11452 lines
541 KiB
Plaintext
11452 lines
541 KiB
Plaintext
1660
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PENSEES
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by Blaise Pascal
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translated by W. F. Trotter
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SECTION I
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THOUGHTS ON MIND AND ON STYLE
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1. The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive
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mind.- In the one, the principles are palpable, but removed from
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ordinary use; so that for want of habit it is difficult to turn
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one's mind in that direction: but if one turns it thither ever so
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little, one sees the principles fully, and one must have a quite
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inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so plain that it
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is almost impossible they should escape notice.
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But in the intuitive mind the principles are found in common use
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and are before the eyes of everybody. One has only to look, and no
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effort is necessary; it is only a question of good eyesight, but it
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must be good, for the principles are so subtle and so numerous that it
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is almost impossible but that some escape notice. Now the omission
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of one principle leads to error; thus one must have very clear sight
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to see all the principles and, in the next place, an accurate mind not
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to draw false deductions from known principles.
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All mathematicians would then be intuitive if they had clear
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sight, for they do not reason incorrectly from principles known to
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them; and intuitive minds would be mathematical if they could turn
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their eyes to the principles of mathematics to which they are unused.
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The reason, therefore, that some intuitive minds are not
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mathematical is that they cannot at all turn their attention to the
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principles of mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are
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not intuitive is that they do not see what is before them, and that,
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accustomed to the exact and plain principles of mathematics, and not
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reasoning till they have well inspected and arranged their principles,
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they are lost in matters of intuition where the principles do not
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allow of such arrangement. They are scarcely seen; they are felt
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rather than seen; there is the greatest difficulty in making them felt
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by those who do not of themselves perceive them. These principles
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are so fine and so numerous that a very delicate and very clear
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sense is needed to perceive them, and to judge rightly and justly when
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they are perceived, without for the most part being able to
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demonstrate them in order as in mathematics, because the principles
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are not known to us in the same way, and because it would be an
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endless matter to undertake it. We must see the matter at once, at one
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glance, and not by a process of reasoning, at least to a certain
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degree. And thus it is rare that mathematicians are intuitive and that
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men of intuition are mathematicians, because mathematicians wish to
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treat matters of intuition mathematically and make themselves
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ridiculous, wishing to begin with definitions and then with axioms,
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which is not the way to proceed in this kind of reasoning. Not that
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the mind does not do so, but it does it tacitly, naturally, and
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without technical rules; for the expression of it is beyond all men,
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and only a few can feel it.
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Intuitive minds, on the contrary, being thus accustomed to judge
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at a single glance, are so astonished when they are presented with
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propositions of which they understand nothing, and the way to which is
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through definitions and axioms so sterile, and which they are not
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accustomed to see thus in detail, that they are repelled and
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disheartened.
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But dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.
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Mathematicians who are only mathematicians have exact minds,
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provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions
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and axioms; otherwise they are inaccurate and insufferable, for they
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are only right when the principles are quite clear.
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And men of intuition who are only intuitive cannot have the
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patience to reach to first principles of things speculative and
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conceptual, which they have never seen in the world and which are
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altogether out of the common.
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2. There are different kinds of right understanding; some have
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right understanding in a certain order of things, and not in others,
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where they go astray. Some draw conclusions well from a few
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premises, and this displays an acute judgment.
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Others draw conclusions well where there are many premises.
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For example, the former easily learn hydrostatics, where the
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premises are few, but the conclusions are so fine that only the
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greatest acuteness can reach them.
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And in spite of that these persons would perhaps not be great
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mathematicians, because mathematics contain a great number of
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premises, and there is perhaps a kind of intellect that can search
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with ease a few premises to the bottom and cannot in the least
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penetrate those matters in which there are many premises.
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There are then two kinds of intellect: the one able to penetrate
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acutely and deeply into the conclusions of given premises, and this is
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the precise intellect; the other able to comprehend a great number
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of premises without confusing them, and this is the mathematical
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intellect. The one has force and exactness, the other comprehension.
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Now the one quality can exist without the other; the intellect can
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be strong and narrow, and can also be comprehensive and weak.
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3. Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not
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understand the process of reasoning, for they would understand at
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first sight and are not used to seek for principles. And others, on
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the contrary, who are accustomed to reason from principles, do not
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at all understand matters of feeling, seeking principles and being
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unable to see at a glance.
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4. Mathematics, intuition.- True eloquence makes light of
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eloquence, true morality makes light of morality; that is to say,
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the morality of the judgement, which has no rules, makes light of
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the morality of the intellect.
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For it is to judgement that perception belongs, as science belongs
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to intellect. Intuition is the part of judgement, mathematics of
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intellect.
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To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
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5. Those who judge of a work by rule are in regard to others as
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those who have a watch are in regard to others. One says, "It is two
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hours ago"; the other says, "It is only three-quarters of an hour."
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I look at my watch, and say to the one, "You are weary," and to the
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other, "Time gallops with you"; for it is only an hour and a half ago,
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and I laugh at those who tell me that time goes slowly with me and
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that I judge by imagination. They do not know that I judge by my
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watch.
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6. Just as we harm the understanding, we harm the feelings also.
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The understanding and the feelings are moulded by intercourse; the
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understanding and feelings are corrupted by intercourse. Thus good
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or bad society improves or corrupts them. It is, then, all-important
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to know how to choose in order to improve and not to corrupt them; and
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we cannot make this choice, if they be not already improved and not
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corrupted. Thus a circle is formed, and those are fortunate who escape
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it.
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7. The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds
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in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
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8. There are many people who listen to a sermon in the same way as
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they listen to vespers.
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9. When we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that
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he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on
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that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but
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reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with
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that, for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed
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to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything;
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but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the
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fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he
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cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our
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senses are always true.
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10. People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which
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they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the
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mind of others.
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11. All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life;
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but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to
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be feared than the theatre. It is a representation of the passions
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so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to
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them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love, principally
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when it is represented as very chaste and virtuous. For the more
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innocent it appears to innocent souls, the more they are likely to
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be touched by it. Its violence pleases our self-love, which
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immediately forms a desire to produce the same effects which are
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seen so well represented; and, at the same time, we make ourselves a
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conscience founded on the propriety of the feelings which we see
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there, by which the fear of pure souls is removed, since they
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imagine that it cannot hurt their purity to love with a love which
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seems to them so reasonable.
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So we depart from the theatre with our heart so filled with all
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the beauty and tenderness of love, the soul and the mind so
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persuaded of its innocence, that we are quite ready to receive its
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first impressions, or rather to seek an opportunity of awakening
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them in the heart of another, in order that we may receive the same
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pleasures and the same sacrifices which we have seen so well
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represented in the theatre.
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12. Scaramouch, who only thinks of one thing.
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The doctor, who speaks for a quarter of an hour after he has
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said everything, so full is he of the desire of talking.
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13. One likes to see the error, the passion of Cleobuline, because
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she is unconscious of it. She would be displeasing, if she were not
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deceived.
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14. When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one
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feels within oneself the truth of what one reads, which was there
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before, although one did not know it. Hence one is inclined to love
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him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches,
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but ours. And thus this benefit renders him pleasing to us, besides
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that such community of intellect as we have with him necessarily
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inclines the heart to love.
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15. Eloquence, which persuades by sweetness, not by authority;
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as a tyrant, not as a king.
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16. Eloquence is an art of saying things in such a way (1) that
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those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with
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pleasure; (2) that they feel themselves interested, so that
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self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.
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It consists, then, in a correspondence which we seek to
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establish between the head and the heart of those to whom we speak, on
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the one hand, and, on the other, between the thoughts and the
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expressions which we employ. This assumes that we have studied well
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the heart of man so as to know all its powers and, then, to find the
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just proportions of the discourse which we wish to adapt to them. We
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must put ourselves in the place of those who are to hear us, and
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make trial on our own heart of the turn which we give to our discourse
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in order to see whether one is made for the other, and whether we
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can assure ourselves that the hearer will be, as it were, forced to
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surrender. We ought to restrict ourselves, so far as possible, to
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the simple and natural, and not to magnify that which is little, or
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belittle that which is great. It is not enough that a thing be
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beautiful; it must be suitable to the subject, and there must be in it
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nothing of excess or defect.
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17. Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we
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desire to go.
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18. When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is of advantage
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that there should exist a common error which determines the mind of
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man, as, for example, the moon, to which is attributed the change of
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seasons, the progress of diseases, etc. For the chief malady of man is
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restless curiosity about things which he cannot understand; and it
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is not so bad for him to be in error as to be curious to no purpose.
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The manner in which Epictetus, Montaigne, and Salomon de Tultie
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wrote is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most remembered, and
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the oftenest quoted, because it is entirely composed of thoughts
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born from the common talk of life. As when we speak of the common
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error which exists among men that the moon is the cause of everything,
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we never fail to say that Salomon de Tultie says that, when we do
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not know the truth of a thing, it is of advantage that there should
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exist a common error, etc.; which is the thought above.
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19. The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one
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should put in first.
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20. Order.- Why should I undertake to divide my virtues into
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four rather than into six? Why should I rather establish virtue in
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four, in two, in one? Why into Abstine et sustine* rather than into
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"Follow Nature," or, "Conduct your private affairs without injustice,"
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as Plato, or anything else? But there, you will say, everything is
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contained in one word. Yes, but it is useless without explanation, and
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when we come to explain it, as soon as we unfold this maxim which
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contains all the rest, they emerge in that first confusion which you
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desired to avoid. So, when they are all included in one, they are
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hidden and useless, as in a chest, and never appear save in their
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natural confusion. Nature has established them all without including
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one in the other.
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* "Abstain and uphold." Stoic maxim.
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21. Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our
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art makes one dependent on the other. But this is not natural. Each
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keeps its own place.
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22. Let no one say that I have said nothing new; the arrangement
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of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same
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ball, but one of us places it better.
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I had as soon it said that I used words employed before. And in
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the same way if the same thoughts in a different arrangement do not
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form a different discourse, no more do the same words in their
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different arrangement form different thoughts!
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23. Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and
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meanings differently arranged have different effects.
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24. Language.- We should not turn the mind from one thing to
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another, except for relaxation, and that when it is necessary and
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the time suitable, and not otherwise. For he that relaxes out of
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season wearies, and he who wearies us out of season makes us
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languid, since we turn quite away. So much does our perverse lust like
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to do the contrary of what those wish to obtain from us without giving
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us pleasure, the coin for which we will do whatever is wanted.
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25. Eloguence.- It requires the pleasant and the real; but the
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pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.
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26. Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who,
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after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of
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a portrait.
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27. Miscellaneous. Language.- Those who make antitheses by forcing
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words are like those who make false windows for symmetry. Their rule
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is not to speak accurately, but to make apt figures of speech.
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28. Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that
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there is no reason for any difference, and based also on the face of
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man; whence it happens that symmetry is only wanted in breadth, not in
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height or depth.
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29. When we see a natural style, we are astonished and
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delighted; for we expected to see an author, and we find a man.
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Whereas those who have good taste, and who, seeing a book, expect to
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find a man, are quite surprised to find an author. Plus poetice quam
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humane locutus es.* Those honour Nature well who teach that she can
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speak on everything, even on theology.
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* Petronius, 90. "You have spoken more as a poet than as a man."
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30. We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting. The rule
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is uprightness.
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Beauty of omission, of judgement.
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31. All the false beauties which we blame in Cicero have their
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admirers, and in great number.
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32. There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists
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in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or
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strong, and the thing which pleases us.
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Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it
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house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees,
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rooms, dress, etc. Whatever is not made according to this standard
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displeases those who have good taste.
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And as there is a perfect relation between a song and a house
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which are made after a good model, because they are like this good
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model, though each after its kind; even so there is a perfect relation
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between things made after a bad model. Not that the bad model is
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unique, for there are many; but each bad sonnet, for example, on
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whatever false model it is formed, is just like a woman dressed
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after that model.
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Nothing makes us understand better the ridiculousness of a false
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sonnet than to consider nature and the standard and, then, to
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imagine a woman or a house made according to that standard.
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33. Poetical beauty.- As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought
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we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not
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do so; and the reason is that we know well what is the object of
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mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of
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medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in
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what grace consists, which is the object of poetry. We do not know the
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natural model which we ought to imitate; and through lack of this
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knowledge, we have coined fantastic terms, "The golden age," "The
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wonder of our times," "Fatal," etc., and call this jargon poetical
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beauty.
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But whoever imagines a woman after this model, which consists in
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saying little things in big words, will see a pretty girl adorned with
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mirrors and chains, at whom he will smile; because we know better
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wherein consists the charm of woman than the charm of verse. But those
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who are ignorant would admire her in this dress, and there are many
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villages in which she would be taken for the queen; hence we call
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sonnets made after this model "Village Queens."
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34. No one passes in the world as skilled in verse unless he has
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put up the sign of a poet, a mathematician, etc. But educated people
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do not want a sign and draw little distinction between the trade of
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a poet and that of an embroiderer.
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People of education are not called poets or mathematicians,
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etc.; but they are all these and judges of all these. No one guesses
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what they are. When they come into society, they talk on matters about
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which the rest are talking. We do not observe in them one quality
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rather than another, save when they have to make use of it. But then
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we remember it, for it is characteristic of such persons that we do
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not say of them that they are fine speakers, when it is not a question
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of oratory, and that we say of them that they are fine speakers,
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when it is such a question.
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It is therefore false praise to give a man when we say of him,
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on his entry, that he is a very clever poet; and it is a bad sign when
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a man is not asked to give his judgement on some verses.
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35. We should not be able to say of a man, "He is a
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mathematician," or "a preacher," or "eloquent"; but that he is "a
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gentleman." That universal quality alone pleases me. It is a bad
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sign when, on seeing a person, you remember his book. I would prefer
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you to see no quality till you meet it and have occasion to use it (Ne
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quid minis),* for fear some one quality prevail and designate the man.
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Let none think him a fine speaker, unless oratory be in question,
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and then let them think it.
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* "Nothing in excess."
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36. Man is full of wants: he loves only those who can satisfy them
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all. "This one is a good mathematician," one will say. But I have
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nothing to do with mathematics; he would take me for a proposition.
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"That one is a good soldier." He would take me for a besieged town.
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I need, then, an upright man who can accommodate himself generally
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to all my wants.
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37. Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be
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known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For
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it is far better to know something about everything than to know all
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about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both,
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still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former.
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And the world feels this and does so; for the world is often a good
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judge.
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38. A poet and not an honest man.
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39. If lightning fell on low places, etc., poets, and those who
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can only reason about things of that kind, would lack proofs.
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40. If we wished to prove the examples which we take to prove
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other things, we should have to take those other things to be
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examples; for, as we always believe the difficulty is in what we
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wish to prove, we find the examples clearer and a help to
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demonstration.
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Thus, when we wish to demonstrate a general theorem, we must
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give the rule as applied to a particular case; but if we wish to
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demonstrate a particular case, we must begin with the general rule.
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For we always find the thing obscure which we wish to prove and that
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clear which we use for the proof; for, when a thing is put forward
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to be proved, we first fill ourselves with the imagination that it is,
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therefore, obscure and, on the contrary, that what is to prove it is
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clear, and so we understand it easily.
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41. Epigrams of Martial.- Man loves malice, but not against
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one-eyed men nor the unfortunate, but against the fortunate and proud.
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People are mistaken in thinking otherwise.
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For lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity, etc. We
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must please those who have humane and tender feelings. That epigram
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about two one-eyed people is worthless, for it does not console them
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and only gives a point to the author's glory. All that is only for the
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sake of the author is worthless. Ambitiosa recident ornamenta.*
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* Horace, Epistle to the pisos, 447. "They curtailed pretentious
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ornaments."
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42. To call a king "Prince" is pleasing, because it diminishes his
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rank.
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43. Certain authors, speaking of their works, say: "My book,"
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"My commentary," "My history," etc. They resemble middle-class
|
|
people who have a house of their own and always have "My house" on
|
|
their tongue. They would do better to say: "Our book," "Our
|
|
commentary," "Our history," etc., because there is in them usually
|
|
more of other people's than their own.
|
|
|
|
44. Do you wish people to believe good of you? Don't speak.
|
|
|
|
45. Languages are ciphers, wherein letters are not changed into
|
|
letters, but words into words, so that an unknown language is
|
|
decipherable.
|
|
|
|
46. A maker of witticisms, a bad character.
|
|
|
|
47. There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place
|
|
and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they
|
|
think of without that warmth.
|
|
|
|
48. When we find words repeated in a discourse and, in trying to
|
|
correct them, discover that they are so appropriate that we would
|
|
spoil the discourse, we must leave them alone. This is the test; and
|
|
our attempt is the work of envy, which is blind, and does not see that
|
|
repetition is not in this place a fault; for there is no general rule.
|
|
|
|
49. To mask nature and disguise her. No more king, pope, bishop-
|
|
but august monarch, etc.; not Paris- the capital of the kingdom. There
|
|
are places in which we ought to call Paris, "Paris," others in which
|
|
we ought to call it the capital of the kingdom.
|
|
|
|
50. The same meaning changes with the words which express it.
|
|
Meanings receive their dignity from words instead of giving it to
|
|
them. Examples should be sought....
|
|
|
|
51. Sceptic, for obstinate.
|
|
|
|
52. No one calls another a Cartesian but he who is one himself,
|
|
a pedant but a pedant, a provincial but a provincial; and I would
|
|
wager it was the printer who put it on the title of Letters to a
|
|
Provincial.
|
|
|
|
53. A carriage upset or overturned, according to the meaning. To
|
|
spread abroad or upset, according to the meaning. (The argument by
|
|
force of M. le Maitre over the friar.)
|
|
|
|
54. Miscellaneous.- A form of speech, "I should have liked to
|
|
apply myself to that."
|
|
|
|
55. The aperitive virtue of a key, the attractive virtue of a
|
|
hook.
|
|
|
|
56. To guess: "The part that I take in your trouble." The Cardinal
|
|
did not want to be guessed.
|
|
|
|
"My mind is disquieted." I am disquieted is better.
|
|
|
|
57. I always feel uncomfortable under such compliments as these:
|
|
"I have given you a great deal of trouble," "I am afraid I am boring
|
|
you," "I fear this is too long." We either carry our audience with us,
|
|
or irritate them.
|
|
|
|
58. You are ungraceful: "Excuse me, pray." Without that excuse I
|
|
would not have known there was anything amiss. "With reverence be it
|
|
spoken..." The only thing bad is their excuse.
|
|
|
|
59. "To extinguish the torch of sedition"; too luxuriant. "The
|
|
restlessness of his genius"; two superfluous grand words.
|
|
|
|
SECTION II
|
|
|
|
THE MISERY OF MAN WITHOUT GOD
|
|
|
|
60. First part: Misery of man without God.
|
|
|
|
Second part: Happiness of man with God.
|
|
|
|
Or, First part: That nature is corrupt. Proved by nature itself.
|
|
|
|
Second part: That there is a Redeemer. Proved by Scripture.
|
|
|
|
61. Order.- I might well have taken this discourse in an order
|
|
like this: to show the vanity of all conditions of men, to show the
|
|
vanity of ordinary lives, and then the vanity of philosophic lives,
|
|
sceptics, stoics; but the order would not have been kept. I know a
|
|
little what it is, and how few people understand it. No human
|
|
science can keep it. Saint Thomas did not keep it. Mathematics keep
|
|
it, but they are useless on account of their depth.
|
|
|
|
62. Preface to the first part.- To speak of those who have treated
|
|
of the knowledge of self; of the divisions of Charron, which sadden
|
|
and weary us; of the confusion of Montaigne; that he was quite aware
|
|
of his want of method and shunned it by jumping from subject to
|
|
subject; that he sought to be fashionable.
|
|
|
|
His foolish project of describing himself! And this not casually
|
|
and against his maxims, since every one makes mistakes, but by his
|
|
maxims themselves, and by first and chief design. For to say silly
|
|
things by chance and weakness is a common misfortune, but to say
|
|
them intentionally is intolerable, and to say such as that...
|
|
|
|
63. Montaigne.- Montaigne's faults are great. Lewd words; this
|
|
is bad, notwithstanding Mademoiselle de Gournay. Credulous; people
|
|
without eyes. Ignorant; squaring the circle, a greater world. His
|
|
opinions on suicide, on death. He suggests an indifference about
|
|
salvation, without fear and without repentance. As his book was not
|
|
written with a religious purpose, he was not bound to mention
|
|
religion; but it is always our duty not to turn men from it. One can
|
|
excuse his rather free and licentious opinions on some relations of
|
|
life; but one cannot excuse his thoroughly pagan views on death, for a
|
|
man must renounce piety altogether, if he does not at least wish to
|
|
die like a Christian. Now, through the whole of his book his only
|
|
conception of death is a cowardly and effeminate one.
|
|
|
|
64. It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that
|
|
I see in him.
|
|
|
|
65. What good there is in Montaigne can only have been acquired
|
|
with difficulty. The evil that is in him, I mean apart from his
|
|
morality, could have been corrected in a moment, if he had been
|
|
informed that he made too much of trifles and spoke too much of
|
|
himself.
|
|
|
|
66. One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover
|
|
truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing
|
|
better.
|
|
|
|
67. The vanity of the sciences.- Physical science will not console
|
|
me for the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the
|
|
science of ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the
|
|
physical sciences.
|
|
|
|
68. Men are never taught to be gentlemen and are taught everything
|
|
else; and they never plume themselves so much on the rest of their
|
|
knowledge as on knowing how to be gentlemen. They only plume
|
|
themselves on knowing the one thing they do not know.
|
|
|
|
69. The infinites, the mean.- When we read too fast or too slowly,
|
|
we understand nothing.
|
|
|
|
70. Nature... - Nature has set us so well in the centre, that if
|
|
we change one side of the balance, we change the other also. This
|
|
makes me believe that the springs in our brain are so adjusted that he
|
|
who touches one touches also its contrary.
|
|
|
|
71. Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find
|
|
truth; give him too much, the same.
|
|
|
|
72. Man's disproportion.- This is where our innate knowledge leads
|
|
us. If it be not true, there is no truth in man; and if it be true, he
|
|
finds therein great cause for humiliation, being compelled to abase
|
|
himself in one way or another. And since he cannot exist without
|
|
this knowledge, I wish that, before entering on deeper researches into
|
|
nature, he would consider her both seriously and at leisure, that he
|
|
would reflect upon himself also, and knowing what proportion there
|
|
is... Let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and
|
|
grand majesty, and turn his vision from the low objects which surround
|
|
him. Let him gaze on that brilliant light, set like an eternal lamp to
|
|
illumine the universe; let the earth appear to him a point in
|
|
comparison with the vast circle described by the sun; and let him
|
|
wonder at the fact that this vast circle is itself but a very fine
|
|
point in comparison with that described by the stars in their
|
|
revolution round the firmament. But if our view be arrested there, let
|
|
our imagination pass beyond; it will sooner exhaust the power of
|
|
conception than nature that of supplying material for conception.
|
|
The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample
|
|
bosom of nature. No idea approaches it. We may enlarge our conceptions
|
|
beyond an imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with
|
|
the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere, the centre of which
|
|
is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, it is the greatest
|
|
sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination loses
|
|
itself in that thought.
|
|
|
|
Returning to himself, let man consider what he is in comparison
|
|
with all existence; let him regard himself as lost in this remote
|
|
corner of nature; and from the little cell in which he finds himself
|
|
lodged, I mean the universe, let him estimate at their true value
|
|
the earth, kingdoms, cities, and himself. What is a man in the
|
|
Infinite?
|
|
|
|
But to show him another prodigy equally astonishing, let him
|
|
examine the most delicate things he knows. Let a mite be given him,
|
|
with its minute body and parts incomparably more minute, limbs with
|
|
their joints, veins in the limbs, blood in the veins, humours in the
|
|
blood, drops in the humours, vapours in the drops. Dividing these last
|
|
things again, let him exhaust his powers of conception, and let the
|
|
last object at which he can arrive be now that of our discourse.
|
|
Perhaps he will think that here is the smallest point in nature. I
|
|
will let him see therein a new abyss. I will paint for him not only
|
|
the visible universe, but all that he can conceive of nature's
|
|
immensity in the womb of this abridged atom. Let him see therein an
|
|
infinity of universes, each of which has its firmament, its planets,
|
|
its earth, in the same proportion as in the visible world; in each
|
|
earth animals, and in the last mites, in which he will find again
|
|
all that the first had, finding still in these others the same thing
|
|
without end and without cessation. Let him lose himself in wonders
|
|
as amazing in their littleness as the others in their vastness. For
|
|
who will not be astounded at the fact that our body, which a little
|
|
while ago was imperceptible in the universe, itself imperceptible in
|
|
the bosom of the whole, is now a colossus, a world, or rather a whole,
|
|
in respect of the nothingness which we cannot reach? He who regards
|
|
himself in this light will be afraid of himself, and observing himself
|
|
sustained in the body given him by nature between those two abysses of
|
|
the Infinite and Nothing, will tremble at the sight of these
|
|
marvels; and I think that, as his curiosity changes into admiration,
|
|
he will be more disposed to contemplate them in silence than to
|
|
examine them with presumption.
|
|
|
|
For, in fact, what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison
|
|
with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean
|
|
between nothing and everything. Since he is infinitely removed from
|
|
comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning
|
|
are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is
|
|
equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and
|
|
the Infinite in which he is swallowed up.
|
|
|
|
What will he do then, but perceive the appearance of the middle of
|
|
things, in an eternal despair of knowing either their beginning or
|
|
their end. All things proceed from the Nothing, and are borne
|
|
towards the Infinite. Who will follow these marvellous processes?
|
|
The Author of these wonders understands them. None other can do so.
|
|
|
|
Through failure to contemplate these Infinites, men have rashly
|
|
rushed into the examination of nature, as though they bore some
|
|
proportion to her. It is strange that they have wished to understand
|
|
the beginnings of things, and thence to arrive at the knowledge of the
|
|
whole, with a presumption as infinite as their object. For surely this
|
|
design cannot be formed without presumption or without a capacity
|
|
infinite like nature.
|
|
|
|
If we are well informed, we understand that, as nature has
|
|
graven her image and that of her Author on all things, they almost all
|
|
partake of her double infinity. Thus we see that all the sciences
|
|
are infinite in the extent of their researches. For who doubts that
|
|
geometry, for instance, has an infinite infinity of problems to solve?
|
|
They are also infinite in the multitude and fineness of their
|
|
premises; for it is clear that those which are put forward as ultimate
|
|
are not self-supporting, but are based on others which, again having
|
|
others for their support, do not permit of finality. But we
|
|
represent some as ultimate for reason, in the same way as in regard to
|
|
material objects we call that an indivisible point beyond which our
|
|
senses can no longer perceive anything, although by its nature it is
|
|
infinitely divisible.
|
|
|
|
Of these two Infinites of science, that of greatness is the most
|
|
palpable, and hence a few persons have pretended to know all things.
|
|
"I will speak of the whole," said Democritus.
|
|
|
|
But the infinitely little is the least obvious. Philosophers
|
|
have much oftener claimed to have reached it, and it is here they have
|
|
all stumbled. This has given rise to such common titles as First
|
|
Principles, Principles of Philosophy, and the like, as ostentatious in
|
|
fact, though not in appearance, as that one which blinds us, De omni
|
|
scibili.*
|
|
|
|
* Title given by Pico della Mirandola to one of his proposed
|
|
nine hundred theses, in 1486.
|
|
|
|
We naturally believe ourselves far more capable of reaching the
|
|
centre of things than of embracing their circumference. The visible
|
|
extent of the world visibly exceeds us; but as we exceed little
|
|
things, we think ourselves more capable of knowing them. And yet we
|
|
need no less capacity for attaining the Nothing than the All. Infinite
|
|
capacity is required for both, and it seems to me that whoever shall
|
|
have understood the ultimate principles of being might also attain
|
|
to the knowledge of the Infinite. The one depends on the other, and
|
|
one leads to the other. These extremes meet and reunite by force of
|
|
distance and find each other in God, and in God alone.
|
|
|
|
Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not
|
|
everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of
|
|
first beginnings which are born of the Nothing; and the littleness
|
|
of our being conceals from us the sight of the Infinite.
|
|
|
|
Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as
|
|
our body occupies in the expanse of nature.
|
|
|
|
Limited as we are in every way, this state which holds the mean
|
|
between two extremes is present in all our impotence. Our senses
|
|
perceive no extreme. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles
|
|
us; too great distance or proximity hinders our view. Too great length
|
|
and too great brevity of discourse tend to obscurity; too much truth
|
|
is paralysing (I know some who cannot understand that to take four
|
|
from nothing leaves nothing). First principles are too self-evident
|
|
for us; too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are
|
|
annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have
|
|
the wherewithal to overpay our debts. Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt
|
|
dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium
|
|
redditur.* We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold. Excessive
|
|
qualities are prejudicial to us and not perceptible by the senses;
|
|
we do not feel but suffer them. Extreme youth and extreme age hinder
|
|
the mind, as also too much and too little education. In short,
|
|
extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within
|
|
their notice. They escape us, or we them.
|
|
|
|
* Tacitus, Annals, iv. "Kindnesses are agreeable so long as one
|
|
thinks them possible to render; further, recognition makes way for
|
|
hatred."
|
|
|
|
This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain
|
|
knowledge and of absolute ignorance. We sail within a vast sphere,
|
|
ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to
|
|
attach ourselves to any point and to fasten to it, it wavers and
|
|
leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us,
|
|
and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. This is our natural
|
|
condition and yet most contrary to our inclination; we burn with
|
|
desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation whereon to
|
|
build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork
|
|
cracks, and the earth opens to abysses.
|
|
|
|
Let us, therefore, not look for certainty and stability. Our
|
|
reason is always deceived by fickle shadows; nothing can fix the
|
|
finite between the two Infinites, which both enclose and fly from it.
|
|
|
|
If this be well understood, I think that we shall remain at
|
|
rest, each in the state wherein nature has placed him. As this
|
|
sphere which has fallen to us as our lot is always distant from either
|
|
extreme, what matters it that man should have a little more
|
|
knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he but gets a little
|
|
higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, and is not
|
|
the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if it
|
|
lasts ten years longer?
|
|
|
|
In comparison with these Infinites, all finites are equal, and I
|
|
see no reason for fixing our imagination on one more than on
|
|
another. The only comparison which we make of ourselves to the
|
|
finite is painful to us.
|
|
|
|
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how
|
|
incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole? But
|
|
he may perhaps aspire to know at least the parts to which he bears
|
|
some proportion. But the parts of the world are all so related and
|
|
linked to one another that I believe it impossible to know one without
|
|
the other and without the whole.
|
|
|
|
Man, for instance, is related to all he knows. He needs a place
|
|
wherein to abide, time through which to live, motion in order to live,
|
|
elements to compose him, warmth and food to nourish him, air to
|
|
breathe. He sees light; he feels bodies; in short, he is in a
|
|
dependent alliance with everything. To know man, then, it is necessary
|
|
to know how it happens that he needs air to live, and, to know the
|
|
air, we must know how it is thus related to the life of man, etc.
|
|
Flame cannot exist without air; therefore, to understand the one, we
|
|
must understand the other.
|
|
|
|
Since everything, then, is cause and effect, dependent and
|
|
supporting, mediate and immediate, and all is held together by a
|
|
natural though imperceptible chain which binds together things most
|
|
distant and most different, I hold it equally impossible to know the
|
|
parts without knowing the whole and to know the whole without
|
|
knowing the parts in detail.
|
|
|
|
The eternity of things in itself or in God must also astonish
|
|
our brief duration. The fixed and constant immobility of nature, in
|
|
comparison with the continual change which goes on within us, must
|
|
have the same effect.
|
|
|
|
And what completes our incapability of knowing things is the
|
|
fact that they are simple and that we are composed of two opposite
|
|
natures, different in kind, soul and body. For it is impossible that
|
|
our rational part should be other than spiritual; and if any one
|
|
maintain that we are simply corporeal, this would far more exclude
|
|
us from the knowledge of things, there being nothing so
|
|
inconceivable as to say that matter knows itself. It is impossible
|
|
to imagine how it should know itself.
|
|
|
|
So, if we are simply material, we can know nothing at all; and
|
|
if we are composed of mind and matter, we cannot know perfectly things
|
|
which are simple, whether spiritual or corporeal. Hence it comes
|
|
that almost all philosophers have confused ideas of things, and
|
|
speak of material things in spiritual terms, and of spiritual things
|
|
in material terms. For they say boldly that bodies have a tendency
|
|
to fall, that they seek after their centre, that they fly from
|
|
destruction, that they fear the void, that they have inclinations,
|
|
sympathies, antipathies, all of which attributes pertain only to mind.
|
|
And in speaking of minds, they consider them as in a place, and
|
|
attribute to them movement from one place to another; and these are
|
|
qualities which belong only to bodies.
|
|
|
|
Instead of receiving the ideas of these things in their purity, we
|
|
colour them with our own qualities, and stamp with our composite being
|
|
all the simple things which we contemplate.
|
|
|
|
Who would not think, seeing us compose all things of mind and
|
|
body, but that this mixture would be quite intelligible to us? Yet
|
|
it is the very thing we least understand. Man is to himself the most
|
|
wonderful object in nature; for he cannot conceive what the body is,
|
|
still less what the mind is, and least of all how a body should be
|
|
united to a mind. This is the consummation of his difficulties, and
|
|
yet it is his very being. Modus quo corporibus adhaerent spiritus
|
|
comprehendi ab hominibus non potest, et hoc tamen homo est.*
|
|
Finally, to complete the proof of our weakness, I shall conclude
|
|
with these two considerations...
|
|
|
|
* St. Augustine, City of God, xxi. 10. "The manner in which the
|
|
spirit is united to the body can not be understood by man; and yet
|
|
it is man."
|
|
|
|
73. But perhaps this subject goes beyond the capacity of reason.
|
|
Let us therefore examine her solutions to problems within her
|
|
powers. If there be anything to which her own interest must have
|
|
made her apply herself most seriously, it is the inquiry into her
|
|
own sovereign good. Let us see, then, wherein these strong and
|
|
clear-sighted souls have placed it and whether they agree.
|
|
|
|
One says that the sovereign good consists in virtue, another in
|
|
pleasure, another in the knowledge of nature, another in truth,
|
|
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,* another in total ignorance,
|
|
another in indolence, others in disregarding appearances, another in
|
|
wondering at nothing, nihil admirari prope res una quae possit
|
|
facere et servare beatum,*(2) and the true sceptics in their
|
|
indifference, doubt, and perpetual suspense, and others, wiser,
|
|
think to find a better definition. We are well satisfied.
|
|
|
|
* Virgil, Georgics, ii. "Happy is he who is able to know the
|
|
causes of things."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Horace, Epistles, I. vi. 1. " To be astonished at nothing
|
|
is nearly the only thing which can give and conserve happiness."
|
|
|
|
We must see if this fine philosophy has gained nothing certain
|
|
from so long and so intent study; perhaps at least the soul will
|
|
know itself. Let us hear the rulers of the world on this subject. What
|
|
have they thought of her substance? 394.* Have they been more
|
|
fortunate in locating her? 395.* What have they found out about her
|
|
origin, duration, and departure? Harum sententiarum,* 399.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Cicero, Disputationes Tusculanae, i, ii Harum sententiarum
|
|
quae vera sit, Deus aliquis viderit. "Which of these opinions in the
|
|
truth, a god will see."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Montaigne, Essays, ii.
|
|
|
|
Is, then, the soul too noble a subject for their feeble lights?
|
|
Let us, then, abase her to matter and see if she knows whereof is made
|
|
the very body which she animates and those others which she
|
|
contemplates and moves at her will. What have those great
|
|
dogmatists, who are ignorant of nothing, known of this matter? 393.*
|
|
|
|
*(2) Montaigne, Essays, ii.
|
|
|
|
This would doubtless suffice, if Reason were reasonable. She is
|
|
reasonable enough to admit that she has been unable to find anything
|
|
durable, but she does not yet despair of reaching it; she is as ardent
|
|
as ever in this search, and is confident she has within her the
|
|
necessary powers for this conquest. We must therefore conclude, and,
|
|
after having examined her powers in their effects, observe them in
|
|
themselves, and see if she has a nature and a grasp capable of
|
|
laying hold of the truth.
|
|
|
|
74. A letter On the Foolishness of Human Knowledge and Philosophy.
|
|
|
|
This letter before Diversion.
|
|
|
|
Felix qui potuit... Nihil admirari.
|
|
|
|
280 kinds of sovereign good in Montaigne.
|
|
|
|
75. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.*
|
|
|
|
Probability.- It will not be difficult to put the case a stage
|
|
lower, and make it appear ridiculous. To begin at the very
|
|
beginning. What is more absurd than to say that lifeless bodies have
|
|
passions, fears, hatreds- that insensible bodies, lifeless and
|
|
incapable of life, have passions which presuppose at least a sensitive
|
|
soul to feel them, nay more, that the object of their dread is the
|
|
void? What is there in the void that could make them afraid? Nothing
|
|
is more shallow and ridiculous. This is not all; it is said that
|
|
they have in themselves a source of movement to shun the void. Have
|
|
they arms, legs, muscles, nerves?
|
|
|
|
* Treatise on the Vacuum.
|
|
|
|
76. To write against those who made too profound a study of
|
|
science: Descartes.
|
|
|
|
77. I cannot forgive Descartes. In all his philosophy he would
|
|
have been quite willing to dispense with God. But he had to make Him
|
|
give a fillip to set the world in motion; beyond this, he has no
|
|
further need of God.
|
|
|
|
78. Descartes useless and uncertain.
|
|
|
|
79. Descartes.- We must say summarily: "This is made by figure and
|
|
motion," for it is true. But to say what these are, and to compose the
|
|
machine, is ridiculous. For it is useless, uncertain, and painful. And
|
|
were it true, we do not think all Philosophy is worth one hour of
|
|
pain.
|
|
|
|
80. How comes it that a cripple does not offend us, but that a
|
|
fool does? Because a cripple recognises that we walk straight, whereas
|
|
a fool declares that it is we who are silly; if it were not so, we
|
|
should feel pity and not anger.
|
|
|
|
Epictetus asks still more strongly: "Why are we not angry if we
|
|
are told that we have a headache, and why are we angry if we are
|
|
told that we reason badly, or choose wrongly"? The reason is that we
|
|
are quite certain that we have not a headache, or are not lame, but we
|
|
are not so sure that we make a true choice. So, having assurance
|
|
only because we see with our whole sight, it puts us into suspense and
|
|
surprise when another with his whole sight sees the opposite, and
|
|
still more so when a thousand others deride our choice. For we must
|
|
prefer our own lights to those of so many others, and that is bold and
|
|
difficult. There is never this contradiction in the feelings towards a
|
|
cripple.
|
|
|
|
81. It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to
|
|
love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves
|
|
to false.
|
|
|
|
82. Imagination.- It is that deceitful part in man, that
|
|
mistress of error and falsity, the more deceptive that she is not
|
|
always so; for she would be an infallible rule of truth, if she were
|
|
an infallible rule of falsehood. But being most generally false, she
|
|
gives no sign of her nature, impressing the same character on the true
|
|
and the false.
|
|
|
|
I do not speak of fools, I speak of the wisest men; and it is
|
|
among them that the imagination has the great gift of persuasion.
|
|
Reason protests in vain; it cannot set a true value on things.
|
|
|
|
This arrogant power, the enemy of reason, who likes to rule and
|
|
dominate it, has established in man a second nature to show how
|
|
all-powerful she is. She makes men happy and sad, healthy and sick,
|
|
rich and poor; she compels reason to believe, doubt, and deny; she
|
|
blunts the senses, or quickens them; she has her fools and sages;
|
|
and nothing vexes us more than to see that she fills her devotees with
|
|
a satisfaction far more full and entire than does reason. Those who
|
|
have a lively imagination are a great deal more pleased with
|
|
themselves than the wise can reasonably be. They look down upon men
|
|
with haughtiness; they argue with boldness and confidence, others with
|
|
fear and diffidence; and this gaiety of countenance often gives them
|
|
the advantage in the opinion of the hearers, such favour have the
|
|
imaginary wise in the eyes of judges of like nature. Imagination
|
|
cannot make fools wise; but she can make them happy, to the envy of
|
|
reason which can only make its friends miserable; the one covers
|
|
them with glory, the other with shame.
|
|
|
|
What but this faculty of imagination dispenses reputation,
|
|
awards respect and veneration to persons, works, laws, and the
|
|
great? How insufficient are all the riches of the earth without her
|
|
consent!
|
|
|
|
Would you not say that this magistrate, whose venerable age
|
|
commands the respect of a whole people, is governed by pure and
|
|
lofty reason, and that he judges causes according to their true nature
|
|
without considering those mere trifles which only affect the
|
|
imagination of the weak? See him go to sermon, full of devout zeal,
|
|
strengthening his reason with the ardour of his love. He is ready to
|
|
listen with exemplary respect. Let the preacher appear, and let nature
|
|
have given him a hoarse voice or a comical cast of countenance, or let
|
|
his barber have given him a bad shave, or let by chance his dress be
|
|
more dirtied than usual, then, however great the truths he
|
|
announces, I wager our senator loses his gravity.
|
|
|
|
If the greatest philosopher in the world find himself upon a plank
|
|
wider than actually necessary, but hanging over a precipice, his
|
|
imagination will prevail, though his reason convince him of his
|
|
safety. Many cannot bear the thought without a cold sweat. I will
|
|
not state all its effects.
|
|
|
|
Every one knows that the sight of cats or rats, the crushing of
|
|
a coal, etc., may unhinge the reason. The tone of voice affects the
|
|
wisest, and changes the force of a discourse or a poem.
|
|
|
|
Love or hate alters the aspect of justice. How much greater
|
|
confidence has an advocate, retained with a large fee, in the
|
|
justice of his cause! How much better does his bold manner make his
|
|
case appear to the judges, deceived as they are by appearances! How
|
|
ludicrous is reason, blown with a breath in every direction!
|
|
|
|
I should have to enumerate almost every action of men who scarce
|
|
waver save under her assaults. For reason has been obliged to yield,
|
|
and the wisest reason takes as her own principles those which the
|
|
imagination of man has everywhere rashly introduced. He who would
|
|
follow reason only would be deemed foolish by the generality of men.
|
|
We must judge by the opinion of the majority of mankind. Because it
|
|
has pleased them, we must work all day for pleasures seen to be
|
|
imaginary; and, after sleep has refreshed our tired reason, we must
|
|
forthwith start up and rush after phantoms, and suffer the impressions
|
|
of this mistress of the world. This is one of the sources of error,
|
|
but it is not the only one.
|
|
|
|
Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the
|
|
ermine in which they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in
|
|
which they administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such
|
|
august apparel were necessary; if the physicians had not their
|
|
cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and
|
|
their robes four times too wide, they would never have duped the
|
|
world, which cannot resist so original an appearance. If magistrates
|
|
had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing,
|
|
they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these
|
|
sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only
|
|
imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike
|
|
the imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact,
|
|
they inspire respect. Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner,
|
|
because indeed their part is the most essential; they establish
|
|
themselves by force, the others by show.
|
|
|
|
Therefore our kings seek out no disguises. They do not mask
|
|
themselves in extraordinary costumes to appear such; but they are
|
|
accompanied by guards and halberdiers. Those armed and red-faced
|
|
puppets who have hands and power for them alone, those trumpets and
|
|
drums which go before them, and those legions round about them, make
|
|
the stoutest tremble. They have not dress only, they have might. A
|
|
very refined reason is required to regard as an ordinary man the Grand
|
|
Turk, in his superb seraglio, surrounded by forty thousand
|
|
janissaries.
|
|
|
|
We cannot even see an advocate in his robe and with his cap on his
|
|
head, without a favourable opinion of his ability. The imagination
|
|
disposes of everything; it makes beauty, justice, and happiness, which
|
|
is everything in the world. I should much like to see an Italian work,
|
|
of which I only know the title, which alone is worth many books, Della
|
|
opinione regina del mondo. I approve of the book without knowing it,
|
|
save the evil in it, if any. These are pretty much the effects of that
|
|
deceptive faculty, which seems to have been expressly given us to lead
|
|
us into necessary error. We have, however, many other sources of
|
|
error.
|
|
|
|
Not only are old impressions capable of misleading us; the
|
|
charms of novelty have the same power. Hence arise all the disputes of
|
|
men, who taunt each other either with following the false
|
|
impressions of childhood or with running rashly after the new. Who
|
|
keeps the due mean? Let him appear and prove it. There is no
|
|
principle, however natural to us from infancy, which may not be made
|
|
to pass for a false impression either of education or of sense.
|
|
|
|
"Because," say some, "you have believed from childhood that a
|
|
box was empty when you saw nothing in it, you have believed in the
|
|
possibility of a vacuum. This is an illusion of your senses,
|
|
strengthened by custom, which science must correct." "Because," say
|
|
others, "you have been taught at school that there is no vacuum, you
|
|
have perverted your common sense which clearly comprehended it, and
|
|
you must correct this by returning to your first state." Which has
|
|
deceived you, your senses or your education?
|
|
|
|
We have another source of error in diseases. They spoil the
|
|
judgement and the senses; and if the more serious produce a sensible
|
|
change, I do not doubt that slighter ills produce a proportionate
|
|
impression.
|
|
|
|
Our own interest is again a marvellous instrument for nicely
|
|
putting out our eyes. The justest man in the world is not allowed to
|
|
be judge in his own cause; I know some who, in order not to fall
|
|
into this self-love, have been perfectly unjust out of opposition. The
|
|
sure way of losing a just cause has been to get it recommended to
|
|
these men by their near relatives.
|
|
|
|
Justice and truth are two such subtle points that our tools are
|
|
too blunt to touch them accurately. If they reach the point, they
|
|
either crush it, or lean all round, more on the false than on the
|
|
true.
|
|
|
|
Man is so happily formed that he has no... good of the true, and
|
|
several excellent of the false. Let us now see how much... But the
|
|
most powerful cause of error is the war existing between the senses
|
|
and reason.
|
|
|
|
83. We must thus begin the chapter on the deceptive powers. Man is
|
|
only a subject full of error, natural and ineffaceable, without grace.
|
|
Nothing shows him the truth. Everything deceives him. These two
|
|
sources of truth, reason and the senses, besides being both wanting in
|
|
sincerity, deceive each other in turn. The senses mislead the Reason
|
|
with false appearances, and receive from Reason in their turn the same
|
|
trickery which they apply to her; Reason has her revenge. The passions
|
|
of the soul trouble the senses, and make false impressions upon
|
|
them. They rival each other in falsehood and deception.
|
|
|
|
But besides those errors which arise accidentally and through lack
|
|
of intelligence, with these heterogeneous faculties...
|
|
|
|
84. The imagination enlarges little objects so as to fill our
|
|
souls with a fantastic estimate; and, with rash insolence, it
|
|
belittles the great to its own measure, as when talking of God.
|
|
|
|
85. Things which have most hold on us, as the concealment of our
|
|
few possessions, are often a mere nothing. It is a nothing which our
|
|
imagination magnifies into a mountain. Another turn of the imagination
|
|
would make us discover this without difficulty.
|
|
|
|
86. My fancy makes me hate a croaker, and one who pants when
|
|
eating. Fancy has great weight. Shall we profit by it? Shall we
|
|
yield to this weight because it is natural? No, but by resisting it...
|
|
|
|
87. Nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit.*
|
|
|
|
* Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, III. v. 8. "There is one who
|
|
will say great foolishness with great effort."
|
|
|
|
583.* Quasi quidquam infelicius sit homini cui sua figmenta
|
|
dominantur.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Montaigne, Essays, ii.
|
|
|
|
*(2) Pliny, ii. "As though there were anyone more unhappy than a
|
|
man dominated by his imagination."
|
|
|
|
88. Children who are frightened at the face they have blackened
|
|
are but children. But how shall one who is so weak in his childhood
|
|
become really strong when he grows older? We only change our
|
|
fancies. All that is made perfect by progress perishes also by
|
|
progress. All that has been weak can never become absolutely strong.
|
|
We say in vain, "He has grown, he has changed"; he is also the same.
|
|
|
|
89. Custom is our nature. He who is accustomed to the faith
|
|
believes in it, can no longer fear hell, and believes in nothing else.
|
|
He who is accustomed to believe that the king is terrible... etc.
|
|
Who doubts, then, that our soul, being accustomed to see number,
|
|
space, motion, believes that and nothing else?
|
|
|
|
90. Quod crebro videt non miratur, etiamsi cur fiat nescit; quod
|
|
ante non viderit, id si evenerit, ostentum esse censet.*
|
|
|
|
* Cicero, De Divinatione ii. 22. "A common happening does not
|
|
astonish, even though the cause is unknown; an event such as one has
|
|
never seen before passes for a prodigy."
|
|
|
|
91. Spongia solis.- When we see the same effect always recur, we
|
|
infer a natural necessity in it, as that there will be a tomorrow,
|
|
etc. But Nature often deceives us, and does not subject herself to her
|
|
own rules.
|
|
|
|
92. What are our natural principles but principles of custom? In
|
|
children they are those which they have received from the habits of
|
|
their fathers, as hunting in animals. A different custom will cause
|
|
different natural principles. This is seen in experience; and if there
|
|
are some natural principles ineradicable by custom, there are also
|
|
some customs opposed to nature, ineradicable by nature or by a
|
|
second custom. This depends on disposition.
|
|
|
|
93. Parents fear lest the natural love of their children may
|
|
fade away. What kind of nature is that which is subject to decay?
|
|
Custom is a second nature which destroys the former. But what is
|
|
nature? For is custom not natural? I am much afraid that nature is
|
|
itself only a first custom, as custom is a second nature.
|
|
|
|
94. The nature of man is wholly natural, omne animal.*
|
|
|
|
There is nothing he may not make natural; there is nothing natural
|
|
he may not lose.
|
|
|
|
* Allusion to Gen. 7. 14. Ipsi et omne animal secundus genus suum.
|
|
"And every beast after his kind."
|
|
|
|
95. Memory, joy, are intuitions; and even mathematical
|
|
propositions become intuitions, for education produces natural
|
|
intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education.
|
|
|
|
96. When we are accustomed to use bad reasons for proving
|
|
natural effects, we are not willing to receive good reasons when
|
|
they are discovered. An example may be given from the circulation of
|
|
the blood as a reason why the vein swells below the ligature.
|
|
|
|
97. The most important affair in life is the choice of a
|
|
calling; chance decides it. Custom makes men masons, soldiers,
|
|
slaters. "He is a good slater," says one, and, speaking of soldiers,
|
|
remarks, "They are perfect fools." But others affirm, "There is
|
|
nothing great but war; the rest of men are good for nothing." We
|
|
choose our callings according as we hear this or that praised or
|
|
despised in our childhood, for we naturally love truth and hate folly.
|
|
These words move us; the only error is in their application. So
|
|
great is the force of custom that, out of those whom nature has only
|
|
made men, are created all conditions of men. For some districts are
|
|
full of masons, others of soldiers, etc. Certainly nature is not so
|
|
uniform. It is custom then which does this, for it constrains
|
|
nature. But sometimes nature gains the ascendancy and preserves
|
|
man's instinct, in spite of all custom, good or bad.
|
|
|
|
98. Bias leading to error.- It is a deplorable thing to see all
|
|
men deliberating on means alone, and not on the end. Each thinks how
|
|
he will acquit himself in his condition; but as for the choice of
|
|
condition, or of country, chance gives them to us.
|
|
|
|
It is a pitiable thing to see so many Turks, heretics, and
|
|
infidels follow the way of their fathers for the sole reason that each
|
|
has been imbued with the prejudice that it is the best. And that fixes
|
|
for each man his condition of locksmith, soldier, etc.
|
|
|
|
Hence savages care nothing for Providence.
|
|
|
|
99. There is an universal and essential difference between the
|
|
actions of the will and all other actions.
|
|
|
|
The will is one of the chief factors in belief, not that it
|
|
creates belief, but because things are true or false according to
|
|
the aspect in which we look at them. The will, which prefers one
|
|
aspect to another, turns away the mind from considering the
|
|
qualities of all that it does not like to see; and thus the mind,
|
|
moving in accord with the will, stops to consider the aspect which
|
|
it likes and so judges by what it sees.
|
|
|
|
100. Self-love. The nature of self-love and of this human Ego is
|
|
to love self only and consider self only. But what will man do? He
|
|
cannot prevent this object that he loves from being full of faults and
|
|
wants. He wants to be great, and he sees himself small. He wants to be
|
|
happy, and he sees himself miserable. He wants to be perfect, and he
|
|
sees himself full of imperfections. He wants to be the object of
|
|
love and esteem among men, and he sees that his faults merit only
|
|
their hatred and contempt. This embarrassment in which he finds
|
|
himself produces in him the most unrighteous and criminal passion that
|
|
can be imagined; for he conceives a mortal enmity against that truth
|
|
which reproves him and which convinces him of his faults. He would
|
|
annihilate it, but, unable to destroy it in its essence, he destroys
|
|
it as far as possible in his own knowledge and in that of others; that
|
|
is to say, he devotes all his attention to hiding his faults both from
|
|
others and from himself, and he cannot endure either that others
|
|
should point them out to him, or that they should see them.
