world clear of fanaticism, which is that of the Chinese literati. The sects of philosophers, instead of being infected with this pestilence, were a remedy and preservative against it; for the effect of philosophy is, to compose the soul, and fanaticism is incompatible with tranquillity.