|
|
|
|
Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still
|
|
greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognise them,
|
|
since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion. We
|
|
do not like others to deceive us; we do not think it fair that they
|
|
should be held in higher esteem by us than they deserve; it is not,
|
|
then, fair that we should deceive them and should wish them to
|
|
esteem us more highly than we deserve.
|
|
|
|
Thus, when they discover only the imperfections and vices which we
|
|
really have, it is plain they do us no wrong, since it is not they who
|
|
cause them; they rather do us good, since they help us to free
|
|
ourselves from an evil, namely, the ignorance of these
|
|
imperfections. We ought not to be angry at their knowing our faults
|
|
and despising us; it is but right that they should know us for what we
|
|
are and should despise us, if we are contemptible.
|
|
|
|
Such are the feelings that would arise in a heart full of equity
|
|
and justice. What must we say then of our own heart, when we see it in
|
|
a wholly different disposition? For is it not true that we hate
|
|
truth and those who tell it us, and that we like them to be deceived
|
|
in our favour, and prefer to be esteemed by them as being other than
|
|
what we are in fact? One proof of this makes me shudder. The
|
|
Catholic religion does not bind us to confess our sins
|
|
indiscriminately to everybody; it allows them to remain hidden from
|
|
all other men save one, to whom she bids us reveal the innermost
|
|
recesses of our heart and show ourselves as we are. There is only this
|
|
one man in the world whom she orders us to undeceive, and she binds
|
|
him to an inviolable secrecy, which makes this knowledge to him as
|
|
if it were not. Can we imagine anything more charitable and
|
|
pleasant? And yet the corruption of man is such that he finds even
|
|
this law harsh; and it is one of the main reasons which has caused a
|
|
great part of Europe to rebel against the Church.
|
|
|
|
How unjust and unreasonable is the heart of man, which feels it
|
|
disagreeable to be obliged to do in regard to one man what in some
|
|
measure it were right to do to all men! For is it right that we should
|
|
deceive men?
|
|
|
|
There are different degrees in this aversion to truth; but all may
|
|
perhaps be said to have it in some degree, because it is inseparable
|
|
from self-love. It is this false delicacy which makes those who are
|
|
under the necessity of reproving others choose so many windings and
|
|
middle courses to avoid offence. They must lessen our faults, appear
|
|
to excuse them, intersperse praises and evidence of love and esteem.
|
|
Despite all this, the medicine does not cease to be bitter to
|
|
self-love. It takes as little as it can, always with disgust, and
|
|
often with a secret spite against those who administer it.
|
|
|
|
Hence it happens that, if any have some interest in being loved by
|
|
us, they are averse to render us a service which they know to be
|
|
disagreeable. They treat us as we wish to be treated. We hate the
|
|
truth, and they hide it from us. We desire flattery, and they
|
|
flatter us. We like to be deceived, and they deceive us.
|
|
|
|
So each degree of good fortune which raises us in the world
|
|
removes us farther from truth, because we are most afraid of
|
|
wounding those whose affection is most useful and whose dislike is
|
|
most dangerous. A prince may be the byword of all Europe, and he alone
|
|
will know nothing of it. I am not astonished. To tell the truth is
|
|
useful to those to whom it is spoken, but disadvantageous to those who
|
|
tell it, because it makes them disliked. Now those who live with
|
|
princes love their own interests more than that of the prince whom
|
|
they serve; and so they take care not to confer on him a benefit so as
|
|
to injure themselves.
|
|
|
|
This evil is no doubt greater and more common among the higher
|
|
classes; but the lower are not exempt from it, since there is always
|
|
some advantage in making men love us. Human life is thus only a
|
|
perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one
|
|
speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human
|
|
society is founded on mutual deceit; few friendships would endure if
|
|
each knew what his friend said of him in his absence, although he then
|
|
spoke in sincerity and without passion.
|
|
|
|
Man is, then, only disguise, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in
|
|
himself and in regard to others. He does not wish any one to tell
|
|
him the truth; he avoids telling it to others, and all these
|
|
dispositions, so removed from justice and reason, have a natural
|
|
root in his heart.
|
|
|
|
101. I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said
|
|
of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. This is
|
|
apparent from the quarrels which arise from the indiscreet tales
|
|
told from time to time. I say, further, all men would be...
|
|
|
|
102. Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others, and these,
|
|
like branches, fall on removal of the trunk.
|
|
|
|
103. The example of Alexander's chastity has not made so many
|
|
continent as that of his drunkenness has made intemperate. It is not
|
|
shameful not to be as virtuous as he, and it seems excusable to be
|
|
no more vicious. We do not believe ourselves to be exactly sharing
|
|
in the vices of the vulgar when we see that we are sharing in those of
|
|
great men; and yet we do not observe that in these matters they are
|
|
ordinary men. We hold on to them by the same end by which they hold on
|
|
to the rabble; for, however exalted they are, they are still united at
|
|
some point to the lowest of men. They are not suspended in the air,
|
|
quite removed from our society. No, no; if they are greater than we,
|
|
it is because their heads are higher; but their feet are as low as
|
|
ours. They are all on the same level, and rest on the same earth;
|
|
and by that extremity they are as low as we are, as the meanest
|
|
folk, as infants, and as the beasts.
|
|
|
|
104. When our passion leads us to do something, we forget our
|
|
duty; for example, we like a book and read it, when we ought to be
|
|
doing something else. Now, to remind ourselves of our duty, we must
|
|
set ourselves a task we dislike; we then plead that we have
|
|
something else to do and by this means remember our duty.
|
|
|
|
105. How difficult it is to submit anything to the judgement of
|
|
another, without prejudicing his judgement by the manner in which we
|
|
submit it! If we say, "I think it beautiful," "I think it obscure," or
|
|
the like, we either entice the imagination into that view, or irritate
|
|
it to the contrary. It is better to say nothing; and then the other
|
|
judges according to what really is, that is to say, according as it
|
|
then is and according as the other circumstances, not of our making,
|
|
have placed it. But we at least shall have added nothing, unless it be
|
|
that silence also produces an effect, according to the turn and the
|
|
interpretation which the other will be disposed to give it, or as he
|
|
will guess it from gestures or countenance, or from the tone of the
|
|
voice, if he is a physiognomist. So difficult is it not to upset a
|
|
judgement from its natural place, or, rather, so rarely is it firm and
|
|
stable!
|
|
|
|
106. By knowing each man's ruling passion, we are sure of pleasing
|
|
him; and yet each has his fancies, opposed to his true good, in the
|
|
very idea which he has of the good. It is a singularly puzzling fact.
|
|
|
|
107. Lustravit lampade terras.* - The weather and my mood have
|
|
little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my
|
|
prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter. I sometimes
|
|
struggle against luck, the glory of mastering it makes me master it
|
|
gaily; whereas I am sometimes surfeited in the midst of good fortune.
|
|
|
|
* Homer, Odyssey, xviii.
|
|
|
|
108. Although people may have no interest in what they are saying,
|
|
we must not absolutely conclude from this that they are not lying; for
|
|
there are some people who lie for the mere sake of lying.
|
|
|
|
109. When we are well we wonder what we would do if we were ill,
|
|
but when we are ill we take medicine cheerfully; the illness persuades
|
|
us to do so. We have no longer the passions and desires for amusements
|
|
and promenades which health gave to us, but which are incompatible
|
|
with the necessities of illness. Nature gives us, then, passions and
|
|
desires suitable to our present state. We are only troubled by the
|
|
fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves, for they add to the
|
|
state in which we are the passions of the state in which we are not.
|
|
|
|
As nature makes us always unhappy in every state, our desires
|
|
picture to us a happy state; because they add to the state in which we
|
|
are the pleasures of the state in which we are not. And if we attained
|
|
to these pleasures, we should not be happy after all; because we
|
|
should have other desires natural to this new state.
|
|
|
|
We must particularise this general proposition....
|
|
|
|
110. The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and
|
|
the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.
|
|
|
|
111. Inconstancy.- We think we are playing on ordinary organs when
|
|
playing upon man. Men are organs, it is true, but, odd, changeable,
|
|
variable with pipes not arranged in proper order. Those who only
|
|
know how to play on ordinary organs will not produce barmonies on
|
|
these. We must know where are.
|
|
|
|
112. Inconstancy.- Things have different qualities, and the soul
|
|
different inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to
|
|
the soul, and the soul never presents itself simply to any object.
|
|
Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing.
|
|
|
|
113. Inconstancy and oddity.- To live only by work, and to rule
|
|
over the most powerful State in the world, are very opposite things.
|
|
They are united in the person of the great Sultan of the Turks.
|
|
|
|
114. Variety is as abundant as all tones of the voice, all ways of
|
|
walking, coughing, blowing the nose, sneezing. We distinguish vines by
|
|
their fruit, and call them the Condrien, the Desargues, and such and
|
|
such a stock. Is this all? Has a vine ever produced two bunches
|
|
exactly the same, and has a bunch two grapes alike, etc.?
|
|
|
|
I can never judge of the same thing exactly in the same way. I
|
|
cannot judge of my work, while doing it. I must do as the artists,
|
|
stand at a distance, but not too far. How far, then? Guess.
|
|
|
|
115. Variety.- Theology is a science, but at the same time how
|
|
many sciences? A man is a whole; but if we dissect him, will he be the
|
|
head, the heart, the stomach, the veins, each vein, each portion of
|
|
a vein, the blood, each humour in the blood?
|
|
|
|
A town, a country-place, is from afar a town and a
|
|
country-place. But, as we draw near, there are houses, trees, tiles,
|
|
leaves, grass, ants, limbs of ants, in infinity. All this is contained
|
|
under the name of country-place.
|
|
|
|
116. Thoughts.- All is one, all is different. How many natures
|
|
exist in man? How many vocations? And by what chance does each man
|
|
ordinarily choose what he has heard praised? A well-turned heel.
|
|
|
|
117. The heel of a slipper.- "Ah! How well this is turned! Here is
|
|
a clever workman! How brave is this soldier!" This is the source of
|
|
our inclinations and of the choice of conditions. "How much this man
|
|
drinks! How little that one"! This makes people sober or drunk,
|
|
soldiers, cowards, etc.
|
|
|
|
118. Chief talent, that which rules the rest.
|
|
|
|
119. Nature imitates herself A seed grown in good ground brings
|
|
forth fruit. A principle instilled into a good mind brings forth
|
|
fruit. Numbers imitate space, which is of a different nature.
|
|
|
|
All is made and led by the same master, root, branches, and
|
|
fruits; principles and consequences.
|
|
|
|
120. Nature diversifies and imitates; art imitates and
|
|
diversifies.
|
|
|
|
121. Nature always begins the same things again, the years, the
|
|
days, the hours; in like manner spaces and numbers follow each other
|
|
from beginning to end. Thus is made a kind of infinity and eternity.
|
|
Not that anything in all this is infinite and eternal, but these
|
|
finite realities are infinitely multiplied. Thus it seems to me to
|
|
be only the number which multiplies them that is infinite.
|
|
|
|
122. Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no
|
|
longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any
|
|
more themselves. It is like a nation which we have provoked, but
|
|
meet again after two generations. They are still Frenchmen, but not
|
|
the same.
|
|
|
|
123. He no longer loves the person whom he loved ten years ago.
|
|
I quite believe it. She is no longer the same, nor is he. He was
|
|
young, and she also; she is quite different. He would perhaps love her
|
|
yet, if she were what she was then.
|
|
|
|
124. We view things not only from different sides, but with
|
|
different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.
|
|
|
|
125. Contraries.- Man is naturally credulous and incredulous,
|
|
timid and rash.
|
|
|
|
126. Description of man: dependency, desire of independence, need.
|
|
|
|
127. Condition of man: inconstancy, weariness, unrest.
|
|
|
|
128. The weariness which is felt by us in leaving pursuits to
|
|
which we are attached. A man dwells at home with pleasure; but if he
|
|
sees a woman who charms him, or if he enjoys himself in play for
|
|
five or six days, he is miserable if he returns to his former way of
|
|
living. Nothing is more common than that.
|
|
|
|
129. Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.
|
|
|
|
130. Restlessness.- If a soldier, or labourer, complain of the
|
|
hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.
|
|
|
|
131. Weariness.- Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be
|
|
completely at rest, without passions, without business, without
|
|
diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his
|
|
forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his
|
|
emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart
|
|
weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair.
|
|
|
|
132. Methinks Caesar was too old to set about amusing himself with
|
|
conquering the world. Such sport was good for Augustus or Alexander.
|
|
They were still young men and thus difficult to restrain. But Caesar
|
|
should have been more mature.
|
|
|
|
133. Two faces which resemble each other make us laugh, when
|
|
together, by their resemblance, though neither of them by itself makes
|
|
us laugh.
|
|
|
|
134. How useless is painting, which attracts admiration by the
|
|
resemblance of things, the originals of which we do not admire!
|
|
|
|
135. The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to
|
|
see animals fighting, not the victor infuriated over the vanquished.
|
|
We would only see the victorious end; and, as soon as it comes, we are
|
|
satiated. It is the same in play, and the same in the search for
|
|
truth. In disputes we like to see the clash of opinions, but not at
|
|
all to contemplate truth when found. To observe it with pleasure, we
|
|
have to see it emerge out of strife. So in the passions, there is
|
|
pleasure in seeing the collision of two contraries; but when one
|
|
acquires the mastery, it becomes only brutality. We never seek
|
|
things for themselves, but for the search. Likewise in plays, scenes
|
|
which do not rouse the emotion of fear are worthless, so are extreme
|
|
and hopeless misery, brutal lust, and extreme cruelty.
|
|
|
|
136. A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
|
|
|
|
137. Without examining every particular pursuit, it is enough to
|
|
comprehend them under diversion.
|
|
|
|
138. Men naturally slaters and of all callings, save in their
|
|
own rooms.
|
|
|
|
139. Diversion.- When I have occasionally set myself to consider
|
|
the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which
|
|
they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many
|
|
quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have
|
|
discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single
|
|
fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who
|
|
has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home,
|
|
would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town. A commission
|
|
in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found
|
|
insufferable not to budge from the town; and men only seek
|
|
conversation and entering games, because they cannot remain with
|
|
pleasure at home.
|
|
|
|
But, on further consideration, when, after finding the cause of
|
|
all our ills, I have sought to discover the reason of it, I have found
|
|
that there is one very real reason, namely, the natural poverty of our
|
|
feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort
|
|
us when we think of it closely.
|
|
|
|
Whatever condition we picture to ourselves, if we muster all the
|
|
good things which it is possible to possess, royalty is the finest
|
|
position in the world. Yet, when we imagine a king attended with every
|
|
pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion and be left to
|
|
consider and reflect on what he is, this feeble happiness will not
|
|
sustain him; he will necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers,
|
|
of revolutions which may happen, and, finally, of death and inevitable
|
|
disease; so that, if he be without what is called diversion, he is
|
|
unhappy and more unhappy than the least of his subjects who plays
|
|
and diverts himself.
|
|
|
|
Hence it comes that play and the society of women, war and high
|
|
posts, are so sought after. Not that there is in fact any happiness in
|
|
them, or that men imagine true bliss to consist in money won at
|
|
play, or in the hare which they hunt; we would not take these as a
|
|
gift. We do not seek that easy and peaceful lot which permits us to
|
|
think of our unhappy condition, nor the dangers of war, nor the labour
|
|
of office, but the bustle which averts these thoughts of ours and
|
|
amuses us.
|
|
|
|
Reasons why we like the chase better than the quarry.
|
|
|
|
Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir; hence it
|
|
comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that
|
|
the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible. And it is, in
|
|
fact, the greatest source of happiness in the condition of kings
|
|
that men try incessantly to divert them and to procure for them all
|
|
kinds of pleasures.
|
|
|
|
The king is surrounded by persons whose only thought is to
|
|
divert the king and to prevent his thinking of self. For he is
|
|
unhappy, king though he be, if he think of himself.
|
|
|
|
This is all that men have been able to discover to make themselves
|
|
happy. And those who philosophise on the matter, and who think men
|
|
unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they
|
|
would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself
|
|
would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the
|
|
chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.
|
|
|
|
The advice given to Pyrrhus, to take the rest which he was about
|
|
to seek with so much labour, was full of difficulties.
|
|
|
|
To bid a man live quietly is to bid him live happily. It is to
|
|
advise him to be in a state perfectly happy, in which he can think
|
|
at leisure without finding therein a cause of distress. This is to
|
|
misunderstand nature.
|
|
|
|
As men who naturally understand their own condition avoid
|
|
nothing so much as rest, so there is nothing they leave undone in
|
|
seeking turmoil. Not that they have an instinctive knowledge of true
|
|
happiness...
|
|
|
|
So we are wrong in blaming them. Their error does not lie in
|
|
seeking excitement, if they seek it only as a diversion; the evil is
|
|
that they seek it as if the possession of the objects of their quest
|
|
would make them really happy. In this respect it is right to call
|
|
their quest a vain one. Hence in all this both the censurers and the
|
|
censured do not understand man's true nature.
|
|
|
|
And thus, when we take the exception against them, that what
|
|
they seek with such fervour cannot satisfy them, if they replied- as
|
|
they should do if they considered the matter thoroughly- that they
|
|
sought in it only a violent and impetuous occupation which turned
|
|
their thoughts from self, and that they therefore chose an
|
|
attractive object to charm and ardently attract them, they would leave
|
|
their opponents without a reply. But they do not make this reply,
|
|
because they do not know themselves. They do not know that it is the
|
|
chase, and not the quarry, which they seek.
|
|
|
|
Dancing: We must consider rightly where to place our feet.- A
|
|
gentleman sincerely believes that hunting is great and royal sport;
|
|
but a beater is not of this opinion.
|
|
|
|
They imagine that, if they obtained such a post, they would then
|
|
rest with pleasure and are insensible of the insatiable nature of
|
|
the if desire. They think they are truly seeking quiet, and they are
|
|
only seeking excitement.
|
|
|
|
They have a secret instinct which impels them to seek amusement
|
|
and occupation abroad, and which arises from the sense of their
|
|
constant unhappiness. They have another secret instinct, a remnant
|
|
of the greatness of our original nature, which teaches them that
|
|
happiness in reality consists only in rest and not in stir. And of
|
|
these two contrary instincts they form within themselves a confused
|
|
idea, which hides itself from their view in the depths of their
|
|
soul, inciting them to aim at rest through excitement, and always to
|
|
fancy that the satisfaction which they have not will come to them, if,
|
|
by surmounting whatever difficulties confront them, they can thereby
|
|
open the door to rest.
|
|
|
|
Thus passes away all man's life. Men seek rest in a struggle
|
|
against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes
|
|
insufferable. For we think either of the misfortunes we have or of
|
|
those which threaten us. And even if we should see ourselves
|
|
sufficiently sheltered on all sides, weariness of its own accord would
|
|
not fail to arise from the depths of the heart wherein it has its
|
|
natural roots and to fill the mind with its poison.
|
|
|
|
Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause
|
|
for weariness from the peculiar state of his disposition; and so
|
|
frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness,
|
|
the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is
|
|
sufficient to amuse him.
|
|
|
|
But will you say what object has he in all this? The pleasure of
|
|
bragging tomorrow among his friends that he has played better than
|
|
another. So others sweat in their own rooms to show to the learned
|
|
that they have solved a problem in algebra, which no one had
|
|
hitherto been able to solve. Many more expose themselves to extreme
|
|
perils, in my opinion as foolishly, in order to boast afterwards
|
|
that they have captured a town. Lastly, others wear themselves out
|
|
in studying all these things, not in order to become wiser, but only
|
|
in order to prove that they know them; and these are the most
|
|
senseless of the band, since they are so knowingly, whereas one may
|
|
suppose of the others that, if they knew it, they would no longer be
|
|
foolish.
|
|
|
|
This man spends his life without weariness in playing every day
|
|
for a small stake. Give him each morning the money he can win each
|
|
day, on condition he does not play; you make him miserable. It will
|
|
perhaps be said that he seeks the amusement of play and not the
|
|
winnings. Make him, then, play for nothing; he will not become excited
|
|
over it and will feel bored. It is, then, not the amusement alone that
|
|
he seeks; a languid and passionless amusement will weary him. He
|
|
must get excited over it and deceive himself by the fancy that he will
|
|
be happy to win what he would not have as a gift on condition of not
|
|
playing; and he must make for himself an object of passion, and excite
|
|
over it his desire, his anger, his fear, to obtain his imagined end,
|
|
as children are frightened at the face they have blackened.
|
|
|
|
Whence comes it that this man, who lost his only son a few
|
|
months ago, or who this morning was in such trouble through being
|
|
distressed by lawsuits and quarrels, now no longer thinks of them?
|
|
Do not wonder; he is quite taken up in looking out for the boar
|
|
which his dogs have been hunting so hotly for the last six hours. He
|
|
requires nothing more. However full of sadness a man may be, he is
|
|
happy for the time, if you can prevail upon him to enter into some
|
|
amusement; and however happy a man may be, he will soon be
|
|
discontented and wretched, if he be not diverted and occupied by
|
|
some passion or pursuit which prevents weariness from overcoming
|
|
him. Without amusement there is no joy; with amusement there is no
|
|
sadness. And this also constitutes the happiness of persons in high
|
|
position, that they have a number of people to amuse them and have the
|
|
power to keep themselves in this state.
|
|
|
|
Consider this. What is it to be superintendent, chancellor,
|
|
first president, but to be in a condition wherein from early morning a
|
|
large number of people come from all quarters to see them, so as not
|
|
to leave them an hour in the day in which they can think of
|
|
themselves? And when they are in disgrace and sent back to their
|
|
country houses, where they lack neither wealth nor servants to help
|
|
them on occasion, they do not fail to be wretched and desolate,
|
|
because no one prevents them from thinking of themselves.
|
|
|
|
140. How does it happen that this man, so distressed at the
|
|
death of his wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit
|
|
which annoys him, is not at this moment sad, and that he seems so free
|
|
from all painful and disquieting thoughts? We need not wonder; for a
|
|
ball has been served him, and he must return it to his companion. He
|
|
is occupied in catching it in its fall from the roof, to win a game.
|
|
How can he think of his own affairs, pray, when he has this other
|
|
matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of occupying this great soul and
|
|
taking away from him every other thought of the mind. This man, born
|
|
to know the universe, to judge all causes, to govern a whole state, is
|
|
altogether occupied and taken up with the business of catching a hare.
|
|
And if he does not lower himself to this and wants always to be on the
|
|
strain, he will be more foolish still, because he would raise
|
|
himself above humanity; and after all, he is only a man, that is to
|
|
say capable of little and of much, of all and of nothing; he is
|
|
neither angel nor brute, but man.
|
|
|
|
141. Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the
|
|
pleasure even of kings.
|
|
|
|
142. Diversion- Is not the royal dignity sufficiently great in
|
|
itself to make its possessor happy by the mere contemplation of what
|
|
he is? Must he be diverted from this thought like ordinary folk? I see
|
|
well that a man is made happy by diverting him from the view of his
|
|
domestic sorrows so as to occupy all his thoughts with the care of
|
|
dancing well. But will it be the same with a king, and will he be
|
|
happier in the pursuit of these idle amusements than in the
|
|
contemplation of his greatness? And what more satisfactory object
|
|
could be presented to his mind? Would it not be a deprivation of his
|
|
delight for him to occupy his soul with the thought of how to adjust
|
|
his steps to the cadence of an air, or of how to throw a ball
|
|
skilfully, instead of leaving it to enjoy quietly the contemplation of
|
|
the majestic glory which encompasses him? Let us make the trial; let
|
|
us leave a king all alone to reflect on himself quite at leisure,
|
|
without any gratification of the senses, without any care in his mind,
|
|
without society; and we will see that a king without diversion is a
|
|
man full of wretchedness. So this is carefully avoided, and near the
|
|
persons of kings there never fail to be a great number of people who
|
|
see to it that amusement follows business, and who watch all the
|
|
time of their leisure to supply them with delights and games, so
|
|
that there is no blank in it. In fact, kings are surrounded with
|
|
persons who are wonderfully attentive in taking care that the king
|
|
be not alone and in a state to think of himself, knowing well that
|
|
he will be miserable, king though he be, if he meditate on self.
|
|
|
|
In all this I am not talking of Christian kings as Christians, but
|
|
only as kings.
|
|
|
|
143. Diversion.- Men are entrusted from infancy with the care of
|
|
their honour, their property, their friends, and even with the
|
|
property and the honour of their friends. They are overwhelmed with
|
|
business, with the study of languages, and with physical exercise; and
|
|
they are made to understand that they cannot be happy unless their
|
|
health, their honour, their fortune and that of their friends be in
|
|
good condition, and that a single thing wanting will make them
|
|
unhappy. Thus they are given cares and business which make them bustle
|
|
about from break of day. It is, you will exclaim, a strange way to
|
|
make them happy! What more could be done to make them miserable?-
|
|
Indeed! what could be done? We should only have to relieve them from
|
|
all these cares; for then they would see themselves: they would
|
|
reflect on what they are, whence they came, whither they go, and
|
|
thus we cannot employ and divert them too much. And this is why, after
|
|
having given them so much business, we advise them, if they have
|
|
some time for relaxation, to employ it in amusement, in play, and to
|
|
be always fully occupied.
|
|
|
|
How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man!
|
|
|
|
144. I spent a long time in the study of the abstract sciences,
|
|
and was disheartened by the small number of fellow-students in them.
|
|
When I commenced the study of man, I saw that these abstract
|
|
sciences are not suited to man and that I was wandering farther from
|
|
my own state in examining them than others in not knowing them. I
|
|
pardoned their little knowledge; but I thought at least to find many
|
|
companions in the study of man and that it was the true study which is
|
|
suited to him. I have been deceived; still fewer study it than
|
|
geometry. It is only from the want of knowing how to study this that
|
|
we seek the other studies. But is it not that even here is not the
|
|
knowledge which man should have and that for the purpose of
|
|
happiness it is better for him not to know himself.?
|
|
|
|
145. One thought alone occupies us; we cannot think of two
|
|
things at the same time. This is lucky for us according to the
|
|
world, not according to God.
|
|
|
|
146. Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and
|
|
his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now,
|
|
the order of thought is to begin with self, and with its Author and
|
|
its end.
|
|
|
|
Now, of what does the world think? Never of this, but of
|
|
dancing, playing the lute, singing, making verses, running at the
|
|
ring, etc., fighting, making oneself king, without thinking what it is
|
|
to be a king and what to be a man.
|
|
|
|
147. We do not content ourselves with the life we have in
|
|
ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in
|
|
the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We
|
|
labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence
|
|
and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or
|
|
truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these
|
|
virtues to that imaginary existence. We would rather separate them
|
|
from ourselves to join them to it; and we would willingly be cowards
|
|
in order to acquire the reputation of being brave. A great proof of
|
|
the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without
|
|
the other, and to renounce the one for the other! For he would be
|
|
infamous who would not die to preserve his honour.
|
|
|
|
148. We are so presumptuous that we would wish to be known by
|
|
all the world, even by people who shall come after, when we shall be
|
|
no more; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six
|
|
neighbours delights and contents us.
|
|
|
|
149. We do not trouble ourselves about being esteemed in the towns
|
|
through which we pass. But if we are to remain a little while there,
|
|
we are so concerned. How long is necessary? A time commensurate with
|
|
our vain and paltry life.
|
|
|
|
150. Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a
|
|
soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his
|
|
admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against
|
|
it want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read
|
|
it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps
|
|
this desire, and perhaps those who will read it...
|
|
|
|
151. Glory.- Admiration spoils all from infancy. Ah! How well
|
|
said! Ah! How well done! How well-behaved he is! etc.
|
|
|
|
The children of Port-Royal, who do not receive this stimulus of
|
|
envy and glory, fall into carelessness.
|
|
|
|
152. Pride.- Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish
|
|
to know but to talk. Otherwise we would not take a sea voyage in order
|
|
never to talk of it, and for the sole pleasure of seeing without
|
|
hope of ever communicating it.
|
|
|
|
153. Of the desire of being esteemed by those with whom we are.-
|
|
Pride takes such natural possession of us in the midst of our woes,
|
|
errors, etc. We even lose our life with joy, provided people talk of
|
|
it.
|
|
|
|
Vanity: play, hunting, visiting, false shame, a lasting name.
|
|
|
|
154. I have no friends to your advantage.
|
|
|
|
155. A true friend is so great an advantage, even for the greatest
|
|
lords, in order that he may speak well of them and back them in
|
|
their absence, that they should do all to have one. But they should
|
|
choose well; for, if they spend all their efforts in the interests
|
|
of fools, it will be of no use, however well these may speak of
|
|
them; and these will not even speak well of them if they find
|
|
themselves on the weakest side, for they have no influence; and thus
|
|
they will speak ill of them in company.
|
|
|
|
156. Ferox gens, nullam esse vitam sine armis rati.* - They prefer
|
|
death to peace; others prefer death to war.
|
|
|
|
* Livy, xxxiv. 17. "A brutal people, for whom, when they have
|
|
not armour, there is not life."
|
|
|
|
Every opinion may be held preferable to life, the love of which is
|
|
so strong and so natural.
|
|
|
|
157. Contradiction: contempt for our existence, to die for
|
|
nothing, hatred of our existence.
|
|
|
|
158. Pursuits.- The charm of fame is so great that we like every
|
|
object to which it is attached, even death.
|
|
|
|
159. Noble deeds are most estimable when hidden. When I see some
|
|
of these in history, they please me greatly. But after all they have
|
|
not been quite hidden, since they have been known; and though people
|
|
have done what they could to hide them, the little publication of them
|
|
spoils all, for what was best in them was the wish to hide them.
|
|
|
|
160. Sneezing absorbs all the functions of the soul, as well as
|
|
work does; but we do not draw therefrom the same conclusions against
|
|
the greatness of man, because it is against his will. And although
|
|
we bring it on ourselves, it is nevertheless against our will that
|
|
we sneeze. It is not in view of the act itself; it is for another end.
|
|
And thus it is not a proof of the weakness of man and of his slavery
|
|
under that action.
|
|
|
|
It is not disgraceful for man to yield to pain, and it is
|
|
disgraceful to yield to pleasure. This is not because pain comes to us
|
|
from without, and we ourselves seek pleasure; for it is possible to
|
|
seek pain, and yield to it purposely, without this kind of baseness.
|
|
Whence comes it, then, that reason thinks it honourable to succumb
|
|
under stress of pain, and disgraceful to yield to the attack of
|
|
pleasure? It is because pain does not tempt and attract us. It is we
|
|
ourselves who choose it voluntarily, and will it to prevail over us.
|
|
So that we are masters of the situation; and in this man yields to
|
|
himself. But in pleasure it is man who yields to pleasure. Now only
|
|
mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame.
|
|
|
|
161. Vanity.- How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the
|
|
vanity of the world is so little known, that it is a strange and
|
|
surprising thing to say that it is foolish to seek greatness?
|
|
|
|
162. He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider
|
|
the causes and effects of love. The cause is a je ne sais quoi
|
|
(Corneille), and the effects are dreadful. This je ne sais quoi, so
|
|
small an object that we cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country,
|
|
princes, armies, the entire world.
|
|
|
|
Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the
|
|
world would have been altered.
|
|
|
|
163. Vanity.- The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra.
|
|
|
|
164. He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very
|
|
vain. Indeed who do not see it but youths who are absorbed in fame,
|
|
diversion, and the thought of the future? But take away diversion, and
|
|
you will see them dried up with weariness. They feel then their
|
|
nothingness without knowing it; for it is indeed to be unhappy to be
|
|
in insufferable sadness as soon as we are reduced to thinking of
|
|
self and have no diversion.
|
|
|
|
165. Thoughts.- In omnibus requiem quaesivi.* If our condition
|
|
were truly happy, we not need diversion from thinking of it in order
|
|
to make ourselves happy.
|
|
|
|
* Ecclus. 24. 11. "With all these I have sought rest."
|
|
|
|
166. Diversion.- Death is easier to bear without thinking of it
|
|
than is the thought of death without peril.
|
|
|
|
167. The miseries of human life has established all this: as men
|
|
have seen this, they have taken up diversion.
|
|
|
|
168. Diversion.- As men are not able to fight against death,
|
|
misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be
|
|
happy, not to think of them at all.
|
|
|
|
169. Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy, and only
|
|
wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so. But how will he
|
|
set about it? To be happy he would have to make himself immortal; but,
|
|
not being able to do so, it has occurred to him to prevent himself
|
|
from thinking of death.
|
|
|
|
170. Diversion.- If man were happy, he would be the more so, the
|
|
less he was diverted, like the Saints and God. Yes; but is it not to
|
|
be happy to have a faculty of being amused by diversion? No; for
|
|
that comes from elsewhere and from without, and thus is dependent, and
|
|
therefore subject to be disturbed by a thousand accidents, which bring
|
|
inevitable griefs.
|
|
|
|
171. Misery.- The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is
|
|
diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is
|
|
this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and
|
|
which makes us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in
|
|
a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us to seek a
|
|
more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and
|
|
leads us unconsciously to death.
|
|
|
|
172. We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate
|
|
the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course;
|
|
or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent
|
|
are we that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think
|
|
of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we
|
|
dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that
|
|
which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We
|
|
conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and, if it be
|
|
delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain
|
|
it by the future and think of arranging matters which are not in our
|
|
power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching.
|
|
|
|
Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all
|
|
occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the
|
|
present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to
|
|
arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the
|
|
present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never
|
|
live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be
|
|
happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.
|
|
|
|
173. They say that eclipses foretoken misfortune, because
|
|
misfortunes are common, so that, as evil happens so often, they
|
|
often foretell it; whereas if they said that they predict good
|
|
fortune, they would often be wrong. They attribute good fortune only
|
|
to rare conjunctions of the heavens; so they seldom fail in
|
|
prediction.
|
|
|
|
174. Misery.- Solomon and Job have best known and best spoken of
|
|
the misery of man; the former the most fortunate, and the latter the
|
|
most unfortunate of men; the former knowing the vanity of pleasures
|
|
from experience, the latter the reality of evils.
|
|
|
|
175. We know ourselves so little that many think they are about to
|
|
die when they are well, and many think they are well when they are
|
|
near death, unconscious of approaching fever, or of the abscess
|
|
ready to form itself.
|
|
|
|
176. Cromwell was about to ravage all Christendom; the royal
|
|
family was undone, and his own for ever established, save for a little
|
|
grain of sand which formed in his ureter. Rome herself was trembling
|
|
under him; but this small piece of gravel having formed there, he is
|
|
dead, his family cast down, all is peaceful, and the king is restored.
|
|
|
|
177. Three hosts. Would he who had possessed the friendship of the
|
|
King of England, the King of Poland, and the Queen of Sweden, have
|
|
believed he would lack a refuge and shelter in the world?
|
|
|
|
178. Macrobius: on the innocents slain by Herod.
|
|
|
|
179. When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was amongst the
|
|
infants under two years of age, whom he had caused to be slain, he
|
|
said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. Macrobius,
|
|
Saturnalia, ii. 4.
|
|
|
|
180. The great and the humble have the same misfortunes, the
|
|
same griefs, the same passions; but the one is at the top of the
|
|
wheel, and the other near the centre, and so less disturbed by the
|
|
same revolutions.
|
|
|
|
181. We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a
|
|
thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a
|
|
thousand things can do, and do every hour. He who should find the
|
|
secret of rejoicing in the good, without troubling himself with its
|
|
contrary evil, would have hit the mark. It is perpetual motion.
|
|
|
|
182. Those who have always good hope in the midst of
|
|
misfortunes, and who are delighted with good luck, are suspected of
|
|
being very pleased with the ill success of the affair, if they are not
|
|
equally distressed by bad luck; and they are overjoyed to find these
|
|
pretexts of hope, in order to show that they are concerned and to
|
|
conceal by the joy which they feign to feel that which they have at
|
|
seeing the failure of the matter.
|
|
|
|
183. We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put
|
|
something before us to prevent us seeing it.
|
|
|
|
SECTION III
|
|
|
|
OF THE NECESSITY OF THE WAGER
|
|
|
|
184. A letter to incite to the search after God.
|
|
|
|
And then to make people seek Him among the philosophers, sceptics,
|
|
and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them.
|
|
|
|
185. The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put
|
|
religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But
|
|
to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is
|
|
not to put religion there, but terror; terorrem potius quam
|
|
religionem.*
|
|
|
|
* "Terror which is more powerful than religion."
|
|
|
|
186. Nisi terrerentur et non docerentur, improba quasi dominatio
|
|
videretur (St. Augustine, Epistle 48 or 49),* Contra Mendacium ad
|
|
Consentium.
|
|
|
|
* "From fear that they are being led by terror, without
|
|
guidance, domination appears tyrannical."
|
|
|
|
187. Order.- Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is
|
|
true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not
|
|
contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it;
|
|
then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true;
|
|
finally, we must prove it is true.
|
|
|
|
Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable
|
|
because it promises the true good.
|
|
|
|
188. In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to
|
|
those who take offence, "Of what do you complain?"
|
|
|
|
189. To begin by pitying unbelievers; they are wretched enough
|
|
by their condition. We ought only to revile them where it is
|
|
beneficial; but this does them harm.
|
|
|
|
190. To pity atheists who seek, for are they not unhappy enough?
|
|
To inveigh against those who make a boast of it.
|
|
|
|
191. And will this one scoff at the other? Who ought to scoff? And
|
|
yet, the latter does not scoff at the other, but pities him.
|
|
|
|
192. To reproach Milton with not being troubled, since God will
|
|
reproach him.
|
|
|
|
193. Quid fiet hominibus qui minima contemnunt, majora non
|
|
credunt?*
|
|
|
|
* "What will become of men who mistake small things and do not
|
|
believe in greater?"
|
|
|
|
194. ... Let them at least learn what is the religion they attack,
|
|
before attacking it. If this religion boasted of having a clear view
|
|
of God, and of possessing it open and unveiled, it would be
|
|
attacking it to say that we see nothing in the world which shows it
|
|
with this clearness. But since, on the contrary, it says that men
|
|
are in darkness and estranged from God, that He has hidden Himself
|
|
from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which He gives
|
|
Himself in the Scriptures, Deus absconditus;* and finally, if it
|
|
endeavours equally to establish these two things: that God has set
|
|
up in the Church visible signs to make Himself known to those who
|
|
should seek Him sincerely, and that He has nevertheless so disguised
|
|
them that He will only be perceived by those who seek Him with all
|
|
their heart; what advantage can they obtain, when, in the negligence
|
|
with which they make profession of being in search of the truth,
|
|
they cry out that nothing reveals it to them; and since that
|
|
darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the Church,
|
|
establishes only one of the things which she affirms, without touching
|
|
the other, and, very far from destroying, proves her doctrine?
|
|
|
|
* Is. 45. 15. "Thou art a God that hidest thyself."
|
|
|
|
In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had
|
|
made every effort to seek Him everywhere, and even in that which the
|
|
Church proposes for their instruction, but without satisfaction. If
|
|
they talked in this manner, they would in truth be attacking one of
|
|
her pretensions. But I hope here to show that no reasonable person can
|
|
speak thus, and I venture even to say that no one has ever done so. We
|
|
know well enough how those who are of this mind behave. They believe
|
|
they have made great efforts for their instruction when they have
|
|
spent a few hours in reading some book of Scripture and have
|
|
questioned some priests on the truths of the faith. After that, they
|
|
boast of having made vain search in books and among men. But,
|
|
verily, I will tell them what I have often said, that this
|
|
negligence is insufferable. We are not here concerned with the
|
|
trifling interests of some stranger, that we should treat it in this
|
|
fashion; the matter concerns ourselves and our all.
|
|
|
|
The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great
|
|
consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have
|
|
lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. All our
|
|
actions and thoughts must take such different courses, according as
|
|
there are or are not eternal joys to hope for, that it is impossible
|
|
to take one step with sense and judgment unless we regulate our course
|
|
by our view of this point which ought to be our ultimate end.
|
|
|
|
Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten
|
|
ourselves on this subject, whereon depends all our conduct.
|
|
Therefore among those who do not believe, I make a vast difference
|
|
between those who strive with all their power to inform themselves and
|
|
those who live without troubling or thinking about it.
|
|
|
|
I can have only compassion for those who sincerely bewail their
|
|
doubt, who regard it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who,
|
|
sparing no effort to escape it, make of this inquiry their principal
|
|
and most serious occupation.
|
|
|
|
But as for those who pass their life without thinking of this
|
|
ultimate end of life, and who, for this sole reason that they do not
|
|
find within themselves the lights which convince them of it, neglect
|
|
to seek them elsewhere, and to examine thoroughly whether this opinion
|
|
is one of those which people receive with credulous simplicity, or one
|
|
of those which, although obscure in themselves, have nevertheless a
|
|
solid and immovable foundation, I look upon them in a manner quite
|
|
different.
|
|
|
|
This carelessness in a matter which concerns themselves, their
|
|
eternity, their all, moves me more to anger than pity; it astonishes
|
|
and shocks me; it is to me monstrous. I do not say this out of the
|
|
pious zeal of a spiritual devotion. I expect, on the contrary, that we
|
|
ought to have this feeling from principles of human interest and
|
|
self-love; for this we need only see what the least enlightened
|
|
persons see.
|
|
|
|
We do not require great education of the mind to understand that
|
|
here is no real and lasting satisfaction; that our pleasures are
|
|
only vanity; that our evils are infinite; and, lastly, that death,
|
|
which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few
|
|
years under the dreadful necessity of being for ever either
|
|
annihilated or unhappy.
|
|
|
|
There is nothing more real than this, nothing more terrible. Be we
|
|
as heroic as we like, that is the end which awaits the world. Let us
|
|
reflect on this and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there
|
|
is no good in this life but in the hope of another; that we are
|
|
happy only in proportion as we draw near it; and that, as there are no
|
|
more woes for those who have complete assurance of eternity, so
|
|
there is no more happiness for those who have no insight into it.
|
|
|
|
Surely then it is a great evil thus to be in doubt, but it is at
|
|
least an indispensable duty to seek when we are in such doubt; and
|
|
thus the doubter who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy
|
|
and completely wrong. And if besides this he is easy and content,
|
|
professes to be so, and indeed boasts of it; if it is this state
|
|
itself which is the subject of his joy and vanity, I have no words
|
|
to describe so silly a creature.
|
|
|
|
How can people hold these opinions? What joy can we find in the
|
|
expectation of nothing but hopeless misery? What reason for boasting
|
|
that we are in impenetrable darkness? And how can it happen that the
|
|
following argument occurs to a reasonable man?
|
|
|
|
"I know not who put me into the world, nor what the world is,
|
|
nor what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything. I know
|
|
not what my body is, nor my senses, nor my soul, not even that part of
|
|
me which thinks what I say, which reflects on all and on itself, and
|
|
knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of
|
|
the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner
|
|
of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place
|
|
rather than in another, nor why the short time which is given me to
|
|
live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the
|
|
whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see
|
|
nothing but infinites on all sides, which surround me as an atom and
|
|
as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All
|
|
I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very
|
|
death which I cannot escape.
|
|
|
|
"As I know not whence I come, so I know not whither I go. I know
|
|
only that, in leaving this world, I fall for ever either into
|
|
annihilation or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing to
|
|
which of these two states I shall be for ever assigned. Such is my
|
|
state, full of weakness and uncertainty. And from all this I
|
|
conclude that I ought to spend all the days of my life without
|
|
caring to inquire into what must happen to me. Perhaps I might find
|
|
some solution to my doubts, but I will not take the trouble, nor
|
|
take a step to seek it; and after treating with scorn those who are
|
|
concerned with this care, I will go without foresight and without fear
|
|
to try the great event, and let myself be led carelessly to death,
|
|
uncertain of the eternity of my future state."
|
|
|
|
Who would desire to have for a friend a man who talks in this
|
|
fashion? Who would choose him out from others to tell him of his
|
|
affairs? Who would have recourse to him in affliction? And indeed to
|
|
what use in life could one put him?
|
|
|
|
In truth, it is the glory of religion to have for enemies men so
|
|
unreasonable; and their opposition to it is so little dangerous that
|
|
it serves, on the contrary, to establish its truths. For the Christian
|
|
faith goes mainly to establish these two facts: the corruption of
|
|
nature, and redemption by Jesus Christ. Now I contend that, if these
|
|
men do not serve to prove the truth of the redemption by the
|
|
holiness of their behaviour, they at least serve admirably to show the
|
|
corruption of nature by sentiments so unnatural.
|
|
|
|
Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so
|
|
formidable to him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there
|
|
should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence, and to the
|
|
perils of everlasting suffering. They are quite different with
|
|
regard to all other things. They are afraid of mere trifles; they
|
|
foresee them; they feel them. And this same man who spends so many
|
|
days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of office, or for
|
|
some imaginary insult to his honour, is the very one who knows without
|
|
anxiety and without emotion that he will lose all by death. It is a
|
|
monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this
|
|
sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the
|
|
greatest objects. It is an incomprehensible enchantment, and a
|
|
supernatural slumber, which indicates as its cause an all-powerful
|
|
force.
|
|
|
|
There must be a strange confusion in the nature of man, that he
|
|
should boast of being in that state in which it seems incredible
|
|
that a single individual should be. However, experience has shown me
|
|
so great a number of such persons that the fact would be surprising,
|
|
if we did not know that the greater part of those who trouble
|
|
themselves about the matter are disingenuous and not, in fact, what
|
|
they say. They are people who have heard it said that it is the
|
|
fashion to be thus daring. It is what they call "shaking off the
|
|
yoke," and they try to imitate this. But it would not be difficult
|
|
to make them understand how greatly they deceive themselves in thus
|
|
seeking esteem. This is not the way to gain it, even I say among those
|
|
men of the world who take a healthy view of things and who know that
|
|
the only way to succeed in this life is to make ourselves appear
|
|
honourable, faithful, judicious, and capable of useful service to a
|
|
friend; because naturally men love only what may be useful to them.
|
|
Now, what do we gain by hearing it said of a man that he has now
|
|
thrown off the yoke, that he does not believe there is a God who
|
|
watches our actions, that he considers himself the sole master of
|
|
his conduct, and that he thinks he is accountable for it only to
|
|
himself.? Does he think that he has thus brought us to have henceforth
|
|
complete confidence in him and to look to him for consolation, advice,
|
|
and help in every need of life? Do they profess to have delighted us
|
|
by telling us that they hold our soul to be only a little wind and
|
|
smoke, especially by telling us this in a haughty and self-satisfied
|
|
tone of voice? Is this a thing to say gaily? Is it not, on the
|
|
contrary, a thing to say sadly, as the saddest thing in the world?
|
|
|
|
If they thought of it seriously, they would see that this is so
|
|
bad a mistake, so contrary to good sense, so opposed to decency, and
|
|
so removed in every respect from that good breeding which they seek,
|
|
that they would be more likely to correct than to pervert those who
|
|
had an inclination to follow them. And, indeed, make them give an
|
|
account of their opinions, and of the reasons which they have for
|
|
doubting religion, and they will say to you things so feeble and so
|
|
petty, that they persuade you of the contrary. The following is what a
|
|
person one day said to such a one very appositely: "If you continue to
|
|
talk in this manner, you will really make me religious." And he was
|
|
right, for who would not have a horror of holding opinions in which he
|
|
would have such contemptible persons as companions!
|
|
|
|
Thus those who only feign these opinions would be very unhappy, if
|
|
they restrained their natural feelings in order to make themselves the
|
|
most conceited of men. If, at the bottom of their heart, they are
|
|
troubled at not having more light, let them not disguise the fact;
|
|
this avowal will not be shameful. The only shame is to have none.
|
|
Nothing reveals more an extreme weakness of mind than not to know
|
|
the misery of a godless man. Nothing is more indicative of a bad
|
|
disposition of heart than not to desire the truth of eternal promises.
|
|
Nothing is more dastardly than to act with bravado before God. Let
|
|
them then leave these impieties to those who are sufficiently ill-bred
|
|
to be really capable of them. Let them at least be honest men, if they
|
|
cannot be Christians. Finally, let them recognise that there are two
|
|
kinds of people one can call reasonable; those who serve God with
|
|
all their heart because they know Him, and those who seek Him with all
|
|
their heart because they do not know Him.
|
|
|
|
But as for those who live without knowing Him and without
|
|
seeking Him, they judge themselves so little worthy of their own care,
|
|
that they are not worthy of the care of others; and it needs all the
|
|
charity of the religion which they despise, not to despise them even
|
|
to the point of leaving them to their folly. But because this religion
|
|
obliges us always to regard them, so long as they are in this life, as
|
|
capable of the grace which can enlighten them, and to believe that
|
|
they may, in a little time, be more replenished with faith than we
|
|
are, and that, on the other hand, we may fall into the blindness
|
|
wherein they are, we must do for them what we would they should do for
|
|
us if we were in their place, and call upon them to have pity upon
|
|
themselves, and to take at least some steps in the endeavour to find
|
|
light. Let them give to reading this some of the hours which they
|
|
otherwise employ so uselessly; whatever aversion they may bring to the
|
|
task, they will perhaps gain something, and at least will not lose
|
|
much. But as for those who bring to the task perfect sincerity and a
|
|
real desire to meet with truth, those I hope will be satisfied and
|
|
convinced of the proofs of a religion so divine, which I have here
|
|
collected, and in which I have followed somewhat after this order...
|
|
|
|
195. Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion,
|
|
I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who
|
|
live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so
|
|
important to them, and which touches them so nearly.
|
|
|
|
Of all their errors, this doubtless is the one which most convicts
|
|
them of foolishness and blindness, and in which it is easiest to
|
|
confound them by the first glimmerings of common sense and by
|
|
natural feelings.
|
|
|
|
For it is not to be doubted that the duration of this life is
|
|
but a moment; that the state of death is eternal, whatever may be
|
|
its nature; and that thus all our actions and thoughts must take
|
|
such different directions, according to the state of that eternity,
|
|
that it is impossible to take one step with sense and judgement,
|
|
unless we regulate our course by the truth of that point which ought
|
|
to be our ultimate end.
|
|
|
|
There is nothing clearer than this; and thus, according to the
|
|
principles of reason, the conduct of men is wholly unreasonable, if
|
|
they do not take another course.
|
|
|
|
On this point, therefore, we condemn those who live without
|
|
thought of the ultimate end of life, who let themselves be guided by
|
|
their own inclinations and their own pleasures without reflection
|
|
and without concern, and, as if they could annihilate eternity by
|
|
turning away their thought from it, think only of making themselves
|
|
happy for the moment.
|
|
|
|
Yet this eternity exists, and death, which must open into it and
|
|
threatens them every hour, must in a little time infallibly put them
|
|
under the dreadful necessity of being either annihilated or unhappy
|
|
for ever, without knowing which of these eternities is for ever
|
|
prepared for them.
|
|
|
|
This is a doubt of terrible consequence. They are in peril of
|
|
eternal woe and thereupon, as if the matter were not worth the
|
|
trouble, they neglect to inquire whether this is one of those opinions
|
|
which people receive with too credulous a facility, or one of those
|
|
which, obscure in themselves, have a very firm, though hidden,
|
|
foundation. Thus they know not whether there be truth or falsity in
|
|
the matter, nor whether there be strength or weakness in the proofs.
|
|
They have them before their eyes; they refuse to look at them; and
|
|
in that ignorance they choose all that is necessary to fall into
|
|
this misfortune if it exists, to await death to make trial of it,
|
|
yet to be very content in this state, to make profession of it, and
|
|
indeed to boast of it. Can we think seriously of the importance of
|
|
this subject without being horrified at conduct so extravagant?
|
|
|
|
This resting in ignorance is a monstrous thing, and they who
|
|
pass their life in it must be made to feel its extravagance and
|
|
stupidity, by having it shown to them, so that they may be
|
|
confounded by the sight of their folly. For this is how men reason,
|
|
when they choose to live in such ignorance of what they are and
|
|
without seeking enlightenment. "I know not," they say...
|
|
|
|
196. Men lack heart; they would not make a friend of it.
|
|
|
|
197. To be insensible to the extent of despising interesting
|
|
things, and to become insensible to the point which interests us most.
|
|
|
|
198. The sensibility of man to trifles, and his insensibility to
|
|
great things, indicates a strange inversion.
|
|
|
|
199. Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to
|
|
death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others,
|
|
and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and
|
|
wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope.
|
|
It is an image of the condition of men.
|
|
|
|
200. A man in a dungeon, ignorant whether his sentence be
|
|
pronounced and having only one hour to learn it, but this hour enough,
|
|
if he knew that it is pronounced, to obtain its repeal, would act
|
|
unnaturally in spending that hour, not in ascertaining his sentence,
|
|
but in playing piquet. So it is against nature that man, etc. It is
|
|
making heavy the hand of God.
|
|
|
|
Thus not only the zeal of those who seek Him proves God, but
|
|
also the blindness of those who seek Him not.
|
|
|
|
201. All the objections of this one and that one only go against
|
|
themselves, and not against religion. All that infidels say ...
|
|
|
|
202. From those who are in despair at being without faith, we
|
|
see that God does not enlighten them; but as to the rest, we see there
|
|
is a God who makes them blind.
|
|
|
|
203. Fascinatio nugacitatis.* - That passion may not harm us,
|
|
let us act as if we had only eight hours to live.
|
|
|
|
* Wisd. of Sol. 4. 12. "Bewitching of naughtiness."
|
|
|
|
204. If we ought to devote eight hours of life, we ought to devote
|
|
a hundred years.
|
|
|
|
205. When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up
|
|
in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and
|
|
even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which
|
|
I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished
|
|
at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here
|
|
rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By
|
|
whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to
|
|
me? Memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis.*
|
|
|
|
* Wisd. of Sol. 5. 15. "The remembrance of a guest that tarrieth
|
|
but a day."
|
|
|
|
206. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
|
|
|
|
207. How many kingdoms know us not!
|
|
|
|
208. Why is my knowledge limited? Why my stature? Why my life to
|
|
one hundred years rather than to a thousand? What reason has nature
|
|
had for giving me such, and for choosing this number rather than
|
|
another in the infinity of those from which there is no more reason to
|
|
choose one than another, trying nothing else?
|
|
|
|
209. Art thou less a slave by being loved and favoured by thy
|
|
master? Thou art indeed well off, slave. Thy master favours thee; he
|
|
will soon beat thee.
|
|
|
|
210. The last act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the
|
|
play is; at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head, and
|
|
that is the end for ever.
|
|
|
|
211. We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men.
|
|
Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we
|
|
shall die alone. We should therefore act as if we were alone, and in
|
|
that case should we build fine houses, etc. We should seek the truth
|
|
without hesitation; and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the
|
|
esteem of men more than the search for truth.
|
|
|
|
212. Instability.- It is a horrible thing to feel all that we
|
|
possess slipping away.
|
|
|
|
213. Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is
|
|
the frailest thing in the world.
|
|
|
|
214. Injustice.- That presumption should be joined to meanness
|
|
is extreme injustice.
|
|
|
|
215. To fear death without danger, and not in danger, for one must
|
|
be a man.
|
|
|
|
216. Sudden death alone is feared; hence confessors stay with
|
|
lords.
|
|
|
|
217. An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say,
|
|
"Perhaps they are forged" and neglect to examine them?
|
|
|
|
218. Dungeon.- I approve of not examining the opinion of
|
|
Copernicus; but this...! It concerns all our life to know whether
|
|
the soul be mortal or immortal.
|
|
|
|
219. It is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul
|
|
must make an entire difference to morality. And yet philosophers
|
|
have constructed their ethics independently of this: they discuss to
|
|
pass an hour.
|
|
|
|
Plato, to incline to Christianity.
|
|
|
|
220. The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the
|
|
immortality of the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.
|
|
|
|
221. Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is
|
|
not perfectly evident that the soul is material.
|
|
|
|
222. Atheists.- What reason have they for saying that we cannot
|
|
rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise
|
|
again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been
|
|
should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to
|
|
return to it? Habit makes the one appear easy to us; want of habit
|
|
makes the other impossible. A popular way of thinking!
|
|
|
|
Why cannot a virgin bear a child? Does a hen not lay eggs
|
|
without a cock? What distinguishes these outwardly from others? And
|
|
who has told us that the hen may not form the germ as well as the
|
|
cock?
|
|
|
|
223. What have they to say against the resurrection, and against
|
|
the child-bearing of the Virgin? Which is the more difficult, to
|
|
produce a man or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had
|
|
never seen any species of animals, could they have conjectured whether
|
|
they were produced without connection with each other?
|
|
|
|
224. How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist,
|
|
etc.! If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty
|
|
is there?
|
|
|
|
225. Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
|
|
|
|
226. Infidels, who profess to follow reason, ought to be
|
|
exceedingly strong in reason. What say they then? "Do we not see," say
|
|
they, "that the brutes live and die like men, and Turks like
|
|
Christians? They have their ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors,
|
|
their saints, their monks, like us," etc. (Is this contrary to
|
|
Scripture? Does it not say all this?)
|
|
|
|
If you care but little to know the truth, here is enough of it
|
|
to leave you in repose. But if you desire with all your heart to
|
|
know it, it is not enough; look at it in detail. This would be
|
|
sufficient for a question in philosophy; but not here, where it
|
|
concerns your all. And yet, after a trifling reflection of this
|
|
kind, we go to amuse ourselves, etc. Let us inquire of this same
|
|
religion whether it does not give a reason for this obscurity; perhaps
|
|
it will teach it to us.
|
|
|
|
227. Order by dialogues.- What ought I to do? I see only darkness
|
|
everywhere. Shall I believe I am nothing? Shall I believe I am God?
|
|
|
|
"All things change and succeed each other." You are mistaken;
|
|
there is...
|
|
|
|
228. Objection of atheists: "But we have no light."
|
|
|
|
229. This is what I see and what troubles me. I look on all sides,
|
|
and I see only darkness everywhere. Nature presents to me nothing
|
|
which is not matter of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which
|
|
revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw
|
|
everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith.
|
|
But, seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a
|
|
state to be pitied; wherefore I have a hundred times wished that if
|
|
a God maintains Nature, she should testify to Him unequivocally, and
|
|
that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she should suppress them
|
|
altogether; that she should say everything or nothing, that I might
|
|
see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state,
|
|
ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my
|
|
condition nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the
|
|
true good, in order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me
|
|
for eternity.
|
|
|
|
I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness
|
|
and who make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I
|
|
would make such a different use.
|
|
|
|
230. It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is
|
|
incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be
|
|
joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world
|
|
should be created, and that it should not be created, etc.; that
|
|
original sin should be, and that it should not be.
|
|
|
|
231. Do you believe it to be impossible that God is infinite,
|
|
without parts? Yes. I wish therefore to show you an infinite and
|
|
indivisible thing. It is a point moving everywhere with an infinite
|
|
velocity; for it is one in all places and is all totality in every
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
Let this effect of nature, which previously seemed to you
|
|
impossible, make you know that there may be others of which you are
|
|
still ignorant. Do not draw this conclusion from your experiment, that
|
|
there remains nothing for you to know; but rather that there remains
|
|
an infinity for you to know.
|
|
|
|
232. Infinite movement, the point which fills everything, the
|
|
moment of rest; infinite without quantity, indivisible and infinite.
|
|
|
|
233. Infinite- nothing.- Our soul is cast into a body, where it
|
|
finds number, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature
|
|
necessity, and can believe nothing else.
|
|
|
|
Unity joined to infinity adds nothing to it, no more than one foot
|
|
to an infinite measure. The finite is annihilated in the presence of
|
|
the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so
|
|
our justice before divine justice. There is not so great a
|
|
disproportion between our justice and that of God as between unity and
|
|
infinity.
|
|
|
|
The justice of God must be vast like His compassion. Now justice
|
|
to the outcast is less vast and ought less to offend our feelings than
|
|
mercy towards the elect.
|
|
|
|
We know that there is an infinite, and are ignorant of its nature.
|
|
As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore
|
|
true that there is an infinity in number. But we do not know what it
|
|
is. It is false that it is even, it is false that it is odd; for the
|
|
addition of a unit can make no change in its nature. Yet it is a
|
|
number, and every number is odd or even (this is certainly true of
|
|
every finite number). So we may well know that there is a God
|
|
without knowing what He is. Is there not one substantial truth, seeing
|
|
there are so many things which are not the truth itself?
|
|
|
|
We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we
|
|
also are finite and have extension. We know the existence of the
|
|
infinite and are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like
|
|
us, but not limits like us. But we know neither the existence nor
|
|
the nature of God, because He has neither extension nor limits.
|
|
|
|
But by faith we know His existence; in glory we shall know His
|
|
nature. Now, I have already shown that we may well know the
|
|
existence of a thing, without knowing its nature.
|
|
|
|
Let us now speak according to natural lights.
|
|
|
|
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since,
|
|
having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then
|
|
incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. This being so, who
|
|
will dare to undertake the decision of the question? Not we, who
|
|
have no affinity to Him.
|
|
|
|
Who then will blame Christians for not being able to give a reason
|
|
for their belief, since they profess a religion for which they
|
|
cannot give a reason? They declare, in expounding it to the world,
|
|
that it is a foolishness, stultitiam;* and then you complain that they
|
|
do not prove it! If they proved it, they would not keep their word; it
|
|
is in lacking proofs that they are not lacking in sense. "Yes, but
|
|
although this excuses those who offer it as such and takes away from
|
|
them the blame of putting it forward without reason, it does not
|
|
excuse those who receive it." Let us then examine this point, and say,
|
|
"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can
|
|
decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us.
|
|
A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance
|
|
where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? According to
|
|
reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according to
|
|
reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 1. 21.
|
|
|
|
Do not, then, reprove for error those who have made a choice;
|
|
for you know nothing about it. "No, but I blame them for having
|
|
made, not this choice, but a choice; for again both he who chooses
|
|
heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault, they are both
|
|
in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all."
|
|
|
|
Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked.
|
|
Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let
|
|
us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the
|
|
true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will,
|
|
your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to
|
|
shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one
|
|
rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is one
|
|
point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the
|
|
loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If
|
|
you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then,
|
|
without hesitation that He is. "That is very fine. Yes, I must
|
|
wager; but I may perhaps wager too much." Let us see. Since there is
|
|
an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two
|
|
lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were
|
|
three lives to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the
|
|
necessity of playing), and you would be imprudent, when you are forced
|
|
to play, not to chance your life to gain three at a game where there
|
|
is an equal risk of loss and gain. But there is an eternity of life
|
|
and happiness. And this being so, if there were an infinity of
|
|
chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be
|
|
right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being
|
|
obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game
|
|
in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you, if
|
|
there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But
|
|
there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a
|
|
chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what
|
|
you stake is finite. It is all divided; where-ever the infinite is and
|
|
there is not an infinity of chances of loss against that of gain,
|
|
there is no time to hesitate, you must give all. And thus, when one is
|
|
forced to play, he must renounce reason to preserve his life, rather
|
|
than risk it for infinite gain, as likely to happen as the loss of
|
|
nothingness.
|
|
|
|
For it is no use to say it is uncertain if we will gain, and it is
|
|
certain that we risk, and that the infinite distance between the
|
|
certainly of what is staked and the uncertainty of what will be
|
|
gained, equals the finite good which is certainly staked against the
|
|
uncertain infinite. It is not so, as every player stakes a certainty
|
|
to gain an uncertainty, and yet he stakes a finite certainty to gain a
|
|
finite uncertainty, without transgressing against reason. There is not
|
|
an infinite distance between the certainty staked and the
|
|
uncertainty of the gain; that is untrue. In truth, there is an
|
|
infinity between the certainty of gain and the certainty of loss.
|
|
But the uncertainty of the gain is proportioned to the certainty of
|
|
the stake according to the proportion of the chances of gain and loss.
|
|
Hence it comes that, if there are as many risks on one side as on
|
|
the other, the course is to play even; and then the certainty of the
|
|
stake is equal to the uncertainty of the gain, so far is it from
|
|
fact that there is an infinite distance between them. And so our
|
|
proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite to stake in
|
|
a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the
|
|
infinite to gain. This is demonstrable; and if men are capable of
|
|
any truths, this is one.
|
|
|
|
"I confess it, I admit it. But, still, is there no means of seeing
|
|
the faces of the cards?" Yes, Scripture and the rest, etc. "Yes, but I
|
|
have my hands tied and my mouth closed; I am forced to wager, and am
|
|
not free. I am not released, and am so made that I cannot believe.
|
|
What, then, would you have me do?"
|
|
|
|
True. But at least learn your inability to believe, since reason
|
|
brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe. Endeavour, then, to
|
|
convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the
|
|
abatement of your passions. You would like to attain faith and do
|
|
not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief and
|
|
ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you,
|
|
and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the
|
|
way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you
|
|
would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if
|
|
they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even
|
|
this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.
|
|
"But this is what I am afraid of." And why? What have you to lose?
|
|
|
|
But to show you that this leads you there, it is this which will
|
|
lessen the passions, which are your stumbling-blocks.
|
|
|
|
The end of this discourse.- Now, what harm will befall you in
|
|
taking this side? You will be faithful, humble, grateful, generous,
|
|
a sincere friend, truthful. Certainly you will not have those
|
|
poisonous pleasures, glory and luxury; but will you not have others? I
|
|
will tell you that you will thereby gain in this life, and that, at
|
|
each step you take on this road, you will see so great certainty of
|
|
gain, so much nothingness in what you risk, that you will at last
|
|
recognise that you have wagered for something certain and infinite,
|
|
for which you have given nothing.
|
|
|
|
"Ah! This discourse transports me, charms me," etc.
|
|
|
|
If this discourse pleases you and seems impressive, know that it
|
|
is made by a man who has knelt, both before and after it, in prayer to
|
|
that Being, infinite and without parts, before whom he lays all he
|
|
has, for you also to lay before Him all you have for your own good and
|
|
for His glory, that so strength may be given to lowliness.
|
|
|
|
234. If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act
|
|
on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an
|
|
uncertainty, sea voyages, battles! I say then we must do nothing at
|
|
all, for nothing is certain, and that there is more certainty in
|
|
religion than there is as to whether we may see to-morrow; for it is
|
|
not certain that we may see to-morrow, and it is certainly possible
|
|
that we may not, see it. We cannot say as much about religion. It is
|
|
not certain that it is; but who will venture to say that it is
|
|
certainly possible that it is not? Now when we work for to-morrow, and
|
|
so on an uncertainty, we act reasonably; for we ought to work for an
|
|
uncertainty according to the doctrine of chance which was demonstrated
|
|
above.
|
|
|
|
Saint Augustine has seen that we work for an uncertainty, on
|
|
sea, in battle, etc. But he has not seen the doctrine of chance
|
|
which proves that we should do so. Montaigne has seen that we are
|
|
shocked at a fool, and that habit is all-powerful; but he has not seen
|
|
the reason of this effect.
|
|
|
|
All these persons have seen the effects, but they have not seen
|
|
the causes. They are, in comparison with those who have discovered the
|
|
causes, as those who have only eyes are in comparison with those who
|
|
have intellect. For the effects are perceptible by sense, and the
|
|
causes are visible only to the intellect. And although these effects
|
|
are seen by the mind, this mind is, in comparison with the mind
|
|
which sees the causes, as the bodily senses are in comparison with the
|
|
intellect.
|
|
|
|
235. Rem viderunt, causam non viderunt.*
|
|
|
|
* "They have seen the thing; they have not seen the cause." St.
|
|
Augustine, Contra Pelagium, iv.
|
|
|
|
236. According to the doctrine of chance, you ought to put
|
|
yourself to the trouble of searching for the truth; for if you die
|
|
without worshipping the True Cause, you are lost. "But," say you,
|
|
"if He had wished me to worship Him, He would have left me signs of
|
|
His will." He has done so; but you neglect them. Seek them, therefore;
|
|
it is well worth it.
|
|
|
|
237. Chances.- We must live differently in the world, according to
|
|
these different assumptions: (1) that we could always remain in it;
|
|
(2) that it is certain that we shall not remain here long, and
|
|
uncertain if we shall remain here one hour. This last assumption is
|
|
our condition.
|
|
|
|
238. What do you then promise me, in addition to certain troubles,
|
|
but ten years of self-love (for ten years is the chance), to try
|
|
hard to please without success?
|
|
|
|
239. Objection.- Those who hope for salvation are so far happy;
|
|
but they have as a counterpoise the fear of hell.
|
|
|
|
Reply.- Who has most reason to fear hell: he who is in ignorance
|
|
whether there is a hell, and who is certain of damnation if there
|
|
is; or he who certainly believes there is a hell and hopes to be saved
|
|
if there is?
|
|
|
|
240. "I would soon have renounced pleasure," say they, "had I
|
|
faith." For my part I tell you, "You would soon have faith, if you
|
|
renounced pleasure." Now, it is for you to begin. If I could, I
|
|
would give you faith. I cannot do so, nor therefore test the truth
|
|
of what you say. But you can well renounce pleasure and test whether
|
|
what I say is true.
|
|
|
|
241. Order.- I would have far more fear of being mistaken, and
|
|
of finding that the Christian religion was true, than of not being
|
|
mistaken in believing it true.
|
|
|
|
SECTION IV
|
|
|
|
OF THE MEANS OF BELIEF
|
|
|
|
242. Preface to the second part.- To speak of those who have
|
|
treated of this matter.
|
|
|
|
I admire the boldness with which these persons undertake to
|
|
speak of God. In addressing their argument to infidels, their first
|
|
chapter is to prove Divinity from the works of nature. I should not be
|
|
astonished at their enterprise, if they were addressing their argument
|
|
to the faithful; for it is certain that those who have the living
|
|
faith in their hearts see at once that all existence is none other
|
|
than the work of the God whom they adore. But for those in whom this
|
|
light is extinguished, and in whom we purpose to rekindle it,
|
|
persons destitute of faith and grace, who, seeking with all their
|
|
light whatever they see in nature that can bring them to this
|
|
knowledge, find only obscurity and darkness; to tell them that they
|
|
have only to look at the smallest things which surround them, and they
|
|
will see God openly, to give them, as a complete proof of this great
|
|
and important matter, the course of the moon and planets, and to claim
|
|
to have concluded the proof with such an argument, is to give them
|
|
ground for believing that the proofs of our religion are very weak.
|
|
And I see by reason and experience that nothing is more calculated
|
|
to arouse their contempt.
|
|
|
|
It is not after this manner that Scripture speaks, which has a
|
|
better knowledge of the things that are of God. It says, on the
|
|
contrary, that God is a hidden God, and that, since the corruption
|
|
of nature, He has left men in a darkness from which they can escape
|
|
only through Jesus Christ, without whom all communion with God is
|
|
cut off. Nemo novit Patrem, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius
|
|
revelare.*
|
|
|
|
* Matt 11. 27 "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
|
|
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."
|
|
|
|
This is what Scripture points out to us, when it says in so many
|
|
places that those who seek God find Him. It is not of that light,
|
|
"like the noonday sun," that this is said. We do not say that those
|
|
who seek the noonday sun, or water in the sea, shall find them; and
|
|
hence the evidence of God must not be of this nature. So it tells us
|
|
elsewhere: Vere tu es Deus absconditus.*
|
|
|
|
* Is. 45. 15. "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself."
|
|
|
|
243. It is an astounding fact that no canonical writer has ever
|
|
made use of nature to prove God. They all strive to make us believe in
|
|
Him. David, Solomon, etc., have never said, "There is no void,
|
|
therefore there is a God." They must have had more knowledge than
|
|
the most learned people who came after them, and who have all made use
|
|
of this argument. This is worthy of attention.
|
|
|
|
244. "Why! Do you not say yourself that the heavens and birds
|
|
prove God?" No. "And does your religion not say so"? No. For
|
|
although it is true in a sense for some souls to whom God gives this
|
|
light, yet it is false with respect to the majority of men.
|
|
|
|
245. There are three sources of belief: reason, custom,
|
|
inspiration. The Christian religion, which alone has reason, does
|
|
not acknowledge as her true children those who believe without
|
|
inspiration. It is not that she excludes reason and custom. On the
|
|
contrary, the mind must be opened to proofs, must be confirmed by
|
|
custom and offer itself in humbleness to inspirations, which alone can
|
|
produce a true and saving effect. Ne evacuetur crux Christi.*
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 1. 17. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
|
|
effect."
|
|
|
|
246. Order.- After the letter That we ought to seek God, to
|
|
write the letter On removing obstacles, which is the discourse on "the
|
|
machine," on preparing the machine, on seeking by reason.
|
|
|
|
247. Order.- A letter of exhortation to a friend to induce him
|
|
to seek. And he will reply, "But what is the use of seeking? Nothing
|
|
is seen." Then to reply to him, "Do not despair." And he will answer
|
|
that he would be glad to find some light, but that, according to
|
|
this very religion, if he believed in it, it will be of no use to him,
|
|
and that therefore he prefers not to seek. And to answer to that:
|
|
The machine.
|
|
|
|
248. A letter which indicates the use of proofs by the machine.-
|
|
Faith is different from proof; the one is human, the other is a gift
|
|
of God. Justus ex fide vivit.* It is this faith that God Himself
|
|
puts into the heart, of which the proof is often the instrument, fides
|
|
ex auditu;*(2) but this faith is in the heart, and makes us not say
|
|
scio, but credo.*(3)
|
|
|
|
* Rom. 1. 17. "The just shall live by faith."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Rom. 10. 17. "Faith cometh by hearing."
|
|
|
|
*(3) "I know." "I believe."
|
|
|
|
249. It is superstition to put one's hope in formalities; but
|
|
it is pride to be unwilling to submit to them.
|
|
|
|
250. The external must be joined to the internal to obtain
|
|
anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the
|
|
lips, etc., in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to
|
|
God, may be now subject to the creature. To expect help from these
|
|
externals is superstition; to refuse to join them to the internal is
|
|
pride.
|
|
|
|
251. Other religions, as the pagan, are more popular, for they
|
|
consist in externals. But they are not for educated people. A purely
|
|
intellectual religion would be more suited to the learned, but it
|
|
would be of no use to the common people. The Christian religion
|
|
alone is adapted to all, being composed of externals and internals. It
|
|
raises the common people to the internal, and humbles the proud to the
|
|
external; it is not perfect without the two, for the people must
|
|
understand the spirit of the letter, and the learned must submit their
|
|
spirit to the letter.
|
|
|
|
252. For we must not misunderstand ourselves; we are as much
|
|
automatic as intellectual; and hence it comes that the instrument by
|
|
which conviction is attained is not demonstrated alone. How few things
|
|
are demonstrated! Proofs only convince the mind. Custom is the
|
|
source of our strongest and most believed proofs. It bends the
|
|
automaton, which persuades the mind without its thinking about the
|
|
matter. Who has demonstrated that there will be a to-morrow and that
|
|
we shall die? And what is more believed? It is, then, custom which
|
|
persuades us of it; it is custom that makes so many men Christians;
|
|
custom that makes them Turks, heathens, artisans, soldiers, etc.
|
|
(Faith in baptism is more received among Christians than among Turks.)
|
|
Finally, we must have recourse to it when once the mind has seen where
|
|
the truth is, in order to quench our thirst, and steep ourselves in
|
|
that belief, which escapes us at every hour; for always to have proofs
|
|
ready is too much trouble. We must get an easier belief, which is that
|
|
of custom, which, without violence, without art, without argument,
|
|
makes us believe things and inclines all our powers to this belief, so
|
|
that our soul falls naturally into it. It is not enough to believe
|
|
only by force of conviction, when the automaton is inclined to believe
|
|
the contrary. Both our parts must be made to believe, the mind by
|
|
reasons which it is sufficient to have seen once in a lifetime, and
|
|
the automaton by custom, and by not allowing it to incline to the
|
|
contrary. Inclina cor meum, Deus.*
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 119. 36. "Incline my heart, O Lord."
|
|
|
|
The reason acts slowly, with so many examinations and on so many
|
|
principles, which must be always present, that at every hour it
|
|
falls asleep, or wanders, through want of having all its principles
|
|
present. Feeling does not act thus; it acts in a moment, and is always
|
|
ready to act. We must then put our faith in feeling; otherwise it will
|
|
be always vacillating.
|
|
|
|
253. Two extremes: to exclude reason, to admit reason only.
|
|
|
|
254. It is not a rare thing to have to reprove the world for too
|
|
much docility. It is a natural vice like credulity, and as pernicious.
|
|
Superstition.
|
|
|
|
255. Piety is different from superstition.
|
|
|
|
To carry piety as far as superstition is to destroy it.
|
|
|
|
The heretics reproach us for this superstitious submission. This
|
|
is to do what they reproach us for...
|
|
|
|
Infidelity, not to believe in the Eucharist, because it is not
|
|
seen.
|
|
|
|
Superstition to believe propositions. Faith, etc.
|
|
|
|
256. I say there are few true Christians, even as regards faith.
|
|
There are many who believe but from superstition. There are many who
|
|
do not believe solely from wickedness. Few are between the two.
|
|
|
|
In this I do not include those who are of truly pious character,
|
|
nor all those who believe from a feeling in their heart.
|
|
|
|
257. There are only three kinds of persons; those who serve God,
|
|
having found Him; others who are occupied in seeking Him, not having
|
|
found Him; while the remainder live without seeking Him and without
|
|
having found Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the last are
|
|
foolish and unhappy; those between are unhappy and reasonable.
|
|
|
|
258. Unusquisque sibi Deum fingit.*
|
|
|
|
Disgust
|
|
|
|
* Wisd. of Sol. 15. 8, 16. "He moulds a God... like unto himself."
|
|
|
|
259. Ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that
|
|
about which they do not wish to think. "Do not meditate on the
|
|
passages about the Messiah, said the Jew to his son. Thus our people
|
|
often act. Thus are false religions preserved, and even the true
|
|
one, in regard to many persons.
|
|
|
|
But there are some who have not the power of thus preventing
|
|
thought, and who think so much the more as they are forbidden. These
|
|
undo false religions and even the true one, if they do not find
|
|
solid arguments.
|
|
|
|
260. They hide themselves in the press and call numbers to their
|
|
rescue. Tumult.
|
|
|
|
Authority.- So far from making it a rule to believe a thing
|
|
because you have heard it, you ought to believe nothing without
|
|
putting yourself into the position as if you had never heard it.
|
|
|
|
It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of
|
|
your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.
|
|
|
|
Belief is so important! A hundred contradictions might be true. If
|
|
antiquity were the rule of belief, men of ancient time would then be
|
|
without rule. If general consent, if men had perished?
|
|
|
|
False humanity, pride.
|
|
|
|
Lift the curtain. You try in vain; if you must either believe,
|
|
or deny, or doubt. Shall we then have no rule? We judge that animals
|
|
do well what they do. Is there no rule whereby to judge men?
|
|
|
|
To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race
|
|
is to a horse.
|
|
|
|
Punishment of those who sin, error.
|
|
|
|
261. Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it
|
|
is disputed, and that a multitude deny it. And so their error arises
|
|
only from this, that they do not love either truth or charity. Thus
|
|
they are without excuse.
|
|
|
|
262. Superstition and lust. Scruples, evil desires. Evil fear;
|
|
fear, not such as comes from a belief in God, but such as comes from a
|
|
doubt whether He exists or not. True fear comes from faith; false fear
|
|
comes from doubt. True fear is joined to hope, because it is born of
|
|
faith, and because men hope in the God in whom they believe. False
|
|
fear is joined to despair, because men fear the God in whom they
|
|
have no belief. The former fear to lose Him; the latter fear to find
|
|
Him.
|
|
|
|
263. "A miracle," says one, "would strengthen my faith." He says
|
|
so when he does not see one. Reasons, seen from afar, appear to
|
|
limit our view; but when they are reached, we begin to see beyond.
|
|
Nothing stops the nimbleness of our mind. There is no rule, say we,
|
|
which has not some exceptions, no truth so general which has not
|
|
some aspect in which it fails. It is sufficient that it be not
|
|
absolutely universal to give us a pretext for applying the
|
|
exceptions to the present subject and for saying, "This is not
|
|
always true; there are therefore cases where it is not so." It only
|
|
remains to show that this is one of them; and that is why we are
|
|
very awkward or unlucky, if we do not find one some day.
|
|
|
|
264. We do not weary of eating and sleeping every day, for
|
|
hunger and sleepiness recur. Without that we should weary of them. So,
|
|
without the hunger for spiritual things, we weary of them. Hunger
|
|
after righteousness, the eighth beautitude.
|
|
|
|
265. Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the
|
|
contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
|
|
|
|
266. How many stars have telescopes revealed to us which did not
|
|
exist for our philosophers of old! We freely attack Holy Scripture
|
|
on the great number of stars, saying, "There are only one thousand and
|
|
twenty-eight, we know it." There is grass on the earth, we see it-
|
|
from the moon we would not see it- and on the grass are leaves, and in
|
|
these leaves are small animals; but after that no more. O presumptuous
|
|
man! The compounds are composed of elements, and the elements not. O
|
|
presumptuous man! Here is a fine reflection. We must not say that
|
|
there is anything which we do not see. We must then talk like
|
|
others, but not think like them.
|
|
|
|
267. The last proceeding of reason is to recognise that there is
|
|
an infinity of things which are beyond it. It is but feeble if it does
|
|
not see so far as to know this. But if natural things are beyond it,
|
|
what will be said of supernatural?
|
|
|
|
268. Submission.- We must know where to doubt, where to feel
|
|
certain, where to submit. He who does not do so understands not the
|
|
force of reason. There are some who offend against these three
|
|
rules, either by affirming everything as demonstrative, from want of
|
|
knowing what demonstration is; or by doubting everything, from want of
|
|
knowing where to submit; or by submitting in everything, from want
|
|
of knowing where they must judge.
|
|
|
|
269. Submission is the use of reason in which consists true
|
|
Christianity.
|
|
|
|
270. Saint Augustine.- Reason would never submit, if it did not
|
|
judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is
|
|
then right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit.
|
|
|
|
271. Wisdom sends us to childhood. Nisi efficiamini sicut
|
|
parvuli.*
|
|
|
|
* Matt. 18. 3. "Except ye become as little children."
|
|
|
|
272. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal
|
|
of reason.
|
|
|
|
273. If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have
|
|
no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of
|
|
reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
|
|
|
|
274. All our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling.
|
|
|
|
But fancy is like, though contrary to, feeling, so that we
|
|
cannot distinguish between these contraries. One person says that my
|
|
feeling is fancy, another that his fancy is feeling. We should have
|
|
a rule. Reason offers itself; but it is pliable in every sense; and
|
|
thus there is no rule.
|
|
|
|
275. Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they
|
|
believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
|
|
|
|
276. M. de Roannez said: "Reasons come to me afterwards, but at
|
|
first a thing pleases or shocks me without my knowing the reason,
|
|
and yet it shocks me for that reason which I only discover
|
|
afterwards." But I believe, not that it shocked him for the reasons
|
|
which were found afterwards, but that these reasons were only found
|
|
because it shocked him.
|
|
|
|
277. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We
|
|
feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the
|
|
Universal Being, and also itself naturally, according as it gives
|
|
itself to them; and it hardens itself against one or the other at
|
|
its will. You have rejected the one and kept the other. Is it by
|
|
reason that you love yourself?
|
|
|
|
278. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason.
|
|
This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.
|
|
|
|
Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was a
|
|
gift of reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith.
|
|
They only give reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not
|
|
bring them to it.
|
|
|
|
279. Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was
|
|
a gift of reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith.
|
|
They only gave reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not
|
|
bring them to it.
|
|
|
|
280. The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
|
|
|
|
281. Heart, instinct, principles.
|
|
|
|
282. We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart,
|
|
and it is in this last way that we know first principles; and
|
|
reason, which has no part in it, tries in vain to impugn them. The
|
|
sceptics, who have only this for their object, labour to no purpose.
|
|
We know that we do not dream, and, however impossible it is for us
|
|
to prove it by reason, this inability demonstrates only the weakness
|
|
of our reason, but not, as they affirm, the uncertainty of all our
|
|
knowledge. For the knowledge of first principles, as space, time,
|
|
motion, number, is as sure as any of those which we get from
|
|
reasoning. And reason must trust these intuitions of the heart, and
|
|
must base them on every argument. (We have intuitive knowledge of
|
|
the tri-dimensional nature of space and of the infinity of number, and
|
|
reason then shows that there are no two square numbers one of which is
|
|
double of the other. Principles are intuited, propositions are
|
|
inferred, all with certainty, though in different ways.) And it is
|
|
as useless and absurd for reason to demand from the heart proofs of
|
|
her first principles, before admitting them, as it would be for the
|
|
heart to demand from reason an intuition of all demonstrated
|
|
propositions before accepting them.
|
|
|
|
This inability ought, then, to serve only to humble reason,
|
|
which would judge all, but not to impugn our certainty, as if only
|
|
reason were capable of instructing us. Would to God, on the
|
|
contrary, that we had never need of it, and that we knew everything by
|
|
instinct and intuition! But nature has refused us this boon. On the
|
|
contrary, she has given us but very little knowledge of this kind; and
|
|
all the rest can be acquired only by reasoning.
|
|
|
|
Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition
|
|
are very fortunate and justly convinced. But to those who do not
|
|
have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give
|
|
them spiritual insight, without which faith is only human and
|
|
useless for salvation.
|
|
|
|
283. Order.- Against the objection that Scripture has no order.
|
|
|
|
The heart has its own order; the intellect has its own, which is
|
|
by principle and demonstration. The heart has another. We do not prove
|
|
that we ought to be loved by enumerating in order the causes of
|
|
love; that would be ridiculous.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ and Saint Paul employ the rule of love, not of
|
|
intellect; for they would warm, not instruct. It is the same with
|
|
Saint Augustine. This order consists chiefly in digressions on each
|
|
point to indicate the end, and keep it always in sight.
|
|
|
|
284. Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning.
|
|
God imparts to them love of Him and hatred of self. He inclines
|
|
their heart to believe. Men will never believe with a saving and
|
|
real faith, unless God inclines their heart; and they will believe
|
|
as soon as He inclines it. And this is what David knew well, when he
|
|
said: Inclina cor meum, Deus, in... *
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 119. 36. "Incline my heart, O Lord, unto thy testimonies."
|
|
|
|
285. Religion is suited to all kinds of minds. Some pay
|
|
attention only to its establishment, and this religion is such that
|
|
its very establishment suffices to prove its truth. Others trace it
|
|
even to the apostles. The more learned go back to the beginning of the
|
|
world. The angels see it better still, and from a more distant time.
|
|
|
|
286. Those who believe without having read the Testaments, do so
|
|
because they have an inward disposition entirely holy, and all that
|
|
they hear of our religion conforms to it. They feel that a God has
|
|
made them; they desire only to love God; they desire to hate
|
|
themselves only. They feel that they have no strength in themselves;
|
|
that they are incapable of coming to God; and that if God does not
|
|
come to them, they can have no communion with Him. And they hear our
|
|
religion say that men must love God only, and hate self only; but
|
|
that, all being corrupt and unworthy of God, God made Himself man to
|
|
unite Himself to us. No more is required to persuade men who have this
|
|
disposition in their heart, and who have this knowledge of their
|
|
duty and of their inefficiency.
|
|
|
|
287. Those whom we see to be Christians without the knowledge of
|
|
the prophets and evidences, nevertheless judge of their religion as
|
|
well as those who have that knowledge. They judge of it by the
|
|
heart, as others judge of it by the intellect. God himself inclines
|
|
them to believe, and thus they are most effectively convinced.
|
|
|
|
I confess indeed that one of those Christians who believe
|
|
without proofs will not, perhaps, be capable of convincing an
|
|
infidel who will say the same of himself. But those who know the
|
|
proofs of religion will prove without difficulty that such a
|
|
believer is truly inspired by God, though he cannot prove it himself.
|
|
|
|
For God having said in His prophecies (which are undoubtedly
|
|
prophecies) that in the reign of Jesus Christ He would spread His
|
|
spirit abroad among nations, and that the youths and maidens and
|
|
children of the Church would prophesy; it is certain that the Spirit
|
|
of God is in these and not in the others.
|
|
|
|
288. Instead of complaining that God had hidden Himself, you
|
|
will give Him thanks for not having revealed so much of Himself; and
|
|
you will also give Him thanks for not having revealed Himself to
|
|
haughty sages, unworthy to know so holy a God.
|
|
|
|
Two kinds of persons know Him: those who have a humble heart,
|
|
and who love lowliness, whatever kind of intellect they may have, high
|
|
or low; and those who have sufficient understanding to see the
|
|
truth, whatever opposition they may have to it.
|
|
|
|
289. Proof.- 1. The Christian religion, by its establishment,
|
|
having established itself so strongly, so gently, whilst so contrary
|
|
to nature. 2. The sanctity, the dignity, and the humility of a
|
|
Christian soul. 3. The miracles of Holy Scripture. 4. Jesus Christ
|
|
in particular. 5. The apostles in particular. 6. Moses and the
|
|
prophets in particular. 7. The Jewish people. 8. The prophecies. 9.
|
|
Perpetuity; no religion has perpetuity. 10. The doctrine which gives a
|
|
reason for everything. 11. The sanctity of this law. 12. By the course
|
|
of the world.
|
|
|
|
Surely, after considering what is life and what is religion, we
|
|
should not refuse to obey the inclination to follow it, if it comes
|
|
into our heart; and it is certain that there is no ground for laughing
|
|
at those who follow it.
|
|
|
|
290. Proofs of religion.- Morality, doctrine, miracles,
|
|
prophecies, types.
|
|
|
|
SECTION V
|
|
|
|
JUSTICE AND THE REASON OF EFFECTS
|
|
|
|
291. In the letter On Injustice can come the ridiculousness of the
|
|
law that the elder gets all. "My friend, you were born on this side of
|
|
the mountain, it is therefore just that your elder brother gets
|
|
everything."
|
|
|
|
"Why do you kill me"?
|
|
|
|
292. He lives on the other side of the water.
|
|
|
|
293. "Why do you kill me? What! do you not live on the other
|
|
side of the water? If you lived on this side, my friend, I should be
|
|
an assassin, and it would be unjust to slay you in this manner. But
|
|
since you live on the other side, I am a hero, and it is just."
|
|
|
|
294. On what shall man found the order of the world which he would
|
|
govern? Shall it be on the caprice of each individual? What confusion!
|
|
Shall it be on justice? Man is ignorant of it.
|
|
|
|
Certainly, had he known it, he would not have established this
|
|
maxim, the most general of all that obtain among men, that each should
|
|
follow the custom of his own country. The glory of true equity would
|
|
have brought all nations under subjection, and legislators would not
|
|
have taken as their model the fancies and caprice of Persians and
|
|
Germans instead of this unchanging justice. We would have seen it
|
|
set up in all the States on earth and in all times; whereas we see
|
|
neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with
|
|
change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all
|
|
jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth. Fundamental laws change
|
|
after a few years of possession; right has its epochs; the entry of
|
|
Saturn into the Lion marks to us the origin of such and such a
|
|
crime. A strange justice that is bounded by a river! Truth on this
|
|
side of the Pyrenees, error on the other side.
|
|
|
|
Men admit that justice does not consist in these customs, but that
|
|
it resides in natural laws, common to every country. They would
|
|
certainly maintain it obstinately, if reckless chance which has
|
|
distributed human laws had encountered even one which was universal;
|
|
but the farce is that the caprice of men has so many vagaries that
|
|
there is no such law.
|
|
|
|
Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place
|
|
among virtuous actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a
|
|
man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other
|
|
side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine,
|
|
though I have none with him?
|
|
|
|
Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted
|
|
has corrupted all. Nihil amplius nostrum est; quod nostrum dicimus,
|
|
artis est.* Ex senatus- consultis et plebiscitis crimina
|
|
exercentur.*(2) Ut olim vitiis, sic nunc legibus laboramus.*(3)
|
|
|
|
* Cicero, De finibus, V. 21. "There is no longer anything which is
|
|
ours; what I call ours is conventional."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Seneca, Epistles, xcv. "It is by virtue of
|
|
senatus-consultes and plebiscites that one commits crimes."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Tacitus, Annals, iii. 25. "Once we suffered from our vices;
|
|
today we suffer from our laws."
|
|
|
|
The result of this confusion is that one affirms the essence of
|
|
justice to be the authority of the legislator; another, the interest
|
|
of the sovereign; another, present custom, and this is the most
|
|
sure. Nothing, according to reason alone, is just itself; all
|
|
changes with time. Custom creates the whole of equity, for the
|
|
simple reason that it is accepted. It is the mystical foundation of
|
|
its authority; whoever carries it back to first principles destroys
|
|
it. Nothing is so faulty as those laws which correct faults. He who
|
|
obeys them because they are just obeys a justice which is imaginary
|
|
and not the essence of law; it is quite self-contained, it is law
|
|
and nothing more. He who will examine its motive will find it so
|
|
feeble and so trifling that, if he be not accustomed to contemplate
|
|
the wonders of human imagination, he will marvel that one century
|
|
has gained for it so much pomp and reverence. The art of opposition
|
|
and of revolution is to unsettle established customs, sounding them
|
|
even to their source, to point out their want of authority and
|
|
justice. We must, it is said, get back to the natural and
|
|
fundamental laws of the State, which an unjust custom has abolished.
|
|
It is a game certain to result in the loss of all; nothing will be
|
|
just on the balance. Yet people readily lend their ear to such
|
|
arguments. They shake off the yoke as soon as they recognise it; and
|
|
the great profit by their ruin and by that of these curious
|
|
investigators of accepted customs. But from a contrary mistake men
|
|
sometimes think they can justly do everything which is not without
|
|
an example. That is why the wisest of legislators said that it was
|
|
necessary to deceive men for their own good; and another, a good
|
|
politician, Cum veritatem qua liberetur ignoret, expedit quod
|
|
fallatur.* We must not see the fact of usurpation; law was once
|
|
introduced without reason, and has become reasonable. We must make
|
|
it regarded as authoritative, eternal, and conceal its origin, if we
|
|
do not wish that it should soon come to an end.
|
|
|
|
* Saint Augustine, City of God, iv. 27. "As he has ignored the
|
|
truth which frees, it is right he is mistaken."
|
|
|
|
295. Mine, thine.- "This dog is mine," said those poor children;
|
|
"that is my place in the sun." Here is the beginning and the image
|
|
of the usurpation of all the earth.
|
|
|
|
296. When the question for consideration is whether we ought to
|
|
make war and kill so many men- condemn so many Spaniards to death-
|
|
only one man is judge, and he is an interested party. There should
|
|
be a third, who is disinterested.
|
|
|
|
297. Veri juris.* - We have it no more; if we had it, we should
|
|
take conformity to the customs of a country as the rule of justice. It
|
|
is here that, not finding justice, we have found force, etc.
|
|
|
|
* Cicero, De officiis, iii, 17. "Concerning true law."
|
|
|
|
298. Justice, might.- It is right that what is just should be
|
|
obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.
|
|
Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is
|
|
tyrannical. Justice without might is gainsaid, because there are
|
|
always offenders; might without justice is condemned. We must then
|
|
combine justice and might and, for this end, make what is just strong,
|
|
or what is strong just.
|
|
|
|
Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognised and is
|
|
not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice, because might has
|
|
gainsaid justice and has declared that it is she herself who is
|
|
just. And thus, being unable to make what is just strong, we have made
|
|
what is strong just.
|
|
|
|
299. The only universal rules are the laws of the country in
|
|
ordinary affairs and of the majority in others. Whence comes this?
|
|
From the might which is in them. Hence it comes that kings, who have
|
|
power of a different kind, do not follow the majority of their
|
|
ministers.
|
|
|
|
No doubt equality of goods is just; but, being unable to cause
|
|
might to obey justice, men have made it just to obey might. Unable
|
|
to strengthen justice, they have justified might; so that the just and
|
|
the strong should unite, and there should be peace, which is the
|
|
sovereign good.
|
|
|
|
300. "When a strong man armed keepeth his goods, his goods are
|
|
in peace."
|
|
|
|
301. Why do we follow the majority? Is it because they have more
|
|
reason? No, because they have more power.
|
|
|
|
Why do we follow the ancient laws and opinions? Is it because they
|
|
are more sound? No, but because they are unique and remove from us the
|
|
root of difference.
|
|
|
|
302. ... It is the effect of might, not of custom. For those who
|
|
are capable of originality are few; the greater number will only
|
|
follow and refuse glory to those inventors who seek it by their
|
|
inventions. And if these are obstinate in their wish to obtain glory
|
|
and despise those who do not invent, the latter will call them
|
|
ridiculous names and will beat them with a stick. Let no one, then,
|
|
boast of his subtlety, or let him keep his complacency to himself.
|
|
|
|
303. Might is the sovereign of the world, and not opinion. But
|
|
opinion makes use of might. It is might that makes opinion. Gentleness
|
|
is beautiful in our opinion. Why? Because he who will dance on a
|
|
rope will be alone, and I win gather a stronger mob of people who will
|
|
say that it is unbecoming.
|
|
|
|
304. The cords which bind the respect of men to each other are
|
|
in general cords of necessity; for there must be different degrees,
|
|
all men wishing to rule, and not all being able to do so, but some
|
|
being able.
|
|
|
|
Let us, then, imagine we see society in the process of
|
|
formation. Men will doubtless fight till the stronger party
|
|
overcomes the weaker, and a dominant party is established. But when
|
|
this is once determined, the masters, who do not desire the
|
|
continuation of strife, then decree that the power which is in their
|
|
hands shall be transmitted as they please. Some place it in election
|
|
by the people, others in hereditary succession, etc.
|
|
|
|
And this is the point where imagination begins to play its part.
|
|
Till now power makes fact; now power is sustained by imagination in
|
|
a certain party, in France in the nobility, in Switzerland in the
|
|
burgesses, etc.
|
|
|
|
These cords which bind the respect of men to such and such an
|
|
individual are therefore the cords of imagination.
|
|
|
|
305. The Swiss are offended by being called gentlemen, and prove
|
|
themselves true plebeians in order to be thought worthy of great
|
|
office.
|
|
|
|
306. As duchies, kingships, and magistracies are real and
|
|
necessary, because might rules all, they exist everywhere and
|
|
always. But since only caprice makes such and such a one a ruler,
|
|
the principle is not constant, but subject to variation, etc.
|
|
|
|
307. The chancellor is grave and clothed with ornaments, for his
|
|
position is unreal. Not so the king; he has power and has nothing to
|
|
do with the imagination. Judges, physicians, etc., appeal only to
|
|
the imagination.
|
|
|
|
308. The habit of seeing kings accompanied by guards, drums,
|
|
officers, and all the paraphernalia which mechanically inspire respect
|
|
and awe, makes their countenance, when sometimes seen alone without
|
|
these accompaniments, impress respect and awe on their subjects;
|
|
because we cannot separate in thought their persons from the
|
|
surroundings with which we see them usually joined. And the world,
|
|
which knows not that this effect is the result of habit, believes that
|
|
it arises by a natural force, whence come these words, "The
|
|
character of Divinity is stamped on his countenance," etc.
|
|
|
|
309. Justice.- As custom determines what is agreeable, so also
|
|
does it determine justice.
|
|
|
|
310. King and tyrant.- I, too, will keep my thoughts secret.
|
|
|
|
I will take care on every journey.
|
|
|
|
Greatness of establishment, respect for establishment.
|
|
|
|
The pleasure of the great is the power to make people happy.
|
|
|
|
The property of riches is to be given liberally.
|
|
|
|
The property of each thing must be sought. The property of power
|
|
is to protect.
|
|
|
|
When force attacks humbug, when a private soldier takes the square
|
|
cap off a first president, and throws it out of the window.
|
|
|
|
311. The government founded on opinion and imagination reigns
|
|
for some time, and this government is pleasant and voluntary; that
|
|
founded on might lasts for ever. Thus opinion is the queen of the
|
|
world, but might is its tyrant.
|
|
|
|
312. Justice is what is established; and thus all our
|
|
established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without
|
|
examination, since they are established.
|
|
|
|
313. Sound opinions of the people.- Civil wars are the greatest of
|
|
evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward desert; for all
|
|
will say they are deserving. The evil we have to fear from a fool
|
|
who succeeds by right of birth, is neither so great nor so sure.
|
|
|
|
314. God has created all for Himself. He has bestowed upon Himself
|
|
the power of pain and pleasure.
|
|
|
|
You can apply it to God, or to yourself. If to God, the Gospel
|
|
is the rule. If to yourself, you will take the place of God. As God is
|
|
surrounded by persons full of charity, who ask of Him the blessings of
|
|
charity that are in His power, so... recognise, then, and learn that
|
|
you are only a king of lust, and take the ways of lust.
|
|
|
|
315. The reason of effects.- It is wonderful that men would not
|
|
have me honour a man clothed in brocade and followed by seven or eight
|
|
lackeys! Why! He will have me thrashed, if I do not salute him. This
|
|
custom is a farce. It is the same with a horse in fine trappings in
|
|
comparison with another! Montaigne is a fool not to see what
|
|
difference there is, to wonder at our finding any, and to ask the
|
|
reason. "Indeed," says he, "how comes it," etc....
|
|
|
|
316. Sound opinions of the people.- To be spruce is not altogether
|
|
foolish, for it proves that a great number of people work for one.
|
|
It shows by one's hair, that one has a valet, a perfumer, etc., by
|
|
one's band, thread, lace,... etc. Now it is not merely superficial nor
|
|
merely outward show to have many arms at command. The more arms one
|
|
has, the more powerful one is. To be spruce is to show one's power.
|
|
|
|
317. Deference means, "Put yourself to inconvenience." This is
|
|
apparently silly, but is quite right. For it is to say, "I would
|
|
indeed put myself to inconvenience if you required it, since indeed
|
|
I do so when it is of no service to you." Deference further serves
|
|
to distinguish the great. Now if deference was displayed by sitting in
|
|
an arm-chair, we should show deference to everybody, and so no
|
|
distinction would be made; but, being put to inconvenience, we
|
|
distinguish very well.
|
|
|
|
318. He has four lackeys.
|
|
|
|
319. How rightly do we distinguish men by external appearances
|
|
rather than by internal qualities! Which of us two shall have
|
|
precedence? Who will give place to the other? The least clever. But
|
|
I am as clever as he. We should have to fight over this. He has four
|
|
lackeys, and I have only one. This can be seen; we have only to count.
|
|
It falls to me to yield, and I am a fool if I contest the matter. By
|
|
this means we are at peace, which is the greatest of boons.
|
|
|
|
320. The most unreasonable things in the world become most
|
|
reasonable, because of the unruliness of men. What is less
|
|
reasonable than to choose the eldest son of a queen to rule a State?
|
|
We do not choose as captain of a ship the passenger who is of the best
|
|
family.
|
|
|
|
This law would be absurd and unjust; but, because men are so
|
|
themselves and always will be so, it becomes reasonable and just.
|
|
For whom will men choose, as the most virtuous and able? We at once
|
|
come to blows, as each claims to be the most virtuous and able. Let us
|
|
then attach this quality to something indisputable. This is the king's
|
|
eldest son. That is clear, and there is no dispute. Reason can do no
|
|
better, for civil war is the greatest of evils.
|
|
|
|
321. Children are astonished to see their comrades respected.
|
|
|
|
322. To be of noble birth is a great advantage. In eighteen
|
|
years it places a man within the select circle, known and respected,
|
|
as another have merited in fifty years. It is a gain of thirty years
|
|
without trouble.
|
|
|
|
323. What is the Ego?
|
|
|
|
Suppose a man puts himself at a window to see those who pass by.
|
|
If I pass by, can I say that he placed himself there to see me? No;
|
|
for he does not think of me in particular. But does he who loves
|
|
someone on account of beauty really love that person? No; for the
|
|
small-pox, which will kill beauty without killing the person, will
|
|
cause him to love her no more.
|
|
|
|
And if one loves me for my judgement, memory, he does not love me,
|
|
for I can lose these qualities without losing myself. Where, then,
|
|
is this Ego, if it be neither in the body nor in the soul? And how
|
|
love the body or the soul, except for these qualities which do not
|
|
constitute me, since they are perishable? For it is impossible and
|
|
would be unjust to love the soul of a person in the abstract and
|
|
whatever qualities might be therein. We never, then, love a person,
|
|
but only qualities.
|
|
|
|
Let us, then, jeer no more at those who are honoured on account of
|
|
rank and office; for we love a person only on account of borrowed
|
|
qualities.
|
|
|
|
324. The people have very sound opinions, for example:
|
|
|
|
1. In having preferred diversion and hunting to poetry. The
|
|
half-learned laugh at it, and glory in being above the folly of the
|
|
world; but the people are right for a reason which these do not
|
|
fathom.
|
|
|
|
2. In having distinguished men by external marks, as birth or
|
|
wealth. The world again exults in showing how unreasonable this is;
|
|
but it is very reasonable. Savages laugh at an infant king.
|
|
|
|
3. In being offended at a blow, or in desiring glory so much.
|
|
But it is very desirable on account of the other essential goods which
|
|
are joined to it; and a man who has received a blow, without resenting
|
|
it, is overwhelmed with taunts and indignities.
|
|
|
|
4. In working for the uncertain; in sailing on the sea; in walking
|
|
over a plank.
|
|
|
|
325. Montaigne is wrong. Custom should be followed only because it
|
|
is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just. But people follow
|
|
it for this sole reason, that they think it just. Otherwise they would
|
|
follow it no longer, although it were the custom; for they will only
|
|
submit to reason or justice. Custom without this would pass for
|
|
tyranny; but the sovereignty of reason and justice is no more
|
|
tyrannical than that of desire. They are principles natural to man.
|
|
|
|
It would, therefore, be right to obey laws and customs, because
|
|
they are laws; but we should know that there is neither truth nor
|
|
justice to introduce into them, that we know nothing of these, and
|
|
so must follow what is accepted. By this means we would never depart
|
|
from them. But people cannot accept this doctrine; and, as they
|
|
believe that truth can be found, and that it exists in law and custom,
|
|
they believe them and take their antiquity as a proof of their
|
|
truth, and not simply of their authority apart from truth. Thus they
|
|
obey laws, but they are liable to revolt when these are proved to be
|
|
valueless; and this can be shown of all, looked at from a certain
|
|
aspect.
|
|
|
|
326. Injustice.- It is dangerous to tell the people that the
|
|
laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just.
|
|
Therefore it is necessary to tell them at the same time that they must
|
|
obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not
|
|
because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all
|
|
sedition is prevented, if this can be made intelligible and it be
|
|
understood what is the proper definition of justice.
|
|
|
|
327. The world is a good judge of things, for it is in natural
|
|
ignorance, which is man's true state. The sciences have two extremes
|
|
which meet. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men
|
|
find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great
|
|
intellects, who, having run through all that men can know, find they
|
|
know nothing, and come back again to that same ignorance from which
|
|
they set out; but this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of
|
|
itself. Those between the two, who have departed from natural
|
|
ignorance and not been able to reach the other, have some smattering
|
|
of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise. These trouble the world
|
|
and are bad judges of everything. The people and the wise constitute
|
|
the world; these despise it, and are despised. They judge badly of
|
|
everything, and the world judges rightly of them.
|
|
|
|
328. The reason of effects.- Continual alternation of pro and con.
|
|
|
|
We have, then, shown that man is foolish, by the estimation he
|
|
makes of things which are not essential; and all these opinions are
|
|
destroyed. We have next shown that all these opinions are very sound
|
|
and that thus, since all these vanities are well founded, the people
|
|
are not so foolish as is said. And so we have destroyed the opinion
|
|
which destroyed that of the people.
|
|
|
|
But we must now destroy this last proposition and show that it
|
|
remains always true that the people are foolish, though their opinions
|
|
are sound because they do not perceive the truth where it is, and,
|
|
as they place it where it is not, their opinions are always very false
|
|
and very unsound.
|
|
|
|
329. The reason of effects.- The weakness of man is the reason why
|
|
so many things are considered fine, as to be good at playing the lute.
|
|
It is only an evil because of our weakness.
|
|
|
|
330. The power of kings is founded on the reason and on the
|
|
folly of the people, and specially on their folly. The greatest and
|
|
most important thing in the world has weakness for its foundation, and
|
|
this foundation is wonderfully sure; for there is nothing more sure
|
|
than this, that the people will be weak. What is based on sound reason
|
|
is very ill-founded as the estimate of wisdom.
|
|
|
|
331. We can only think of Plato and Aristotle in grand academic
|
|
robes. They were honest men, like others, laughing with their friends,
|
|
and, when they diverted themselves with writing their Laws and the
|
|
Politics, they did it as an amusement. That part of their life was the
|
|
least philosophic and the least serious; the most philosophic was to
|
|
live simply and quietly. If they wrote on politics, it was as if
|
|
laying down rules for a lunatic asylum; and if they presented the
|
|
appearance of speaking of a great matter, it was because they knew
|
|
that the madmen, to whom they spoke, thought they were kings and
|
|
emperors. They entered into their principles in order to make their
|
|
madness as little harmful as possible.
|
|
|
|
332. Tyranny consists in the desire of universal power beyond
|
|
its scope.
|
|
|
|
There are different assemblies of the strong, the fair, the
|
|
sensible, the pious, in which each man rules at home, not elsewhere.
|
|
And sometimes they meet, and the strong and the fair foolishly fight
|
|
as to who shall be master, for their mastery is of different kinds.
|
|
They do not understand one another, and their fault is the desire to
|
|
rule everywhere. Nothing can effect this, not even might, which is
|
|
of no use in the kingdom of the wise, and is only mistress of external
|
|
actions.
|
|
|
|
Tyranny-... So these expressions are false and tyrannical: "I am
|
|
fair, therefore I must be feared. I am strong, therefore I must be
|
|
loved. I am...
|
|
|
|
Tyranny is the wish to have in one way what can only be had in
|
|
another. We render different duties to different merits; the duty of
|
|
love to the pleasant; the duty of fear to the strong; duty of belief
|
|
to the learned.
|
|
|
|
We must render these duties; it is unjust to refuse them, and
|
|
unjust to ask others. And so it is false and tyrannical to say, "He is
|
|
not strong, therefore I will not esteem him; he is not able, therefore
|
|
I will not fear him."
|
|
|
|
333. Have you never seen people who, in order to complain of the
|
|
little fuss you make about them, parade before you the example of
|
|
great men who esteem them? In answer I reply to them, "Show me the
|
|
merit whereby you have charmed these persons, and I also will esteem
|
|
you."
|
|
|
|
334. The reason of effects.- Lust and force are the source of
|
|
all our actions; lust causes voluntary actions, force involuntary
|
|
ones.
|
|
|
|
335. The reason of effects.- It is, then, true to say that all the
|
|
world is under a delusion; for, although the opinions of the people
|
|
are sound, they are not so as conceived by them, since they think
|
|
the truth to be where it is not. Truth is indeed in their opinions,
|
|
but not at the point where they imagine it. Thus it is true that we
|
|
must honour noblemen, but not because noble birth is real superiority,
|
|
etc.
|
|
|
|
336. The reason of effects.- We must keep our thought secret,
|
|
and judge everything by it, while talking like the people.
|
|
|
|
337. The reason of effects. Degrees. The people honour persons
|
|
of high birth. The semi-learned despise them, saying that birth is not
|
|
a personal, but a chance superiority. The learned honour them, not for
|
|
popular reasons, but for secret reasons. Devout persons, who have more
|
|
zeal than knowledge, despise them, in spite of that consideration
|
|
which makes them honoured by the learned, because they judge them by a
|
|
new light which piety gives them. But perfect Christians honour them
|
|
by another and higher light. So arise a succession of opinions for and
|
|
against, according to the light one has.
|
|
|
|
338. True Christians, nevertheless, comply with folly, not because
|
|
they respect folly, but the command of God, who for the punishment
|
|
of men has made them subject to these follies. Omnis creatura subjecta
|
|
est vanitati.* Liberabitur.*(2) Thus Saint Thomas explains the passage
|
|
in Saint James on giving place to the rich, that, if they do it not in
|
|
the sight of God, they depart from the command of religion.
|
|
|
|
* Eccles. 3. 19. "for all is vanity."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Rom. 8. 20-21. "It shall be delivered."
|
|
|
|
SECTION VI
|
|
|
|
THE PHILOSOPHERS
|
|
|
|
339. I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head (for it
|
|
is only experience which teaches us that the head is more necessary
|
|
than feet). But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a
|
|
stone or a brute.
|
|
|
|
340. The arithmetical machine produces effects which approach
|
|
nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing
|
|
which would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.
|
|
|
|
341. The account of the pike and frog of Liancourt. They do it
|
|
always, and never otherwise, nor any other thing showing mind.
|
|
|
|
342. If an animal did by mind what it does by instinct, and if
|
|
it spoke by mind what it speaks by instinct, in hunting and in warning
|
|
its mates that the prey is found or lost, it would indeed also speak
|
|
in regard to those things which affect it closer, as example, "Gnaw me
|
|
this cord which is wounding me, and which I cannot reach."
|
|
|
|
343. The beak of the parrot, which it wipes, although it is clean.
|
|
|
|
344. Instinct and reason, marks of two natures.
|
|
|
|
345. Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in
|
|
disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other
|
|
we are fools.
|
|
|
|
346. Thought constitutes the greatness of man.
|
|
|
|
347. Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is
|
|
a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him.
|
|
A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe
|
|
were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which
|
|
killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which
|
|
the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this.
|
|
|
|
All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must
|
|
elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let
|
|
us endeavour, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.
|
|
|
|
348. A thinking reed.- It is not from space that I must seek my
|
|
dignity, but from the government of my thought. I shall have no more
|
|
if I possess worlds. By space the universe encompasses and swallows me
|
|
up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.
|
|
|
|
349. Immateriality of the soul- Philosophers who have mastered
|
|
their passions. What matter could do that?
|
|
|
|
350. The Stoics.- They conclude that what has been done once can
|
|
be done always, and that, since the desire of glory imparts some power
|
|
to those whom it possesses, others can do likewise. There are feverish
|
|
movements which health cannot imitate.
|
|
|
|
Epictetus concludes that, since there are consistent Christians,
|
|
every man can easily be so.
|
|
|
|
351. Those great spiritual efforts, which the soul sometimes
|
|
assays, are things on which it does not lay hold. It only leaps to
|
|
them, not as upon a throne, for ever, but merely for an instant.
|
|
|
|
352. The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured by his
|
|
efforts, but by his ordinary life.
|
|
|
|
353. I do not admire the excess of a virtue as of valour, except I
|
|
see at the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as in
|
|
Epaminondas, who had the greatest valour and the greatest kindness.
|
|
For otherwise it is not to rise, it is to fall. We do not display
|
|
greatness by going to one extreme, but in touching both at once, and
|
|
filling all the intervening space. But perhaps this is only a sudden
|
|
movement of the soul from one to the other extreme, and in fact it
|
|
is ever at one point only, as in the case of a firebrand. Be it so,
|
|
but at least this indicates agility if not expanse of soul.
|
|
|
|
354. Man's nature is not always to advance; it has its advances
|
|
and retreats.
|
|
|
|
Fever has its cold and hot fits; and the cold proves as well as
|
|
the hot the greatness of the fire of fever.
|
|
|
|
The discoveries of men from age to age turn out the same. The
|
|
kindness and the malice of the world in general are the same.
|
|
Plerumque gratae principibus vices.*
|
|
|
|
* Horace, Odes, III. xxix. 13. "Changes nearly always please the
|
|
great."
|
|
|
|
355. Continuous eloquence wearies.
|
|
|
|
Princes and kings sometimes play. They are not always on their
|
|
thrones. They weary there. Grandeur must be abandoned to be
|
|
appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is
|
|
agreeable, that we may get warm.
|
|
|
|
Nature acts by progress, itus et reditus. It goes and returns,
|
|
then advances further, then twice as much backwards, then more forward
|
|
than ever, etc.
|
|
|
|
The tide of the sea behaves in the same manner; and so,
|
|
apparently, does the sun in its course.
|
|
|
|
356. The nourishment of the body is little by little. Fullness
|
|
of nourishment and smallness of substance.
|
|
|
|
357. When we would pursue virtues to their extremes on either
|
|
side, vices present themselves, which insinuate themselves
|
|
insensibly there, in their insensible journey towards the infinitely
|
|
little; and vices present themselves in a crowd towards the infinitely
|
|
great, so that we lose ourselves in them and no longer see virtues. We
|
|
find fault with perfection itself.
|
|
|
|
358. Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing
|
|
is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.
|
|
|
|
359. We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength,
|
|
but by the balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright
|
|
amidst two contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into
|
|
the other.
|
|
|
|
360. What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish!
|
|
|
|
The Stoics lay down that all those who are not at the high
|
|
degree of wisdom are equally foolish and vicious, as those who are two
|
|
inches under water.
|
|
|
|
361. The sovereign good. Dispute about the sovereign good.- Ut sis
|
|
contentus temetipso et ex te nascentibus bonis.* There is a
|
|
contradiction, for in the end they advise suicide. Oh! What a happy
|
|
life, from which we are to free ourselves as from the plague!
|
|
|
|
* Seneca, Epistles, xx. 8. "In order that you are satisfied with
|
|
yourself and the good that is born from you."
|
|
|
|
362. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis...
|
|
|
|
To ask like passages.
|
|
|
|
363. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis scelera exercentur.
|
|
Seneca. 588.*
|
|
|
|
Nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo
|
|
philosophorum.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Quibusdam destinatis sententiis consecrati quae non probant
|
|
coguntur defendere.*(3)
|
|
|
|
Ut omnium rerum sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Id maxime quemque decet, quod est cujusque suum maxime.*(5)
|
|
|
|
Hos natura modos primum dedit.*(6)
|
|
|
|
* Montaigne, Essays, ii. 12.
|
|
|
|
*(2) Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 58. "There is nothing so absurd
|
|
that it has not been said by some philosopher."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Cicero, Disputationes Tusculanae, ii. 2. "Devoted to
|
|
certain fixed opinions, they are forced to defend what they hardly
|
|
approve."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Seneca, Epistles, cvi. "We suffer from an excess of
|
|
literature as from an excess of anything."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Cicero, De officiis, i. 31. "What suits each one best is what
|
|
is to him the most natural."
|
|
|
|
*(6) Virgil, The Georgics, ii. "Nature gave them first these
|
|
limits."
|
|
|
|
Paucis opus est litteris ad bonam mentem.*
|
|
|
|
Si quando turpe non sit, tamen non est non turpe quum id a
|
|
multitudine laudetur.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Mihi sic usus est, tibi ut opus est facto, fac.*(3)
|
|
|
|
* Seneca, Epistles, cvi. "Wisdom does not demand much teaching."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum. "What is not
|
|
shameful begins to become so when it is approved by the multitude."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, I. i. 21. "That is how I use
|
|
it; you must do as you wish."
|
|
|
|
364. Rarum est enim ut satis se quisque vereatur.*
|
|
|
|
Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes deos.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Nihil turpius quam cognitioni assertionem praecurrere.*(3)
|
|
|
|
Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire quid nesciam.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Melius non incipient.*(5)
|
|
|
|
* Quintillian, x. 7. "It is rare that one sufficiently respects
|
|
one's self."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, i. 4. "So many gods are busy
|
|
around a single head."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Cicero, Academica, i. 45. "Nothing is more shameful than to
|
|
affirm before knowing."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Cicero, Disputationes Tusculanae, i. 25. "I have not shame,
|
|
as they do, to admit that I know not what I do not know."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Seneca, Epistles, lxxii. "It is easier not to begin....
|
|
|
|
365. Thought.- All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought
|
|
is, therefore, by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It
|
|
must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that
|
|
nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it
|
|
is in its defects!
|
|
|
|
But what is this thought? How foolish it is!
|
|
|
|
366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so
|
|
independent that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din
|
|
about it. The noise of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its
|
|
thoughts; it needs only the creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do
|
|
not wonder if at present it does not reason well; a fly is buzzing
|
|
in its ears; that is enough to render it incapable of good
|
|
judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth, chase away
|
|
that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that powerful
|
|
intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical god! O
|
|
ridicolosissimo eroe!
|
|
|
|
367. The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from
|
|
acting, eat our body.
|
|
|
|
368. When it is said that heat is only the motions of certain
|
|
molecules, and light the conatus recedendi which we feel, it
|
|
astonishes us. What! Is pleasure only the ballet of our spirits? We
|
|
have conceived so different an idea of it! And these sensations seem
|
|
so removed from those others which we say are the same as those with
|
|
which we compare them! The sensation from the fire, that warmth
|
|
which affects us in a manner wholly different from touch, the
|
|
reception of sound and light, all this appears to us mysterious, and
|
|
yet it is material like the blow of a stone. It is true that the
|
|
smallness of the spirits which enter into the pores touches other
|
|
nerves, but there are always some nerves touched.
|
|
|
|
369. Memory is necessary for all the operations of reason.
|
|
|
|
370. Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no
|
|
art can keep or acquire them.
|
|
|
|
A thought has escaped me. I wanted to write it down. I write
|
|
instead that it has escaped me.
|
|
|
|
371. When I was small, I hugged my book; and because it
|
|
sometimes happened to me to... in believing I hugged it, I doubted....
|
|
|
|
372. In writing down my thought, it sometimes escapes me; but this
|
|
makes me remember my weakness, that I constantly forget. This is as
|
|
instructive to me as my forgotten thought; for I strive only to know
|
|
my nothingness.
|
|
|
|
373. Scepticism.- I shall here write my thoughts without order,
|
|
and not perhaps in unintentional confusion; that is true order,
|
|
which will always indicate my object by its very disorder. I should do
|
|
too much honour to my subject, if I treated it with order, since I
|
|
want to show that it is incapable of it.
|
|
|
|
374. What astonishes me most is to see that all the world is not
|
|
astonished at its own weakness. Men act seriously, and each follows
|
|
his own mode of life, not because it is in fact good to follow since
|
|
it is the custom, but as if each man knew certainly where reason and
|
|
justice are. They find themselves continually deceived, and, by a
|
|
comical humility, think it is their own fault and not that of the
|
|
art which they claim always to possess. But it is well there are so
|
|
many such people in the world, who are not sceptics for the glory of
|
|
scepticism, in order to show that man is quite capable of the most
|
|
extravagant opinions, since he is capable of believing that he is
|
|
not in a state of natural and inevitable weakness, but, on the
|
|
contrary, of natural wisdom.
|
|
|
|
Nothing fortifies scepticism more than that there are some who are
|
|
not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.
|
|
|
|
375. I have passed a great part of my life believing that there
|
|
was justice, and in this I was not mistaken; for there is justice
|
|
according as God has willed to reveal it to us. But I did not take
|
|
it so, and this is where I made a mistake; for I believed that our
|
|
justice was essentially just, and that I had that whereby to know
|
|
and judge of it. But I have so often found my right judgement at
|
|
fault, that at last I have come to distrust myself and then others.
|
|
I have seen changes in all nations and men, and thus, after many
|
|
changes of judgement regarding true justice, I have recognised that
|
|
our nature was but in continual change, and I have not changed
|
|
since; and if I changed, I would confirm my opinion.
|
|
|
|
The sceptic Arcesilaus, who became a dogmatist.
|
|
|
|
376. This sect derives more strength from its enemies than from
|
|
its friends; for the weakness of man is far more evident in those
|
|
who know it not than in those who know it.
|
|
|
|
377. Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain
|
|
and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause
|
|
believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of
|
|
chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism. We are only falsehood,
|
|
duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves
|
|
from ourselves.
|
|
|
|
378. Scepticism.- Excess, like defect of intellect, is accused
|
|
of madness. Nothing is good but mediocrity. The majority has settled
|
|
that and finds fault with him who escapes it at whichever end. I
|
|
will not oppose it. I quite consent to put there, and refuse to be
|
|
at the lower end, not because it is low, but because it is an end; for
|
|
I would likewise refuse to be placed at the top. To leave the mean
|
|
is to abandon humanity. The greatness of the human soul consists in
|
|
knowing how to preserve the mean. So far from greatness consisting
|
|
in leaving it, it consists in not leaving it.
|
|
|
|
379. It is not good to have too much liberty. It is not good to
|
|
have all one wants.
|
|
|
|
380. All good maxims are in the world. We only need to apply them.
|
|
For instance, we do not doubt that we ought to risk our lives in
|
|
defence of the public good; but for religion, no.
|
|
|
|
It is true there must be inequality among men; but if this be
|
|
conceded, the door is opened not only to the highest power, but to the
|
|
highest tyranny.
|
|
|
|
We must relax our minds a little; but this opens the door to the
|
|
greatest debauchery. Let us mark the limits. There are no limits in
|
|
things. laws would put them there, and the mind cannot suffer it.
|
|
|
|
381. When we are too young, we do not judge well; so, also, when
|
|
we are too old. If we do not think enough, or if we think too much
|
|
on any matter, we get obstinate and infatuated with it. If one
|
|
considers one's work immediately after having done it, one is entirely
|
|
prepossessed in its favour; by delaying too long, one can no longer
|
|
enter into the spirit of it. So with pictures seen from too far or too
|
|
near; there is but one exact point which is the true place wherefrom
|
|
to look at them: the rest are too near, too far, too high or too
|
|
low. Perspective determines that point in the art of painting. But who
|
|
shall determine it in truth and morality?
|
|
|
|
382. When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated,
|
|
as in a ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He
|
|
who stops draws attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point.
|
|
|
|
383. The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from
|
|
nature's path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship
|
|
think those move who are on the shore. On all sides the language is
|
|
similar. We must have a fixed point in order to judge. The harbour
|
|
decides for those who are in a ship; but where shall we find a harbour
|
|
in morality?
|
|
|
|
384. Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which
|
|
are certain are contradicted; several things which are false pass
|
|
without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the
|
|
want of contradiction a sign of truth.
|
|
|
|
385. Scepticism.- Each thing here is partly true and partly false.
|
|
Essential truth is not so; it is altogether pure and altogether
|
|
true. This mixture dishonours and annihilates it. Nothing is purely
|
|
true, and thus nothing is true, meaning by that pure truth. You will
|
|
say it is true that homicide is wrong. Yes; for we know well the wrong
|
|
and the false. But what will you say is good? Chastity? I say no;
|
|
for the world would come to an end. Marriage? No; continence is
|
|
better. Not to kill? No; for lawlessness would be horrible, and the
|
|
wicked would kill all the good. To kill? No; for that destroys nature.
|
|
We possess truth and goodness only in part, and mingled with falsehood
|
|
and evil.
|
|
|
|
386. If we dreamt the same thing every night, it would affect us
|
|
as much as the objects we see every day. And if an artisan were sure
|
|
to dream every night for twelve hours' duration that he was a king,
|
|
I believe he would be almost as happy as a king, who should dream
|
|
every night for twelve hours on end that he was an artisan.
|
|
|
|
If we were to dream every night that we were pursued by enemies
|
|
and harassed by these painful phantoms, or that we passed every day in
|
|
different occupations, as in making a voyage, we should suffer
|
|
almost as much as if it were real, and should fear to sleep, as we
|
|
fear to wake when we dread in fact to enter on such mishaps. And,
|
|
indeed, it would cause pretty nearly the same discomforts as the
|
|
reality.
|
|
|
|
But since dreams are all different, and each single one is
|
|
diversified, what is seen in them affects us much less than what we
|
|
see when awake, because of its continuity, which is not, however, so
|
|
continuous and level as not to change too; but it changes less
|
|
abruptly, except rarely, as when we travel, and then we say, "It seems
|
|
to me I am dreaming." For life is a dream a little less inconstant.
|
|
|
|
387. It may be that there are true demonstrations; but this is not
|
|
certain. Thus, this proves nothing else but that it is not certain
|
|
that all is uncertain, to the glory of scepticism.
|
|
|
|
388. Good sense.- They are compelled to say, "You are not acting
|
|
in good faith; we are not asleep," etc. How I love to see this proud
|
|
reason humiliated and suppliant! For this is not the language of a man
|
|
whose right is disputed, and who defends it with the power of armed
|
|
hands. He is not foolish enough to declare that men are not acting
|
|
in good faith, but he punishes this bad faith with force.
|
|
|
|
389. Ecclesiastes shows that man without God is in total ignorance
|
|
and inevitable misery. For it is wretched to have the wish, but not
|
|
the power. Now he would be happy and assured of some truth, and yet he
|
|
can neither know, nor desire not to know. He cannot even doubt.
|
|
|
|
390. My God! How foolish this talk is! "Would God have made the
|
|
world to damn it? Would He ask so much from persons so weak"? etc.
|
|
Scepticism is the cure for this evil, and will take down this vanity.
|
|
|
|
391. Conversation.- Great words: Religion, I deny it.
|
|
|
|
Conversation.- Scepticism helps religion.
|
|
|
|
392. Against Scepticism.- ... It is, then, a strange fact that
|
|
we cannot define these things without obscuring them, while we speak
|
|
of them with all assurance. We assume that all conceive of them in the
|
|
same way; but we assume it quite gratuitously, for we have no proof of
|
|
it. I see, in truth, that the same words are applied on the same
|
|
occasions, and that every time two men see a body change its place,
|
|
they both express their view of this same fact by the same word,
|
|
both saying that it has moved; and from this conformity of application
|
|
we derive a strong conviction of a conformity of ideas. But this is
|
|
not absolutely or finally convincing though there is enough to support
|
|
a bet on the affirmative, since we know that we often draw the same
|
|
conclusions from different premises.
|
|
|
|
This is enough, at least, to obscure the matter; not that it
|
|
completely extinguishes the natural light which assures us of these
|
|
things. The academicians would have won. But this dulls it and
|
|
troubles the dogmatists to the glory of the sceptical crowd, which
|
|
consists in this doubtful ambiguity and in a certain doubtful
|
|
dimness from which our doubts cannot take away all the clearness,
|
|
nor our own natural lights chase away all the darkness.
|
|
|
|
393. It is a singular thing to consider that there are people in
|
|
the world who, having renounced all the laws of God and nature, have
|
|
made laws for themselves which they strictly obey, as, for instance,
|
|
the soldiers of Mahomet, robbers, heretics, etc. It is the same with
|
|
logicians. It seems that their license must be without any limits or
|
|
barriers, since they have broken through so many that are so just
|
|
and sacred.
|
|
|
|
394. All the principles of sceptics, stoics, atheists, etc., are
|
|
true. But their conclusions are false, because the opposite principles
|
|
are also true.
|
|
|
|
395. Instinct, reason.- We have an incapacity of proof,
|
|
insurmountable by all dogmatism. We have an idea of truth,
|
|
invincible to all scepticism.
|
|
|
|
396. Two things instruct man about his whole nature; instinct
|
|
and experience.
|
|
|
|
397. The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to
|
|
be miserable. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is
|
|
then being miserable to know oneself to be miserable; but it is also
|
|
being great to know that one is miserable.
|
|
|
|
398. All these same miseries prove man's greatness. They are the
|
|
miseries of a great lord, of a deposed king.
|
|
|
|
399. We are not miserable without feeling it. A ruined house is
|
|
not miserable. Man only is miserable. Ego vir videns.*
|
|
|
|
* Lam. 3. 1. "I am the man that hath seen."
|
|
|
|
400. The greatness of man.- We have so great an idea of the soul
|
|
of man that we cannot endure being despised, or not being esteemed
|
|
by any soul; and all the happiness of men consists in this esteem.
|
|
|
|
401. Glory.- The brutes do not admire each other. A horse does not
|
|
admire his companion. Not that there is no rivalry between them in a
|
|
race, but that is of no consequence; for, when in the stable, the
|
|
heaviest and most ill-formed does not give up his oats to another,
|
|
as men would have others do to them. Their virtue is satisfied with
|
|
itself.
|
|
|
|
402. The greatness of man even in his lust, to have known how to
|
|
extract from it a wonderful code, and to have drawn from it a
|
|
picture of benevolence.
|
|
|
|
403. Greatness.- The reasons of effects indicate the greatness
|
|
of man, in having extracted so fair an order from lust.
|
|
|
|
404. The greatest baseness of man is the pursuit of glory. But
|
|
is the greatest mark of his excellence; for whatever possessions he
|
|
may have on earth, whatever health and essential comfort, he is not
|
|
satisfied if he has not the esteem of men. He values human reason so
|
|
highly that, whatever advantages he may have on earth, he is not
|
|
content if he is not also ranked highly in the judgement of man.
|
|
This is the finest position in the world. Nothing can turn him from
|
|
that desire, which is the most indelible quality of man's heart.
|
|
|
|
And those who must despise men, and put them on a level with the
|
|
brutes, yet wish to be admired and believed by men, and contradict
|
|
themselves by their own feelings; their nature, which is stronger than
|
|
all, convincing them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason
|
|
convinces them of their baseness.
|
|
|
|
405. Contradiction.- Pride counterbalancing all miseries. Man
|
|
either hides his miseries, or, if he disclose them, glories in knowing
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
406. Pride counterbalances and takes away all miseries. Here is
|
|
a strange monster and a very plain aberration. He is fallen from his
|
|
place and is anxiously seeking it. This is what all men do. Let us see
|
|
who will have found it.
|
|
|
|
407. When malice has reason on its side, it becomes proud and
|
|
parades reason in all its splendour. When austerity or stern choice
|
|
has not arrived at the true good and must needs return to follow
|
|
nature, it becomes proud by reason of this return.
|
|
|
|
408. Evil is easy, and has infinite forms; good is almost
|
|
unique. But a certain kind of evil is as difficult to find as what
|
|
we call good; and often on this account such particular evil gets
|
|
passed off as good. An extraordinary greatness of soul is needed in
|
|
order to attain to it as well as to good.
|
|
|
|
409. The greatness of man.- The greatness of man is so evident
|
|
that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is
|
|
nature, we call in man wretchedness, by which we recognise that, his
|
|
nature being now like that of animals, he has fallen from a better
|
|
nature which once was his.
|
|
|
|
For who is unhappy at not being a king, except a deposed king? Was
|
|
Paulus Aemilius unhappy at being no longer consul? On the contrary,
|
|
everybody thought him happy in having been consul, because the
|
|
office could only be held for a time. But men thought Perseus so
|
|
unhappy in being no longer king, because the condition of kingship
|
|
implied his being always king, that they thought it strange that he
|
|
endured life. Who is unhappy at only having one mouth? And who is
|
|
not unhappy at having only one eye? Probably no man ever ventured to
|
|
mourn at not having three eyes. But any one is inconsolable at
|
|
having none.
|
|
|
|
410. Perseus, King of Macedon.- Paulus Aemilius reproached Perseus
|
|
for not killing himself.
|
|
|
|
411. Notwithstanding the sight of all our miseries, which press
|
|
upon us and take us by the throat, we have an instinct which we cannot
|
|
repress and which lifts us up.
|
|
|
|
412. There is internal war in man between reason and the passions.
|
|
|
|
If he had only reason without passions...
|
|
|
|
If he had only passions without reason...
|
|
|
|
But having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be
|
|
at peace with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he
|
|
is always divided against and opposed to himself.
|
|
|
|
413. This internal war of reason against the passions has made a
|
|
division of those who would have peace into two sects. The first would
|
|
renounce their passions and become gods; the others would renounce
|
|
reason and become brute beasts. (Des Barreaux.) But neither can do so,
|
|
and reason still remains, to condemn the vileness and injustice of the
|
|
passions and to trouble the repose of those who abandon themselves
|
|
to them; and the passions keep always alive in those who would
|
|
renounce them.
|
|
|
|
414. Men are so necessarily mad that not to be mad would amount to
|
|
another form of madness.
|
|
|
|
415. The nature of man may be viewed in two ways: the one
|
|
according to its end, and then he is great and incomparable; the other
|
|
according to the multitude, just as we judge of the nature of the
|
|
horse and the dog, popularly, by seeing its fleetness, et animum
|
|
arcendi; and then man is abject and vile. These are the two ways which
|
|
make us judge of him differently and which occasion such disputes
|
|
among philosophers. For one denies the assumption of the other. One
|
|
says, "He is not born for this end, for all his actions are
|
|
repugnant to it." The other says, "He forsakes his end, when he does
|
|
these base actions."
|
|
|
|
416. For Port-Royal. Greatness and wretchedness.- Wretchedness
|
|
being deduced from greatness, and greatness from wretchedness, some
|
|
have inferred man's wretchedness all the more because they have
|
|
taken his greatness as a proof of it, and others have inferred his
|
|
greatness with all the more force, because they have inferred it
|
|
from his very wretchedness. All that the one party has been able to
|
|
say in proof of his greatness has only served as an argument of his
|
|
wretchedness to the others, because the greater our fall, the more
|
|
wretched we are, and vice versa. The one party is brought back to
|
|
the other in an endless circle, it being certain that, in proportion
|
|
as men possess light, they discover both the greatness and the
|
|
wretchedness of man. In a word, man knows that he is wretched. He is
|
|
therefore wretched, because be is so; but he is really great because
|
|
he knows it.
|
|
|
|
417. This twofold nature of man is so evident that some have
|
|
thought that we had two souls. A single subject seemed to them
|
|
incapable of such sudden variations from unmeasured presumption to a
|
|
dreadful dejection of heart.
|
|
|
|
418. It is dangerous to make man see too clearly his equality with
|
|
the brutes without showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous
|
|
to make his see his greatness too clearly, apart from his vileness. It
|
|
is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. But it is
|
|
very advantageous to show him both. Man must not think that he is on a
|
|
level either with the brutes or with the angels, nor must he be
|
|
ignorant of both sides of his nature; but he must know both.
|
|
|
|
419. I will not allow man to depend upon himself, or upon another,
|
|
to the end that, being without a resting-place and without repose.
|
|
|
|
420. If he exalt himself, I humble him; if he humble himself, I
|
|
exalt him; and I always contradict him, till he understands that he is
|
|
an incomprehensible monster.
|
|
|
|
421. I blame equally those who choose to praise man, those who
|
|
choose to blame him, and those who choose to amuse themselves; and I
|
|
can only approve of those who seek with lamentation.
|
|
|
|
422. It is good to be tired and wearied by the vain search after
|
|
the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
423. Contraries. After having shown the vileness and the greatness
|
|
of man.- Let man now know his value. Let him love himself, for there
|
|
is in him a nature capable of good; but let him not for this reason
|
|
love the vileness which is in him. Let him despise himself, for this
|
|
capacity is barren; but let him not therefore despise this natural
|
|
capacity. Let him hate himself, let him love himself; he has within
|
|
him the capacity of knowing the truth and of being happy, but he
|
|
possesses no truth, either constant or satisfactory.
|
|
|
|
I would then lead man to the desire of finding truth; to be free
|
|
from passions, and ready to follow it where he may find it, knowing
|
|
how much his knowledge is obscured by the passions. I would, indeed,
|
|
that he should hate in himself the lust which determined his will by
|
|
itself so that it may not blind him in making his choice, and may
|
|
not hinder him when he has chosen.
|
|
|
|
424. All these contradictions, which seem most to keep me from the
|
|
knowledge of religion, have led me most quickly to the true one.
|
|
|
|
SECTION VII
|
|
|
|
MORALITY AND DOCTRINE
|
|
|
|
425. Second part.- That man without faith cannot know the true
|
|
good, nor justice.
|
|
|
|
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever
|
|
different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of
|
|
some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in
|
|
both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least
|
|
step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every
|
|
man, even of those who hang themselves.
|
|
|
|
And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without
|
|
faith has reached the point to which all continually look. All
|
|
complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young,
|
|
strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all
|
|
countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.
|
|
|
|
A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly
|
|
convince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But
|
|
example teaches us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that
|
|
there is not some slight difference; and hence we expect that our hope
|
|
will not be deceived on this occasion as before. And thus, while the
|
|
present never satisfies us, experience dupes us and, from misfortune
|
|
to misfortune, leads us to death, their eternal crown.
|
|
|
|
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim
|
|
to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which
|
|
there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in
|
|
vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things
|
|
absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are
|
|
all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an
|
|
infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. He
|
|
only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange
|
|
thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable
|
|
in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the elements,
|
|
plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever,
|
|
pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has
|
|
lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even
|
|
his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the
|
|
whole course of nature.
|
|
|
|
Some seek good in authority, others in scientific research, others
|
|
in pleasure. Others, who are in fact nearer the truth, have considered
|
|
it necessary that the universal good, which all men desire, should not
|
|
consist in any of the particular things which can only be possessed by
|
|
one man, and which, when shared, afflict their possessors more by
|
|
the want of the part he has not than they please him by the possession
|
|
of what he has. They have learned that the true good should be such as
|
|
all can possess at once, without diminution and without envy, and
|
|
which no one can lose against his will. And their reason is that
|
|
this desire, being natural to man, since it is necessarily in all, and
|
|
that it is impossible not to have it, they infer from it...
|
|
|
|
426. True nature being lost, everything becomes its own nature; as
|
|
the true good being lost, everything becomes its own true good.
|
|
|
|
427. Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has
|
|
plainly gone astray and fallen from his true place without being
|
|
able to find it again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully
|
|
everywhere in impenetrable darkness.
|
|
|
|
428. If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do not
|
|
despise Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known these
|
|
contradictions, esteem Scripture.
|
|
|
|
429. The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes and
|
|
in even worshipping them.
|
|
e 430. For Port-Royal. The beginning, after having explained the
|
|
incomprehensibility.- The greatness and the wretchedness of man are so
|
|
evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that
|
|
there is in man some great source of greatness and a great source of
|
|
wretchedness. It must then give us a reason for these astonishing
|
|
contradictions.
|
|
|
|
In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a
|
|
God; that we ought to love Him; that our true happiness is to be in
|
|
Him, and our sole evil to be separated from Him; it must recognise
|
|
that we are full of darkness which hinders us from knowing and
|
|
loving Him; and that thus, as our duties compel us to love God, and
|
|
our lusts turn us away from Him, we are full of unrighteousness. It
|
|
must give us an explanation of our opposition to God and to our own
|
|
good. It must teach us the remedies for these infirmities and the
|
|
means of obtaining these remedies. Let us, therefore, examine all
|
|
the religions of the world and see if there be any other than the
|
|
Christian which is sufficient for this purpose.
|
|
|
|
Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward, as the
|
|
chief good, the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good?
|
|
Have they found the remedy for our ills? Is man's pride cured by
|
|
placing him on an equality with God? Have those who have made us equal
|
|
to the brutes, or the Mohammedans who have offered us earthly
|
|
pleasures as the chief good even in eternity, produced the remedy
|
|
for our lusts? What religion, then, will teach us to cure pride and
|
|
lust? What religion will, in fact, teach us our good, our duties,
|
|
the weakness which turns us from them, the cause of this weakness, the
|
|
remedies which can cure it, and the means of obtaining these remedies?
|
|
|
|
All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see what
|
|
the wisdom of God will do.
|
|
|
|
"Expect neither truth," she says, "nor consolation from men. I
|
|
am she who formed you, and who alone can teach you what you are. But
|
|
you are now no longer in the state in which I formed you. I created
|
|
man holy, innocent, perfect. I filled him with light and intelligence.
|
|
I communicated to him my glory and my wonders. The eye of man saw then
|
|
the majesty of God. He was not then in the darkness which blinds
|
|
him, nor subject to mortality and the woes which afflict him. But he
|
|
has not been able to sustain so great glory without falling into
|
|
pride. He wanted to make himself his own centre and independent of
|
|
my help. He withdrew himself from my rule; and, on his making
|
|
himself equal to me by the desire of finding his happiness in himself,
|
|
I abandoned him to himself. And setting in revolt the creatures that
|
|
were subject to him, I made them his enemies; so that man is now
|
|
become like the brutes and so estranged from me that there scarce
|
|
remains to him a dim vision of his Author. So far has all his
|
|
knowledge been extinguished or disturbed! The senses, independent of
|
|
reason, and often the masters of reason, have led him into pursuit
|
|
of pleasure. All creatures either torment or tempt him, and domineer
|
|
over him, either subduing him by their strength, or fascinating him by
|
|
their charms, a tyranny more awful and more imperious.
|
|
|
|
"Such is the state in which men now are. There remains to them
|
|
some feeble instinct of the happiness of their former state; and
|
|
they are plunged in the evils of their blindness and their lust, which
|
|
have become their second nature.
|
|
|
|
"From this principle which I disclose to you, you can recognize
|
|
the cause of those contradictions which have astonished all men and
|
|
have divided them into parties holding so different views. Observe,
|
|
now, all the feelings of greatness and glory which the experience of
|
|
so many woes cannot stifle, and see if the cause of them must not be
|
|
in another nature.
|
|
|
|
For Port-Royal to-morrow (Prosopopaea).- "It is in vain, O men,
|
|
that you seek within yourselves the remedy for your ills. All your
|
|
light can only reach the knowledge that not in yourselves will you
|
|
find truth or good. The philosophers have promised you that, and you
|
|
have been unable to do it. They neither know what is your true good,
|
|
nor what is your true state. How could they have given remedies for
|
|
your ills, when they did not even know them? Your chief maladies are
|
|
pride, which takes you away from God, and lust, which binds you to
|
|
earth; and they have done nothing else but cherish one or other of
|
|
these diseases. If they gave you God as an end, it was only to
|
|
administer to your pride; they made you think that you are by nature
|
|
like Him and conformed to Him. And those who saw the absurdity of this
|
|
claim put you on another precipice, by making you understand that your
|
|
nature was like that of the brutes, and led you to seek your good in
|
|
the lusts which are shared by the animals. This is not the way to cure
|
|
you of your unrighteousness, which these wise men never knew. I
|
|
alone can make you understand who you are...."
|
|
|
|
Adam, Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If you
|
|
are humbled, it is by penitence, not by nature.
|
|
|
|
Thus this double capacity...
|
|
|
|
You are not in the state of your creation.
|
|
|
|
As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not to
|
|
recognise them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, and
|
|
see if you do not find the lively characteristics of these two
|
|
natures. Could so many contradictions be found in a simple subject?
|
|
|
|
Incomprehensible. Not all that is incomprehensible ceases to
|
|
exist. Infinite number. An infinite space equal to a finite.
|
|
|
|
Incredible that God should unite Himself to us. This consideration
|
|
is drawn only from the sight of our vileness. But if you are quite
|
|
sincere over it, follow it as far as I have done and recognise that we
|
|
are indeed so vile that we are incapable in ourselves of knowing if
|
|
His mercy cannot make us capable of Him. For I would know how this
|
|
animal, who knows himself to be so weak, has the right to measure
|
|
the mercy of God and set limits to it, suggested by his own fancy.
|
|
He has so little knowledge of what God is that he does not know what
|
|
he himself is, and, completely disturbed at the sight of his own
|
|
state, dares to say that God cannot make him capable of communion with
|
|
Him.
|
|
|
|
But I would ask him if God demands anything else from him than the
|
|
knowledge and love of Him, and why, since his nature is capable of
|
|
love and knowledge, he believes that God cannot make Himself known and
|
|
loved by him. Doubtless he knows at least that he exists, and that
|
|
he loves something. Therefore, if he sees anything in the darkness
|
|
wherein he is, and if he finds some object of his love among the
|
|
things on earth, why, if God impart to him some ray of His essence,
|
|
will he not be capable of knowing and of loving Him in the manner in
|
|
which it shall please Him to communicate Himself to us? There must,
|
|
then, be certainly an intolerable presumption in arguments of this
|
|
sort, although they seem founded on an apparent humility, which is
|
|
neither sincere nor reasonable, if it does not make us admit that, not
|
|
knowing of ourselves what we are, we can only learn it from God.
|
|
|
|
"I do not mean that you should submit your belief to me without
|
|
reason, and I do not aspire to overcome you by tyranny. In fact, I
|
|
do not claim to give you a reason for everything. And to reconcile
|
|
these contradictions, I intend to make you see clearly, by
|
|
convincing proofs, those divine signs in me, which may convince you of
|
|
what I am, and may gain authority for me by wonders and proofs which
|
|
you cannot reject; so that you may then believe without... the
|
|
things which I teach you, since you will find no other ground for
|
|
rejecting them, except that you cannot know of yourselves if they
|
|
are true or not.
|
|
|
|
"God has willed to redeem men and to open salvation to those who
|
|
seek it. But men render themselves so unworthy of it that it is
|
|
right that God should refuse to some, because of their obduracy,
|
|
what He grants others from a compassion which is not due to them. If
|
|
He had willed to overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened, He could
|
|
have done so by revealing Himself so manifestly to them that they
|
|
could not have doubted of the truth of His essence; as it will
|
|
appear at the last day, with such thunders and such a convulsion of
|
|
nature that the dead will rise again, and the blindest will see Him.
|
|
|
|
"It is not in this manner that He has willed to appear in His
|
|
advent of mercy, because, as so many make themselves unworthy of His
|
|
mercy, He has willed to leave them in the loss of the good which
|
|
they do not want. It was not, then, right that He should appear in a
|
|
manner manifestly divine, and completely capable of convincing all
|
|
men; but it was also not right that He should come in so hidden a
|
|
manner that He could not be known by those who should sincerely seek
|
|
Him. He has willed to make himself quite recognisable by those; and
|
|
thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their
|
|
heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their
|
|
heart, He so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given
|
|
signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, and not to those
|
|
who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to
|
|
see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition."
|
|
|
|
431. No other religion has recognised that man is the most
|
|
excellent creature. Some, which have quite recognised the reality of
|
|
his excellence, have considered as mean and ungrateful the low
|
|
opinions which men naturally have of themselves; and others, which
|
|
have thoroughly recognised how real is this vileness, have treated
|
|
with proud ridicule those feelings of greatness, which are equally
|
|
natural to man.
|
|
|
|
"Lift your eyes to God," say the first; "see Him whom you resemble
|
|
and who has created you to worship Him. You can make yourselves like
|
|
unto Him; wisdom will make you equal to Him, if you will follow it."
|
|
"Raise your heads, free men," says Epictetus. And others say, "Bend
|
|
your eyes to the earth, wretched worm that you are, and consider the
|
|
brutes whose companion you are."
|
|
|
|
What, then, will man become? Will he be equal to God or the
|
|
brutes? What a frightful difference! What, then, shall we be? Who does
|
|
not see from all this that man has gone astray, that he has fallen
|
|
from his place, that he anxiously seeks it, that he cannot find it
|
|
again? And who shall then direct him to it? The greatest men have
|
|
failed.
|
|
|
|
432. Scepticism is true; for, after all, men before Jesus Christ
|
|
did not know where they were, nor whether they were great or small.
|
|
And those who have said the one or the other knew nothing about it and
|
|
guessed without reason and by chance. They also erred always in
|
|
excluding the one or the other.
|
|
|
|
Quod ergo ignorantes, quaeritis, religio annuntiat vobis.*
|
|
|
|
* "What you seek without knowing, religion will announce to
|
|
you." Pascal misquotes Acts 17. 23. "Whom therefore ye ignorantly
|
|
worship, him declare I unto you."
|
|
|
|
433. After having understood the whole nature of man.- That a
|
|
religion may be true, it must have knowledge of our nature. It ought
|
|
to know its greatness and littleness, and the reason of both. What
|
|
religion but the Christian has known this?
|
|
|
|
434. The chief arguments of the sceptics- I pass over the lesser
|
|
ones- are that we have no certainty of the truth of these principles
|
|
apart from faith and revelation, except in so far as we naturally
|
|
perceive them in ourselves. Now this natural intuition is not a
|
|
convincing proof of their truth; since, having no certainty, apart
|
|
from faith, whether man was created by a good God, or by a wicked
|
|
demon, or by chance, it is doubtful whether these principles given
|
|
to us are true, or false, or uncertain, according to our origin.
|
|
Again, no person is certain, apart from faith, whether he is awake
|
|
or sleeps, seeing that during sleep we believe that we are awake as
|
|
firmly as we do when we are awake; we believe that we see space,
|
|
figure, and motion; we are aware of the passage of time, we measure
|
|
it; and in fact we act as if we were awake. So that half of our life
|
|
being passed in sleep, we have on our own admission no idea of
|
|
truth, whatever we may imagine. As all our intuitions are, then,
|
|
illusions, who knows whether the other half of our life, in which we
|
|
think we are awake, is not another sleep a little different from the
|
|
former, from which we awake when we suppose ourselves asleep?
|
|
|
|
And who doubts that, if we dreamt in company, and the dreams
|
|
chanced to agree, which is common enough, and if we were always
|
|
alone when awake, we should believe that matters were reversed? In
|
|
short, as we often dream that we dream, heaping dream upon dream,
|
|
may it not be that this half of our life, wherein we think ourselves
|
|
awake, is itself only a dream on which the others are grafted, from
|
|
which we wake at death, during which we have as few principles of
|
|
truth and good as during natural sleep, these different thoughts which
|
|
disturb us being perhaps only illusions like the flight of time and
|
|
the vain fancies of our dreams?
|
|
|
|
These are the chief arguments on one side and the other.
|
|
|
|
I omit minor ones, such as the sceptical talk against the
|
|
impressions of custom, education, manners, country and the like.
|
|
Though these influence the majority of common folk, who dogmatise only
|
|
on shallow foundations, they are upset by the least breath of the
|
|
sceptics. We have only to see their books if we are not sufficiently
|
|
convinced of this, and we shall very quickly become so, perhaps too
|
|
much.
|
|
|
|
I notice the only strong point of the dogmatists, namely, that,
|
|
speaking in good faith and sincerely, we cannot doubt natural
|
|
principles. Against this the sceptics set up in one word the
|
|
uncertainty of our origin, which includes that of our nature. The
|
|
dogmatists have been trying to answer this objection ever since the
|
|
world began.
|
|
|
|
So there is open war among men, in which each must take a part and
|
|
side either with dogmatism or scepticism. For he who thinks to
|
|
remain neutral is above all a sceptic. This neutrality is the
|
|
essence of the sect; he who is not against them is essentially for
|
|
them. In this appears their advantage. They are not for themselves;
|
|
they are neutral, indifferent, in suspense as to all things, even
|
|
themselves being no exception.
|
|
|
|
What, then, shall man do in this state? Shall he doubt everything?
|
|
Shall he doubt whether he is awake, whether he is being pinched, or
|
|
whether he is being burned? Shall he doubt whether he doubts? Shall he
|
|
doubt whether he exists? We cannot go so far as that; and I lay it
|
|
down as a fact that there never has been a real complete sceptic.
|
|
Nature sustains our feeble reason and prevents it raving to this
|
|
extent.
|
|
|
|
Shall he, then, say, on the contrary, that he certainly
|
|
possesses truth- he who, when pressed ever so little, can show no
|
|
title to it and is forced to let go his hold?
|
|
|
|
What a chimera, then, is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what
|
|
a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things,
|
|
imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty
|
|
and error; the pride and refuse of the universe!
|
|
|
|
Who will unravel this tangle? Nature confutes the sceptics, and
|
|
reason confutes the dogmatists. What, then, will you become, O men!
|
|
who try to find out by your natural reason what is your true
|
|
condition? You cannot avoid one of these sects, nor adhere to one of
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble
|
|
yourself, weak reason; be silent, foolish nature; learn that man
|
|
infinitely transcends man, and learn from your Master your true
|
|
condition, of which you are ignorant. Hear God.
|
|
|
|
For in fact, if man had never been corrupt, he would enjoy in
|
|
his innocence both truth and happiness with assurance; and if man
|
|
had always been corrupt, he would have no idea of truth or bliss. But,
|
|
wretched as we are, and more so than if there were no greatness in our
|
|
condition, we have an idea of happiness and can not reach it. We
|
|
perceive an image of truth and possess only a lie. Incapable of
|
|
absolute ignorance and of certain knowledge, we have thus been
|
|
manifestly in a degree of perfection from which we have unhappily
|
|
fallen.
|
|
|
|
It is, however, an astonishing thing that the mystery furthest
|
|
removed from our knowledge, namely, that of the transmission of sin,
|
|
should be a fact without which we can have no knowledge of
|
|
ourselves. For it is beyond doubt that there is nothing which more
|
|
shocks our reason than to say that the sin of the first man has
|
|
rendered guilty those who, being so removed from this source, seem
|
|
incapable of participation in it. This transmission does not only seem
|
|
to us impossible, it seems also very unjust. For what is more contrary
|
|
to the rules of our miserable justice than to damn eternally an infant
|
|
incapable of will, for a sin wherein he seems to have so little a
|
|
share that it was committed six thousand years before he was in
|
|
existence? Certainly nothing offends us more rudely than this
|
|
doctrine; and yet without this mystery, the most incomprehensible of
|
|
all, we are incomprehensible to ourselves. The knot of our condition
|
|
takes its twists and turns in this abyss, so that man is more
|
|
inconceivable without this mystery than this mystery is
|
|
inconceivable to man.
|
|
|
|
Whence it seems that God, willing to render the difficulty of
|
|
our existence unintelligible to ourselves, has concealed the knot so
|
|
high, or, better speaking, so low, that we are quite incapable of
|
|
reaching it; so that it is not by the proud exertions of our reason,
|
|
but by the simple submissions of reason, that we can truly know
|
|
ourselves.
|
|
|
|
These foundations, solidly established on the inviolable authority
|
|
of religion, make us know that there are two truths of faith equally
|
|
certain: the one, that man, in the state of creation, or in that of
|
|
grace, is raised above all nature, made like unto God and sharing in
|
|
His divinity; the other, that in the state of corruption and sin, he
|
|
is fallen from this state and made like unto the beasts.
|
|
|
|
These two propositions are equally sound and certain. Scripture
|
|
manifestly declares this to us, when it says in some places:
|
|
Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum.* Effundam spiritum meum super
|
|
omnem carnem.*(2) Dii estis,*(3) etc.; and in other places, Omnis caro
|
|
faenum.*(4) Homo assimilatus est jumentis insipientibus, et similis
|
|
factus est illis.*(5) Dixi in corde meo de filiis hominum.*(6)
|
|
|
|
* Prov. 8. 31. "And my delights were with the sons of men."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Joel 2. 28. "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Ps. 82 .6. "Ye are gods."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Is. 40. 6. "All flesh is grass."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Ps. 49. 12,13. "He is like the beasts that perish; this their
|
|
way is their folly."
|
|
|
|
*(6) Eccles. 3. 18. "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of
|
|
the sons of men."
|
|
|
|
Whence it clearly seems that man by grace is made like unto God,
|
|
and a partaker in His divinity, and that without grace he is like unto
|
|
the brute beasts.
|
|
|
|
435. Without this divine knowledge what could men do but either
|
|
become elated by the inner feeling of their past greatness which still
|
|
remains to them, or become despondent at the sight of their present
|
|
weakness? For, not seeing the whole truth, they could not attain to
|
|
perfect virtue. Some considering nature as incorrupt, others as
|
|
incurable, they could not escape either pride or sloth, the two
|
|
sources of all vice; since they cannot but either abandon themselves
|
|
to it through cowardice, or escape it by pride. For if they knew the
|
|
excellence of man, they were ignorant of his corruption; so that
|
|
they easily avoided sloth, but fell into pride. And if they recognized
|
|
the infirmity of nature, they were ignorant of its dignity; so that
|
|
they could easily avoid vanity, but it was to fall into despair.
|
|
Thence arise the different schools of the Stoics and Epicureans, the
|
|
Dogmatists, Academicians, etc.
|
|
|
|
The Christian religion alone has been able to cure these two
|
|
vices, not by expelling the one through means of the other according
|
|
to the wisdom of the world, but by expelling both according to the
|
|
simplicity of the Gospel. For it teaches the righteous that it
|
|
raises them even to a participation in divinity itself; that in this
|
|
lofty state they still carry the source of all corruption, which
|
|
renders them during all their life subject to error, misery, death,
|
|
and sin; and it proclaims to the most ungodly that they are capable of
|
|
the grace of their Redeemer. So making those tremble whom it
|
|
justifies, and consoling those whom it condemns, religion so justly
|
|
tempers fear with hope through that double capacity of grace and of
|
|
sin, common to all, that it humbles infinitely more than reason
|
|
alone can do, but without despair; and it exalts infinitely more
|
|
than natural pride, but without inflating; thus making it evident that
|
|
alone being exempt from error and vice, it alone fulfils the duty of
|
|
instructing and correcting men.
|
|
|
|
Who, then, can refuse to believe and adore this heavenly light?
|
|
For is it not clearer than day that we perceive within ourselves
|
|
ineffaceable marks of excellence? And is it not equally true that we
|
|
experience every hour the results of our deplorable condition? What
|
|
does this chaos and monstrous confusion proclaim to us but the truth
|
|
of these two states, with a voice so powerful that it is impossible to
|
|
resist it?
|
|
|
|
436. Weakness.- Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they
|
|
cannot have a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have
|
|
only that of human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it
|
|
securely. It is the same with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We
|
|
are incapable both of truth and goodness.
|
|
|
|
437. We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty.
|
|
|
|
We seek happiness, and find only misery and death.
|
|
|
|
We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of
|
|
certainty or happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish
|
|
us, partly to make us perceive wherefrom we are fallen.
|
|
|
|
438. If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If
|
|
man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God?
|
|
|
|
439. Nature corrupted.- Man does not act by reason, which
|
|
constitutes his being.
|
|
|
|
440. The corruption of reason is shown by the existence of so many
|
|
different and extravagant customs. It was necessary that truth
|
|
should come, in order that man should no longer dwell within himself.
|
|
|
|
441. For myself, I confess that, so soon as the Christian religion
|
|
reveals the principle that human nature is corrupt and fallen from
|
|
God, that opens my eyes to see everywhere the mark of this truth:
|
|
for nature is such that she testifies everywhere, both within man
|
|
and without him, to a lost God and a corrupt nature.
|
|
|
|
442. Man's true nature, his true good, true virtue, and true
|
|
religion, are things of which the knowledge is inseparable.
|
|
|
|
443. Greatness, wretchedness.- The more light we have, the more
|
|
greatness and the more baseness we discover in man. Ordinary men-
|
|
those who are more educated: philosophers, they astonish ordinary men-
|
|
Christians, they astonish philosophers.
|
|
|
|
Who will then be surprised to see that religion only makes us know
|
|
profoundly what we already know in proportion to our light?
|
|
|
|
444. This religion taught to her children what men have only
|
|
been able to discover by their greatest knowledge.
|
|
|
|
445. Original sin is foolishness to men, but it is admitted to
|
|
be such. You must not, then, reproach me for the want of reason in
|
|
this doctrine, since I admit it to be without reason. But this
|
|
foolishness is wiser than all the wisdom of men, sapientius est
|
|
hominibus.* For without this, what can we say that man is? His whole
|
|
state depends on this imperceptible point. And how should it be
|
|
perceived by his reason, since it is a thing against reason, and since
|
|
reason, far from finding it out by her own ways, is averse to it
|
|
when it is presented to her?
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 1. 25 "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and
|
|
the weakness of God is stronger than men."
|
|
|
|
446. Of original sin. Ample tradition of original sin according to
|
|
the Jews.
|
|
|
|
On the saying in Genesis 8. 21: "The imagination of man's heart is
|
|
evil from his youth."
|
|
|
|
R. Moses Haddarschan: This evil leaven is placed in man from the
|
|
time that he is formed.
|
|
|
|
Massechet Succa: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture. It
|
|
is called evil, the foreskin, uncleanness, an enemy, a scandal, a
|
|
heart of stone, the north wind; all this signifies the malignity which
|
|
is concealed and impressed in the heart of man.
|
|
|
|
Midrasch Tillim says the same thing and that God will deliver
|
|
the good nature of man from the evil.
|
|
|
|
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written,
|
|
Psalm xxxvii. 32: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to
|
|
slay him"; but God will not abandon him. This malignity tries the
|
|
heart of man in this life and will accuse him in the other. All this
|
|
is found in the Talmud.
|
|
|
|
Midrasch Tillim on Psalm 4. 4: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand
|
|
in awe and be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into
|
|
sin. And on Psalm 36. 1: "The wicked has said within his own heart:
|
|
Let not the fear of God be before me." That is to say that the
|
|
malignity natural to man has said that to the wicked.
|
|
|
|
Midrasch el Kohelet: "Better is a poor and wise child than an
|
|
old and foolish king who cannot foresee the future." The child is
|
|
virtue, and the king is the malignity of man. It is called king
|
|
because all the members obey it, and old because it is in the human
|
|
heart from infancy to old age, and foolish because it leads man in the
|
|
way of perdition, which he does not foresee. The same thing is in
|
|
Midrasch Tillim.
|
|
|
|
Bereschist Rabba on Psalm 35. 10: "Lord, all my bones shall
|
|
bless Thee, which deliverest the poor from the tyrant." And is there a
|
|
greater tyrant than the evil leaven? And on Proverbs 25. 21: "If thine
|
|
enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat." That is to say, if the evil
|
|
leaven hunger, give him the bread of wisdom of which it is spoken in
|
|
Proverbs 9, and if he be thirsty, give him the water of which it is
|
|
spoken in Isaiah 55.
|
|
|
|
Midrasch Tillim says the same thing, and that Scripture in that
|
|
passage, speaking of the enemy, means the evil leaven; and that, in
|
|
giving him that bread and that water, we heap coals of fire on his
|
|
head.
|
|
|
|
Midrasch el Kohelet on Ecclesiastes 9. 14: "A great king
|
|
besieged a little city." This great king is the evil leaven; the great
|
|
bulwarks built against it are temptations; and there has been found
|
|
a poor wise man who has delivered it- that is to say, virtue.
|
|
|
|
And on Psalm 41. 1: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."
|
|
|
|
And on Psalm 78. 39: "The spirit passeth away, and cometh not
|
|
again"; whence some have erroneously argued against the immortality of
|
|
the soul. But the sense is that this spirit is the evil leaven,
|
|
which accompanies man till death and will not return at the
|
|
resurrection.
|
|
|
|
And on Psalm 103 the same thing.
|
|
|
|
And on Psalm 16.
|
|
|
|
Principles of Rabbinism: two Messiahs.
|
|
|
|
447. Will it be said that, as men have declared that righteousness
|
|
has departed the earth, they therefore knew of original sin?- Nemo
|
|
ante obitum beatus est*- that is to say, they knew death to be the
|
|
beginning of eternal and essential happiness?
|
|
|
|
* Ovid, Metamorphoses, iii. "No one is happy before death."
|
|
|
|
448. Milton sees well that nature is corrupt and that men are
|
|
averse to virtue; he does not know why they cannot fly higher.
|
|
|
|
449. Order.- After Corruption to say: "It is right that all
|
|
those who are in that state should know it, both those who are content
|
|
with it, and those who are not content with it; but it is not right
|
|
that all should see Redemption."
|
|
|
|
450. If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition,
|
|
lust, weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind. And if,
|
|
knowing this, we do not desire deliverance, what can we say of a
|
|
man...?
|
|
|
|
What then, can we have but esteem for a religion which knows so
|
|
well the defects of man, and desire for the truth of a religion
|
|
which promises remedies so desirable?
|
|
|
|
451. All men naturally hate one another. They employ lust as far
|
|
as possible in the service of the public weal. But this is only a
|
|
pretnece and a false image of love; for at bottom it is only hate.
|
|
|
|
452. To pity the unfortunate is not contrary to lust. On the
|
|
contrary, we can quite well give such evidence of friendship, and
|
|
acquire the reputation of kindly feeling, without giving anything.
|
|
|
|
453. From lust men have found and extracted excellent rules of
|
|
policy, morality, and justice; but in reality this vile root of man,
|
|
this figmentum malum, is only covered, it is not taken away.
|
|
|
|
454. Injustice.- They have not found any other means of satisfying
|
|
lust without doing injury to others.
|
|
|
|
455. Self is hateful. You, Milton, conceal it; you do not for that
|
|
reason destroy it; you are, then, always hateful.
|
|
|
|
No; for in acting as we do to oblige everybody, we give no more
|
|
occasion for hatred of us. That is true, if we only hated in Self
|
|
the vexation which comes to us from it. But if I hate it because it is
|
|
unjust and because it makes itself the centre of everything, I shall
|
|
always hate it.
|
|
|
|
In a word, the Self has two qualities: it is unjust in itself
|
|
since it makes itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient
|
|
to others since it would enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and
|
|
would like to be the tyrant of all others. You take away its
|
|
inconvenience, but not its injustice, and so you do not render it
|
|
lovable to those who hate injustice; you render it lovable only to the
|
|
unjust, who do not any longer find in it an enemy. And thus you remain
|
|
unjust and can please only the unjust.
|
|
|
|
456. It is a perverted judgement that makes every one place
|
|
himself above the rest of the world, and prefer his own good, and
|
|
the continuance of his own good fortune and life, to that of the
|
|
rest of the world!
|
|
|
|
457. Each one is all in all to himself; for he being dead, all
|
|
is dead to him. Hence it comes that each believes himself to be all in
|
|
all to everybody. We must not judge of nature by ourselves, but by it.
|
|
|
|
458. "All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, or the
|
|
lust of the eyes, or the pride of life; libido sentiendi, libido
|
|
sciendi, libido dominandi."* Wretched is the cursed land which these
|
|
three rivers of fire enflame rather than water! Happy they who, on
|
|
these rivers, are not overwhelmed nor carried away, but are
|
|
immovably fixed, not standing but seated on a low and secure base,
|
|
whence they do not rise before the light, but, having rested in peace,
|
|
stretch out their hands to Him, who must lift them up, and make them
|
|
stand upright and firm in the porches of the holy Jerusalem! There
|
|
pride can no longer assail them nor cast them down; and yet they weep,
|
|
not to see all those perishable things swept away by the torrents, but
|
|
at the remembrance of their loved country, the heavenly Jerusalem,
|
|
which they remember without ceasing during their prolonged exile.
|
|
|
|
* I John 2. 16.
|
|
|
|
459. The rivers of Babylon rush and fall and sweep away.
|
|
|
|
O holy Zion, where all is firm and nothing falls!
|
|
|
|
We must sit upon the waters, not under them or in them, but on
|
|
them; and not standing but seated; being seated to be humble, and
|
|
being above them to be secure. But we shall stand in the porches of
|
|
Jerusalem.
|
|
|
|
Let us see if this pleasure is stable or transitory; if it pass
|
|
away, it is a river of Babylon.
|
|
|
|
460. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride, etc.-
|
|
There are three orders of things: the flesh, the spirit, and the will.
|
|
The carnal are the rich and kings; they have the body as their object.
|
|
Inquirers and scientists; they have the mind as their object. The
|
|
wise; they have righteousness as their object.
|
|
|
|
God must reign over all, and all men must be brought back to
|
|
Him. In things of the flesh lust reigns specially; in intellectual
|
|
matters, inquiry specially; in wisdom, pride specially. Not that a man
|
|
cannot boast of wealth or knowledge, but it is not the place for
|
|
pride; for in granting to a man that he is learned, it is easy to
|
|
convince him that he is wrong to be proud. The proper place for
|
|
pride is in wisdom, for it cannot be granted to a man that he has made
|
|
himself wise, and that he is wrong to be proud; for that is right. Now
|
|
God alone gives wisdom, and that is why Qui gloriatur, in Domino
|
|
glorietur.*
|
|
|
|
* Cor. 1. 31. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
|
|
|
|
461. The three lusts have made three sects; and the philosophers
|
|
have done no other thing than follow one of the three lusts.
|
|
|
|
462. Search for the true good.- Ordinary men place the good in
|
|
fortune and external goods, or at least in amusement. Philosophers
|
|
have shown the vanity of all this and have placed it where they could.
|
|
|
|
463. Philosophers.- They believe that God alone is worthy to be
|
|
loved and admired; and they have desired to be loved and admired of
|
|
men and do not know their own corruption. If they feel full of
|
|
feelings of love and admiration and find therein their chief
|
|
delight, very well, let them think themselves good. But if they find
|
|
themselves averse to Him, if they have no inclination but the desire
|
|
to establish themselves in the esteem of men, and if their whole
|
|
perfection consists only in making men- but without constraint- find
|
|
their happiness in loving them, I declare that this perfection is
|
|
horrible. What! they have known God and have not desired solely that
|
|
men should love Him, but that men should stop short at them! They have
|
|
wanted to be the object of the voluntary delight of men.
|
|
|
|
464. Philosophers.- We are full of things which take us out of
|
|
ourselves.
|
|
|
|
Our instinct makes us feel that we must seek our happiness outside
|
|
ourselves. Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present
|
|
themselves to excite them. External objects tempt us of themselves,
|
|
and call to us, even when we are not thinking of them. And thus
|
|
philosophers have said in vain: "Retire within yourselves, you will
|
|
find your good there." We do not believe them, and those who believe
|
|
them are the most empty and the most foolish.
|
|
|
|
465. The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you
|
|
will find your rest."
|
|
|
|
And that is not true.
|
|
|
|
Others say, "Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement."
|
|
And this is not true. Illness comes.
|
|
|
|
Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God,
|
|
both without us and within us.
|
|
|
|
466. Had Epictetus seen the way perfectly, he would have said to
|
|
men, "You follow a wrong road"; he shows that there is another, but he
|
|
does not lead to it. It is the way of willing what God wills. Jesus
|
|
Christ alone leads to it: Via, veritas.* The vices of Zeno himself.
|
|
|
|
* John 14. 6. "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
|
|
|
|
467. The reason of effects.- Epictetus. Those who say, "You have a
|
|
headache"; this is not the same thing. We are assured of health, and
|
|
not of justice; and in fact his own was nonsense.
|
|
|
|
And yet he believed it demonstrable, when he said, "It is either
|
|
in our power or it is not." But he did not perceive that it is not
|
|
in our power to regulate the heart, and he was wrong to infer from
|
|
this the fact that there were some Christians.
|
|
|
|
468. No other religion has proposed to men to hate themselves.
|
|
No other religion, then, can please those who hate themselves, and who
|
|
seek a Being truly lovable. And these, if they had never heard of
|
|
the religion of a God humiliated, would embrace it at once.
|
|
|
|
469. I feel that I might not have been; for the Ego consists in my
|
|
thoughts. Therefore I, who think, would not have been, if my mother
|
|
had been killed before I had life. I am not, then, a necessary
|
|
being. In the same way I am not eternal or infinite; but I see plainly
|
|
that there exists in nature a necessary Being, eternal and infinite.
|
|
|
|
470. "Had I seen a miracle," say men, "I should become converted."
|
|
How can they be sure they would do a thing of the nature of which they
|
|
are ignorant? They imagine that this conversion consists in a
|
|
worship of God which is like commerce, and in a communion such as they
|
|
picture to themselves. True religion consists in annihilating self
|
|
before that Universal Being, whom we have so often provoked, and who
|
|
can justly destroy us at any time; in recognising that we can do
|
|
nothing without Him, and have deserved nothing from Him but His
|
|
displeasure. It consists in knowing that there is an unconquerable
|
|
opposition between us and God, and that without a mediator there can
|
|
be no communion with Him.
|
|
|
|
471. It is unjust that men should attach themselves to me, even
|
|
though they do it with pleasure and voluntarily. I should deceive
|
|
those in whom I had created this desire; for I am not the end of
|
|
any, and I have not the wherewithal to satisfy them. Am I not about to
|
|
die? And thus the object of their attachment will die. Therefore, as I
|
|
would be blamable in causing a falsehood to be believed, though I
|
|
should employ gentle persuasion, though it should be believed with
|
|
pleasure, and though it should give me pleasure; even so I am blamable
|
|
in making myself loved and if I attract persons to attach themselves
|
|
to me. I ought to warn those who are ready to consent to a lie that
|
|
they ought not to believe it, whatever advantage comes to me from
|
|
it; and likewise that they ought not to attach themselves to me; for
|
|
they ought to spend their life and their care in pleasing God, or in
|
|
seeking Him.
|
|
|
|
472. Self-will will never be satisfied, though it should have
|
|
command of all it would; but we are satisfied from the moment we
|
|
renounce it. Without it we cannot be discontented; with it we cannot
|
|
be content.
|
|
|
|
473. Let us imagine a body full of thinking members.
|
|
|
|
474. Members. To commence with that.- To regulate the love which
|
|
we owe to ourselves, we must imagine a body full of thinking
|
|
members, for we are members of the whole, and must see how each member
|
|
should love itself, etc....
|
|
|
|
475. If the feet and the hands had a will of their own, they could
|
|
only be in their order in submitting this particular will to the
|
|
primary will which governs the whole body. Apart from that, they are
|
|
in disorder and mischief; but in willing only the good of the body,
|
|
they accomplish their own good.
|
|
|
|
476. We must love God only and hate self only.
|
|
|
|
If the foot had always been ignorant that it belonged to the body,
|
|
and that there was a body on which it depended, if it had only had the
|
|
knowledge and the love of self, and if it came to know that it
|
|
belonged to a body on which it depended, what regret, what shame for
|
|
its past life, for having been useless to the body which inspired
|
|
its life, which would have annihilated it if it had rejected it and
|
|
separated it from itself, as it kept itself apart from the body!
|
|
What prayers for its preservation in it! And with what submission
|
|
would it allow itself to be governed by the will which rules the body,
|
|
even to consenting, if necessary, to be cut off, or it would lose
|
|
its character as member! For every member must be quite willing to
|
|
perish for the body, for which alone the whole is.
|
|
|
|
477. It is false that we are worthy of the love of others; it is
|
|
unfair that we should desire it. If we were born reasonable and
|
|
impartial, knowing ourselves and others, we should not give this
|
|
bias to our will. However, we are born with it; therefore born unjust,
|
|
for all tends to self. This is contrary to all order. We must consider
|
|
the general good; and the propensity to self is the beginning of all
|
|
disorder, in war, in politics, in economy, and in the particular
|
|
body of man. The will is therefore depraved.
|
|
|
|
If the members of natural and civil communities tend towards the
|
|
weal of the body, the communities themselves ought to look to
|
|
another more general body of which they are members. We ought,
|
|
therefore, to look to the whole. We are, therefore, born unjust and
|
|
depraved.
|
|
|
|
478. When we want to think of God, is there nothing which turns us
|
|
away, and tempts us to think of something else? All this is bad, and
|
|
is born in us.
|
|
|
|
479. If there is a God, we must love Him only and not the
|
|
creatures of a day. The reasoning of the ungodly in the Book of Wisdom
|
|
is only based upon the nonexistence of God. "On that supposition," say
|
|
they, "let us take delight in the creatures." That is the worst that
|
|
can happen. But if there were a God to love, they would not have
|
|
come to this conclusion, but to quite the contrary. And this is the
|
|
conclusion of the wise: "There is a God; let us therefore not take
|
|
delight in the creatures."
|
|
|
|
Therefore all that incites us to attach ourselves to the creatures
|
|
is bad; since it prevents us from serving God if we know Him, or
|
|
from seeking Him if we know Him not. Now we are full of lust.
|
|
Therefore we are full of evil; therefore we ought to hate ourselves
|
|
and all that excited us to attach ourselves to any other object than
|
|
God only.
|
|
|
|
480. To make the members happy, they must have one will and submit
|
|
it to the body.
|
|
|
|
481. The examples of the noble deaths of the Lacedaemonians and
|
|
others scarce touch us. For what good is it to us? But the example
|
|
of the death of the martyrs touches us; for they are "our members." We
|
|
have a common tie with them. Their resolution can form ours, not
|
|
only by example, but because it has perhaps deserved ours. There is
|
|
nothing of this in the examples of the heathen. We have no tie with
|
|
them; as we do not become rich by seeing a stranger who is so, but
|
|
in fact by seeing a father or a husband who is so.
|
|
|
|
482. Morality.- God having made the heavens and the earth, which
|
|
do not feel the happiness of their being, He has willed to make beings
|
|
who should know it, and who should compose a body of thinking members.
|
|
For our members do not feel the happiness of their union, of their
|
|
wonderful intelligence, of the care which has been taken to infuse
|
|
into them minds, and to make them grow and endure. How happy they
|
|
would be if they saw and felt it! But for this they would need to have
|
|
intelligence to know it, and good-will to consent to that of the
|
|
universal soul. But if, having received intelligence, they employed it
|
|
to retain nourishment for themselves without allowing it to pass to
|
|
the other members, they would be not only unjust, but also
|
|
miserable, and would hate rather than love themselves; their
|
|
blessedness, as well as their duty, consisting in their consent to the
|
|
guidance of the whole soul to which they belong, which loves them
|
|
better than they love themselves.
|
|
|
|
483. To be a member is to have neither life, being, nor
|
|
movement, except through the spirit of the body, and for the body.
|
|
|
|
The separate member, seeing no longer the body to which it
|
|
belongs, has only a perishing and dying existence. Yet it believes
|
|
it is a whole, and, seeing not the body on which it depends, it
|
|
believes it depends only on self and desires to make itself both
|
|
centre and body. But not having in itself a principle of life, it only
|
|
goes astray and is astonished in the uncertainty of its being;
|
|
perceiving in fact that it is not a body, and still not seeing that it
|
|
is a member of a body. In short, when it comes to know itself, it
|
|
has returned, as it were, to its own home, and loves itself only for
|
|
the body. It deplores its past wanderings.
|
|
|
|
It cannot by its nature love any other thing, except for itself
|
|
and to subject it to self, because each thing loves itself more than
|
|
all. But, in loving the body, it loves itself, because it only
|
|
exists in it, by it, and for it. Qui adhaeret Deo unus spiritus est.*
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 6. 17. "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one
|
|
spirit."
|
|
|
|
The body loves the hand; and the hand, if it had a will, should
|
|
love itself in the same way as it is loved by the soul. All love which
|
|
goes beyond this is unfair.
|
|
|
|
Adhaerens Deo unus spiritus est. We love ourselves, because we are
|
|
members of Jesus Christ. We love Jesus Christ, because He is the
|
|
body of which we are members. All is one, one is in the other, like
|
|
the Three Persons.
|
|
|
|
484. Two laws suffice to rule the whole Christian Republic
|
|
better than all the laws of statecraft.
|
|
|
|
485. The true and only virtue, then, is to hate self (for we are
|
|
hateful on account of lust) and to seek a truly lovable being to love.
|
|
But as we cannot love what is outside ourselves, we must love a
|
|
being who is in us and is not ourselves; and that is true of each
|
|
and all men. Now, only the Universal Being is such. The kingdom of God
|
|
is within us; the universal good is within us, is ourselves- and not
|
|
ourselves.
|
|
|
|
486. The dignity of man in his innocence consisted in using and
|
|
having dominion over the creatures, but now in separating himself from
|
|
them and subjecting himself to them.
|
|
|
|
487. Every religion is false which, as to its faith, does not
|
|
worship one God as the origin of everything and which, as to its
|
|
morality, does not love one only God as the object of everything.
|
|
|
|
488.... But it is impossible that God should ever be the end, if
|
|
He is not the beginning. We lift our eyes on high, but lean upon the
|
|
sand; and the earth will dissolve, and we shall fall whilst looking at
|
|
the heavens.
|
|
|
|
489. If there is one sole source of everything, there is one
|
|
sole end of everything; everything through Him, everything for Him.
|
|
The true religion, then, must teach us to worship Him only, and to
|
|
love Him only. But as we find ourselves unable to worship what we know
|
|
not, and to love any other object but ourselves, the religion which
|
|
instructs us in these duties must instruct us also of this
|
|
inability, and teach us also the remedies for it. It teaches us that
|
|
by one man all was lost, and the bond broken between God and us, and
|
|
that by one man the bond is renewed.
|
|
|
|
We are born so averse to this love of God, and it is so necessary,
|
|
that we must be born guilty, or God would be unjust.
|
|
|
|
490. Men, not being accustomed to form merit, but only to
|
|
recompense it where they find it formed, judge of God by themselves.
|
|
|
|
491. The true religion must have as a characteristic the
|
|
obligation to love God. This is very just, and yet no other religion
|
|
has commanded this; ours has done so. It must also be aware of human
|
|
lust and weakness; ours is so. It must have adduced remedies for this;
|
|
one is prayer. No other religion has asked of God to love and follow
|
|
Him.
|
|
|
|
492. He who hates not in himself his self-love, and that
|
|
instinct which leads him to make himself God, is indeed blinded. Who
|
|
does not see that there is nothing so opposed to justice and truth?
|
|
For it is false that we deserve this, and it is unfair and
|
|
impossible to attain it, since all demand the same thing. It is, then,
|
|
a manifest injustice which is innate in us, of which we cannot get
|
|
rid, and of which we must get rid.
|
|
|
|
Yet no religion has indicated that this was a sin; or that we were
|
|
born in it; or that we were obliged to resist it; or has thought of
|
|
giving us remedies for it.
|
|
|
|
493. The true religion teaches our duties; our weaknesses,
|
|
pride, and lust; and the remedies, humility and mortification.
|
|
|
|
494. The true religion must teach greatness and misery; must
|
|
lead to the esteem and contempt of self, to love and to hate.
|
|
|
|
495. If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without
|
|
investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil
|
|
life, while believing in God.
|
|
|
|
496. Experience makes us see an enormous difference between
|
|
piety and goodness.
|
|
|
|
497. Against those who, trusting to the mercy of God, live
|
|
heedlessly, without doing good works.- As the two sources of our
|
|
sins are pride and sloth, God has revealed to us two of His attributes
|
|
to cure them, mercy and justice. The property of justice is to
|
|
humble pride, however holy may be our works, et non intres injudicium,
|
|
etc.; and the property of mercy is to combat sloth by exhorting to
|
|
good works, according to that passage: "The goodness of God leadeth to
|
|
repentance, and that other of the Ninevites: "Let us do penance to see
|
|
if peradventure He will pity us." And thus mercy is so far from
|
|
authorising slackness that it is on the contrary the quality which
|
|
formally attacks it; so that instead of saying, "If there were no
|
|
mercy in God we should have to make every kind of effort after
|
|
virtue," we must say, on the contrary, that it is because there is
|
|
mercy in God that we must make every kind of effort.
|
|
|
|
498. It is true there is difficulty in entering into godliness.
|
|
But this difficulty does not arise from the religion which begins in
|
|
us, but from the irreligion which is still there. If our senses were
|
|
not opposed to penitence, and if our corruption were not opposed to
|
|
the purity of God, there would be nothing in this painful to us. We
|
|
suffer only in proportion as the vice which is natural to us resists
|
|
supernatural grace. Our heart feels torn asunder between these opposed
|
|
efforts. But it would be very unfair to impute this violence to God,
|
|
who is drawing us on, instead of to the world, which is holding us
|
|
back. It is as a child, which a mother tears from the arms of robbers,
|
|
in the pain it suffers, should love the loving and legitimate violence
|
|
of her who procures its liberty, and detest only the impetuous and
|
|
tyrannical violence of those who detain it unjustly. The most cruel
|
|
war which God can make with men in this life is to leave them
|
|
without that war which He came to bring. "I came to send war," He
|
|
says, "and to teach them of this war. I came to bring fire and the
|
|
sword." Before Him the world lived in this false peace.
|
|
|
|
499. External works.- There nothing so perilous as what pleases
|
|
God and man. For those states, which please God and man, have one
|
|
property which pleases God, and another which pleases men; as the
|
|
greatness of Saint Teresa. What pleased God was her deep humility in
|
|
the midst of her revelations; what pleased men was her light. And so
|
|
we torment ourselves to imitate her discourses, thinking to imitate
|
|
her conditions, and not so much to love what God loves and to put
|
|
ourselves in the state which God loves.
|
|
|
|
It is better not to fast, and be thereby humbled, than to fast and
|
|
be self-satisfied therewith. The Pharisee and the Publican.
|
|
|
|
What use will memory be to me, if it can alike hurt and help me,
|
|
and all depends upon the blessing of God, who gives only to things
|
|
done for Him, according to His rules and in His ways, the manner being
|
|
thus as important as the thing and perhaps more; since God can bring
|
|
forth good out of evil, and without God we bring forth evil out of
|
|
good?
|
|
|
|
500. The meaning of the words, good and evil.
|
|
|
|
501. First step: to be blamed for doing evil, and praised for
|
|
doing good.
|
|
|
|
Second step: to be neither praised nor blamed.
|
|
|
|
502. Abraham took nothing for himself, but only for his
|
|
servants. So the righteous man takes for himself nothing of the world,
|
|
nor of the applause of the world, but only for his passions, which
|
|
he uses as their master, saying to the one, "Go," and to another,
|
|
"Come." Sub te erit appetitus tuus.* The passions thus subdued are
|
|
virtues. Even God attributes to Himself avarice, jealousy, anger;
|
|
and these are virtues as well as kindness, pity, constancy, which
|
|
are also passions. We must employ them as slaves, and, leaving to them
|
|
their food, prevent the soul from taking any of it, For, when the
|
|
passions become masters, they are vices; and they give their nutriment
|
|
to the soul, and the soul nourishes itself upon it and is poisoned.
|
|
|
|
* Gen. 4. 7. "Unto thee shall be his desire."
|
|
|
|
503. Philosophers have consecrated the vices by placing them in
|
|
God Himself. Christians have consecrated the virtues.
|
|
|
|
504. The just man acts by faith in the least things; when he
|
|
reproves his servants, he desires their conversion by the Spirit of
|
|
God, and prays God to correct them; and he expects as much from God as
|
|
from his own reproofs, and prays God to bless his corrections. And
|
|
so in all his other actions he proceeds with the Spirit of God; and
|
|
his actions deceive us by reason of the... or suspension of the Spirit
|
|
of God in him; and he repents in his affliction.
|
|
|
|
505. All things can be deadly to us, even the things made to serve
|
|
us; as in nature walls can kill us, and stairs can kill us, if we do
|
|
not walk circumspectly.
|
|
|
|
The least movement affects all nature; the entire sea changes
|
|
because of a rock. Thus, in grace, the least action affects everything
|
|
by its consequences; therefore everything is important.
|
|
|
|
In each action we must look beyond the action at our past,
|
|
present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see
|
|
the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.
|
|
|
|
506. Let God not impute to us our sins, that is to say, all the
|
|
consequences and results of our sins, which are dreadful, even those
|
|
of the smallest faults, if we wish to follow them out mercilessly!
|
|
|
|
507. The spirit of grace; the hardness of the heart; external
|
|
circumstances.
|
|
|
|
508. Grace is indeed needed to turn a man into a saint; and he who
|
|
doubts it does not know what a saint or a man is.
|
|
|
|
509. Philosophers.- A fine thing to cry to a man who does not know
|
|
himself, that he should come of himself to God! And a fine thing to
|
|
say so to a man who does know himself!
|
|
|
|
510. Man is not worthy of God, but he is not incapable of being
|
|
made worthy.
|
|
|
|
It is unworthy of God to unite Himself to wretched man; but it
|
|
is not unworthy of God to pull him out of his misery.
|
|
|
|
511. If we would say that man is too insignificant to deserve
|
|
communion with God, we must indeed be very great to judge of it.
|
|
|
|
512. It is, in peculiar phraseology, wholly the body of Jesus
|
|
Christ, but it cannot be said to be the whole body of Jesus Christ.
|
|
The union of two things without change does not enable us to say
|
|
that one becomes the other; the soul thus being united to the body,
|
|
the fire to the timber, without change. But change is necessary to
|
|
make the form of the one become the form of the other; thus the
|
|
union of the Word to man. Because my body without my soul would not
|
|
make the body of a man; therefore my soul united to any matter
|
|
whatsoever will make my body. It does not distinguish the necessary
|
|
condition from the sufficient condition; the union is necessary, but
|
|
not sufficient. The left arm is not the right.
|
|
|
|
Impenetrability is a property of matter.
|
|
|
|
Identity de numero in regard to the same time requires the
|
|
identity of matter.
|
|
|
|
Thus if God united my soul to a body in China, the same body, idem
|
|
numero would be in China.
|
|
|
|
The same river which runs there is idem numero as that which
|
|
runs at the same time in China.
|
|
|
|
513. Why God has established prayer.
|
|
|
|
1. To communicate to His creatures the dignity of causality.
|
|
|
|
2. To teach us from whom our virtue comes.
|
|
|
|
3. To make us deserve other virtues by work.
|
|
|
|
(But to keep His own pre-eminence, He grants prayer to whom He
|
|
pleases.)
|
|
|
|
Objection: But we believe that we hold prayer of ourselves.
|
|
|
|
This is absurd; for since, though having faith, we cannot have
|
|
virtues, how should we have faith? Is there a greater distance between
|
|
infidelity and faith than between faith and virtue?
|
|
|
|
Merit. This word is ambiguous.
|
|
|
|
Meruit habere Redemptorem.*
|
|
|
|
Meruit tam sacra membra tangere.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Digno tam sacra membra tangere.*(3)
|
|
|
|
Non sum dignus.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Qui manducat indignus.*(5)
|
|
|
|
Dignus est accipere.*(6)
|
|
|
|
Dignare me.*(7)
|
|
|
|
* Office for Holy Saturday. "Which won for us a Saviour."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Office for Good Friday. "Which won for us God's hallowed
|
|
members to embrace."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Hymn Vexilla regis. "Worthy God's hallowed members to
|
|
embrace."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Luke 7. 6 "I am not worthy."
|
|
|
|
*(5) I Cor. 11. 29. "Who eateth unworthily."
|
|
|
|
*(6) Rev. 4. 11. "Thou art worthy to receive."
|
|
|
|
*(7) Office of the Holy Virgin. "Make me worthy."
|
|
|
|
God is only bound according to His promises. He has promised to
|
|
grant justice to prayers; He has never promised prayer only to the
|
|
children of promise.
|
|
|
|
Saint Augustine has distinctly said that strength would be taken
|
|
away from the righteous. But it is by chance that he said it; for it
|
|
might have happened that the occasion of saying it did not present
|
|
itself. But his principles make us see that, when the occasion for
|
|
it presented itself, it was impossible that he should not say it, or
|
|
that he should say anything to the contrary. It is then rather that he
|
|
was forced to say it, when the occasion presented itself, than that he
|
|
said it, when the occasion presented itself, the one being of
|
|
necessity, the other of chance. But the two are all that we can ask.
|
|
|
|
514. "Work out your own salvation with fear."
|
|
|
|
Proofs of prayer. Petenti dabitur.*
|
|
|
|
* Matthew, 7. 7, "Ask and it shall be given you."
|
|
|
|
Therefore it is in our power to ask. On the other hand, there is
|
|
God. So it is not in our power, since the obtaining of (the grace)
|
|
to pray to Him is not in our power. For since salvation is not in
|
|
us, and the obtaining of such grace is from Him, prayer is not in
|
|
our power.
|
|
|
|
The righteous man should then hope no more in God, for he ought
|
|
not to hope, but to strive to obtain what he wants.
|
|
|
|
Let us conclude then that, since man is now unrighteous since
|
|
the first sin, and God is unwilling that he should thereby not be
|
|
estranged from Him, it is only by a first effect that he is not
|
|
estranged.
|
|
|
|
Therefore, those who depart from God have not this first effect
|
|
without which they are not estranged from God, and those who do not
|
|
depart from God have this first effect. Therefore, those whom we
|
|
have seen possessed for some time of grace by this first effect, cease
|
|
to pray, for want of this first effect.
|
|
|
|
Then God abandons the first in this sense.
|
|
|
|
515. The elect will be ignorant of their virtues, and the
|
|
outcast of the greatness of their sins: "Lord, when saw we Thee an
|
|
hungered, thirsty"? etc.
|
|
|
|
516. Romans 3. 27. Boasting is excluded. By what law? Of works?
|
|
Nay, but by faith. Then faith is not within our power like the deeds
|
|
of the law, and it is given to us in another way.
|
|
|
|
517. Comfort yourselves. It is not from yourselves that you should
|
|
expect grace; but, on the contrary, it is in expecting nothing from
|
|
yourselves that you must hope for it.
|
|
|
|
518. Every condition, and even the martyrs, have to fear,
|
|
according to Scripture. The greatest pain of purgatory is the
|
|
uncertainty of the judgement. Deus absconditus.*
|
|
|
|
* Is. 45. 15.
|
|
|
|
519. John 8. Multi crediderunt in eum. Dicebat ergo Jesus: "Si
|
|
manseritis... VERE mei discipuli eritis, et VERITAS LIBERABIT VOS."
|
|
Responderunt: "Semen Abrahae sumus, et nemini servimus unquam."*
|
|
|
|
* John 8. 30-33. "Many believed on him. Then Jesus said: 'If ye
|
|
continue... then ye are my disciples indeed, and the truth shall
|
|
make you free.' They answered him: 'We be Abraham's seed, and were
|
|
never in bondage to any man.'"
|
|
|
|
There is a great difference between disciples and true
|
|
disciples. We recognise them by telling them that the truth will
|
|
make them free; for if they answer that they are free and that it is
|
|
in their power to come out of slavery to the devil, they are indeed
|
|
disciples, but not true disciples.
|
|
|
|
520. The law has not destroyed nature, but has instructed it;
|
|
grace has not destroyed the law, but has made it act. Faith received
|
|
at baptism is the source of the whole life of Christians and of the
|
|
converted.
|
|
|
|
521. Grace will always be in the world, and nature also; so that
|
|
the former is in some sort natural. And thus there will always be
|
|
Pelagians, and always Catholics, and always strife; because the
|
|
first birth makes the one, and the grace of the second birth the
|
|
other.
|
|
|
|
522. The law imposed what it did not give. Grace gives what it
|
|
imposes.
|
|
|
|
523. All faith consists in Jesus Christ and in Adam, and all
|
|
morality in lust and in grace.
|
|
|
|
524. There is no doctrine more appropriate to man than this, which
|
|
teaches him his double capacity of receiving and of losing grace,
|
|
because of the double peril to which he is exposed, of despair or of
|
|
pride.
|
|
|
|
525. The philosophers did not prescribe feelings suitable to the
|
|
two states.
|
|
|
|
They inspired feelings of pure greatness, and that is not man's
|
|
state.
|
|
|
|
They inspired feelings of pure littleness, and that is not man's
|
|
state.
|
|
|
|
There must be feelings of humility, not from nature, but from
|
|
penitence, not to rest in them, but to go on to greatness. There
|
|
must be feelings of greatness, not from merit, but from grace, and
|
|
after having passed through humiliation.
|
|
|
|
526. Misery induces despair, pride induces presumption. The
|
|
Incarnation shows man the greatness of his misery by the greatness
|
|
of the remedy which he required.
|
|
|
|
527. The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes
|
|
pride. The knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes
|
|
despair. The knowledge of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle
|
|
course, because in Him we find both God and our misery.
|
|
|
|
528. Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and
|
|
before whom we humble ourselves without despair.
|
|
|
|
529.... Not a degradation which renders us incapable of good,
|
|
nor a holiness exempt from evil.
|
|
|
|
530. A person told me one day that on coming from confession he
|
|
felt great joy and confidence. Another told me that he remained in
|
|
fear. Whereupon I thought that these two together would make one
|
|
good man, and that each was wanting in that he had not the feeling
|
|
of the other. The same often happens in other things.
|
|
|
|
531. He who knows the will of his master will be beaten with
|
|
more blows, because of the power he has by his knowledge. Qui justus
|
|
est, justificetur adhuc,* because of the power he has by justice. From
|
|
him who has received most, will the greatest reckoning be demanded,
|
|
because of the power he has by this help.
|
|
|
|
* Rev. 22. 11. "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still."
|
|
|
|
532. Scripture has provided passages of consolation and of warning
|
|
for all conditions.
|
|
|
|
Nature seems to have done the same thing by her two infinities,
|
|
natural and moral; for we shall always have the higher and the
|
|
lower, the more clever and the less clever, the most exalted and the
|
|
meanest, in order to humble our pride and exalt our humility.
|
|
|
|
533. Comminutum cor (Saint Paul).* This is the Christian
|
|
character. Alba has named you, I know you no more (Corneille). That is
|
|
the inhuman character. The human character is the opposite.
|
|
|
|
* Circumcidentes cor. Rom. 2. "Circumcision is that of the heart."
|
|
|
|
534. There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe
|
|
themselves sinners; the rest, sinners, who believe themselves
|
|
righteous.
|
|
|
|
535. We owe a great debt to those who point out faults. For they
|
|
mortify us. They teach us that we have been despised. They do not
|
|
prevent our being so in the future; for we have many other faults
|
|
for which we may be despised. They prepare for us the exercise of
|
|
correction and freedom from fault.
|
|
|
|
536. Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool
|
|
he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes
|
|
himself believe it. For man holds an inward talk with his self
|
|
alone, which it behoves him to regulate well: Corrumpunt bonos mores
|
|
colloquia prava.* We must keep silent as much as possible and talk
|
|
with ourselves only of God, whom we know to be true; and thus we
|
|
convince ourselves of the truth.
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 15. 33. "Evil communications corrupt good manners."
|
|
|
|
537. Christianity is strange. It bids man recognise that he is
|
|
vile, even abominable, and bids him desire to be like God. Without
|
|
such a counterpoise, this dignity would make him horribly vain, or
|
|
this humiliation would make him terribly abject.
|
|
|
|
538. With how little pride does a Christian believe himself united
|
|
to God! With how little humiliation does he place himself on a level
|
|
with the worms of earth!
|
|
|
|
A glorious manner to welcome life and death, good and evil!
|
|
|
|
539. What difference in point of obedience is there between a
|
|
soldier and a Carthusian monk? For both are equally under obedience
|
|
and dependent, both engaged in equally painful exercises. But the
|
|
soldier always hopes to command and never attains this, for even
|
|
captains and princes are ever slaves and dependants; still he ever
|
|
hopes and ever works to attain this. Whereas the Carthusian monk makes
|
|
a vow to be always dependent. So they do not differ in their perpetual
|
|
thraldom, in which both of them always exist, but in the hope, which
|
|
one always has, and the other never.
|
|
|
|
540. The hope which Christians have of possessing an infinite good
|
|
is mingled with real enjoyment as well as with fear; for it is not
|
|
as with those who should hope for a kingdom, of which they, being
|
|
subjects, would have nothing; but they hope for holiness, for
|
|
freedom from injustice, and they have something of this.
|
|
|
|
541. None is so happy as a true Christian, nor so reasonable,
|
|
virtuous, or amiable.
|
|
|
|
542. The Christian religion alone makes man altogether lovable and
|
|
happy. In honesty, we cannot perhaps be altogether lovable and happy.
|
|
|
|
543. Preface.- The metaphysical proofs of God are so remote from
|
|
the reasoning of men, and so complicated, that they make little
|
|
impression; and if they should be of service to some, it would be only
|
|
during the moment that they see such demonstration; but an hour
|
|
afterwards they fear they have been mistaken.
|
|
|
|
Quod curiositate cognoverunt superbia amiserunt.*
|
|
|
|
* "What they have found by their curiosity, they have lost by
|
|
their pride." Quod curiositate invenerunt, superbia perdiderunt. St.
|
|
Augustine, Sermon cxli.
|
|
|
|
This is the result of the knowledge of God obtained without
|
|
Jesus Christ; it is communion without a mediator with the God whom
|
|
they have known without a mediator. Whereas those who have known God
|
|
by a mediator know their own wretchedness.
|
|
|
|
544. The God of the Christians is a God who makes the soul feel
|
|
that He is her only good, that her only rest is in Him, that her
|
|
only delight is in loving Him; and who makes her at the same time
|
|
abhor the obstacles which keep her back and prevent her from loving
|
|
God with all her strength. Self-love and lust, which hinder us, are
|
|
unbearable to her. Thus God makes her feel that she has this root of
|
|
self-love which destroys her, and which He alone can cure.
|
|
|
|
545. Jesus Christ did nothing but teach men that they loved
|
|
themselves, that they were slaves, blind, sick, wretched, and sinners;
|
|
that He must deliver them, enlighten, bless, and heal them; that
|
|
this would be effected by hating self, and by following Him through
|
|
suffering and the death on the cross.
|
|
|
|
546. Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery; with
|
|
Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery; in Him is all our
|
|
virtue and all our happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice,
|
|
misery, darkness, death, despair.
|
|
|
|
547. We know God only by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator,
|
|
all communion with God is taken away; through Jesus Christ we know
|
|
God. All those who have claimed to know God, and to prove Him
|
|
without Jesus Christ, have had only weak proofs. But in proof of Jesus
|
|
Christ we have the prophecies, which are solid and palpable proofs.
|
|
And these prophecies, being accomplished and proved true by the event,
|
|
mark the certainty of these truths and, therefore, the divinity of
|
|
Christ. In Him, then, and through Him, we know God. Apart from Him,
|
|
and without the Scripture, without original sin, without a necessary
|
|
mediator promised and come, we cannot absolutely prove God, nor
|
|
teach right doctrine and right morality. But through Jesus Christ, and
|
|
in Jesus Christ, we prove God, and teach morality and doctrine.
|
|
Jesus Christ is, then, the true God of men.
|
|
|
|
But we know at the same time our wretchedness; for this God is
|
|
none other than the Saviour of our wretchedness. So we can only know
|
|
God well by knowing our iniquities. Therefore those who have known
|
|
God, without knowing their wretchedness, have not glorified Him, but
|
|
have glorified themselves. Quia... non cognovit per sapientiam...
|
|
placuit Deo per stultitiam praedicationis salvos facere.*
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 1. 21. "Which... by wisdom knew not... it pleased God
|
|
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
|
|
|
|
548. Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know
|
|
ourselves only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through
|
|
Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our
|
|
life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.
|
|
|
|
Thus without the Scripture, which has Jesus Christ alone for its
|
|
object, we know nothing, and see only darkness and confusion in the
|
|
nature of God and in our own nature.
|
|
|
|
549. It is not only impossible but useless to know God without
|
|
Jesus Christ. They have not departed from Him, but approached; they
|
|
have not humbled themselves, but...
|
|
|
|
Quo quisque optimus est, pessimus, si hoc ipsum, quod optimus est,
|
|
adscribat sibi.*
|
|
|
|
* St. Bernard, Sermones in Cantica Canticorum, lxxxiv. "The better
|
|
one is, the worse one becomes, if one attributes the cause of this
|
|
goodness to one's self."
|
|
|
|
550. I love poverty because He loved it. I love riches because
|
|
they afford me the means of helping the very poor. I keep faith with
|
|
everybody; I do not render evil to those who wrong me, but I wish them
|
|
a lot like mine, in which I receive neither evil nor good from men.
|
|
I try to be just, true, sincere, and faithful to all men; I have a
|
|
tender heart for those to whom God has more closely united me; and
|
|
whether I am alone, or seen of men, I do all my actions in the sight
|
|
of God, who must judge of them, and to whom I have consecrated them
|
|
all.
|
|
|
|
These are my sentiments; and every day of my life I bless my
|
|
Redeemer, who has implanted them in me, and who, of a man full of
|
|
weakness, of miseries, of lust, of pride, and of ambition, has made
|
|
a man free from all these evils by the power of His grace, to which
|
|
all the glory of it is due, as of myself I have only misery and error.
|
|
|
|
551. Dignior plagis quam osculis non timeo quia amo.*
|
|
|
|
* Ibid. "Meriting blows more than kisses, I fear not, because I
|
|
love."
|
|
|
|
552. The Sepulchre of Jesus Christ.- Jesus Christ was dead, but
|
|
seen on the Cross. He was dead, and hidden in the Sepulchre.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ was buried by the saints alone.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ wrought no miracle at the Sepulchre.
|
|
|
|
Only the saints entered it.
|
|
|
|
It is there, not on the Cross, that Jesus Christ takes a new life.
|
|
|
|
It is the last mystery of the Passion and the Redemption.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ had nowhere to rest on earth but in the Sepulchre.
|
|
His enemies only ceased to persecute Him at the Sepulchre.
|
|
|
|
553. The Mystery of Jesus.- Jesus suffers in His passions the
|
|
torments which men inflict upon Him; but in His agony He suffers the
|
|
torments which He inflicts on himself; turbare semetipsum.* This is
|
|
a suffering from no human, but an almighty hand, for He must be
|
|
almighty to bear it.
|
|
|
|
* John 11. 33. Et turbarit seipsum. "And he troubled himself."
|
|
|
|
Jesus seeks some comfort at least in His three dearest friends,
|
|
and they are asleep. He prays them to bear with Him for a little,
|
|
and they leave Him with entire indifference, having so little
|
|
compassion that it could not prevent their sleeping even for a moment.
|
|
And thus Jesus was left alone to the wrath of God.
|
|
|
|
Jesus is alone on the earth, without any one not only to feel
|
|
and share His suffering, but even to know of it; He and Heaven were
|
|
alone in that knowledge.
|
|
|
|
Jesus is in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, where he
|
|
lost himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, where He
|
|
saved himself and the whole human race.
|
|
|
|
He suffers this affliction and this desertion in the horror of
|
|
night.
|
|
|
|
I believe that Jesus never complained but on this single occasion;
|
|
but then He complained as if he could no longer bear His extreme
|
|
suffering. "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death."
|
|
|
|
Jesus seeks companionship and comfort from men. This is the sole
|
|
occasion in all His life, as it seems to me. But He receives it not,
|
|
for His disciples are asleep. Jesus will be in agony even to the end
|
|
of the world. We must not sleep during that time.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, in the midst of this universal desertion, including that of
|
|
His own friends chosen to watch with Him, finding them asleep, is
|
|
vexed because of the danger to which they expose, not Him, but
|
|
themselves; He cautions them for their own safety and their own
|
|
good, with a sincere tenderness for them during their ingratitude, and
|
|
warns them that the spirit is willing and the flesh weak.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, finding them still asleep, without being restrained by
|
|
any consideration for themselves or for Him, has the kindness not to
|
|
waken them and leaves them in repose.
|
|
|
|
Jesus prays, uncertain of the will of His Father, and fears death;
|
|
but, when He knows it, He goes forward to offer Himself to death.
|
|
Eamus.* Processit (John).*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Matt. 26. 46. "Let us be going."
|
|
|
|
*(2) 18.2. "Jesus went forth."
|
|
|
|
Jesus asked of men and was not heard.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, while His disciples slept, wrought their salvation. He
|
|
has wrought that of each of the righteous while they slept, both in
|
|
their nothingness before their birth, and in their sins after their
|
|
birth.
|
|
|
|
He prays only once that the cup pass away, and then with
|
|
submission; and twice that it come if necessary.
|
|
|
|
Jesus is weary.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, seeing all His friends asleep and all His enemies
|
|
wakeful, commits Himself entirely to His Father.
|
|
|
|
Jesus does not regard in Judas his enmity, but the order of God,
|
|
which He loves and admits, since He calls him friend.
|
|
|
|
Jesus tears Himself away from His disciples to enter into His
|
|
agony; we must tear ourselves away from our nearest and dearest to
|
|
imitate Him.
|
|
|
|
Jesus being in agony and in the greatest affliction, let us pray
|
|
longer.
|
|
|
|
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace
|
|
in our vices, that He may deliver us from them.
|
|
|
|
If God gave us masters by His own hand, oh! how necessary for us
|
|
to obey them with a good heart! Necessity and events follow
|
|
infallibly.
|
|
|
|
"Console thyself, thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou hadst not
|
|
found Me.
|
|
|
|
"I thought of thee in Mine agony, I have sweated such drops of
|
|
blood for thee.
|
|
|
|
"It is tempting Me rather than proving thyself, to think if thou
|
|
wouldst do such and such a thing on an occasion which has not
|
|
happened; I shall act in thee if it occur.
|
|
|
|
"Let thyself be guided by My rules; see how well I have led the
|
|
Virgin and the saints who have let Me act in them.
|
|
|
|
"The Father loves all that I do.
|
|
|
|
"Dost thou wish that it always cost Me the blood of My humanity,
|
|
without thy shedding tears?
|
|
|
|
"Thy conversion is My affair; fear not, and pray with confidence
|
|
as for Me.
|
|
|
|
"I am present with thee by My Word in Scripture, by My Spirit in
|
|
the Church and by inspiration, by My power in the priests, by My
|
|
prayer in the faithful.
|
|
|
|
"Physicians will not heal thee, for thou wilt die at last. But
|
|
it is I who heal thee and make the body immortal.
|
|
|
|
"Suffer bodily chains and servitude, I deliver thee at present
|
|
only from spiritual servitude.
|
|
|
|
"I am more a friend to thee than such and such an one, for I
|
|
have done for thee more then they; they would not have suffered what I
|
|
have suffered from thee, and they would not have died for thee as I
|
|
have done in the time of thine infidelities and cruelties, and as I am
|
|
ready to do, and do, among My elect and at the Holy Sacrament."
|
|
|
|
"If thou knewest thy sins, thou wouldst lose heart."
|
|
|
|
I shall lose it then, Lord, for on Thy assurance I believe their
|
|
malice.
|
|
|
|
"No, for I, by whom thou learnest, can heal thee of them, and what
|
|
I say to thee is a sign that I will heal thee. In proportion to thy
|
|
expiation of them, thou wilt know them, and it will be said to thee:
|
|
'Behold thy sins are forgiven thee.' Repent, then, for thy hidden
|
|
sins, and for the secret malice of those which thou knowest."
|
|
|
|
Lord, I give Thee all.
|
|
|
|
"I love thee more ardently than thou hast loved thine
|
|
abominations, ut immundus pro luto.
|
|
|
|
"To Me be the glory, not to thee, worm of the earth.
|
|
|
|
"Ask thy confessor, when My own words are to thee occasion of
|
|
evil, vanity, or curiosity."
|
|
|
|
I see in me depths of pride, curiosity, and lust. There is no
|
|
relation between me and God, nor Jesus Christ the Righteous. But He
|
|
has been made sin for me; all Thy scourges are fallen upon Him. He
|
|
is more abominable than I, and, far from abhorring me, He holds
|
|
Himself honoured that I go to Him and succour Him.
|
|
|
|
But He has healed Himself, and still more so will He heal me.
|
|
|
|
I must add my wounds to His, and join myself to Him; and He will
|
|
save me in saving Himself. But this must not be postponed to the
|
|
future.
|
|
|
|
Eritis sicut dii scientes bonum et malum.* Each one creates his
|
|
god, when judging, "This is good or bad"; and men mourn or rejoice too
|
|
much at events.
|
|
|
|
* Gen. 3. 5. "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
|
|
|
|
Do little things as though they were great, because of the
|
|
majesty of Jesus Christ who does them in us and who lives our life;
|
|
and do the greatest things as though they were little and easy,
|
|
because of His omnipotence.
|
|
|
|
554. It seems to me that Jesus Christ only allowed His wounds to
|
|
be touched after His resurrection: Noli me tangere.* We must unite
|
|
ourselves only to His sufferings.
|
|
|
|
* John 20. 17. "Touch me not."
|
|
|
|
At the Last Supper He gave Himself in communion as about to die;
|
|
to the disciples at Emmaus as risen from the dead; to the whole Church
|
|
as ascended into heaven.
|
|
|
|
555. "Compare not thyself with others, but with Me. If thou dost
|
|
not find Me in those with whom thou comparest thyself, thou
|
|
comparest thyself to one who is abominable. If thou findest Me in
|
|
them, compare thyself to Me. But whom wilt thou compare? Thyself, or
|
|
Me in thee? If it is thyself, it is one who is abominable. If it is I,
|
|
thou comparest Me to Myself. Now I am God in all.
|
|
|
|
"I speak to thee, and often counsel thee, because thy director
|
|
cannot speak to thee, for I do not want thee to lack a guide.
|
|
|
|
"And perhaps I do so at his prayers, and thus he leads thee
|
|
without thy seeing it. Thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou didst not
|
|
possess Me.
|
|
|
|
"Be not therefore troubled."
|
|
|
|
SECTION VIII
|
|
|
|
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
|
|
|
|
556.... Men blaspheme what they do not know. The Christian
|
|
religion consists in two points. It is of equal concern to men to know
|
|
them, and it is equally dangerous to be ignorant of them. And it is
|
|
equally of God's mercy that He has given indications of both.
|
|
|
|
And yet they take occasion to conclude that one of these points
|
|
does not exist, from that which should have caused them to infer the
|
|
other. The sages who have said there is only one God have been
|
|
persecuted, the Jews were hated, and still more the Christians. They
|
|
have seen by the light of nature that if there be a true religion on
|
|
earth, the course of all things must tend to it as to a centre.
|
|
|
|
The whole course of things must have for its object the
|
|
establishment and the greatness of religion. Men must have within them
|
|
feelings suited to what religion teaches us. And, finally, religion
|
|
must so be the object and the centre to which all things tend that
|
|
whoever knows the principles of religion can give an explanation
|
|
both of the whole nature of man in particular and of the whole
|
|
course of the world in general.
|
|
|
|
And on this ground they take occasion to revile the Christian
|
|
religion, because they misunderstand it. They imagine that it consists
|
|
simply in the worship of a God considered as great, powerful, and
|
|
eternal; which is strictly deism, almost as far removed from the
|
|
Christian religion as atheism, which is its exact opposite. And thence
|
|
they conclude that this religion is not true, because they do not
|
|
see that all things concur to the establishment of this point, that
|
|
God does not manifest Himself to men with all the evidence which He
|
|
could show.
|
|
|
|
But let them conclude what they will against deism, they will
|
|
conclude nothing against the Christian religion, which properly
|
|
consists in the mystery of the Redeemer, who, uniting in Himself the
|
|
two natures, human and divine, has redeemed men from the corruption of
|
|
sin in order to reconcile them in His divine person to God.
|
|
|
|
The Christian religion, then, teaches men these two truths; that
|
|
there is a God whom men can know, and that there is a corruption in
|
|
their nature which renders them unworthy of Him. It is equally
|
|
important to men to know both these points; and it is equally
|
|
dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness,
|
|
and to know his own wretchedness without knowing the Redeemer who
|
|
can free him from it. The knowledge of only one of these points
|
|
gives rise either to the pride of philosophers, who have known God,
|
|
and not their own wretchedness, or to the despair of atheists, who
|
|
know their own wretchedness, but not the Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
And, as it is alike necessary to man to know these two points,
|
|
so is it alike merciful of God to have made us know them. The
|
|
Christian religion does this; it is in this that it consists.
|
|
|
|
Let us herein examine the order of the world and see if all things
|
|
do not tend to establish these two chief points of this religion:
|
|
Jesus Christ is end of all, and the centre to which all tends. Whoever
|
|
knows Him knows the reason of everything.
|
|
|
|
Those who fall into error err only through failure to see one of
|
|
these two things. We can, then, have an excellent knowledge of God
|
|
without that of our own wretchedness and of our own wretchedness
|
|
without that of God. But we cannot know Jesus Christ without knowing
|
|
at the same time both God and our own wretchedness.
|
|
|
|
Therefore I shall not undertake here to prove by natural reasons
|
|
either the existence of God, or the Trinity, or the immortality of the
|
|
soul, or anything of that nature; not only because I should not feel
|
|
myself sufficiently able to find in nature arguments to convince
|
|
hardened atheists, but also because such knowledge without Jesus
|
|
Christ is useless and barren. Though a man should be convinced that
|
|
numerical proportions are immaterial truths, eternal and dependent
|
|
on a first truth, in which they subsist and which is called God, I
|
|
should not think him far advanced towards his own salvation.
|
|
|
|
The God of Christians is not a God who is simply the author of
|
|
mathematical truths, or of the order of the elements; that is the view
|
|
of heathens and Epicureans. He is not merely a God who exercises His
|
|
providence over the life and fortunes of men, to bestow on those who
|
|
worship Him a long and happy life. That was the portion of the Jews.
|
|
But the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of
|
|
Christians, is a God of love and of comfort, a God who fills the
|
|
soul and heart of those whom He possesses, a God who makes them
|
|
conscious of their inward wretchedness, and His infinite mercy, who
|
|
unites Himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and
|
|
joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other
|
|
end than Himself.
|
|
|
|
All who seek God without Jesus Christ, and who rest in nature,
|
|
either find no light to satisfy them, or come to form for themselves a
|
|
means of knowing God and serving Him without a mediator. Thereby
|
|
they fall either into atheism, or into deism, two things which the
|
|
Christian religion abhors almost equally.
|
|
|
|
Without Jesus Christ the world would not exist; for it should
|
|
needs be either that it would be destroyed or be a hell.
|
|
|
|
If the world existed to instruct man of God, His divinity would
|
|
shine through every part in it in an indisputable manner; but as it
|
|
exists only by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, and to teach men
|
|
both their corruption and their redemption, all displays the proofs of
|
|
these two truths.
|
|
|
|
All appearance indicates neither a total exclusion nor a
|
|
manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a God who hides
|
|
himself. Everything bears this character.
|
|
|
|
... Shall he alone who knows his nature know it only to be
|
|
miserable? Shall he alone who knows it be alone unhappy?
|
|
|
|
... He must not see nothing at all, nor must he see sufficient for
|
|
him to believe he possesses it; but he must see enough to know that he
|
|
has lost it. For to know of his loss, he must see and not see; and
|
|
that is exactly the state in which he naturally is.
|
|
|
|
... Whatever part he takes, I shall not leave him at rest.
|
|
|
|
557.... It is, then, true that everything teaches man his
|
|
condition, but he must understand this well. For it is not true that
|
|
all reveals God, and it is not true that all conceals God. But it is
|
|
at the same time true that He hides Himself from those who tempt
|
|
Him, and that He reveals Himself to those who seek Him, because men
|
|
are both unworthy and capable of God; unworthy by their corruption,
|
|
capable by their original nature.
|
|
|
|
558. What shall we conclude from all our darkness, but our
|
|
unworthiness?
|
|
|
|
559. If there never had been any appearance of God, this eternal
|
|
deprivation would have been equivocal, and might have as well
|
|
corresponded with the absence of all divinity, as with the
|
|
unworthiness of men to know Him; but His occasional, though not
|
|
continual, appearances remove the ambiguity. If He appeared once, He
|
|
exists always; and thus we cannot but conclude both that there is a
|
|
God and that men are unworthy of Him.
|
|
|
|
560. We do not understand the glorious state of Adam, nor the
|
|
nature of his sin, nor the transmission of it to us. These are matters
|
|
which took place under conditions of a nature altogether different
|
|
from our own and which transcend our present understanding.
|
|
|
|
The knowledge of all this is useless to us as a means of escape
|
|
from it; and all that we are concerned to know is that we are
|
|
miserable, corrupt, separated from God, but ransomed by Jesus
|
|
Christ, whereof we have wonderful proofs on earth.
|
|
|
|
So the two proofs of corruption and redemption are drawn from
|
|
the ungodly, who live in indifference to religion, and from the Jews
|
|
who are irreconcilable enemies.
|
|
|
|
561. There are two ways of proving the truths of our religion; one
|
|
by the power of reason, the other by the authority of him who speaks.
|
|
|
|
We do not make use of the latter, but of the former. We do not
|
|
say, "This must be believed, for Scripture, which says it, is divine."
|
|
But we say that it must be believed for such and such a reason,
|
|
which are feeble arguments, as reason may be bent to everything.
|
|
|
|
562. There is nothing on earth that does not show either the
|
|
wretchedness of man, or the mercy of God; either the weakness of man
|
|
without God, or the strength of man with God.
|
|
|
|
563. It will be one of the confusions of the damned to see that
|
|
they are condemned by their own reason, by which they claimed to
|
|
condemn the Christian religion.
|
|
|
|
564. The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion,
|
|
are not of such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely
|
|
convincing. But they are also of such a kind that it cannot be said
|
|
that it is unreasonable to believe them. Thus there is both evidence
|
|
and obscurity to enlighten some and confuse others. But the evidence
|
|
is such that it surpasses, or at least equals, the evidence to the
|
|
contrary; so that it is not reason which can determine men not to
|
|
follow it, and thus it can only be lust or malice of heart. And by
|
|
this means there is sufficient evidence to condemn, and insufficient
|
|
to convince; so that it appears in those who follow it that it is
|
|
grace, and not reason, which makes them follow it; and in those who
|
|
shun it, that it is lust, not reason, which makes them shun it.
|
|
|
|
Vere discipuli, vere Israelita, vere liberi, vere cibus.*
|
|
|
|
* Allusion to John 6. 56; 1. 47; 8. 36; 6. 32. "True disciple;
|
|
an Israelite indeed; free indeed; true bread."
|
|
|
|
565. Recognise, then, the truth of religion in the very
|
|
obscurity of religion, in the little light we have of it, and in the
|
|
indifference which we have to knowing it.
|
|
|
|
566. We understand nothing of the works of God, if we do not
|
|
take as a principle that He has willed to blind some and enlighten
|
|
others.
|
|
|
|
567. The two contrary reasons. We must begin with that; without
|
|
that we understand nothing, and all is heretical; and we must even add
|
|
at the end of each truth that the opposite truth is to be remembered.
|
|
|
|
568. Objection. The Scripture is plainly full of matters not
|
|
dictated by the Holy Spirit. Answer. Then they do not harm faith.
|
|
Objection. But the Church has decided that all is of the Holy
|
|
Spirit. Answer. I answer two things: first, the Church has not so
|
|
decided; secondly, if she should so decide, it could be maintained.
|
|
|
|
Do you think that the prophecies cited in the Gospel are related
|
|
to make you believe? No, it is to keep you from believing.
|
|
|
|
569. Canonical.- The heretical books in the beginning of the
|
|
Church serve to prove the canonical.
|
|
|
|
570. To the chapter on the Fundamentals must be added that on
|
|
Typology touching the reason of types: why Jesus Christ was prophesied
|
|
as to His first coming; why prophesied obscurely as to the manner.
|
|
|
|
571. The reason why. Types.- They had to deal with a carnal people
|
|
and to render them the depositary of the spiritual covenant. To give
|
|
faith to the Messiah, it was necessary there should have been
|
|
precedent prophesies, and that these should be conveyed by persons
|
|
above suspicion, diligent, faithful, unusually zealous, and known to
|
|
all the world.
|
|
|
|
To accomplish all this, God chose this carnal people, to whom He
|
|
entrusted the prophecies which foretell the Messiah as a deliverer and
|
|
as a dispenser of those carnal goods which this people loved. And thus
|
|
they have had an extraordinary passion for their prophets and, in
|
|
sight of the whole world, have had charge of these books which
|
|
foretell their Messiah, assuring all nations that He should come and
|
|
in the way foretold in the books, which they held open to the whole
|
|
world. Yet this people, deceived by the poor and ignominious advent of
|
|
the Messiah, have been His most cruel enemies. So that they, the
|
|
people least open to suspicion in the world of favouring us, the
|
|
most strict and most zealous that can be named for their law and their
|
|
prophets, have kept the books incorrupt. Hence those who have rejected
|
|
and crucified Jesus Christ, who has been to them an offence, are those
|
|
who have charge of the books which testify of Him, and state that He
|
|
will be an offence and rejected. Therefore they have shown it was He
|
|
by rejecting Him, and He has been alike proved both by the righteous
|
|
Jews who received Him and by the unrighteous who rejected Him, both
|
|
facts having been foretold.
|
|
|
|
Wherefore the prophecies have a hidden and spiritual meaning to
|
|
which this people were hostile, under the carnal meaning which they
|
|
loved. If the spiritual meaning had been revealed, they would not have
|
|
loved it, and, unable to bear it, they would not have been zealous
|
|
of the preservation of their books and their ceremonies; and if they
|
|
had loved these spiritual promises, and had preserved them incorrupt
|
|
till the time of the Messiah, their testimony would have had no force,
|
|
because they had been his friends.
|
|
|
|
Therefore it was well that the spiritual meaning should be
|
|
concealed; but, on the other hand, if this meaning had been so
|
|
hidden as not to appear at all, it could not have served as a proof of
|
|
the Messiah. What then was done? In a crowd of passages it has been
|
|
hidden under the temporal meaning, and in a few been clearly revealed;
|
|
besides that, the time and the state of the world have been so clearly
|
|
foretold that it is clearer than the sun. And in some places this
|
|
spiritual meaning is so clearly expressed that it would require a
|
|
blindness, like that which the flesh imposes on the spirit when it
|
|
is subdued by it, not to recognise it.
|
|
|
|
See, then, what has been the prudence of God. This meaning is
|
|
concealed under another in an infinite number of passages, and in
|
|
some, though rarely, it is revealed; but yet so that the passages in
|
|
which it is concealed are equivocal and can suit both meanings;
|
|
whereas the passages where it is disclosed are unequivocal and can
|
|
only suit the spiritual meaning.
|
|
|
|
So that this cannot lead us into error and could only be
|
|
misunderstood by so carnal a people.
|
|
|
|
For when blessings are promised in abundance, what was to
|
|
prevent them from understanding the true blessings, but their
|
|
covetousness, which limited the meaning to worldly goods? But those
|
|
whose only good was in God referred them to God alone. For there are
|
|
two principles, which divide the wills of men, covetousness and
|
|
charity. Not that covetousness cannot exist along with faith in God,
|
|
nor charity with worldly riches; but covetousness uses God and
|
|
enjoys the world, and charity is the opposite.
|
|
|
|
Now the ultimate end gives names to things. All which prevents
|
|
us from attaining it is called an enemy to us. Thus the creatures,
|
|
however good, are the enemies of the righteous, when they turn them
|
|
away from God, and God Himself is the enemy of those whose
|
|
covetousness He confounds.
|
|
|
|
Thus as the significance of the word enemy is dependent on the
|
|
ultimate end, the righteous understood by it their passions, and the
|
|
carnal the Babylonians; and so these terms were obscure only for the
|
|
unrighteous. And this is what Isaiah says: Signa legem in electis
|
|
meis,* and that Jesus Christ shall be a stone of stumbling. But,
|
|
"Blessed are they who shall not be offended in him." Hosea, 14. 9,
|
|
says excellently, "Where is the wise? and he shall understand what I
|
|
say. The righteous shall know them, for the ways of God are right; but
|
|
the transgressors shall fall therein."
|
|
|
|
* In discipulis meis. Isaiah 8. 16. "Seal the law among my
|
|
disciples."
|
|
|
|
572. Hypothesis that the apostles were impostors. The time
|
|
clearly, the manner obscurely. Five typical proofs.
|
|
|
|
1600 prophets.
|
|
|
|
400 scattered.
|
|
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
2000
|
|
|
|
573. Blindness of Scripture.- "The Scripture," said the Jews,
|
|
"says that we shall not know whence Christ will come (John 7. 27,
|
|
and 12. 34)- The Scripture says that Christ abideth for ever, and He
|
|
said that He should die." Therefore, says Saint John, they believed
|
|
not, though He had done so many miracles, that the word of Isaiah
|
|
might be fulfilled: "He hath blinded them," etc.
|
|
|
|
574. Greatness.- Religion is so great a thing that it is right
|
|
that those who will not take the trouble to seek it, if it be obscure,
|
|
should be deprived of it. Why, then, do any complain, if it be such as
|
|
can be found by seeking?
|
|
|
|
575. All things work together for good to the elect, even the
|
|
obscurities of Scripture; for they honour them because of what is
|
|
divinely clear. And all things work together for evil to the rest of
|
|
the world, even what is clear; for they revile such, because of the
|
|
obscurities which they do not understand.
|
|
|
|
576. The general conduct of the world towards the Church: God
|
|
willing to blind and to enlighten.- The event having proved the
|
|
divinity of these prophecies, the rest ought to be believed. And
|
|
thereby we see the order of the world to be of this kind. The miracles
|
|
of the Creation and the Deluge being forgotten, God sends the law
|
|
and the miracles of Moses, the prophets who prophesied particular
|
|
things; and to prepare a lasting miracle, He prepares prophecies and
|
|
their fulfilment; but, as the prophecies could be suspected, He
|
|
desires to make them above suspicion, etc.
|
|
|
|
577. God has made the blindness of this people subservient to
|
|
the good of the elect.
|
|
|
|
578. There is sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect, and
|
|
sufficient obscurity to humble them. There is sufficient obscurity
|
|
to blind the reprobate, and sufficient clearness to condemn them and
|
|
make them inexcusable. Saint Augustine, Montaigne, Sebond.
|
|
|
|
The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is intermingled
|
|
with so many others that are useless that it cannot be
|
|
distinguished. If Moses had kept only the record of the ancestors of
|
|
Christ, that might have been too plain. If he had not noted that of
|
|
Jesus Christ, it might not have been sufficiently plain. But, after
|
|
all, whoever looks closely sees that of Jesus Christ expressly
|
|
traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.
|
|
|
|
Those who ordained these sacrifices knew their uselessness;
|
|
those who have declared their uselessness, have not ceased to practise
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
If God had permitted only one religion, it has been too easily
|
|
known; but when we look at it closely, we clearly discern the truth
|
|
amidst this confusion.
|
|
|
|
The premiss.- Moses was a clever man. If, then, he ruled himself
|
|
by his reason, he would say nothing clearly which was directly against
|
|
reason.
|
|
|
|
Thus all the very apparent weaknesses are strength. Example; the
|
|
two genealogies in Saint Matthew and Saint Luke. What can be clearer
|
|
than that this was not concerted?
|
|
|
|
579. God (and the Apostles), foreseeing that the seeds of pride
|
|
would make heresies spring up, and being unwilling to give them
|
|
occasion to arise from correct expressions, has put in Scripture and
|
|
the prayers of the Church contrary words and sentences to produce
|
|
their fruit in time.
|
|
|
|
So in morals He gives charity, which produces fruits contrary to
|
|
lust.
|
|
|
|
580. Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image
|
|
of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image.
|
|
|
|
581. God prefers rather to incline the will than the intellect.
|
|
Perfect clearness would be of use to the intellect and would harm
|
|
the will. To humble pride.
|
|
|
|
582. We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity
|
|
is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor
|
|
worship; and still less must we love or worship its opposite,
|
|
namely, falsehood.
|
|
|
|
I can easily love total darkness; but if God keeps me in a state
|
|
of semi-darkness, such partial darkness displeases me, and, because
|
|
I do not see therein the advantage of total darkness, it is unpleasant
|
|
to me. This is a fault and a sign that I make for myself an idol of
|
|
darkness, apart from the order of God. Now only His order must be
|
|
worshipped.
|
|
|
|
583. The feeble-minded are people who know the truth, but only
|
|
affirm it so far as consistent with their own interest. But, apart
|
|
from that, they renounce it.
|
|
|
|
584. The world exists for the exercise of mercy and judgement, not
|
|
as if men were placed in it out of the hands of God, but as hostile to
|
|
God; and to them He grants by grace sufficient light, that they may
|
|
return to Him, if they desire to seek and follow Him; and also that
|
|
they may be punished, if they refuse to seek or follow Him.
|
|
|
|
585. That God has willed to hide Himself.- If there were only
|
|
one religion, God would indeed be manifest. The same would be the case
|
|
if there were no martyrs but in our religion.
|
|
|
|
God being thus hidden, every religion which does not affirm that
|
|
God is hidden is not true; and every religion which does not give
|
|
the reason of it is not instructive. Our religion does all this:
|
|
Vere tu es Deus absconditus.*
|
|
|
|
* Is. 45. 15.
|
|
|
|
586. If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of
|
|
his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a
|
|
remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be
|
|
partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to
|
|
man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know
|
|
his own wretchedness without knowing God.
|
|
|
|
587. This religion, so great in miracles, saints, blameless
|
|
Fathers, learned and great witnesses, martyrs, established kings as
|
|
David, and Isaiah, a prince of the blood, and so great in science,
|
|
after having displayed all her miracles and all her wisdom, rejects
|
|
all this, and declares that she has neither wisdom nor signs, but only
|
|
the cross and foolishness.
|
|
|
|
For those, who, by these signs and that wisdom, have deserved your
|
|
belief, and who have proved to you their character, declare to you
|
|
that nothing of all this can change you, and render you capable of
|
|
knowing and loving God, but the power of the foolishness of the
|
|
cross without wisdom and signs, and not the signs without this
|
|
power. Thus our religion is foolish in respect to the effective
|
|
cause and wise in respect to the wisdom which prepares it.
|
|
|
|
588. Our religion is wise and foolish. Wise, because it is the
|
|
most learned and the most founded on miracles, prophecies, etc.
|
|
Foolish, because it is not all this which makes us belong to it.
|
|
This makes us, indeed, condemn those who do not belong to it; but it
|
|
does not cause belief in those who do belong to it. It is the cross
|
|
that makes them believe, ne evacuata sit crux.* And so Saint Paul, who
|
|
came with wisdom and signs, says that he has come neither with
|
|
wisdom nor with signs; for he came to convert. But those who come only
|
|
to convince can say that they come with wisdom and with signs.
|
|
|
|
* I Cor. 1. 17. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
|
|
effect."
|
|
|
|
SECTION IX
|
|
|
|
PERPETUITY
|
|
|
|
589. On the fact that the Christian religion is not the only
|
|
religion.- So far is this from being a reason for believing that it is
|
|
not the true one that, on the contrary, it makes us see that it is so.
|
|
|
|
590. Men must be sincere in all religions; true heathens, true
|
|
Jews, true Christians.
|
|
|
|
591. J. C.
|
|
|
|
Heathens | Mahomet
|
|
|
|
\ /
|
|
|
|
Ignorance of God
|
|
|
|
592. The falseness of other religions.- They have no witnesses.
|
|
Jews have. God defies other religions to produce such signs: Isaiah
|
|
43. 9; 44. 8.
|
|
|
|
593. History of China.- I believe only the histories, whose
|
|
witnesses got themselves killed.
|
|
|
|
Which is the more credible of the two, Moses or China?
|
|
|
|
It is not a question of seeing this summarily. I tell you there is
|
|
in it something to blind, and something to enlighten.
|
|
|
|
By this one word I destroy all your reasoning. "But China
|
|
obscures," say you; and I answer, "China obscures, but there is
|
|
clearness to be found; seek it."
|
|
|
|
Thus all that you say makes for one of the views and not at all
|
|
against the other.
|
|
|
|
So this serves, and does no harm.
|
|
|
|
We must, then, see this in detail; we must put the papers on the
|
|
table.
|
|
|
|
594. Against the history of China.- The historians of Mexico,
|
|
the five suns, of which the last is only eight hundred years old.
|
|
|
|
The difference between a book accepted by a nation and one which
|
|
makes a nation.
|
|
|
|
595. Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have
|
|
been very strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then,
|
|
that we must believe him?
|
|
|
|
596. The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world.
|
|
|
|
Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires
|
|
His own testimony to be as nothing.
|
|
|
|
The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and
|
|
everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone.
|
|
|
|
597. Against Mahomet.- The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the
|
|
Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age
|
|
to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry, never denied it.
|
|
|
|
The Koran says Saint Matthew was an honest man. Therefore
|
|
Mahomet was a false prophet for calling honest men wicked, or for
|
|
not agreeing with what they have said of Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
598. It is not by that which is obscure in Mahomet, and which
|
|
may be interpreted in a mysterious sense, that I would have him
|
|
judged, but by what is clear, as his paradise and the rest. In that he
|
|
is ridiculous. And since what is clear is ridiculous, it is not
|
|
right to take his obscurities for mysteries.
|
|
|
|
It is not the same with the Scripture. I agree that there are in
|
|
it obscurities as strange as those of Mahomet; but there are admirably
|
|
clear passages, and the prophecies are manifestly fulfilled. The cases
|
|
are, therefore, not on a par. We must not confound and put on one
|
|
level things which only resemble each other in their obscurity, and
|
|
not in the clearness, which requires us to reverence the obscurities.
|
|
|
|
599. The difference between Jesus Christ and Mahomet.- Mahomet was
|
|
not foretold; Jesus Christ was foretold.
|
|
|
|
Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ caused His own to be slain.
|
|
|
|
Mahomet forbade reading; the Apostles ordered reading.
|
|
|
|
In fact, the two are so opposed that, if Mahomet took the way to
|
|
succeed from a worldly point of view, Jesus Christ, from the same
|
|
point of view, took the way to perish. And instead of concluding that,
|
|
since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ might well have succeeded, we
|
|
ought to say that, since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ should have
|
|
failed.
|
|
|
|
600. Any man can do what Mahomet has done; for he performed no
|
|
miracles, he was not foretold. No man can do what Christ has done.
|
|
|
|
601. The heathen religion has no foundation at the present day. It
|
|
is said once to have had a foundation by the oracles which spoke.
|
|
But what are the books which assure us of this? Are they so worthy
|
|
of belief on account of the virtue of their authors? Have they been
|
|
preserved with such care that we can be sure that they have not been
|
|
meddled with?
|
|
|
|
The Mahometan religion has for a foundation the Koran and Mahomet.
|
|
But has this prophet, who was to be the last hope of the world, been
|
|
foretold? What sign has he that every other man has not who chooses to
|
|
call himself a prophet? What miracles does he himself say that he
|
|
has done? What mysteries has he taught, even according to his own
|
|
tradition? What was the morality, what the happiness held out by him?
|
|
|
|
The Jewish religion must be differently regarded in the
|
|
tradition of the Holy Bible and in the tradition of the people. Its
|
|
morality and happiness are absurd in the tradition of the people,
|
|
but are admirable in that of the Holy Bible. (And all religion is
|
|
the same; for the Christian religion is very different in the Holy
|
|
Bible and in the casuists.) The foundation is admirable; it is the
|
|
most ancient book in the world, and the most authentic; and whereas
|
|
Mahomet, in order to make his own book continue in existence,
|
|
forbade men to read it, Moses, for the same reason, ordered every
|
|
one to read his.
|
|
|
|
Our religion is so divine that another divine religion has only
|
|
been the foundation of it.
|
|
|
|
602. Order.- To see what is clear and indisputable in the whole
|
|
state of the Jews.
|
|
|
|
603. The Jewish religion is wholly divine in its authority, its
|
|
duration, its perpetuity, its morality, its doctrine, and its effects.
|
|
|
|
604. The only science contrary to common sense and human nature is
|
|
that alone which has always existed among men.
|
|
|
|
605. The only religion contrary to nature, to common sense, and to
|
|
our pleasure, is that alone which has always existed.
|
|
|
|
606. No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin.
|
|
No sea of philosophers has said this. Therefore none have declared the
|
|
truth.
|
|
|
|
No sect or religion has always existed on earth, but the Christian
|
|
religion.
|
|
|
|
607. Whoever judges of the Jewish religion by its coarser forms
|
|
will misunderstand it. It is to be seen in the Holy Bible, and in
|
|
the tradition of the prophets, who have made it plain enough that they
|
|
did not interpret the law according to the letter. So our religion
|
|
is divine in the Gospel, in the Apostles, and in tradition; but it
|
|
is absurd in those who tamper with it.
|
|
|
|
The Messiah, according to the carnal Jews, was to be a great
|
|
temporal prince. Jesus Christ, according to carnal Christians, has
|
|
come to dispense us from the love of God and to give us sacraments
|
|
which shall do everything without our help. Such is not the
|
|
Christian religion, nor the Jewish. True Jews and true Christians have
|
|
always expected a Messiah who should make them love God and by that
|
|
love triumph over their enemies.
|
|
|
|
608. The carnal Jews hold a midway place between Christians and
|
|
heathens. The heathens know not God, and love the world only. The Jews
|
|
know the true God, and love the world only. The Christians know the
|
|
true God, and love not the world. Jews and heathens love the same
|
|
good. Jews and Christians know the same God.
|
|
|
|
The Jews were of two kinds; the first had only heathen affections,
|
|
the other had Christian affections.
|
|
|
|
609. There are two kinds of men in each religion: among the
|
|
heathen, worshippers of beasts and the worshippers of the one only God
|
|
of natural religion; among the Jews, the carnal, and the spiritual,
|
|
who were the Christians of the old law; among Christians, the
|
|
coarser-minded, who are the Jews of the new law. The carnal Jews
|
|
looked for a carnal Messiah; the coarser Christians believe that the
|
|
Messiah has dispensed them from the love of God; true Jews and true
|
|
Christians worship a Messiah who makes them love God.
|
|
|
|
610. To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have but
|
|
the same religion.- The religion of the Jews seemed to consist
|
|
essentially in the fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, in
|
|
sacrifices, in ceremonies, in the Ark, in the temple, in Jerusalem,
|
|
and, finally, in the law, and in the covenant with Moses.
|
|
|
|
I say that it consisted in none of those things, but only in the
|
|
love of God, and that God disregarded all the other things.
|
|
|
|
That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham.
|
|
|
|
That the Jews were to be punished like strangers, if they
|
|
transgressed. Deut. 8. 19: "If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God,
|
|
and walk after other gods, I testify against you this day that ye
|
|
shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before
|
|
your face."
|
|
|
|
That strangers, if they loved God, were to be received by Him as
|
|
the Jews. Isaiah 56. 3: "Let not the stranger say, 'The Lord will
|
|
not receive me.' The strangers who join themselves unto the Lord to
|
|
serve Him and love Him, will I bring unto my holy mountain, and accept
|
|
therein sacrifices, for mine house is a house of prayer."
|
|
|
|
That the true Jews considered their merit to be from God only, and
|
|
not from Abraham. Isaiah 63. 16: "Doubtless thou art our Father,
|
|
though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.
|
|
Thou art our Father and our Redeemer."
|
|
|
|
Moses himself told them that God would not accept persons. Deut.
|
|
10. 17: "God," said he, "regardeth neither persons nor sacrifices."
|
|
|
|
The Sabbath was only a sign, Exod. 31. 13; and in memory of the
|
|
escape from Egypt, Deut. 5. 19. Therefore it is no longer necessary,
|
|
since Egypt must be forgotten.
|
|
|
|
Circumcision was only a sign, Gen. 17. 11. And thence it came to
|
|
pass that, being in the desert, they were not circumcised, because
|
|
they could not be confounded with other peoples; and after Jesus
|
|
Christ came, it was no longer necessary.
|
|
|
|
That the circumcision of the heart is commanded. Deut. 10. 16;
|
|
Jeremiah 4. 4: "Be ye circumcised in heart; take away the
|
|
superfluities of your heart, and harden yourselves not. For your God
|
|
is a mighty God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not persons."
|
|
|
|
That God said He would one day do it. Deut. 30. 6: "God will
|
|
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, that thou mayest
|
|
love Him with all thine heart."
|
|
|
|
That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged. Jeremiah 9. 26:
|
|
For God will judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all the people of
|
|
Israel, because he is "uncircumcised in heart."
|
|
|
|
That the external is of no avail apart from the internal. Joel
|
|
2. 13: Scindite corda vestra,* etc.; Isaiah 58. 3, 4, etc.
|
|
|
|
* "Rend your heart."
|
|
|
|
The love of God is enjoined in the whole of Deuteronomy. Deut. 30.
|
|
19: "I call heaven and earth to record that I have set before you life
|
|
and death, that you should choose life, and love God, and obey Him,
|
|
for God is your life."
|
|
|
|
That the Jews, for lack of that love, should be rejected for their
|
|
offences, and the heathen chosen in their stead. Hosea 1. 10; Deut.
|
|
32. 20. "I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end
|
|
shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children in whom
|
|
is no faith. have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God...
|
|
and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a
|
|
people... and with a foolish nation." Isaiah 65. 1.
|
|
|
|
That temporal goods are false, and that the true good is to be
|
|
united to God. Psalm 143. 15.
|
|
|
|
That their feasts are displeasing to God. Amos 5. 21.
|
|
|
|
That the sacrifices of the Jews displeased God. Isaiah 66. 1-3; 1.
|
|
11; Jer. 6. 20; David, Miserere.* Even on the part of the good,
|
|
Expectavi.*(2) Psalm 49. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 9. 14. "Have mercy."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Is. 5. 7. "He has looked for."
|
|
|
|
That He has established them only for their hardness. Micah,
|
|
admirably, 6; I Kings 15. 22; Hosea 6. 6.
|
|
|
|
That the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be accepted of God, and
|
|
that God will take no pleasure in the sacrifices of the Jews.
|
|
Malachi 1. 11.
|
|
|
|
That God will make a new covenant with the Messiah, and the old
|
|
will be annulled. Jer. 31. 31. Mandata non bona.*
|
|
|
|
* Ezek. 20. 25. Praecepta non bona. "Statutes that were not good."
|
|
|
|
That the old things will be forgotten. Isaiah 43. 18, 19; 65.
|
|
17, 10
|
|
|
|
That the Ark will no longer be remembered. Jer. 3. 15, 16
|
|
|
|
That the temple should be rejected. Jer 7. 12, 13, 14.
|
|
|
|
That the sacrifices should be rejected, and other pure
|
|
sacrifices established. Malachi 1. 11.
|
|
|
|
That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected, and
|
|
that of Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. Ps. Dixit Dominus.
|
|
|
|
That this priesthood should be eternal. Ibid.
|
|
|
|
That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted, Ibid.
|
|
|
|
That the name of the Jews should be rejected, and a new name
|
|
given. Isaiah 65. 15.
|
|
|
|
That this last name should be more excellent than that of the
|
|
Jews, and eternal. Isaiah 56. 5.
|
|
|
|
That the Jews should be without prophets (Amos), without a king,
|
|
without princes, without sacrifice, without an idol.
|
|
|
|
That the Jews should, nevertheless, always remain a people. Jer.
|
|
31. 36
|
|
|
|
611. Republic.- The Christian republic- and even the Jewish- has
|
|
only had God for ruler, as Philo the Jew notices, On Monarchy.
|
|
|
|
When they fought, it was for God only; their chief hope was in God
|
|
only; they considered their towns as belonging to God only, and kept
|
|
them for God. I Chron. 19. 13.
|
|
|
|
612. Gen. 17. 7. Statuam pactum meum inter me et te foedere
|
|
sempiterno... us sim Deus tuus...*
|
|
|
|
Et tu ergo custodies pactum meum.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* "I will establish my covenant between me and Thee for an
|
|
everlasting covenant, to be a God unto Thee."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Gen. 17. 9. "Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore."
|
|
|
|
Perpetuity.- That religion has always existed on earth which
|
|
consists in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory and of
|
|
communion with God into a state of sorrow, penitence, and estrangement
|
|
from God, but that after this life we shall be restored by a Messiah
|
|
who should have come. All things have passed away, and this has
|
|
endured, for which all things are.
|
|
|
|
Men have in the first age of the world been carried away into
|
|
every kind of debauchery, and yet there were saints, as Enoch, Lamech,
|
|
and others, who waited patiently for the Christ promised from the
|
|
beginning of the world. Noah saw the wickedness of men at its
|
|
height; and he was held worthy to save the world in his person, by the
|
|
hope of the Messiah of whom he was the type. Abraham was surrounded by
|
|
idolaters, when God made known to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom
|
|
he welcomed from afar. In the time of Isaac and Jacob, abomination was
|
|
spread over all the earth; but these saints lived in faith; and Jacob,
|
|
dying and blessing his children, cried in a transport which made him
|
|
break off his discourse, "I await, O my God, the Saviour whom Thou
|
|
hast promised. Salutare tuum expectabo, Domine."* The Egyptians were
|
|
infected both with idolatry and magic; the very people of God were led
|
|
astray by their example. Yet Moses and others believed Him whom they
|
|
saw not, and worshipped Him, looking to the eternal gifts which He was
|
|
preparing for them.
|
|
|
|
* Gen. 49. 18. "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord."
|
|
|
|
The Greeks and Latins then set up false deities; the poets made
|
|
a hundred different theologies, while the philosophers separated
|
|
into a thousand different sects; and yet in the heart of Judaea
|
|
there were always chosen men who foretold the coming of this
|
|
Messiah, which was known to them alone.
|
|
|
|
He came at length in the fullness of time, and time has since
|
|
witnessed the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many political
|
|
revolutions, so many changes in all things; yet this Church, which
|
|
worships Him who has always been worshipped, has endured
|
|
uninterruptedly. It is a wonderful, incomparable, and altogether
|
|
divine fact that this religion, which has always endured, has always
|
|
been attacked. It has been a thousand times on the eve of universal
|
|
destruction, and every time it has been in that state, God has
|
|
restored it by extraordinary acts of His power. This is astonishing,
|
|
as also that it has preserved itself without yielding to the will of
|
|
tyrants. For it is not strange that a State endures, when its laws are
|
|
sometimes made to give way to necessity, but that... (See the
|
|
passage indicated in Montaigne.)*
|
|
|
|
* Essays, 1. 22.
|
|
|
|
614. States would perish if they did not often make their laws
|
|
give way to necessity. But religion has never suffered this, or
|
|
practised it. Indeed, there must be these compromises or miracles.
|
|
It is not strange to be saved by yieldings, and this is not strictly
|
|
self-preservation; besides, in the end they perish entirely. None
|
|
has endured a thousand years. But the fact that this religion has
|
|
always maintained itself, inflexible as it is, proves its divinity.
|
|
|
|
615. Whatever may be said, it must be admitted that the
|
|
Christian religion has something astonishing in it. Some will say,
|
|
"This is because you were born in it." Far from it; I stiffen myself
|
|
against it for this very reason, for fear this prejudice bias me. But,
|
|
although I am born in it, I cannot help finding it so.
|
|
|
|
616. Perpetuity.- The Messiah has always been believed in. The
|
|
tradition from Adam was fresh in Noah and in Moses. Since then the
|
|
prophets have foretold him, while at the same time foretelling other
|
|
things, which, being from time to time fulfilled in the sight of
|
|
men, showed the truth of their mission, and consequently that of their
|
|
promises touching the Messiah. Jesus Christ performed miracles, and
|
|
the Apostles also, who converted all the heathen; and all the
|
|
prophecies being thereby fulfilled, the Messiah is for ever proved.
|
|
|
|
617. Perpetuity.- Let us consider that since the beginning of
|
|
the world the expectation of worship of the Messiah has existed
|
|
uninterruptedly; that there have been found men who said that God
|
|
had revealed to them that a Redeemer was to be born, who should save
|
|
His people; that Abraham came afterwards, saying that he had had
|
|
revelation that the Messiah was to spring from him by a son, whom he
|
|
should have; that Jacob declared that, of his twelve sons, the Messiah
|
|
would spring from Judah; that Moses and the prophets then came to
|
|
declare the time and the manner of His coming; that they said their
|
|
law was only temporary till that of the Messiah, that it should endure
|
|
till then, but that the other should last for ever; that thus either
|
|
their law, or that of the Messiah, of which it was the promise,
|
|
would be always upon the earth; that, in fact, it has always
|
|
endured; that at last Jesus Christ came with all the circumstances
|
|
foretold. This is wonderful.
|
|
|
|
618. This is positive fact. While all philosophers separate into
|
|
different sects, there is found in one corner of the world the most
|
|
ancient people in it, declaring that all the world is in error, that
|
|
God has revealed to them the truth, that they will always exist on the
|
|
earth. In fact, all other seas come to an end, this one still endures,
|
|
and has done so for four thousand years.
|
|
|
|
They declare that they hold from their ancestors that man has
|
|
fallen from communion with God, and is entirely estranged from God,
|
|
but that He has promised to redeem them; that this doctrine shall
|
|
always exist on the earth; that their law has a double
|
|
signification; that during sixteen hundred years they have had people,
|
|
whom they believed prophets, foretelling both the time and the manner;
|
|
that four hundred years after they were scattered everywhere,
|
|
because Jesus Christ was to be everywhere announced; that Jesus Christ
|
|
came in the manner, and at the time foretold; that the Jews have since
|
|
been scattered abroad under a curse and, nevertheless, still exist.
|
|
|
|
619. I see the Christian religion founded upon a preceding
|
|
religion, and this is what I find as a fact.
|
|
|
|
I do not here speak of the miracles of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and
|
|
of the Apostles, because they do not at first seem convincing, and
|
|
because I only wish here to put in evidence all those foundations of
|
|
the Christian religion which are beyond doubt and which cannot be
|
|
called in question by any person whatsoever. It is certain that we see
|
|
in many places of the world a peculiar people, separated from all
|
|
other peoples of the world and called the Jewish people.
|
|
|
|
I see then a crowd of religions in many parts of the world and
|
|
in all times; but their morality cannot please me, nor can their
|
|
proofs convince me. Thus I should equally have rejected the religion
|
|
of Mahomet and of China, of the ancient Romans and of the Egyptians,
|
|
for the sole reason that none having more marks of truth than another,
|
|
nor anything which should necessarily persuade me, reason cannot
|
|
incline to one rather than the other.
|
|
|
|
But, in thus considering this changeable and singular variety of
|
|
morals and beliefs at different times, I find in one corner of the
|
|
world a peculiar people, separated from all other peoples on earth,
|
|
the most ancient of all, and whose histories are earlier by many
|
|
generations than the most ancient which we possess.
|
|
|
|
I find, then, this great and numerous people, sprung from a single
|
|
man, who worship one God and guide themselves by a law which they
|
|
say that they obtained from His own hand. They maintain that they
|
|
are the only people in the world to whom God has revealed His
|
|
mysteries; that all men are corrupt and in disgrace with God; that
|
|
they are all abandoned to their senses and their own imagination,
|
|
whence come the strange errors and continual changes which happen
|
|
among them, both of religions and of morals, whereas they themselves
|
|
remain firm in their conduct; but that God will not leave other
|
|
nations in this darkness for ever; that there will come a Saviour
|
|
for all; that they are in the world to announce Him to men; that
|
|
they are expressly formed to be forerunners and heralds of this
|
|
great event and to summon all nations to join with them in the
|
|
expectation of this Saviour.
|
|
|
|
To meet with this people is astonishing to me, and seems to me
|
|
worthy of attention. I look at the law which they boast of having
|
|
obtained from God, and I find it admirable. It is the first law of all
|
|
and is of such a kind that, even before the term law was in currency
|
|
among the Greeks, it had, for nearly a thousand years earlier, been
|
|
uninterruptedly accepted and observed by the Jews. I likewise think it
|
|
strange that the first law of the world happens to be the most
|
|
perfect; so that the greatest legislators have borrowed their laws
|
|
from it, as is apparent from the law of the Twelve Tables at Athens,
|
|
afterwards taken by the Romans, and as it would be easy to prove, if
|
|
Josephus and others had not sufficiently dealt with this subject.
|
|
|
|
620. Advantages of the Jewish people.- In this search the Jewish
|
|
people at once attracts my attention by the number of wonderful and
|
|
singular facts which appear about them.
|
|
|
|
I first see that they are a people wholly composed of brethren,
|
|
and whereas all others are formed by the assemblage of an infinity
|
|
of families, this, though so wonderfully fruitful, has all sprung from
|
|
one man alone, and, being thus all one flesh, and members one of
|
|
another, they constitute a powerful state of one family. This is
|
|
unique.
|
|
|
|
This family, or people, is the most ancient within human
|
|
knowledge, a fact which seems to me to inspire a peculiar veneration
|
|
for it, especially in view of our present inquiry; since if God had
|
|
from all time revealed himself to men, it is to these we must turn for
|
|
knowledge of the tradition.
|
|
|
|
This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are
|
|
also singular by their duration, which has always continued from their
|
|
origin till now. For, whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of
|
|
Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after,
|
|
have long since perished, these ever remain, and in spite of the
|
|
endeavours of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to
|
|
destroy them, as their historians testify, and as it is easy to
|
|
conjecture from the natural order of things during so long a space
|
|
of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation
|
|
has been foretold); and extending from the earliest times to the
|
|
latest, their history comprehends in its duration all our histories
|
|
which it preceded by a long time.
|
|
|
|
The law by which this people is governed is at once the most
|
|
ancient law in the world, the most perfect, and the only one which has
|
|
been always observed without a break in a state. This is what Josephus
|
|
admirably proves, Against Apion, and also Philo the Jew, in
|
|
different places, where they point out that it is so ancient that
|
|
the very name of law was only known by the oldest nation more than a
|
|
thousand years afterwards; so that Homer, who has written the
|
|
history of so many states, has never used the term. And it is easy
|
|
to judge of its perfection by simply reading it; for we see that it
|
|
has provided for all things with so great wisdom, equity, and
|
|
judgement, that the most ancient legislators, Greek and Roman,
|
|
having had some knowledge of it, have borrowed from it their principal
|
|
laws; this is evident from what are called the Twelve Tables, and from
|
|
the other proofs which Josephus gives.
|
|
|
|
But this law is at the same time the severest and strictest of all
|
|
in respect to their religious worship, imposing on this people, in
|
|
order to keep them to their duty, a thousand peculiar and painful
|
|
observances, on pain of death. Whence it is very astonishing that it
|
|
has been constantly preserved during many centuries by a people,
|
|
rebellious and impatient as this one was; while all other states
|
|
have changed their laws from time to time, although these were far
|
|
more lenient.
|
|
|
|
The book which contains this law, the first of all, is itself
|
|
the most ancient book in the world, those of Homer, Hesiod, and
|
|
others, being six or seven hundred years later.
|
|
|
|
621. The creation of the deluge being past, and God no longer
|
|
requiring to destroy the world, nor to create it anew, nor to give
|
|
such great signs of Himself, He began to establish a people on the
|
|
earth, purposely formed, who were to last until the coming of the
|
|
people whom the Messiah should fashion by His spirit.
|
|
|
|
622. The creation of the world beginning to be distant, God
|
|
provided a single contemporary historian, and appointed a whole people
|
|
as guardians of this book, in order that this history might be the
|
|
most authentic in the world, and that all men might thereby learn a
|
|
fact so necessary to know, and which could only be known through
|
|
that means.
|
|
|
|
623. Japhet begins the genealogy.
|
|
|
|
Joseph folds his arms, and prefers the younger.
|
|
|
|
624. Why should Moses make the lives of men so long, and their
|
|
generations so few?
|
|
|
|
Because it is not the length of years, but the multitude of
|
|
generations, which renders things obscure. For truth is perverted only
|
|
by the change of men. And yet he puts two things, the most memorable
|
|
that were ever imagined, namely, the creation and the deluge, so
|
|
near that we reach from one to the other.
|
|
|
|
625. Shem, who saw Lamech, who saw Adam, saw also Jacob, who saw
|
|
those who saw Moses; therefore the deluge and the creation are true.
|
|
This is conclusive among certain people who understand it rightly.
|
|
|
|
626. The longevity of the patriarchs, instead of causing the
|
|
loss of past history, conduced, on the contrary, to its
|
|
preservation. For the reason why we are sometimes insufficiently
|
|
instructed in the history of our ancestors is that we have never lived
|
|
long with them, and that they are often dead before we have attained
|
|
the age of reason. Now, when men lived so long, children lived long
|
|
with their parents. They conversed long with them. But what else could
|
|
be the subject of their talk save the history of their ancestors,
|
|
since to that all history was reduced, and men did not study science
|
|
or art, which now form a large part of daily conversation? We see also
|
|
that in these days tribes took particular care to preserve their
|
|
genealogies.
|
|
|
|
627. I believe that Joshua was the first of God's people to have
|
|
this name, as Jesus Christ was the last of God's people.
|
|
|
|
628. Antiquity of the Jews.- What a difference there is between
|
|
one book and another! I am not astonished that the Greeks made the
|
|
Iliad, nor the Egyptians and the Chinese their histories.
|
|
|
|
We have only to see how this originates. These fabulous historians
|
|
are not contemporaneous with the facts about which they write. Homer
|
|
composes a romance, which he gives out as such, and which is
|
|
received as such; for nobody doubted that Troy and Agamemnon no more
|
|
existed than did the golden apple. Accordingly, he did not think of
|
|
making a history, but solely a book to amuse; he is the only writer of
|
|
his time; the beauty of the work has made it last, every one learns it
|
|
and talks of it, it is necessary to know it, and each one knows it
|
|
by heart. Four hundred years afterwards the witnesses of these facts
|
|
are no longer alive, no one knows of his own knowledge if it be a
|
|
fable or a history; one has only learnt it from his ancestors, and
|
|
this can pass for truth.
|
|
|
|
Every history which is not contemporaneous, as the books of the
|
|
Sibyls and Trismegistus, and so many others which have been believed
|
|
by the world, are false, and found to be false in the course of
|
|
time. It is not so with contemporaneous writers.
|
|
|
|
There is a great difference between a book which an individual
|
|
writes and publishes to a nation, and a book which itself creates a
|
|
nation. We cannot doubt that the book is as old as the people.
|
|
|
|
629. Josephus hides the shame of his nation.
|
|
|
|
Moses does not hide his own shame.
|
|
|
|
Quis mihi det ut omnes prophetent?*
|
|
|
|
He was weary of the multitude.
|
|
|
|
* Num. 11. 29 Quis tribuat ut omnis populus prophetet. "Would
|
|
God that all the Lord's people were prophets."
|
|
|
|
630. The sincerity of the Jews.- Maccabees, after they had no more
|
|
prophets; the Masorah, since Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
This book will be a testimony for you.
|
|
|
|
Defective and final letters.
|
|
|
|
Sincere against their honour, and dying for it; this has no
|
|
example in the world, and no root in nature.
|
|
|
|
631. Sincerity of the Jews.- They preserve lovingly and
|
|
carefully the book in which Moses declares that they have been all
|
|
their life ungrateful to God, and that he knows they will be still
|
|
more so after his death; but that he calls heaven and earth to witness
|
|
against them and that he has taught them enough.
|
|
|
|
He declares that God, being angry with them, shall at last scatter
|
|
them among all the nations of the earth; that as they have offended
|
|
Him by worshipping gods who were not their God, so He will provoke
|
|
them by calling a people who are not His people; that He desires
|
|
that all His words be preserved for ever, and that His book be
|
|
placed in the Ark of the Covenant to serve for ever as a witness
|
|
against them.
|
|
|
|
Isaiah says the same thing, 30.
|
|
|
|
632. On Esdras.- The story that the books were burnt with the
|
|
temple proved false by Maccabees: "Jeremiah gave them the law."
|
|
|
|
The story that he recited the whole by heart. Josephus and
|
|
Esdras point out that he read the book. Baronius, Annales
|
|
Ecclesiastici a Christo Nato ad Annum 1198, 180: Nullus penitus
|
|
Hebraeorum antiquorum reperitur qui tradiderit libros periisse et
|
|
per Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV Esdrae.
|
|
|
|
The story that he changed the letters.
|
|
|
|
Philo, in Vita Mosis: Illa lingua ac character quo antiquitus
|
|
scripta est lex sic permansit usque ad LXX.
|
|
|
|
Josephus says that the Law was in Hebrew when it was translated by
|
|
the Seventy.
|
|
|
|
Under Antiochus and Vespasian, when they wanted to abolish the
|
|
books, and when there was no prophet, they could not do so. And
|
|
under the Babylonians, when no persecution had been made, and when
|
|
there were so many prophets, would they have let them be burnt?
|
|
|
|
Josephus laughs at the Greeks who would not hear...
|
|
|
|
Tertullian: Perinde potuit abolefactam eam violentia cataclysmi in
|
|
spiritu rursus reformare, quemadmodum et Hierosolymis Babylonia
|
|
expugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicae literaturae per
|
|
Esdram constat restauratum.*
|
|
|
|
* De cultu feminarum, i-3. "He could equally have renewed it,
|
|
under the Spirit's inspiration, after it had been destroyed by the
|
|
violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by
|
|
the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish literature
|
|
is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra."
|
|
|
|
He says that Noah could as easily have restored in spirit the book
|
|
of Enoch, destroyed by the Deluge, as Esdras could have restored the
|
|
Scriptures lost during the Captivity.
|
|
|
|
(Theos) en te epi Nabouchodonosor aichmalosia tou laou,
|
|
diaphthareison ton Graphon... enepneuse 'Esdra to ierei, ek tes phules
|
|
Leui tous ton progegonoton propheton pantas anataxasthai logous, kai
|
|
apokatastesai to lae ten dia Mouseos nomothesian. He alleges this to
|
|
prove that it is not incredible that the Seventy may have explained
|
|
the Holy Scriptures with that uniformity which we admire in them.
|
|
And he took that from Saint Irenaeus.
|
|
|
|
Saint Hilary, in his preface to the Psalms, says that Esdras
|
|
arranged the Psalms in order.
|
|
|
|
The origin of this tradition comes from the 14th chapter of the
|
|
fourth book of Esdras. Deus glorificatus est, et Scripturae vere
|
|
divinae creditae sunt, omnibus eandem et eisdem verbis et eisdem
|
|
nominibus recitantibus ab initio usque ad finem, uti et praesentes
|
|
gentes cognoscerent quoniam per inspirationem Dei interpretatae sunt
|
|
Scripturae, et non esset mirabile Deum hoc in eis operatum: quando
|
|
in ea captivitate populi quae facta est a Nabuchodonosor, corruptis
|
|
scripturis et post 70 annos Judaeis descendentibus in regionem suam,
|
|
et post deinde temporibus Artaxerxis Persarum regis, inspiravit Esdrae
|
|
sacerdoti tribus Levi praeteritorum prophetarum omnes rememorare
|
|
sermones, et restituere populo eam legem quae data est per Moysen.*
|
|
|
|
* Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, V. viii. 14. "God was
|
|
glorified, and the Scriptures were recognized as truly divine, for
|
|
they all rendered the same things in the same words and the same
|
|
names, from beginning to end, so that even the heathen who were
|
|
present knew that the Scriptures had been translated by the
|
|
inspiration of God. And it is no marvel that God did this, for when
|
|
the Scriptures had been destroyed in the captivity of the people in
|
|
the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews had gone back to their
|
|
country after seventy years, then in the times of Artaxerxes, the king
|
|
of the Persians, he inspired Ezra, the priest of the tribe of Levi, to
|
|
restore all the sayings of the prophets who had gone before, and to
|
|
restore to the people the law given by Moses." This is Pascal's
|
|
rendering into Latin of the passage from Eusebius of which the last
|
|
lines are in Greek, above.
|
|
|
|
633. Against the story in Esdras, II Maccab. 2.; Josephus,
|
|
Antiquities, II, i.- Cyrus took occasion from the prophecy of Isaiah
|
|
to release the people. The Jews held their property in peace under
|
|
Cyrus in Babylon; hence they could well have the law.
|
|
|
|
Josephus, in the whole history of Esdras, does not say one word
|
|
about this restoration. II Kings 17. 27.
|
|
|
|
634. If the story in Esdras is credible, then it must be
|
|
believed that the Scripture is Holy Scripture; for this story is based
|
|
only on the authority of those who assert that of the Seventy, which
|
|
shows that the Scripture is holy.
|
|
|
|
Therefore, if this account be true, we have what we want
|
|
therein; if not, we have it elsewhere. And thus those who would ruin
|
|
the truth of our religion, founded on Moses, establish it by the
|
|
same authority by which they attack it. So by this providence it still
|
|
exists.
|
|
|
|
635. Chronology of Rabbinism. (The citations of pages are from the
|
|
book Pugio.)
|
|
|
|
Page 27. R. Hakadosch (anno 200), author of the Mischna, or
|
|
vocal law, or second law.
|
|
|
|
Commentaries on the Mischna (anno 340): The one Siphra.
|
|
|
|
Barajetot.
|
|
|
|
Talmud Hierosol.
|
|
|
|
Tosiphtot.
|
|
|
|
Bereschit Rabah, by R. Osaiah Rabah, commentary on the Mischna.
|
|
|
|
Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi, are subtle and pleasant discourses,
|
|
historical and theological. This same author wrote the books called
|
|
Rabot.
|
|
|
|
A hundred years after the Talmud Hierosol was composed the
|
|
Babylonian Talmud, by R. Ase, A.D. 440, by the universal consent of
|
|
all the Jews, who are necessarily obliged to observe all that is
|
|
contained therein.
|
|
|
|
The addition of R. Ase is called the Gemara, that is to say, the
|
|
commentary on the Mischna.
|
|
|
|
And the Talmud includes together the Mischna and the Gemara.
|
|
|
|
636. If does not indicate indifference: Malachi, Isaiah.
|
|
|
|
Isaiah, Si volumus, etc.
|
|
|
|
In quacumque die.*
|
|
|
|
* "Each time that."
|
|
|
|
637. Prophecies.- The sceptre was not interrupted by the captivity
|
|
in Babylon, because the return was promised and foretold.
|
|
|
|
638. Proofs of Jesus Christ.- Captivity, with the assurance of
|
|
deliverance within seventy years, was not real captivity. But now they
|
|
are captives without any hope.
|
|
|
|
God has promised them that, even though He should scatter them
|
|
to the ends of the earth, nevertheless, if they were faithful to His
|
|
law, He would assemble them together again. They are very faithful
|
|
to it and remain oppressed.
|
|
|
|
639. When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people, for fear they
|
|
should believe that the sceptre had departed from Judah, they were
|
|
told beforehand that they would be there for a short time, and that
|
|
they would be restored. They were always consoled by the prophets; and
|
|
their kings continued. But the second destruction is without promise
|
|
of restoration, without prophets, without kings, without
|
|
consolation, without hope, because the sceptre is taken away for ever.
|
|
|
|
640. It is a wonderful thing, and worthy of particular
|
|
attention, to see this Jewish people existing so many years in
|
|
perpetual misery, it being necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ both
|
|
that they should exist to prove Him and that they should be
|
|
miserable because they crucified Him; and though to be miserable and
|
|
to exist are contradictory, they nevertheless still exist in spite
|
|
of their misery.
|
|
|
|
641. They are visibly a people expressly created to serve as a
|
|
witness to the Messiah (Isaiah 43. 9; 44. 8). They keep the books, and
|
|
love them, and do not understand them. And all this was foretold; that
|
|
God's judgments are entrusted to them, but as a sealed book.
|
|
|
|
SECTION X
|
|
|
|
TYPOLOGY
|
|
|
|
642. Proof of the two Testaments at once.- To prove the two at one
|
|
stroke, we need only see if the prophecies in one are fulfilled in the
|
|
other. To examine the prophecies, we must understand them. For if we
|
|
believe they have only one meaning, it is certain that the Messiah has
|
|
not come; but if they have two meanings, it is certain that He has
|
|
come in Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
The whole problem then is to know if they have two meanings.
|
|
|
|
That the Scripture has two meanings, which Jesus Christ and the
|
|
Apostles have given, is shown by the following proofs:
|
|
|
|
1. Proof by Scripture itself.
|
|
|
|
2. Proof by the Rabbis. Moses Maimonides says that it has two
|
|
aspects and that the prophets have prophesied Jesus Christ only.
|
|
|
|
3. Proof by the Kabbala.
|
|
|
|
4. Proof by the mystical interpretation which the Rabbis
|
|
themselves give to Scripture.
|
|
|
|
5. Proof by the principles of the Rabbis, that there are two
|
|
meanings; that there are two advents of the Messiah, a glorious and an
|
|
humiliating one, according to their desert; that the prophets have
|
|
prophesied of the Messiah only- the Law is not eternal, but must
|
|
change at the coming of the Messiah- that then they shall no more
|
|
remember the Red Sea; that the Jews and the Gentiles shall be mingled.
|
|
|
|
6. Proof by the key which Jesus Christ and the Apostles give us.
|
|
|
|
643. Isaiah 51. The Red Sea an image of the Redemption. Ut sciatis
|
|
quod filius hominis habet potestatem remittendi peccata... tibi
|
|
dico: Surge.* God, wishing to show that He could form a people holy
|
|
with an invisible holiness, and fill them with an eternal glory,
|
|
made visible things. As nature is an image of grace, He has done in
|
|
the bounties of nature what He would do in those of grace, in order
|
|
that we might judge that He could make the invisible, since He made
|
|
the visible excellently.
|
|
|
|
* Mark 2. 10, 11. "But that ye may know that the son of man hath
|
|
power on earth to forgive sins... I say unto thee, Arise."
|
|
|
|
Therefore He saved this people from the deluge; He has raised them
|
|
up from Abraham, redeemed them from their enemies, and set them at
|
|
rest.
|
|
|
|
The object of God was not to save them from the deluge, and
|
|
raise up a whole people from Abraham, only in order to bring them into
|
|
a rich land.
|
|
|
|
And even grace is only the type of glory, for it is not the
|
|
ultimate end. It has been symbolised by the law, and itself symbolises
|
|
glory. But it is the type of it, and the origin or cause.
|
|
|
|
The ordinary life of men is like that of the saints. They all seek
|
|
their satisfaction and differ only in the object in which they place
|
|
it; they call those their enemies who hinder them, etc. God has then
|
|
shown the power which He has of giving invisible blessings, by that
|
|
which He has shown Himself to have over things visible.
|
|
|
|
644. Types.- God, wishing to form for Himself an holy people, whom
|
|
He should separate from all other nations, whom He should deliver from
|
|
their enemies and should put into a place of rest, has promised to
|
|
do so and has foretold by His prophets the time and the manner of
|
|
His coming. And yet, to confirm the hope of His elect, He has made
|
|
them see in it an image through all time, without leaving them
|
|
devoid of assurances of His power and of His will to save them. For,
|
|
at the creation of man, Adam was the witness, and guardian of the
|
|
promise of a Saviour, who should be born of woman, when men were still
|
|
so near the creation that they could not have forgotten their creation
|
|
and their fall. When those who had seen Adam were no longer in the
|
|
world, God sent Noah whom He saved, and drowned the whole earth by a
|
|
miracle which sufficiently indicated the power which He had to save
|
|
the world, and the will which He had to do so, and to raise up from
|
|
the seed of woman Him whom He had promised. This miracle was enough to
|
|
confirm the hope of men.
|
|
|
|
The memory of the Deluge being so fresh among men, while Noah
|
|
was still alive, God made promises to Abraham, and, while Shem was
|
|
still living, sent Moses, etc....
|
|
|
|
645. Types.- God, willing to deprive His own of perishable
|
|
blessings, created the Jewish people in order to show that this was
|
|
not owing to lack of power.
|
|
|
|
646. The Synagogue did not perish, because it was a type. But,
|
|
because it was only a type, it fell into servitude. The type existed
|
|
till the truth came, in order that the Church should be always
|
|
visible, either in the sign which promised it, or in substance.
|
|
|
|
647. That the law was figurative.
|
|
|
|
648. Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take
|
|
everything spiritually.
|
|
|
|
649. To speak against too greatly figurative language.
|
|
|
|
650. There are some types clear and demonstrative, but others
|
|
which seem somewhat far-fetched, and which convince only those who are
|
|
already persuaded. These are like the Apocalyptics. But the difference
|
|
is that they have none which are certain, so that nothing is so unjust
|
|
as to claim that theirs are as well founded as some of ours; for
|
|
they have none so demonstrative as some of ours. The comparison is
|
|
unfair. We must not put on the same level and confound things, because
|
|
they seem to agree in one point, while they are so different in
|
|
another. The clearness in divine things requires us to revere the
|
|
obscurities in them.
|
|
|
|
It is like men, who employ a certain obscure language among
|
|
themselves. Those who should not understand it would understand only a
|
|
foolish meaning.
|
|
|
|
651. Extravagances of the Apocalyptics, Preadamites, who would
|
|
base extravagant opinions on Scripture will, for example, base them on
|
|
this. It is said that "this generation shall not pass till all these
|
|
things be fulfilled." Upon that I will say that after that
|
|
generation will come another generation, and so on ever in succession.
|
|
|
|
Solomon and the King are spoken of in the second book of
|
|
Chronicles as if they were two different persons. I will say that they
|
|
were two.
|
|
|
|
652. Particular Types.- A double law, double tables of the law,
|
|
a double temple, a double captivity.
|
|
|
|
653. Types.- The prophets prophesied by symbols of a girdle, a
|
|
beard, and burnt hair, etc.
|
|
|
|
654. Difference between dinner and supper.
|
|
|
|
In God the word does not differ from the intention, for He is
|
|
true; nor the word from the effect, for He is powerful; nor the
|
|
means from the effect, for He is wise. St. Bernard, Ultimo Sermo in
|
|
Missam.
|
|
|
|
St. Augustine, City of God, v. 10. This rule is general. God can
|
|
do everything, except those things which, if He could do, He would not
|
|
be almighty, as dying, being deceived, lying, etc.
|
|
|
|
Several Evangelists for the confirmation of the truth; their
|
|
difference useful.
|
|
|
|
The Eucharist after Lord's Supper. Truth after the type.
|
|
|
|
The ruin of Jerusalem, a type of the ruin of the world, forty
|
|
years after the death of Jesus. "I know not," as a man, or as an
|
|
ambassador (Mark 13. 32; Matthew 24. 36.)
|
|
|
|
Jesus condemned by the Jews and the Gentiles.
|
|
|
|
The Jews and the Gentiles typified by the two sons. St.
|
|
Augustine City of God, xx. 29.
|
|
|
|
655. The six ages, the six Fathers of the six ages, the six
|
|
wonders at the beginning of the six ages, the six mornings at the
|
|
beginning of the six ages.
|
|
|
|
656. Adam forma futuri.* The six days to form the one, the six
|
|
ages to form the other. The six days, which Moses represents for the
|
|
formation of Adam, are only the picture of the six ages to form
|
|
Jesus Christ and the Church. If Adam had not sinned, and Jesus
|
|
Christ had not come, there had been only one covenant, only one age of
|
|
men, and the creation would have been represented as accomplished at
|
|
one single time.
|
|
|
|
* Rom. 5. 14. "The figure of him that was to come."
|
|
|
|
657. Types.- The Jewish and Egyptian peoples were plainly foretold
|
|
by the two individuals whom Moses met; the Egyptian beating the Jew,
|
|
Moses avenging him and killing the Egyptian, and the Jew being
|
|
ungrateful.
|
|
|
|
658. The symbols of the Gospel for the state of the sick soul
|
|
are sick bodies; but, because one body cannot be sick enough to
|
|
express it well, several have been needed. Thus there are the deaf,
|
|
the dumb, the blind, the paralytic, the dead Lazarus, the possessed.
|
|
All this crowd is in the sick soul.
|
|
|
|
659. Types.- To show that the Old Testament is only figurative and
|
|
that the prophets understood by temporal blessings other blessings,
|
|
this is the proof:
|
|
|
|
First, that this would be unworthy of God.
|
|
|
|
Secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise
|
|
of temporal blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their
|
|
discourses are obscure, and that their meaning will not be understood.
|
|
Whence it appears that this secret meaning was not that which they
|
|
openly expressed, and that consequently they meant to speak of other
|
|
sacrifices, of another deliverer, etc. They say that they will be
|
|
understood only in the fullness of time (Jer. 30. 24).
|
|
|
|
The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and
|
|
neutralise each other; so that, if we think that they did not mean
|
|
by the words law and sacrifice anything else than that of Moses, there
|
|
is a plain and gross contradiction. Therefore they meant something
|
|
else, sometimes contradicting themselves in the same chapter. Now,
|
|
to understand the meaning of an author...
|
|
|
|
660. Lust has become natural to us and has made our second nature.
|
|
Thus there are two natures in us- the one good, the other bad. Where
|
|
is God? Where you are not, and the kingdom of God is within you.The
|
|
Rabbis.
|
|
|
|
661. Penitence, alone of all these mysteries, has been
|
|
manifestly declared to the Jews, and by Saint John, the Forerunner;
|
|
and then the other mysteries; to indicate that in each man, as in
|
|
the entire world, this order must be observed.
|
|
|
|
662. The carnal Jews understood neither the greatness nor the
|
|
humiliation of the Messiah foretold in their prophecies. They
|
|
misunderstood Him in His foretold greatness, as when He said that
|
|
the Messiah should be lord of David, though his son, and that He was
|
|
before Abraham, who had seen Him. They did not believe Him so great as
|
|
to be eternal, and they likewise misunderstood Him in His
|
|
humiliation and in His death. "The Messiah," said they, "abideth for
|
|
ever, and this man says that he shall die." Therefore they believed
|
|
Him neither mortal nor eternal; they only sought in Him for a carnal
|
|
greatness.
|
|
|
|
663. Typical.- Nothing is so like charity as covetousness, and
|
|
nothing is so opposed to it. Thus the Jews, full of possessions
|
|
which flattered their covetousness, were very like Christians, and
|
|
very contrary. And by this means they had the two qualities which it
|
|
was necessary they should have, to be very like the Messiah to
|
|
typify Him, and very contrary not to be suspected witnesses.
|
|
|
|
664. Typical.- God made use of the lust of the Jews to make them
|
|
minister to Jesus Christ, who brought the remedy for their lust.
|
|
|
|
665. Charity is not a figurative precept. It is dreadful to say
|
|
that Jesus Christ, who came to take away types in order to establish
|
|
the truth, came only to establish the type of charity, in order to
|
|
take away the existing reality which was there before.
|
|
|
|
"If the light be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
|
|
|
|
666. Fascination. Somnum suum.* Figura hujus mundi.*(2)
|
|
|
|
The Eucharist. Comedes panem tuum.*(3) Panem nostrum.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Inimici Dei terram lingent.*(5) Sinners lick the dust, that is
|
|
to say, love earthly pleasures.
|
|
|
|
The Old Testament contains the types of future joy, and the New
|
|
contains the means of arriving at it. The types were of joy; the means
|
|
of penitence; and nevertheless the Paschal Lamb was eaten with
|
|
bitter herbs, cum amaritudinibus.*(6)
|
|
|
|
Singularis sum ego donec transeam.*(7) Jesus Christ before His
|
|
death was almost the only martyr.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 75. 5. "They have slept their sleep."
|
|
|
|
*(2) I Cor. 7. 31 "The fashion of this world."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Deut. 8. 9. "Bread without scarceness."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Luke 11. 3. "Our daily bread."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Ps. 71. 9. "The enemies of the Lord shall lick the dust."
|
|
|
|
*(6) Exod. 12. 8. Cum lacticibus agrestibus. "With bitter herbs."
|
|
|
|
*(7) Ps. 140. 10. "Whilst that I withal escape."
|
|
|
|
667. Typical.- The expressions sword, shield. Potentissime.*
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 44. 4 "O most mighty."
|
|
|
|
668. We are estranged only by departing from charity. Our
|
|
prayers and our virtues are abominable before God, if they are not the
|
|
prayers and the virtues of Jesus Christ. And our sins will never be
|
|
the object of mercy, but of the justice of God, if they are not
|
|
Jesus Christ. He has adopted our sins, and has us into union, for
|
|
virtues are His own, and sins are foreign to Him; while virtues are
|
|
foreign to us, and our sins are our own.
|
|
|
|
Let us change the rule which we have hitherto chosen for judging
|
|
what is good. We had our own will as our rule. Let us now take the
|
|
will of God; all that He wills is good and right to us, all that He
|
|
does not will is bad.
|
|
|
|
All that God does not permit is forbidden. Sins are forbidden by
|
|
the general declaration that God has made, that He did not allow them.
|
|
Other things which He has left without general prohibition, and
|
|
which for that reason are said to be permitted, are nevertheless not
|
|
always permitted. For when God removed some one of them from us, and
|
|
when, by the event, which is a manifestation of the will of God, it
|
|
appears that God does not will that we should have a thing, that is
|
|
then forbidden to us as sin; since the will of God is that we should
|
|
not have one more than another. There is this sole difference
|
|
between these two things, that it is certain that God will never allow
|
|
sin, while it is not certain that He will never allow the other. But
|
|
so long as God does not permit it, we ought to regard it as sin; so
|
|
long as the absence of God's will, which alone is all goodness and all
|
|
justice, renders it unjust and wrong.
|
|
|
|
669. To change the type, because of our weakness.
|
|
|
|
670. Types.- The Jews had grown old in these earthly thoughts,
|
|
that God loved their father Abraham, his flesh and what sprung from
|
|
it; that on account of this He had multiplied them and distinguished
|
|
them from all other nations, without allowing them to intermingle;
|
|
that, when they were languishing in Egypt, He brought them out with
|
|
all these great signs in their favour; that He fed them with manna
|
|
in the desert, and led them into a very rich land; that He gave them
|
|
kings and a well-built temple, in order to offer up beasts before Him,
|
|
by the shedding of whose blood they should be purified; and that, at
|
|
last, He was to send them the Messiah to make them masters of all
|
|
the world, and foretold the time of His coming.
|
|
|
|
The world having grown old in these carnal errors, Jesus Christ
|
|
came at the time foretold, but not with the expected glory; and thus
|
|
men did not think it was He. After His death, Saint Paul came to teach
|
|
men that all these things had happened in allegory; that the kingdom
|
|
of God did not consist in the flesh, but in the spirit; that the
|
|
enemies of men were not the Babylonians, but the passions; that God
|
|
delighted not in temples made with hands, but in a pure and contrite
|
|
heart; that the circumcision of the body was unprofitable, but that of
|
|
the heart was needed; that Moses had not given them the bread from
|
|
heaven, etc.
|
|
|
|
But God, not having desired to reveal these things to this
|
|
people who were unworthy of them and having, nevertheless, desired
|
|
to foretell them, in order that they might be believed, foretold the
|
|
time clearly, and expressed the things sometimes clearly, but very
|
|
often in figures, in order that those who loved symbols might consider
|
|
them and those who loved what was symbolised might see it therein.
|
|
|
|
All that tends not to charity is figurative.
|
|
|
|
The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.
|
|
|
|
All which tends not to the sole end is the type of it. For since
|
|
there is only one end, all which does not lead to it in express
|
|
terms is figurative.
|
|
|
|
God thus varies that sole precept of charity to satisfy our
|
|
curiosity which seeks for variety, by that variety which still leads
|
|
us to the one thing needful. For one thing alone is needful, and we
|
|
love variety; and God satisfies both by these varieties, which lead to
|
|
the one thing needful.
|
|
|
|
The Jews have so much loved the shadows and have so strictly
|
|
expected them that they have misunderstood the reality, when it came
|
|
in the time and manner foretold.
|
|
|
|
The Rabbis take the breasts of the Spouse for types, and all
|
|
that does not express the only end they have, namely, temporal good.
|
|
|
|
And Christians take even the Eucharist as a type of the glory at
|
|
which they aim.
|
|
|
|
671. The Jews, who have been called to subdue nations and kings,
|
|
have been the slaves of sin; and the Christians, whose calling has
|
|
been to be servants and subjects, are free children.
|
|
|
|
672. A formal point.- When Saint Peter and the Apostles
|
|
deliberated about abolishing circumcision, where it was a question
|
|
of acting against the law of God, they did not heed the prophets,
|
|
but simply the reception of the Holy Spirit in the persons
|
|
uncircumcised.
|
|
|
|
They thought it more certain that God approved of those whom He
|
|
filled with His Spirit than it was that the law must be obeyed. They
|
|
knew that the end of the law was only the Holy Spirit; and that
|
|
thus, as men certainly had this without circumcision, it was not
|
|
necessary.
|
|
|
|
673. Fac secundum exemplar quod tibi ostensum est in monte.*-
|
|
The Jewish religion then has been formed on its likeness to the
|
|
truth of the Messiah; and the truth of the Messiah has been recognised
|
|
by the religion, which was the type of it.
|
|
|
|
* Exod. 25. 40. "Make them after their pattern, which was showed
|
|
thee on the mount."
|
|
|
|
Among the Jews the truth was only typified; in heaven it is
|
|
revealed.
|
|
|
|
In the Church it is hidden and recognised by its resemblance to
|
|
the type.
|
|
|
|
The type has been made according to the truth, and the truth has
|
|
been recognised according to the type.
|
|
|
|
Saint Paul says himself that people will forbid to marry, and he
|
|
himself speaks of it to the Corinthians in a way which is a snare. For
|
|
if a prophet had said the one, and Saint Paul had then said the other,
|
|
he would have been accused.
|
|
|
|
674. Typical.- "Do all things according to the pattern which has
|
|
been shown thee on the mount." On which Saint Paul says that the
|
|
Jews have shadowed forth heavenly things.
|
|
|
|
675.... And yet this Covenant, made to blind some and enlighten
|
|
others, indicated in those very persons, whom it blinded, the truth
|
|
which should be recognised by others. For the visible blessings
|
|
which they received from God were so great and so divine that He
|
|
indeed appeared able to give them those that are invisible and a
|
|
Messiah.
|
|
|
|
For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images
|
|
of the invisible. Ut sciatis... tibi dico: Surge.*
|
|
|
|
* Mark 2. 10, 11. "That ye may know... I say unto thee: Arise."
|
|
|
|
Isaiah says that Redemption will be as the passage of the Red Sea.
|
|
|
|
God has, then, shown by the deliverance from Egypt, and from the
|
|
sea, by the defeat of kings, by the manna, by the whole genealogy of
|
|
Abraham, that He was able to save, to send down bread from heaven,
|
|
etc.; so that the people hostile to Him are the type and the
|
|
representation of the very Messiah whom they know not, etc.
|
|
|
|
He has, then, taught us at last that all these things were only
|
|
types and what is "true freedom," a "true Israelite," "true
|
|
circumcision," "true bread from heaven," etc.
|
|
|
|
In these promises each one finds what he has most at heart,
|
|
temporal benefits or spiritual, God or the creatures; but with this
|
|
difference, that those who therein seek the creatures find them, but
|
|
with many contradictions, with a prohibition against loving them, with
|
|
the command to worship God only, and to love Him only, which is the
|
|
same thing, and, finally, that the Messiah came not for them;
|
|
whereas those who therein seek God find Him, without any
|
|
contradiction, with the command to love Him only, and that the Messiah
|
|
came in the time foretold, to give them the blessings which they ask.
|
|
|
|
Thus the Jews had miracles and prophecies, which they saw
|
|
fulfilled, and the teaching of their law was to worship and love God
|
|
only; it was also perpetual. Thus it had all the marks of the true
|
|
religion; and so it was. But the Jewish teaching must be distinguished
|
|
from the teaching of the Jewish law. Now the Jewish teaching was not
|
|
true, although it had miracles and prophecy and perpetuity, because it
|
|
had not this other point of worshipping and loving God only.
|
|
|
|
676. The veil, which is upon these books for the Jews, is there
|
|
also for evil Christians and for all who do not hate themselves.
|
|
|
|
But how well disposed men are to understand them and to know Jesus
|
|
Christ, when they truly hate themselves!
|
|
|
|
677. A type conveys absence and presence, pleasure and pain.
|
|
|
|
A cipher has a double meaning, one clear and one in which it is
|
|
said that the meaning is hidden.
|
|
|
|
678. Types.- A portrait conveys absence and presence, pleasure and
|
|
pain. The reality excludes absence and pain.
|
|
|
|
To know if the law and the sacrifices are a reality or a type,
|
|
we must see if the prophets, in speaking of these things, confined
|
|
their view and their thought to them, so that they saw only the old
|
|
covenant; or if they saw therein something else of which they were the
|
|
representation, for in a portrait we see the thing figured. For this
|
|
we need only examine what they say of them.
|
|
|
|
When they say that it will be eternal, do they mean to speak of
|
|
that covenant which they say will be changed; and so of the
|
|
sacrifices, etc.?
|
|
|
|
A cipher has two meanings. When we find out an important letter in
|
|
which we discover a clear meaning, and in which it is nevertheless
|
|
said that the meaning is veiled and obscure, that it is hidden, so
|
|
that we might read the letter without seeing it, and interpret it
|
|
without understanding it, what must we think but that here is a cipher
|
|
with a double meaning, and the more so if we find obvious
|
|
contradictions in the literal meaning? The prophets have clearly
|
|
said that Israel would be always loved by God and that the law would
|
|
be eternal; and they have said that their meaning would not be
|
|
understood and that it was veiled.
|
|
|
|
How greatly, then, ought we to value those who interpret the
|
|
cipher and teach us to understand the hidden meaning, especially if
|
|
the principles which they educe are perfectly clear and natural!
|
|
This is what Jesus Christ did, and the Apostles. They broke the
|
|
seal; He rent the veil, and revealed the spirit. They have taught us
|
|
through this that the enemies of man are his passions; that the
|
|
Redeemer would be spiritual, and His reign spiritual; that there would
|
|
be two advents, one in lowliness to humble the proud, the other in
|
|
glory to exalt the humble; that Jesus Christ would be both God and
|
|
man.
|
|
|
|
679. Types.- Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the
|
|
Scriptures.
|
|
|
|
Two great revelations are these. (1) All things happened to them
|
|
in types: vere Israelitae, vere liberi, true bread from Heaven. (2)
|
|
A God humbled to the Cross. It was necessary that Christ should suffer
|
|
in order to enter into glory, "that He should destroy death through
|
|
death." Two advents.
|
|
|
|
680. Types.- When once this secret is disclosed, it is
|
|
impossible not to see it. Let us read the Old Testament in this light,
|
|
and let us see if the sacrifices were real; if the fatherhood of
|
|
Abraham was the true cause of the friendship of God; and if the
|
|
promised land was the true place of rest. No. They are therefore
|
|
types. Let us in the same way examine all those ordained ceremonies,
|
|
all those commandments which are not of charity, and we shall see that
|
|
they are types.
|
|
|
|
All these sacrifices and ceremonies were then either types or
|
|
nonsense. Now these are things too clear and too lofty to be thought
|
|
nonsense.
|
|
|
|
To know if the prophets confined their view in the Old
|
|
Testament, or saw therein other things.
|
|
|
|
681. Typical.- The key of the cipher. Veri adoratores.* Ecce agnus
|
|
Dei qui tollit peccata mundi.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* John 4. 23. "True worshippers."
|
|
|
|
*(2) John 1. 29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
|
|
sin of the world."
|
|
|
|
682. Is. 1. 21. Change of good into evil, and the vengeance of
|
|
God. Is. 10. 1; 26. 20; 28. 1. Miracles: Is. 33. 9; 40. 17; 41. 26;
|
|
43. 13.
|
|
|
|
Jer. 11. 21; 15. 12; 17. 9. Pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile;
|
|
quis cognoscet illud?* that is to say, Who can know all its evil?
|
|
For it is already known to be wicked. Ego dominus,*(2) etc.- vii.
|
|
14, Faciam domui huic,*(3) etc. Trust in external sacrifices- 7. 22,
|
|
Quia non sum locutus,*(4) etc. Outward sacrifice is not the
|
|
essential point- 11. 13, Secundum numerum,*(5) etc. A multitude of
|
|
doctrines.
|
|
|
|
* "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked:
|
|
who can know it?"
|
|
|
|
*(2) Is. 44. 24. "I am the Lord."
|
|
|
|
*(3) "I will do unto this house."
|
|
|
|
*(4) "For I spoke not unto your fathers."
|
|
|
|
*(5) "According to the number."
|
|
|
|
Is. 44. 20-24; 54. 8; 63. 12-17; 66. 17. Jer. 2. 35; 4. 22-24;
|
|
5. 4, 29-31; 6. 16; 22. 15-17.
|
|
|
|
683. Types.- The letter kills. All happened in types. Here is
|
|
the cipher which Saint Paul gives us. Christ must suffer. An
|
|
humiliated God. Circumcision of the heart, true fasting, true
|
|
sacrifice, a true temple. The prophets have shown that all these
|
|
must be spiritual.
|
|
|
|
Not the meat which perishes, but that which does not perish.
|
|
|
|
"Ye shall be free indeed." Then the other freedom was only a
|
|
type of freedom.
|
|
|
|
"I am the true bread from Heaven."
|
|
|
|
684. Contradiction.- We can only describe a good character by
|
|
reconciling all contrary qualities, and it is not enough to keep up
|
|
a series of harmonious qualities, without reconciling contradictory
|
|
ones. To understand the meaning of an author, we must make all the
|
|
contrary passages agree.
|
|
|
|
Thus, to understand Scripture, we must have a meaning in which all
|
|
the contrary passages are reconciled. It is not enough to have one
|
|
which suits many concurring passages; but it is necessary to have
|
|
one which reconciles even contradictory passages.
|
|
|
|
Every author has a meaning in which all the contradictory passages
|
|
agree, or he has no meaning at all. We cannot affirm the latter of
|
|
Scripture and the prophets; they undoubtedly are full of good sense.
|
|
We must, then, seek for a meaning which reconciles all discrepancies.
|
|
|
|
The true meaning, then, is not that of the Jews; but in Jesus
|
|
Christ all the contradictions are reconciled.
|
|
|
|
The Jews could not reconcile the cessation of the royalty and
|
|
principality, foretold by Hosea, with the prophecy of Jacob.
|
|
|
|
If we take the law, the sacrifices, and the kingdom as
|
|
realities, we cannot reconcile all the passages. They must then
|
|
necessarily be only types. We cannot even reconcile the passages of
|
|
the same author, nor of the same book, nor sometimes of the same
|
|
chapter, which indicates copiously what was the meaning of the author.
|
|
As when Ezekiel, chap. 20., Says that man will not live by the
|
|
commandments of God and will live by them.
|
|
|
|
685. Types.- If the law and the sacrifices are the truth, it
|
|
must please God, and must not displease Him. If they are types, they
|
|
must be both pleasing and displeasing.
|
|
|
|
Now in all the Scripture they are both pleasing and displeasing.
|
|
It is said that the law shall be changed; that the sacrifice shall
|
|
be changed; that they shall be without law, without a prince, and
|
|
without a sacrifice; that a new covenant shall be made; that the law
|
|
shall be renewed; that the precepts which they have received are not
|
|
good; that their sacrifices are abominable; that God has demanded none
|
|
of them.
|
|
|
|
It is said, on the contrary, that the law shall abide for ever;
|
|
that this covenant shall be for ever; that sacrifice shall be eternal;
|
|
that the sceptre shall never depart from among them, because it
|
|
shall not depart from them till the eternal King comes.
|
|
|
|
Do all these passages indicate what is real? No. Do they then
|
|
indicate what is typical? No, but what is either real or typical.
|
|
But the first passages, excluding as they do reality, indicate that
|
|
all this is only typical.
|
|
|
|
All these passages together cannot be applied to reality; all
|
|
can be said to be typical; therefore they are not spoken of reality,
|
|
but of the type.
|
|
|
|
Agnus occisus est ab origine mundi.* A sacrificing judge.
|
|
|
|
* Rev. 13. 8. "The Lambs slain from the foundation of the world."
|
|
|
|
686. Contradictions.- The sceptre till the Messiah- without king
|
|
or prince.
|
|
|
|
The eternal law- changed.
|
|
|
|
The eternal covenant- a new covenant.
|
|
|
|
Good laws- bad precepts. Ezekiel.
|
|
|
|
687. Types.- When the word of God, which is really true, is
|
|
false literally, it is true spiritually. Sede a dextris meis:* this is
|
|
false literally, therefore it is true spiritually.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 109. 1. " Sit then at my right hand."
|
|
|
|
In these expressions, God is spoken of after the manner of men;
|
|
and this means nothing else but that the intention which men have in
|
|
giving a seat at their right hand, God will have also. It is then an
|
|
indication of the intention of God, not of His manner of carrying it
|
|
out.
|
|
|
|
Thus when it is said, "God has received the odour of your incense,
|
|
and will in recompense give you a rich land," that is equivalent to
|
|
saying that the same intention which a man would have, who, pleased
|
|
with your perfumes, should in recompense give you a rich land, God
|
|
will have towards you, because you have had the same intention as a
|
|
man has towards him to whom he presents perfumes. So iratus est, a
|
|
"jealous God," etc. For, the things of God being inexpressible, they
|
|
cannot be spoken of otherwise, and the Church makes use of them even
|
|
to-day: Quia confortavit seras,* etc.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 147. 13. Quoniam not quia. "For he hath strengthened the
|
|
bars."
|
|
|
|
It is not allowable to attribute to Scripture the meaning which is
|
|
not revealed to us that it has. Thus, to say that the closed mem of
|
|
Isaiah signifies six hundred, has not been revealed. It might be
|
|
said that the final tsade and he deficientes may signify mysteries.
|
|
But it is not allowable to say so, and still less to say this is the
|
|
way of the philosopher's stone. But we say that the literal meaning is
|
|
not the true meaning, because the prophets have themselves said so.
|
|
|
|
688. I do not say that the mem is mystical.
|
|
|
|
689. Moses (Deut. 30) Promises that God will circumcise their
|
|
heart to render them capable of loving Him.
|
|
|
|
690. One saying of David, or of Moses, as for instance that "God
|
|
will circumcise the heart," enables us to judge of their spirit. If
|
|
all their other expressions were ambiguous and left us in doubt
|
|
whether they were philosophers or Christians, one saying of this
|
|
kind would in fact determine all the rest, as one sentence of
|
|
Epictetus decides the meaning of all the rest to be the opposite. So
|
|
far ambiguity exists, but not afterwards.
|
|
|
|
691. If one of two persons, who are telling silly stories, uses
|
|
language with a double meaning, understood in his own circle, while
|
|
the other uses it with only one meaning, any one not in the secret,
|
|
who hears them both talk in this manner, will pass upon them the
|
|
same judgment. But, if, afterwards, in the rest of their
|
|
conversation one says angelic things, and the other always dull
|
|
commonplaces, he will judge that the one spoke in mysteries, and not
|
|
the other; the one having sufficiently shown that he is incapable of
|
|
such foolishness and capable of being mysterious; and the other that
|
|
he is incapable of mystery and capable of foolishness.
|
|
|
|
The Old Testament is a cipher.
|
|
|
|
692. There are some that see clearly that man has no other enemy
|
|
than lust, which turns him from God, and not God; and that he has no
|
|
other good than God, and not a rich land. Let those who believe that
|
|
the good of man is in the flesh, and evil in what turns him away
|
|
from sensual pleasures, satiate themselves with them, and die in them.
|
|
But let those who seek God with all their heart, who are only troubled
|
|
at not seeing Him, who desire only to possess Him and have as
|
|
enemies only those who turn them away from Him, who are grieved at
|
|
seeing themselves surrounded and overwhelmed with such enemies, take
|
|
comfort. I proclaim to them happy news. There exists a Redeemer for
|
|
them. I shall show Him to them. I shall show that there is a God for
|
|
them. I shall not show Him to others. I shall make them see that a
|
|
Messiah has been promised, who should deliver them from their enemies,
|
|
and that One has come to free them from their iniquities, but not from
|
|
their enemies.
|
|
|
|
When David foretold that the Messiah would deliver His people from
|
|
their enemies, one can believe that in the flesh these would be the
|
|
Egyptians; and then I cannot show that the prophecy was fulfilled. But
|
|
one can well believe also that the enemies would be their sins; for
|
|
indeed the Egyptians were not their enemies, but their sins were so.
|
|
This word enemies is, therefore, ambiguous. But if he says
|
|
elsewhere, as he does, that He will deliver His people from their
|
|
sins, as indeed do Isaiah and others, the ambiguity is removed, and
|
|
the double meaning of enemies is reduced to the simple meaning of
|
|
iniquities. For if he had sins in his mind, he could well denote
|
|
them as enemies; but if he thought of enemies, he could not
|
|
designate them as iniquities.
|
|
|
|
Now Moses, David, and Isaiah used the same terms. Who will say,
|
|
then, that they have not the same meaning and that David's meaning,
|
|
which is plainly iniquities when he spoke of enemies, was not the same
|
|
as that of Moses when speaking of enemies?
|
|
|
|
Daniel (ix) prays for the deliverance of the people from the
|
|
captivity of their enemies. But he was thinking of sins, and, to
|
|
show this, he says that Gabriel came to tell him that his prayer was
|
|
heard, and that there were only seventy weeks to wait, after which the
|
|
people would be freed from iniquity, sin would have an end, and the
|
|
Redeemer, the Holy of Holies, would bring eternal justice, not
|
|
legal, but eternal.
|
|
|
|
SECTION XI
|
|
|
|
THE PROPHECIES
|
|
|
|
693. When I see the blindness and the wretchedness of man, when
|
|
I regard the whole silent universe and man without light, left to
|
|
himself and, as it were, lost in this corner of the universe,
|
|
without knowing who has put him there, what he has come to do, what
|
|
will become of him at death, and incapable of all knowledge, I
|
|
become terrified, like a man who should be carried in his sleep to a
|
|
dreadful desert island and should awake without knowing where he is
|
|
and without means of escape. And thereupon I wonder how people in a
|
|
condition so wretched do not fall into despair. I see other persons
|
|
around me of a like nature. I ask them if they are better informed
|
|
than I am. They tell me that they are not. And thereupon these
|
|
wretched and lost beings, having looked around them and seen some
|
|
pleasing objects, have given and attached themselves to them. For my
|
|
own part, I have not been able to attach myself to them, and,
|
|
considering how strongly it appears that there is something else
|
|
than what I see, I have examined whether this God has not left some
|
|
sign of Himself.
|
|
|
|
I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false
|
|
save one. Each wants to be believed on its own authority, and
|
|
threatens unbelievers. I do not therefore believe them. Every one
|
|
can say this; every one can call himself a prophet.
|
|
|
|
But I see that Christian religion wherein prophecies are
|
|
fulfilled; and that is what every one cannot do.
|
|
|
|
694. And what crowns all this is prediction, so that it should not
|
|
be said that it is chance which has done it?
|
|
|
|
Whosoever, having only a week to live, will not find out that it
|
|
is expedient to believe that all this is not a stroke of chance...
|
|
|
|
Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years
|
|
would amount to the same thing.
|
|
|
|
695. Prophecies.- Great Pan is dead.
|
|
|
|
696. Susceperunt verbum cum omni aviditate, scrutantes Scripturas,
|
|
si ita se haberent.*
|
|
|
|
* Acts 17. 11. "They received the word with all readiness of mind,
|
|
and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
|
|
|
|
697. Prodita lege. Impleta cerne. Implenda collige.*
|
|
|
|
* "Read what has been announced. See what has been accomplished.
|
|
Meditate on what is to be done."
|
|
|
|
698. We understand the prophecies only when we see the events
|
|
happen. Thus the proofs of retreat, discretion, silence, etc., are
|
|
proofs only to those who know and believe them.
|
|
|
|
Joseph so internal in a law so external.
|
|
|
|
Outward penances dispose to inward, as humiliations to humility.
|
|
Thus the...
|
|
|
|
699. The synagogue has preceded the church; the Jews, the
|
|
Christians. The prophets have foretold the Christians; Saint John,
|
|
Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
700. It is glorious to see with the eyes of faith the history of
|
|
Herod and of Caesar.
|
|
|
|
701. The zeal of the Jews for their law and their temple
|
|
(Josephus, and Philo the Jew, Ad Caium). What other people had such
|
|
a zeal? It was necessary they should have it.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ foretold as to the time and the state of the world.
|
|
The ruler taken from the thigh, and the fourth monarchy. How lucky
|
|
we are to see this light amidst this darkness!
|
|
|
|
How fine it is to see, with the eyes of faith, Darius and Cyrus,
|
|
Alexander, the Romans, Pompey and Herod working, without knowing it,
|
|
for the glory of the Gospel!
|
|
|
|
702. Zeal of the Jewish people for the law, especially after there
|
|
were no more prophets.
|
|
|
|
703. While the prophets were for maintaining the law, the people
|
|
were indifferent. But, since there have been no more prophets, zeal
|
|
has succeeded them.
|
|
|
|
704. The devil troubled the zeal of the Jews before Jesus
|
|
Christ, because he would have been their salvation, but not since.
|
|
|
|
The Jewish people scorned by the Gentiles; the Christian people
|
|
persecuted.
|
|
|
|
705. Proof.- Prophecies with their fulfilment; what has preceded
|
|
and what has followed Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
706. The prophecies are the strongest proof of Jesus Christ. It is
|
|
for them also that God has made most provision; for the event which
|
|
has fulfilled them is a miracle existing since the birth of the Church
|
|
to the end. So God has raised up prophets during sixteen hundred
|
|
years, and, during four hundred years afterwards, He has scattered all
|
|
these prophecies among all the Jews, who carried them into all parts
|
|
of the world. Such was the preparation for the birth of Jesus
|
|
Christ, and, as His Gospel was to be believed by all the world, it was
|
|
not only necessary that there should be prophecies to make it
|
|
believed, but that these prophecies should exist throughout the
|
|
whole world, in order to make it embraced by the whole world.
|
|
|
|
707. But it was not enough that the prophecies should exist. It
|
|
was necessary that they should be distributed throughout all places
|
|
and preserved throughout all times. And, in order that this
|
|
agreement might not be taken for an effect of chance, it was necessary
|
|
that this should be foretold.
|
|
|
|
It is far more glorious for the Messiah that the Jews should be
|
|
the specators and even the instruments of His glory, besides that
|
|
God had reserved them.
|
|
|
|
708. Prophecies.- The time foretold by the state of the Jewish
|
|
people, by the state of the heathen, by the state of the temple, by
|
|
the number of years.
|
|
|
|
709. One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways.
|
|
It was necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end
|
|
of the kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the
|
|
same time, and all this before the second temple was destroyed.
|
|
|
|
710. Prophecies.- If one man alone had made a book of
|
|
predictions about Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner, and
|
|
Jesus Christ had come in conformity to these prophecies, this fact
|
|
would have infinite weight.
|
|
|
|
But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during
|
|
four thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come,
|
|
one after another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people
|
|
who announce it and who have existed for four thousand years, in order
|
|
to give corporate testimony of the assurances which they have and from
|
|
which they cannot be diverted by whatever threats and persecutions
|
|
people may make against them. This is far more important.
|
|
|
|
711. Predictions of particular things.- They were strangers in
|
|
Egypt, without any private property, either in that country or
|
|
elsewhere. There was not the least appearance, either of the royalty
|
|
which had previously existed so long, or of that supreme council of
|
|
seventy judges which they called the Sanhedrin and which, having
|
|
been instituted by Moses, lasted to the time of Jesus Christ. All
|
|
these things were as far removed from their state at that time as they
|
|
could be, when Jacob, dying, and blessing his twelve children,
|
|
declared to them, that they would be proprietors of a great land,
|
|
and foretold in particular to the family of Judah, that the kings, who
|
|
would one day rule them, should be of his race; and that all his
|
|
brethren should be their subjects; and that even the Messiah, who
|
|
was to be the expectation of nations, should spring from him; and that
|
|
the kingship should not be taken away from Judah, nor the ruler and
|
|
law-giver of his descendants, till the expected Messiah should
|
|
arrive in his family.
|
|
|
|
This same Jacob, disposing of this future land as though he had
|
|
been its ruler, gave a portion to Joseph more than to the others. "I
|
|
give you," said he, "one part more than to your brothers." And
|
|
blessing his two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Joseph had
|
|
presented to him, the elder, Manasseh, on his right, and the young
|
|
Ephraim on his left, he put his arms crosswise, and placing his
|
|
right hand on the head of Ephraim, and his left on Manasseh, he
|
|
blessed them in this manner. And, upon Joseph's representing to him
|
|
that he was preferring the younger, he replied to him with admirable
|
|
resolution: "I know it well, my son; but Ephraim will increase more
|
|
than Manasseh." This has been indeed so true in the result that, being
|
|
alone almost as fruitful as the two entire lines which composed a
|
|
whole kingdom, they have been usually called by the name of Ephraim
|
|
alone.
|
|
|
|
This same Joseph, when dying, bade his children carry his bones
|
|
with them when they should go into that land to which they only came
|
|
two hundred years afterwards.
|
|
|
|
Moses, who wrote all these things so long before they happened,
|
|
himself assigned to each family portions of that land before they
|
|
entered it, as though he had been its ruler. In fact he declared
|
|
that God was to raise up from their nation and their race a prophet,
|
|
of whom he was the type; and he foretold them exactly all that was
|
|
to happen to them in the land which they were to enter after his
|
|
death, the victories which God would give them, their ingratitude
|
|
towards God, the punishments which they would receive for it, and
|
|
the rest of their adventures. He gave them judges who should make
|
|
the division. He prescribed the entire form of political government
|
|
which they should observe, the cities of refuge which they should
|
|
build, and...
|
|
|
|
712. The prophecies about particular things are mingled with those
|
|
about the Messiah, so that the prophecies of the Messiah should not be
|
|
without proofs, nor the special prophecies without fruit.
|
|
|
|
713. Perpetual captivity of the Jews.- Jer. 11. 11: "I will
|
|
bring evil upon Judah from which they shall not be able to escape."
|
|
|
|
Types.- Is. 5: "The Lord had a vineyard, from which He looked
|
|
for grapes; and it brought forth only wild grapes. I will therefore
|
|
lay it waste, and destroy it; the earth shall only bring forth thorns,
|
|
and I will forbid the clouds from raining upon it. The vineyard of the
|
|
Lord is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant
|
|
plant. I looked that they should do justice, and they bring forth only
|
|
iniquities."
|
|
|
|
Is. 8: "Sanctify the Lord with fear and trembling; let Him be your
|
|
only dread, and He shall be to you for a sanctuary, but for a stone of
|
|
stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a
|
|
gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and many among
|
|
them shall stumble against that stone, and fall, and be broken, and be
|
|
snared, and perish. Hide my words, and cover my law for my disciples.
|
|
|
|
"I will then wait in patience upon the Lord that hideth and
|
|
concealeth Himself from the house of Jacob."
|
|
|
|
Is. 29: "Be amazed and wonder, people of Israel; stagger and
|
|
stumble, and be drunken, but not with wine; stagger, but not with
|
|
strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep
|
|
sleep. He will close your eyes; He will cover your princes and your
|
|
prophets that have visions." (Daniel xii: "The wicked shall not
|
|
understand, but the wise shall understand." Hosea, the last chapter,
|
|
the last verse, after many temporal blessings, says: "Who is wise, and
|
|
he shall understand these things?" etc.) "And the visions of all the
|
|
prophets are become unto you as a sealed book, which men deliver to
|
|
one that is learned, and who can read; and he saith, I cannot read it,
|
|
for it is sealed. And when the book is delivered to them that are
|
|
not learned, they say, I am not learned.
|
|
|
|
"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people with their lips
|
|
do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me,"- there is the
|
|
reason and the cause of it; for if they adored God in their hearts,
|
|
they would understand the prophecies,- "and their fear towards me is
|
|
taught by the precept of man. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to
|
|
do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a
|
|
wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and their
|
|
understanding shall be hid."
|
|
|
|
Prophecies. Proofs of Divinity.- Is. 41: "Shew the things that are
|
|
to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: we will
|
|
incline our heart unto your words. Teach us the things that have
|
|
been at the beginning, and declare us things for to come.
|
|
|
|
"By this we shall know that ye are gods. Yea, do good or do
|
|
evil, if you can. Let us then behold it and reason together. Behold,
|
|
ye are of nothing, and only an abomination, etc. Who," (among
|
|
contemporary writers), "hath declared from the beginning that we may
|
|
know of the things done from the beginning and origin? that we may
|
|
say, You are righteous. There is none that teacheth us, yea, there
|
|
is none that declareth the future."
|
|
|
|
Is. 42: "I am the Lord, and my glory will I not give to another. I
|
|
have foretold the things which have come to pass, and things that
|
|
are to come do I declare. Sing unto God a new song in all the earth.
|
|
|
|
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and see not, and
|
|
the deaf that have ears and hear not. Let all the nations be
|
|
gathered together. Who among them can declare this, and shew us former
|
|
things, and things to come? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that
|
|
they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
|
|
|
|
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have
|
|
chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He.
|
|
|
|
"I have declared, and have saved, and I alone have done wonders
|
|
before your eyes: ye are my witnesses, said the Lord, that I am God.
|
|
|
|
"For your sake I have brought down the forces of the
|
|
Babylonians. I am the Lord, your Holy One and Creator.
|
|
|
|
"I have made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.
|
|
I am He that drowned and destroyed for ever the mighty enemies that
|
|
have resisted you.
|
|
|
|
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of
|
|
old.
|
|
|
|
"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall
|
|
ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers
|
|
in the desert.
|
|
|
|
"This people have I formed for myself; I have established them
|
|
to shew forth my praise, etc.
|
|
|
|
"I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine
|
|
own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put in remembrance your
|
|
ingratitude: see thou, if thou mayest be justified. Thy first father
|
|
hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me."
|
|
|
|
Is. 44.: "I am the first, and I am the last, saith the Lord. Let
|
|
him who will equal himself to me, declare the order of things since
|
|
I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming. Fear
|
|
ye not: have I not told you all these things? Ye are my witnesses."
|
|
|
|
Prophecy of Cyrus.- Is. 45 .4: "For Jacob's sake, mine elect, I
|
|
have called thee by thy name."
|
|
|
|
Is. 45. 21: "Come and let us reason together. Who hath declared
|
|
this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I,
|
|
the Lord?"
|
|
|
|
Is. 46: "Remember the former things of old, and know there is none
|
|
like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
|
|
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
|
|
stand, and I will do all my pleasure."
|
|
|
|
Is. 42: "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new
|
|
things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."
|
|
|
|
Is. 48.3: "I have declared the former things from the beginning; I
|
|
did them suddenly; and they came to pass. Because I know that thou art
|
|
obstinate, that thy spirit is rebellious, and thy brow brass; I have
|
|
even declared it to thee before it came to pass: lest thou shouldst
|
|
say that it was the work of thy gods, and the effect of their
|
|
commands.
|
|
|
|
"Thou hast seen all this; and will not ye declare it? I have
|
|
shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou
|
|
didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning;
|
|
I have kept them hidden from thee; lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I
|
|
knew them.
|
|
|
|
"Yea, thou knewest not; yea, thou heardest not; yea, from that
|
|
time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou couldst
|
|
deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the
|
|
womb."
|
|
|
|
Reprobation of the Jews and conversion of the Gentiles.- Is. 65:
|
|
"I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that
|
|
sought me not; I said, Behold me, behold me, behold me, unto a
|
|
nation that did not call upon my name.
|
|
|
|
"I have spread out my hands all the day unto an unbelieving
|
|
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own
|
|
thoughts; a people that provoketh me to anger continually by the
|
|
sins they commit in my face; that sacrificeth to idols, etc.
|
|
|
|
"These shall be scattered like smoke in the day of my wrath, etc.
|
|
|
|
"Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers, will I
|
|
assemble together, and will recompense you for all according to your
|
|
works.
|
|
|
|
"Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and
|
|
one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it and the promise
|
|
of fruit: for my servants' sake I will not destroy all Israel.
|
|
|
|
"Thus I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah,
|
|
an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect and my servants shall
|
|
inherit it, and my fertile and abundant plains; but I will destroy all
|
|
others, because you have forgotten your God to serve strange gods. I
|
|
called, and ye did not answer; I spake, and ye did not hear; and ye
|
|
did choose the thing which I forbade.
|
|
|
|
"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, my servants shall eat, but
|
|
ye shall be hungry; my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be
|
|
ashamed; my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry and
|
|
howl for vexation of spirit.
|
|
|
|
"And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for
|
|
the Lord shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name,
|
|
that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in
|
|
God, etc., because the former troubles are forgotten.
|
|
|
|
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former
|
|
things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
|
|
|
|
"But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create;
|
|
for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
|
|
|
|
"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people; and the
|
|
voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of
|
|
crying.
|
|
|
|
"Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking,
|
|
I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion
|
|
shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's
|
|
meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain."
|
|
|
|
Is. 56. 3: "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice:
|
|
for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
|
|
|
|
"Blessed is the man that doeth this, that keepeth the Sabbath, and
|
|
keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
|
|
|
|
"Neither let the strangers that have joined themselves to me, say,
|
|
God will separate me from His people. For thus saith the Lord: Whoever
|
|
will keep my Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take
|
|
hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house a
|
|
place and a name better than that of sons and of daughters: I will
|
|
give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."
|
|
|
|
Is. 59. 9: "Therefore for our iniquities is justice far from us:
|
|
we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk
|
|
in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at
|
|
noonday as in the night: we are in desolate places as dead men.
|
|
|
|
"We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for
|
|
judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us."
|
|
|
|
Is. 66. 18: "But I know their works and their thoughts; it shall
|
|
come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall see my
|
|
glory.
|
|
|
|
"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that
|
|
escape of them unto the nations, to Africa, to Lydia, to Italy, to
|
|
Greece, and to the people that have not heard my fame, neither have
|
|
seen my glory. And they shall bring your brethren.
|
|
|
|
Jer. 7. Reprobation of the Temple: "Go ye unto Shiloth, where I
|
|
set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
|
|
wickedness of my people. And now, because ye have done all these
|
|
works, saith the Lord, I will do unto this house, wherein my name is
|
|
called upon, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to your
|
|
priests, as I have done to Shiloth." (For I have rejected it, and made
|
|
myself a temple elsewhere.)
|
|
|
|
"And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all
|
|
your brethren, even the seed of Ephraim." (Rejected for ever.)
|
|
"Therefore pray not for this people."
|
|
|
|
Jer. 7. 22: "What avails it you to add sacrifice to sacrifice? For
|
|
I spake not unto your fathers, when I brought them out of the land
|
|
of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing
|
|
commanded I them, saying, Obey and be faithful to my commandments, and
|
|
I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." (It was only after
|
|
they had sacrificed to the golden calf that I gave myself sacrifices
|
|
to turn into good an evil custom.)
|
|
|
|
Jer. 7. 4: "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
|
|
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these."
|
|
|
|
714. The Jews witnesses for God. Is. 43. 9; 44. 8.
|
|
|
|
Prophecies fulfilled.- I Kings 13. 2. I Kings 22. 16. Joshua 6. 26.
|
|
I Kings 16. 34. Deut. 23.
|
|
|
|
Malachi i. 11. The sacrifice of the Jews rejected, and the
|
|
sacrifice of the heathen, (even out of Jerusalem,) and in all places.
|
|
|
|
Moses, before dying, foretold the calling of the Gentiles, Deut.
|
|
32. 21. and the reprobation of the Jews.
|
|
|
|
Moses foretold what would happen to each tribe.
|
|
|
|
Prophecy.- "Your name shall be a curse unto mine elect, and I will
|
|
give them another name."
|
|
|
|
"Make their heart fat," and how? by flattering their lust and
|
|
making them hope to satisfy it.
|
|
|
|
715. Prophecy.- Amos and Zechariah. They have sold the just one,
|
|
and therefore will not be recalled. Jesus Christ betrayed.
|
|
|
|
They shall no more remember Egypt. See Is. 43. 16, 17, 18, 19.
|
|
Jer. 23. 6, 7.
|
|
|
|
Prophecy.- The Jews shall be scattered abroad. Is. 27. 6. A new
|
|
law, Jerem. 31. 32.
|
|
|
|
Malachi. Grotius. The second temple glorious. Jesus Christ will
|
|
come. Haggai 2. 7, 8, 9, 10.
|
|
|
|
The calling of the Gentiles. Joel 2. 28. Hosea 2. 24. Deut. 32.
|
|
21. Malachi 1. 11.
|
|
|
|
716. Hosea 3.- Is. 42. 48. 44. 60. 61. last verse. "I foretold
|
|
it long since that they might know that it is I." Jaddus to Alexander.
|
|
|
|
717. Prophecies.- The promise that David will always have
|
|
descendants. Jer. 13. 13.
|
|
|
|
718. The eternal reign of the race of David, II Chron., by all the
|
|
prophecies, and with an oath. And it was not temporally fulfilled.
|
|
Jer. 23. 20.
|
|
|
|
719. We might perhaps think that, when the prophets foretold
|
|
that the sceptre should not depart from Judah until the eternal King
|
|
came, they spoke to flatter the people and that their prophecy was
|
|
proved false by Herod. But to show that this was not their meaning and
|
|
that, on the contrary, they knew well that this temporal kingdom
|
|
should cease, they said that they would be without a king and
|
|
without a prince, and for a long time. Hosea 3. 4.
|
|
|
|
720. Non habemus regem nisi Caesarem.* Therefore Jesus Christ
|
|
was the Messiah, since they had no longer any king but a stranger, and
|
|
would have no other.
|
|
|
|
* John 19. 15. "We have no king but Caesar."
|
|
|
|
721. We have no king but Caesar.
|
|
|
|
722. Daniel 2: "All thy soothsayers and wise men cannot shew
|
|
unto thee the secret which thou hast demanded. But there is a God in
|
|
heaven who can do so, and that hath revealed to thee in thy dream what
|
|
shall be in the latter days." (This dream must have caused him much
|
|
misgiving.)
|
|
|
|
"And it is not by my own wisdom that I have knowledge of this
|
|
secret, but by the revelation of this same God, that hath revealed
|
|
it to me, to make it manifest in thy presence.
|
|
|
|
"Thy dream was then of this kind. Thou sawest a great image,
|
|
high and terrible, which stood before thee. His head was of gold,
|
|
his breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
|
|
his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thus thou
|
|
sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the
|
|
image upon his feet, that were of iron and of clay, and brake them
|
|
to pieces.
|
|
|
|
"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
|
|
gold broken to pieces together, and the wind carried them away; but
|
|
this stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled
|
|
the whole earth. This is the dream, and now I will give thee the
|
|
interpretation thereof.
|
|
|
|
"Thou who art the greatest of kings, and to whom God hath given
|
|
a power so vast that thou art renowned among all peoples, art the head
|
|
of gold which thou hast seen. But after thee shall arise another
|
|
kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which
|
|
shall bear rule over all the earth.
|
|
|
|
"But the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, and even as
|
|
iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, so shall this
|
|
empire break in pieces and bruise all.
|
|
|
|
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of clay and
|
|
part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it
|
|
of the strength of iron and of the weakness of clay.
|
|
|
|
"But as iron cannot be firmly mixed with clay, so they who are
|
|
represented by the iron and by the clay, shall not cleave one to
|
|
another though united by marriage.
|
|
|
|
"Now in the days of these kings shall God set up a kingdom,
|
|
which shall never be destroyed, nor ever be delivered up to other
|
|
people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and
|
|
it shall stand for ever, according as thou sawest that the stone was
|
|
cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it fell from the
|
|
mountain, and brake in pieces the iron, the clay, the silver, and
|
|
the gold. God hath made known to thee what shall come to pass
|
|
hereafter. This dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
|
|
|
|
"Then Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face towards the earth," etc.
|
|
|
|
Daniel 8. 8. "Daniel having seen the combat of the ram and of
|
|
the he-goat, who vanquished him and ruled over the earth, whereof
|
|
the principal horn being broken four others came up toward the four
|
|
winds of heaven, and out of one of them came forth a little horn,
|
|
which waxed exceedingly great toward the south, and toward the east,
|
|
and toward the land of Israel, and it waxed great even to the host
|
|
of heaven; and it cast down some of the stars, and stamped upon
|
|
them, and at last overthrew the prince, and by him the daily sacrifice
|
|
was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
|
|
|
|
"This is what Daniel saw. He sought the meaning of it, and a voice
|
|
cried in this manner, 'Gabriel, make this man to understand the
|
|
vision.' And Gabriel said:
|
|
|
|
"The ram which thou sawest is the king of the Medes and
|
|
Persians, and the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn
|
|
that is between his eyes is the first king of this monarchy.
|
|
|
|
"Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four
|
|
kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.
|
|
|
|
"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when iniquities are come
|
|
to the full, there shall arise a king, insolent and strong, but not by
|
|
his own power, to whom all things shall succeed after his own will;
|
|
and he shall destroy the holy people, and through his policy also he
|
|
shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall destroy many.
|
|
He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall
|
|
perish miserably, and nevertheless by a violent hand."
|
|
|
|
Daniel 9. 20. "Whilst I was praying with all my heart, and
|
|
confessing my sin and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself
|
|
before my God, even Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the
|
|
beginning, came to me and touched me about the time of the evening
|
|
oblation, and he informed me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth
|
|
to give thee the knowledge of things. At the beginning of thy
|
|
supplications I came to shew that which thou didst desire, for thou
|
|
are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the
|
|
vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy
|
|
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
|
|
and to abolish iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness; to
|
|
accomplish the vision and the prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy.
|
|
(After which this people shall be no more thy people, nor this city
|
|
the holy city. The times of wrath shall be passed, and the years of
|
|
grace shall come for ever.)
|
|
|
|
"Know therefore, and understand, that, from the going forth of the
|
|
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
|
|
Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." (The
|
|
Hebrews were accustomed to divide numbers, and to place the small
|
|
first. Thus, 7 and 62 make 69. Of this 70 there will then remain the
|
|
70th, that is to say, the 7 last years of which he will speak next.)
|
|
|
|
"The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
|
|
troublous times. And after three score and two weeks," (which have
|
|
followed the first seven. Christ will then be killed after the
|
|
sixty-nine weeks, that is to say, in the last week), "the Christ shall
|
|
be cut off, and a people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
|
|
the city and the sanctuary, and overwhelm all, and the end of that war
|
|
shall accomplish the desolation."
|
|
|
|
"Now one week," (which is the seventieth, which remains), "shall
|
|
confirm the covenant with many, and in the midst of the week," (that
|
|
is to say, the last three and a half years), "he shall cause the
|
|
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of
|
|
abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
|
|
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
|
|
|
|
Daniel 11. "The angel said to Daniel: There shall stand up yet,"
|
|
(after Cyrus, under whom this still is), "three kings in Persia,"
|
|
(Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius); and the fourth who shall then come,"
|
|
(Xerxes) "shall be far richer than they all, and far stronger, and
|
|
shall stir up all his people against the Greeks.
|
|
|
|
"But a mighty king shall stand up," (Alexander), "that shall
|
|
rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he
|
|
shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided in
|
|
four parts toward the four winds of heaven," (as he had said above, 7.
|
|
6; 8. 8), "but not his posterity; and his successors shall not equal
|
|
his power, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others
|
|
besides these," (his four chief successors).
|
|
|
|
"And the king of the south," (Ptolemy, son of Lagos, Egypt),
|
|
"shall be strong; but one of his princes shall be strong above him,
|
|
and his dominion shall be a great dominion," (Seleucus, King of Syria.
|
|
Appian says that he was the most powerful of Alexander's successors).
|
|
|
|
"And in the end of years they shall join themselves together,
|
|
and the king's daughter of the south," (Berenice, daughter of
|
|
Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of the other Ptolemy), "shall come to the
|
|
king of the north," (to Antiochus Deus, King of Syria and of Asia, son
|
|
of Seleucus Lagidas), "to make peace between these princes.
|
|
|
|
"But neither she nor her seed shall have a long authority; for she
|
|
and they that brought her, and her children, and her friends, shall be
|
|
delivered to death." (Berenice and her son were killed by Seleucus
|
|
Callinicus.)
|
|
|
|
"But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up," (Ptolemy
|
|
Euergetes was the issue of the same father as Berenice), "which
|
|
shall come with a mighty army into the land of the king of the
|
|
north, where he shall put all under subjection, and he shall also
|
|
carry captive into Egypt their gods, their princes, their gold,
|
|
their silver, and all their precious spoils," (if he had not been
|
|
called into Egypt by domestic reasons, says Justin, he would have
|
|
entirely stripped Seleucus); "and he shall continue several years when
|
|
the king of the north can do nought against him.
|
|
|
|
"And so he shall return into his kingdom. But his sons shall be
|
|
stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces," (Seleucus
|
|
Ceraunus, Antiochus the Great). "And their army shall come and
|
|
overthrow all; wherefore the king of the south shall be moved with
|
|
choler, and shall also form a great army, and fight him," (Ptolemy
|
|
Philopator against Antiochus the Great at Raphia), "and conquer; and
|
|
his troops shall become insolent, and his heart shall be lifted up,"
|
|
(this Ptolemy desecrated the temple; Josephus): "he shall cast down
|
|
many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it. For the
|
|
king of the north," (Antiochus the Great), "shall return with a
|
|
greater multitude than before, and in those times also a great
|
|
number of enemies shall stand up against the king of the south,"
|
|
(during the reign of the young Ptolemy Epiphanes); "also the apostates
|
|
and robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the
|
|
vision; but they shall fall." (Those who abandon their religion to
|
|
please Euergetes, when he will send his troops to Scopas; for
|
|
Antiochus will again take Scopas, and conquer them.) "And the king
|
|
of the north shall destroy the fenced cities, and the arms of the
|
|
south shall not withstand, and all shall yield to his will; he shall
|
|
stand in the land of Israel, and it shall yield to him. And thus he
|
|
shall think to make himself master of all the empire of Egypt,
|
|
(despising the youth of Epiphanes, says Justin). "And for that he
|
|
shall make alliance with him, and give his daughter" (Cleopatra, in
|
|
order that she may betray her husband. On which Appian says that,
|
|
doubting his ability to make himself master of Egypt by force, because
|
|
of the protection of the Romans, he wished to attempt it by
|
|
cunning). "He shall wish to corrupt her, but she shall not stand on
|
|
his side, neither be for him. Then he shall turn his face to other
|
|
designs, and shall think to make himself master of some isles, (that
|
|
is to say, seaports), "and shall take many," (as Appian says).
|
|
|
|
"But a prince shall oppose, his conquests," (Scipio Africanus, who
|
|
stopped the progress of Antiochus the Great, because he offended the
|
|
Romans in the person of their allies), "and shall cause the reproach
|
|
offered by him to cease. He shall then return into his kingdom and
|
|
there perish, and be no more." (He was slain by his soldiers.)
|
|
|
|
"And he who shall stand up in his estate," (Seleucus Philopator or
|
|
Soter, the son of Antiochus the Great), "shall be a tyrant, a raiser
|
|
of taxes in the glory of the kingdom," (which means the people),
|
|
"but within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor
|
|
in battle. And in his place shall stand up a vile person, unworthy
|
|
of the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in cleverly by
|
|
flatteries. All armies shall bend before him; he shall conquer them,
|
|
and even the prince with whom he has made a covenant. For having
|
|
renewed the league with him, he shall work deceitfully, and enter with
|
|
a small people into his province, peaceably and without fear. He shall
|
|
take the fattest places, and shall do that which his fathers have
|
|
not done, and ravage on all sides. He shall forecast great devices
|
|
during his time."
|
|
|
|
723. Prophecies.- The seventy weeks of Daniel are ambiguous as
|
|
regards the term of commencement, because of the terms of the
|
|
prophecy; and as regards the term of conclusion, because of the
|
|
differences among chronologists. But all this difference extends
|
|
only to two hundred years.
|
|
|
|
724. Predictions.- That in the fourth monarchy, before the
|
|
destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews
|
|
was taken away, in the seventieth week of Daniel, during the
|
|
continuance of the second temple, the heathen should be instructed,
|
|
and brought to the knowledge of the God worshipped by the Jews; that
|
|
those who loved Him should be delivered from their enemies, and filled
|
|
with His fear and love.
|
|
|
|
And it happened that in the fourth monarchy, before the
|
|
destruction of the second temple, etc., the heathen in great number
|
|
worshipped God, and led an angelic life. Maidens dedicated their
|
|
virginity and their life to God. Men renounced their pleasures. What
|
|
Plato could only make acceptable to a few men, specially chosen and
|
|
instructed, a secret influence imparted by the power of a few words,
|
|
to a hundred million ignorant men.
|
|
|
|
The rich left their wealth. Children left the dainty homes of
|
|
their parents to go into the rough desert. (See Philo the Jew.) All
|
|
this was foretold a great while ago. For two thousand years no heathen
|
|
had worshipped the God of the Jews; and at the time foretold, a
|
|
great number of the heathen worshipped this only God. The temples were
|
|
destroyed. The very kings made submission to the cross. All this was
|
|
due to the Spirit of God, which was spread abroad upon the earth.
|
|
|
|
No heathen, since Moses until Jesus Christ, believed according
|
|
to the very Rabbis. A great number of the heathen, after Jesus Christ,
|
|
believed in the books of Moses, kept them in substance and spirit, and
|
|
only rejected what was useless.
|
|
|
|
725. Prophecies.- The conversion of the Egyptians (Isaiah 19. 19);
|
|
an altar in Egypt to the true God.
|
|
|
|
726. Prophecies.- In Egypt. Pugio Fidei, p. 659. Talmud. "It is
|
|
a tradition among us, that, when the Messiah shall come, the house
|
|
of God, destined for the dispensation of His Word, shall be full of
|
|
filth and impurity; and that the wisdom of the scribes shall be
|
|
corrupt and rotten. Those who shall be afraid to sin, shall be
|
|
rejected by the people, and treated as senseless fools."
|
|
|
|
Is. xlix: "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people,
|
|
from afar: The Lord hath called me by my name from the womb of my
|
|
mother; in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and hath made my
|
|
words like a sharp sword, and said unto me, Thou art my servant in
|
|
whom I will be glorified. Then I said, Lord, have I laboured in
|
|
vain? have I spent my strength for nought? yet surely my judgment is
|
|
with Thee, O Lord, and my work with Thee. And now, saith the Lord,
|
|
that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob and
|
|
Israel again to Him, Thou shalt be glorious in my sight, and I will be
|
|
thy strength. It is a light thing that thou shouldst convert the
|
|
tribes of Jacob; I have raised thee up for a light to the Gentiles,
|
|
that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. Thus
|
|
saith the Lord to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation
|
|
abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Princes and kings shall worship
|
|
thee, because the Lord is faithful that hath chosen thee.
|
|
|
|
"Again saith the Lord unto me, I have heard thee in the days of
|
|
salvation and of mercy, and I will preserve thee for a covenant of the
|
|
people, to cause to inherit the desolate nations, that thou mayest say
|
|
to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that are in darkness show
|
|
yourselves, and possess these abundant and fertile lands. They shall
|
|
not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them;
|
|
for he that hath mercy upon them shall lead them, even by the
|
|
springs of waters shall he guide them, and make the mountains a way
|
|
before them. Behold, the peoples shall come from all parts, from the
|
|
east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Let the
|
|
heavens give glory to God; let the earth be joyful; for it hath
|
|
pleased the Lord to comfort His people, and He will have mercy upon
|
|
the poor who hope in Him.
|
|
|
|
"Yet Zion dared to say: The Lord hath forsaken me, and hath
|
|
forgotten me. Can a woman forget her child, that she should not have
|
|
compassion on the son of her womb? but if she forget, yet will not I
|
|
forget thee, O Sion. I will bear thee always between my hands, and thy
|
|
walls are continually before me. They that shall build thee are
|
|
come, and thy destroyers shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes
|
|
round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and
|
|
come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee
|
|
with them all, as with an ornament. Thy waste and thy desolate places,
|
|
and the land of thy destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason
|
|
of the inhabitants, and the children thou shalt have after thy
|
|
barrenness shall say again in thy ears: The place is too strait for
|
|
me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thy
|
|
heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and
|
|
am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who brought up
|
|
these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? And the
|
|
Lord shall say to thee: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the
|
|
Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring
|
|
thy sons in their arms and in their bosoms. And kings shall be their
|
|
nursing fathers, and queens their nursing mothers; they shall bow down
|
|
to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of
|
|
thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not
|
|
be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the
|
|
mighty? But even if the captives be taken away from the strong,
|
|
nothing shall hinder me from saving thy children, and from
|
|
destroying thy enemies; and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord,
|
|
thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
|
|
|
|
"Thus saith the Lord: What is the bill of this divorcement,
|
|
wherewith I have put away the synagogue? and why have I delivered it
|
|
into the hand of your enemies? Is it not for your iniquities and for
|
|
your transgressions that I have put it away?
|
|
|
|
"For I came, and no man received me; I called and there was none
|
|
to hear. Is my arm shortened, that I cannot redeem?
|
|
|
|
"Therefore I will show the tokens of mine anger; I will clothe the
|
|
heavens with darkness, and make sackcloth their covering.
|
|
|
|
"The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should
|
|
know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He hath
|
|
opened mine ear, and I have listened to Him as a master.
|
|
|
|
"The Lord hath revealed His will, and I was not rebellious.
|
|
|
|
"I gave my body to the smiters, and my cheeks to outrage; I hid
|
|
not my face from shame and spitting. But the Lord hath helped me;
|
|
therefore I have not been confounded.
|
|
|
|
"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? who will
|
|
be mine adversary, and accuse me of sin, God himself being my
|
|
protector?
|
|
|
|
"All men shall pass away, and be consumed by time; let those
|
|
that fear God hearken to the voice of His servant; let him that
|
|
languisheth in darkness put his trust in the Lord. But as for you,
|
|
ye do but kindle the wrath of God upon you; ye walk in the light of
|
|
your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have
|
|
of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
|
|
|
|
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek
|
|
the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of
|
|
the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto
|
|
Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, when childless, and
|
|
increased him. Behold, I have comforted Zion, and heaped upon her
|
|
blessings and consolations.
|
|
|
|
"Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me; for a law shall
|
|
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of
|
|
the Gentiles."
|
|
|
|
Amos viii. The prophet, having enumerated the sins of Israel, said
|
|
that God had sworn to take vengeance on them.
|
|
|
|
He says this: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the
|
|
Lord, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will
|
|
darken the earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feasts into
|
|
mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.
|
|
|
|
"You all shall have sorrow and suffering, and I will make this
|
|
nation mourn as for an only son, and the end therefore as a bitter
|
|
day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a
|
|
famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but
|
|
of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to
|
|
sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to
|
|
seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
|
|
|
|
"In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for
|
|
thirst. They that have followed the idols of Samaria, and sworn by the
|
|
god of Dan, and followed the manner of Beersheba, shall fall, and
|
|
never rise up again."
|
|
|
|
Amos 3. 2: "Ye only have I known of all the families of the
|
|
earth for my people."
|
|
|
|
Daniel 12. 7. Having described all the extent of the reign of
|
|
the Messiah, he says: "All these things shall be finished, when the
|
|
scattering of the people of Israel shall be accomplished."
|
|
|
|
Haggai 2. 4: "Ye who, comparing this second house with the glory
|
|
of the first, despise it, be strong, saith the Lord, be strong, O
|
|
Zerubbabel, and O Jesus, the high priest, be strong, all ye people
|
|
of the land, and work. For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts;
|
|
according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of
|
|
Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not. For thus saith
|
|
the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will shake the heavens,
|
|
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land," (a way of speaking to
|
|
indicate a great and an extraordinary change); "and I will shake all
|
|
nations, and the desire of all the Gentiles shall come; and I will
|
|
fill this house with glory, saith the Lord.
|
|
|
|
"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord,"
|
|
(that is to say, it is not by that that I wish to be honoured; as it
|
|
is said elsewhere: All the beasts of the field are mine, what
|
|
advantages me that they are offered me in sacrifice?). "The glory of
|
|
this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the
|
|
Lord of hosts; and in this place will I establish my house, saith
|
|
the Lord.
|
|
|
|
"According to all that thou desiredst in Horeb in the day of the
|
|
assembly, saying, Let us not hear again the voice of the Lord, neither
|
|
let us see this fire any more, that we die not. And the Lord said unto
|
|
me, Their prayer is just. I will raise them up a prophet from among
|
|
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth;
|
|
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it
|
|
shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words
|
|
which he will speak in my name, I will require it of him.
|
|
|
|
Genesis 49: "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise,
|
|
and thou shalt conquer thine enemies; thy father's children shall
|
|
bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my
|
|
son, thou art gone up, and art couched as a lion, and as a lioness
|
|
that shall be roused up.
|
|
|
|
"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
|
|
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the
|
|
gathering of the people be."
|
|
|
|
727. During the life of the Messiah. Aenigmatis. Ezek. l7.
|
|
|
|
His forerunner. Malachi 3.
|
|
|
|
He will be born an infant. Is. 9.
|
|
|
|
He will be born in the village of Bethlehem. Micah 5. He will
|
|
appear chiefly in Jerusalem and will be a descendant of the family
|
|
of Judah and of David.
|
|
|
|
He is to blind the learned and the wise, Is. 6. 8. 29. etc.; and
|
|
to preach the Gospel to the lowly, Is. 29; to open the eyes of the
|
|
blind, give health to the sick, and bring light to those that languish
|
|
in darkness. Is. 61.
|
|
|
|
He is to show the perfect way, and be the teacher of the Gentiles.
|
|
Is. 55; 43. 1-7.
|
|
|
|
The prophecies are to be unintelligible to the wicked, Dan. 12;
|
|
Hosea 14. 10; but they are to be intelligible to those who are well
|
|
informed.
|
|
|
|
The prophecies, which represent Him as poor, represent Him as
|
|
master of the nations. Is. 52. 14, etc.; 53; Zech. 9. 9.
|
|
|
|
The prophecies, which foretell the time, foretell Him only as
|
|
master of the nations and suffering, and not as in the clouds nor as
|
|
judge. And those, which represent Him thus as judge and in glory, do
|
|
not mention the time. When the Messiah is spoken of as great and
|
|
glorious, it is as the judge of the world, and not its Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
He is to be the victim for the sins of the world. Is. 39. 53. etc.
|
|
|
|
He is to be the precious corner-stone. Is. 28. 16.
|
|
|
|
He is to be a stone of stumbling and offence. Is. viii.
|
|
Jerusalem is to dash against this stone.
|
|
|
|
The builders are to reject this stone. Ps. 117. 22.
|
|
|
|
God is to make this stone the chief corner-stone.
|
|
|
|
And this stone is to grow into a huge mountain and fill the
|
|
whole earth. Dan. 2.
|
|
|
|
So He is to be rejected, despised, betrayed (Ps. 108. 8), sold
|
|
(Zech. 11. 12), spit upon, buffeted, mocked, afflicted in
|
|
innumerable ways, given gall to drink (Ps. 68), pierced (Zech. 12),
|
|
His feet and His hands pierced, slain, and lots cast for His raiment.
|
|
|
|
He will rise again (Ps. 15) the third day (Hosea 6. 3).
|
|
|
|
He will ascend to heaven to sit on the right hand. Ps. 110.
|
|
|
|
The kings will arm themselves against Him. Ps. 2.
|
|
|
|
Being on the right hand of the Father, He will be victorious
|
|
over His enemies.
|
|
|
|
The kings of the earth and all nations will worship Him. Is. lx.
|
|
|
|
The Jews will continue as a nation. Jeremiah.
|
|
|
|
They will wander, without kings, etc. (Hosea 3), without
|
|
prophets (Amos), looking for salvation and finding it not (Isaiah).
|
|
|
|
Calling of the Gentiles by Jesus Christ. Is. 52. 15; 55. 5; 60.
|
|
etc. Ps. 81.
|
|
|
|
Hosea 1. 9: "Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God,
|
|
when ye are multiplied after the dispersion. In the places where it
|
|
was said, Ye are not my people, I will call them my people."
|
|
|
|
728. It was not lawful to sacrifice outside of Jerusalem, which
|
|
was the place that the Lord had chosen, nor even to eat the tithes
|
|
elsewhere. Deut. 12. 5, etc.; Deut. 14. 23, etc.; 15. 20; 16. 2, 7,
|
|
11, 15.
|
|
|
|
Hosea foretold that they should be without a king, without a
|
|
prince, without a sacrifice, and without an idol; and this prophecy is
|
|
now fulfilled, as they cannot make a lawful sacrifice out of
|
|
Jerusalem.
|
|
|
|
729. Predictions.- It was foretold that, in the time of the
|
|
Messiah, He should come to establish a new covenant, which should make
|
|
them forget the escape from Egypt (Jer. 23. 5; Is. 43. 10); that He
|
|
should place His law not in externals, but in the heart; that He
|
|
should put His fear, which had only been from without, in the midst of
|
|
the heart. Who does not see the Christian law in all this?
|
|
|
|
730.... That then idolatry would be overthrown; that this
|
|
Messiah would cast down all idols and bring men into the worship of
|
|
the true God.
|
|
|
|
That the temples of the idols would be cast down, and that among
|
|
all nations and in all places of the earth. He would be offered a pure
|
|
sacrifice, not of beasts.
|
|
|
|
That He would be king of the Jews and Gentiles. And we see this
|
|
king of the Jews and Gentiles oppressed by both, who conspire His
|
|
death; and ruler of both, destroying the worship of Moses in
|
|
Jerusalem, which was its centre, where He made His first Church; and
|
|
also the worship of idols in Rome, the centre of it, where He made His
|
|
chief Church.
|
|
|
|
731. Prophecies.- That Jesus Christ will sit on the right hand,
|
|
till God has subdued His enemies.
|
|
|
|
Therefore He will not subdue them Himself.
|
|
|
|
732. "... Then they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
|
|
saying, Here is the Lord, for God shall make Himself known to all."
|
|
|
|
"... Your sons shall prophesy." "I will put my spirit and my
|
|
fear in your heart."
|
|
|
|
All that is the same thing. To prophesy is to speak of God, not
|
|
from outward proofs, but from an inward and immediate feeling.
|
|
|
|
733. That He would teach men the perfect way.
|
|
|
|
And there has never come, before Him nor after Him, any man who
|
|
has taught anything divine approaching to this.
|
|
|
|
734.... That Jesus Christ would be small in His beginning, and
|
|
would then increase. The little stone of Daniel.
|
|
|
|
If I had in no wise heard of the Messiah, nevertheless, after such
|
|
wonderful predictions of the course of the world which I see
|
|
fulfilled, I see that He is divine. And, if I knew that these same
|
|
books foretold a Messiah, I should be sure that He would come; and
|
|
seeing that they place His time before the destruction of the second
|
|
temple, I should say that He had come.
|
|
|
|
735. Prophecies.- That the Jews would reject Jesus Christ, and
|
|
would be rejected of God, for this reason, that the chosen vine
|
|
brought forth only wild grapes. That the chosen people would be
|
|
fruitless, ungrateful, and unbelieving, populum non credentem et
|
|
contradicentem.* That God would strike them with blindness, and in
|
|
full noon they would grope like the blind; and that a forerunner would
|
|
go before Him.
|
|
|
|
736. Transfixerunt.*(2) Zech. 12. 10.
|
|
|
|
* Is. 65. 2. "Arebellious people, which walketh in a way that
|
|
was not good."
|
|
|
|
*(2) "They have pierced."
|
|
|
|
That a deliverer should come, who would crush the demon's head,
|
|
and free His people from their sins, ex omnibus iniquitatibus;* that
|
|
there should be a New Covenant, which would be eternal; that there
|
|
should be another priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, and it
|
|
should be eternal; that the Christ should be glorious, mighty, strong,
|
|
and yet so poor that He would not be recognised, nor taken for what He
|
|
is, but rejected and slain; that His people who denied Him should no
|
|
longer be His people; that the idolaters should receive Him, and
|
|
take refuge in Him; that He should leave Zion to reign in the centre
|
|
of idolatry; that nevertheless the Jews should continue for ever; that
|
|
He should be of Judah, and when there should be no longer a king.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 130. 8. "from all his iniquities."
|
|
|
|
SECTION XII
|
|
|
|
PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST
|
|
|
|
737. Therefore I reject all other religions. In that way I find an
|
|
answer to all objections. It is right that a God so pure should only
|
|
reveal Himself to those whose hearts are purified. Hence this religion
|
|
is lovable to me, and I find it now sufficiently justified by so
|
|
divine a morality. But I find more in it.
|
|
|
|
I find it convincing that, since the memory of man has lasted,
|
|
it was constantly announced to men that they were universally corrupt,
|
|
but that a Redeemer should come; that it is not one man who said it,
|
|
but innumerable men, and a whole nation expressly made for the purpose
|
|
and prophesying for four thousand years. This is a nation which is
|
|
more ancient than every other nation. Their books, scattered abroad,
|
|
are four thousand years old.
|
|
|
|
The more I examine them, the more truths I find in them: an entire
|
|
nation foretell Him before His advent, and an entire nation worship
|
|
Him after His advent; what has preceded and what has followed; in
|
|
short, people without idols and kings, this synagogue which was
|
|
foretold, and these wretches who frequent it and who, being our
|
|
enemies, are admirable witnesses of the truth of these prophecies,
|
|
wherein their wretchedness and even their blindness are foretold.
|
|
|
|
I find this succession, this religion, wholly divine in its
|
|
authority, in its duration, in its perpetuity, in its morality, in its
|
|
conduct, in its doctrine, in its effects. The frightful darkness of
|
|
the Jews was foretold. Eris palpans in meridie.* Dabitur liber scienti
|
|
literas... et dicet: Non possum legere.*(2) While the sceptre was
|
|
still in the hands of the first foreign usurper, there is the report
|
|
of the coming of Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
* Deut. 28. 29. Et palpes in meridie. "And thou shalt grope at
|
|
noonday."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Is. 29. 11. Quem (librum) cum dederint scienti litteras et
|
|
respondebit: Non possum. "Which men deliver to one that is
|
|
learned... and he saith, I cannot."
|
|
|
|
So I hold out my arms to my Redeemer, who, having been foretold
|
|
for four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on
|
|
earth, at the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His
|
|
grace, I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united
|
|
to Him. Yet I live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it
|
|
pleases Him to bestow upon me, or in the adversity which He sends
|
|
for my good, and which He has taught me to bear by His example.
|
|
|
|
738. The prophecies having given different signs which should
|
|
all happen at the advent of the Messiah, it was necessary that all
|
|
these signs should occur at the same time. So it was necessary that
|
|
the fourth monarchy should have come, when the seventy weeks of Daniel
|
|
were ended; and that the sceptre should have then departed from Judah.
|
|
And all this happened without any difficulty. Then it was necessary
|
|
that the Messiah should come; and Jesus Christ then came, who was
|
|
called the Messiah. And all this again was without difficulty. This
|
|
indeed shows the truth of the prophecies.
|
|
|
|
739. The prophets foretold, and were not foretold. The saints
|
|
again were foretold, but did not foretell. Jesus Christ both
|
|
foretold and was foretold.
|
|
|
|
740. Jesus Christ, whom the two Testaments regard, the Old as
|
|
its hope, the New as its model, and both as their centre.
|
|
|
|
741. The two oldest books in the world are those of Moses and Job,
|
|
the one a Jew and the other a Gentile. Both of them look upon Jesus
|
|
Christ as their common centre and object: Moses in relating the
|
|
promises of God to Abraham, Jacob, etc., and his prophecies; and
|
|
Job, Quis mihi det ut, etc. Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit, etc.*
|
|
|
|
* Job 19. 23-25. "for I know that my redeemer liveth."
|
|
|
|
742. The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to
|
|
the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus
|
|
Christ.
|
|
|
|
743. Proofs Of Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
Why was the book of Ruth preserved?
|
|
|
|
Why the story of Tamar?
|
|
|
|
744. "Pray that ye enter not into temptation." It is dangerous
|
|
to be tempted; and people are tempted because they do not pray.
|
|
|
|
Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos. But before, conversus Jesus
|
|
respexit Petrum.*
|
|
|
|
* Luke 22. 32, 61. "And when thou art converted, strengthen thy
|
|
brother." "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter."
|
|
|
|
Saint Peter asks permission to strike Malchus and strikes before
|
|
hearing the answer. Jesus Christ replies afterwards.
|
|
|
|
The word, Galilee, which the mob pronounced as if by chance, in
|
|
accusing Jesus Christ before Pilate, afforded Pilate a reason for
|
|
sending Jesus Christ to Herod. And thereby the mystery was
|
|
accomplished, that He should be judged by Jews and Gentiles. Chance
|
|
was apparently the cause of the accomplishment of the mystery.
|
|
|
|
745. Those who have a difficulty in believing seek a reason in the
|
|
fact that the Jews do not believe. "Were this so clear," say they,
|
|
"why did the Jews not believe"? And they almost wish that they had
|
|
believed, so as not to be kept back by the example of their refusal.
|
|
But it is their very refusal that is the foundation of our faith. We
|
|
should be much less disposed to the faith, if they were on our side.
|
|
We should then have a more ample pretext. The wonderful thing is to
|
|
have made the Jews great lovers of the things foretold, and great
|
|
enemies of their fulfilment.
|
|
|
|
746. The Jews were accustomed to great and striking miracles,
|
|
and so, having had the great miracles of the Red Sea and of the land
|
|
of Canaan as an epitome of the great deeds of their Messiah, they
|
|
therefore looked for more striking miracles, of which those of Moses
|
|
were only the patterns.
|
|
|
|
747. The carnal Jews and the heathen have their calamities, and
|
|
Christians also. There is no Redeemer for the heathen, for they do not
|
|
so much as hope for one. There is no Redeemer for the Jews; they
|
|
hope for Him in vain. There is a Redeemer only for Christians. (See
|
|
Perpetuity.)
|
|
|
|
748. In the time of the Messiah the people divided themselves. The
|
|
spiritual embraced the Messiah, and the coarser-minded remained to
|
|
serve as witnesses of Him.
|
|
|
|
749. "If this was clearly foretold to the Jews, how did they not
|
|
believe it, or why were they not destroyed for resisting a fact so
|
|
clear?"
|
|
|
|
I reply: in the first place, it was foretold both that they
|
|
would not believe a thing so clear and that they would not be
|
|
destroyed. And nothing is more to the glory of the Messiah; for it was
|
|
not enough that there should be prophets; their prophets must be
|
|
kept above suspicion. Now, etc.
|
|
|
|
750. If the Jews had all been converted by Jesus Christ, we should
|
|
have none but questionable witnesses. And if they had been entirely
|
|
destroyed, we should have no witnesses at all.
|
|
|
|
751. What do the prophets say of Jesus Christ? That He will be
|
|
clearly God? No; but that He is a God truly hidden; that He will be
|
|
slighted; that none will think that it is He; that He will be a
|
|
stone of stumbling, upon which many will stumble, etc. Let people then
|
|
reproach us no longer for want of clearness, since we make
|
|
profession of it.
|
|
|
|
But, it is said, there are obscurities. And without that, no one
|
|
would have stumbled over Jesus Christ, and this is one of the formal
|
|
pronouncements of the prophets: Excaeca...*
|
|
|
|
* Is. 6. 10. "Shut their eyes."
|
|
|
|
752. Moses first teaches the Trinity, original sin, the Messiah.
|
|
|
|
David: a great witness; a king, good, merciful, a beautiful
|
|
soul, a sound mind, powerful. He prophesies, and his wonder comes to
|
|
pass. This is infinite.
|
|
|
|
He had only to say that he was the Messiah, if he had been vain;
|
|
for the prophecies are clearer about him than about Jesus Christ.
|
|
And the same with Saint John.
|
|
|
|
753. Herod was believed to be the Messiah. He had taken away the
|
|
sceptre from Judah but he was not of Judah. This gave rise to a
|
|
considerable sect.
|
|
|
|
Curse of the Greeks upon those who count three periods of time.
|
|
|
|
In what way should the Messiah come, seeing that through Him the
|
|
sceptre was to be eternally in Judah and at His coming the sceptre was
|
|
to be taken away from Judah?
|
|
|
|
In order to effect that seeing they should not see, and hearing
|
|
they should not understand, nothing could be better done.
|
|
|
|
754. Homo existens te Deum facit.*
|
|
|
|
Scriptum est, Dii estis, et non potest solvi Scriptura.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Haec infirmitas non est ad vitam et est ad mortem.*(3)
|
|
|
|
Lazarus dormit, et deinde dixit: Lazarus mortuus est.*(4)
|
|
|
|
* "The man who exists makes you God."
|
|
|
|
*(2) "It is written: 'You are Gods' (Ps. 80. 6), and the Scripture
|
|
cannot be made naught of."
|
|
|
|
*(3) "This weakness is not for life; it is for death."
|
|
|
|
*(4) "John 11. 11 and 14. "'Lazarus sleeps,' and later it says:
|
|
'Lazarus is dead.'"
|
|
|
|
755. The apparent discrepancy of the Gospels.
|
|
|
|
756. What can we have but reverence for a man who foretells
|
|
plainly things which come to pass, and who declares his intention both
|
|
to blind and to enlighten, and who intersperses obscurities among
|
|
the clear things which come to pass?
|
|
|
|
757. The time of the first advent was foretold; the time of the
|
|
second is not so; because the first was to be obscure, and the
|
|
second is to be brilliant and so manifest that even His enemies will
|
|
recognise it. But, as He was first to come only in obscurity and to be
|
|
known only of those who searched the Scriptures.
|
|
|
|
758. God, in order to cause the Messiah to be known by the good
|
|
and not to be known by the wicked, made Him to be foretold in this
|
|
manner. If the manner of the Messiah had been clearly foretold,
|
|
there would have been no obscurity, even for the wicked. If the time
|
|
had been obscurely foretold, there would have been obscurity, even for
|
|
the good. For their goodness of heart would not have made them
|
|
understand, for instance, that the closed mem signifies six hundred
|
|
years. But that time has been clearly foretold, and the manner in
|
|
types.
|
|
|
|
By this means, the wicked, taking the promised blessings for
|
|
material blessings, have fallen into error, in spite of the clear
|
|
prediction of the time; and the good have not fallen in error. For the
|
|
understanding of the promised blessings depends on the heart, which
|
|
calls good that which it loves; but the understanding of the
|
|
promised time does not depend on the heart. And thus the clear
|
|
prediction of the time, and the obscure prediction of the blessings,
|
|
deceive the wicked alone.
|
|
|
|
759. Either the Jews or the Christians must be wicked.
|
|
|
|
760. The Jews reject Him, but not all. The saints receive Him, and
|
|
not the carnal-minded. And so far is this from being against His
|
|
glory, that it is the last touch which crowns it. For their
|
|
argument, the only one found in all their writings, in the Talmud
|
|
and in the Rabbinical writings, amounts only to this, that Jesus
|
|
Christ has not subdued the nations with sword in hand, gladium tuum,
|
|
potentissime.* (Is this all they have to say? Jesus Christ has been
|
|
slain, say they. He has failed. He has not subdued the heathen with
|
|
His might. He has not bestowed upon us their spoil. He does not give
|
|
riches. Is this all they have to say? It is in this respect that He is
|
|
lovable to me. I would not desire Him whom they fancy.) It is
|
|
evident that it is only His life which has prevented them from
|
|
accepting Him; and through this rejection they are irreproachable
|
|
witnesses, and, what is more, they thereby accomplish the prophecies.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 44. 4. Gladio tuo- "Thy sword, O most mighty."
|
|
|
|
By means of the fact that this people have not accepted Him,
|
|
this miracle here has happened. The prophecies were the only lasting
|
|
miracles which could be wrought, but they were liable to be denied.
|
|
|
|
761. The Jews, in slaying Him in order not to receive Him as the
|
|
Messiah, have given Him the final proof of being the Messiah.
|
|
|
|
And in continuing not to recognise Him, they made themselves
|
|
irreproachable witnesses. Both in slaying Him and in continuing to
|
|
deny Him, they have fulfilled the prophecies (Is. 60; Ps. 71).
|
|
|
|
762. What could the Jews, His enemies, do? If they receive Him,
|
|
they give proof of Him by their reception; for then the guardians of
|
|
the expectation of the Messiah receive Him. If they reject Him, they
|
|
give proof of Him by their rejection.
|
|
|
|
763. The Jews, in testing if He were God, have shown that He was
|
|
man.
|
|
|
|
764. The Church has had as much difficulty in showing that Jesus
|
|
Christ was man, against those who denied it, as in showing that He was
|
|
God; and the probabilities were equally great.
|
|
|
|
765. Source of contradictions.- A God humiliated, even to the
|
|
death on the cross; a Messiah triumphing over death by his own
|
|
death. Two natures in Jesus Christ, two advents, two states of man's
|
|
nature.
|
|
|
|
766. Types.- Saviour, father, sacrificer, offering, food, king,
|
|
wise, law-giver, afflicted, poor, having to create a people whom He
|
|
must lead and nourish and bring into His land...
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ. Offices.- He alone had to create a great people,
|
|
elect, holy, and chosen; to lead, nourish, and bring it into the place
|
|
of rest and holiness; to make it holy to God; to make it the temple of
|
|
God; to reconcile it to, and, save it from, the wrath of God; to
|
|
free it from the slavery of sin, which visibly reigns in man; to
|
|
give laws to this people, and engrave these laws on their heart; to
|
|
offer Himself to God for them, and sacrifice Himself for them; to be a
|
|
victim without blemish, and Himself the sacrificer, having to offer
|
|
Himself, His body, and His blood, and yet to offer bread and wine to
|
|
God...
|
|
|
|
Ingrediens mundum.*
|
|
|
|
* Heb. 10. 5. "When he cometh into the world."
|
|
|
|
"Stone upon stone."
|
|
|
|
What preceded and what followed. All the Jews exist still and
|
|
are wanderers.
|
|
|
|
767. Of all that is on earth, He partakes only of the sorrows, not
|
|
of the joys. He loves His neighbours, but His love does not confine
|
|
itself within these bounds, and overflows to His own enemies, and then
|
|
to those of God.
|
|
|
|
768. Jesus Christ typified by Joseph, the beloved of his father,
|
|
sent by his father to see his brethren, etc., innocent, sold by his
|
|
brethren for twenty pieces of silver, and thereby becoming their lord,
|
|
their saviour, the saviour of strangers and the saviour of the
|
|
world; which had not been but for their plot to destroy him, their
|
|
sale and their rejection of him.
|
|
|
|
In prison, Joseph innocent between two criminals; Jesus Christ
|
|
on the cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells freedom to the one,
|
|
and death to the other, from the same omens. Jesus Christ saves the
|
|
elect, and condemns the outcast for the same sins. Joseph foretells
|
|
only; Jesus Christ acts. Joseph asks him who will be saved to remember
|
|
him, when he comes into his glory; and he whom Jesus Christ saves asks
|
|
that He will remember him, when He comes into His kingdom.
|
|
|
|
769. The conversion of the heathen was only reserved for the grace
|
|
of the Messiah. The Jews have been so long in opposition to them
|
|
without success; all that Solomon and the prophets said has been
|
|
useless. Sages, like Plato and Socrates, have not been able to
|
|
persuade them.
|
|
|
|
770. After many persons had gone before, Jesus Christ at last came
|
|
to say: "Here am I, and this is the time. That which the prophets have
|
|
said was to come in the fullness of time, I tell you my apostles
|
|
will do. The Jews shall be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon
|
|
destroyed. And the heathen shall enter into the knowledge of God. My
|
|
apostles shall do this after you have slain the heir of the vineyard."
|
|
|
|
Then the apostles said to the Jews: "You shall be accursed,"
|
|
(Celsus laughed at it); and to the heathen, "You shall enter into
|
|
the knowledge of God." And this then came to pass.
|
|
|
|
771. Jesus Christ came to blind those who saw clearly, and to give
|
|
sight to the blind; to heal the sick, and leave the healthy to die; to
|
|
call to repentance, and to justify sinners, and to leave the righteous
|
|
in their sins; to fill the needy, and leave the rich empty.
|
|
|
|
772. Holiness.- Effundam spiritum meum.* All nations were in
|
|
unbelief and lust. The whole world now became fervent with love.
|
|
Princes abandoned their pomp; maidens suffered martyrdom. Whence
|
|
came this influence? The Messiah was come. These were the effect and
|
|
sign of His coming.
|
|
|
|
* Joel. 2. 28. "I will pour out my spirit."
|
|
|
|
773. Destruction of the Jews and heathen by Jesus Christ: Omnes
|
|
gentes venient et adorabunt eum.* Parum est ut,*(2) etc. Postula a
|
|
me.*(3) Adorabunt eum omnes reges.*(4) Testes iniqui.*(5) Dabit
|
|
maxillam percutienti.*(6) Dederunt fel in escam.*(7)
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 21. 28. "All peoples shall come and worship him."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Is. 49. 6. "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my
|
|
servant," etc.
|
|
|
|
*(3) Ps. 2. 8. "Ask of me."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Ps. 71. 11. "All kings shall fall down before him."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Ps. 34. 11. "Witnesses rise up."
|
|
|
|
*(6) Lam. 3. 30. "He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him."
|
|
|
|
*(7) Ps. 68. 22. Dederunt in escam meam fel. "They gave me also
|
|
gall for my meat."
|
|
|
|
774. Jesus Christ for all, Moses for a nation.
|
|
|
|
The Jews blessed in Abraham: "I will bless those that bless thee."
|
|
But: "All nations blessed in his seed." Parum est ut,* etc.
|
|
|
|
Lumen ad revelationem gentium.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Non fecit taliter omni nationi, said David, in speaking of the
|
|
Law. But, in speaking of Jesus Christ, we must say: Fecit taliter omni
|
|
nationi.*(3) Parum est ut,* etc., Isaiah. So it belongs to Jesus
|
|
Christ to be universal. Even the Church offers sacrifice only for
|
|
the faithful. Jesus Christ offered that of the cross for all.
|
|
|
|
* Is. 49. 6. "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my
|
|
servant," etc.
|
|
|
|
*(2) Luke 2. 32. "A light to lighten the Gentiles."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Ps. 167. 20. "He hath not dealt so with any nation."
|
|
|
|
775. There is heresy in always explaining omnes by all, and heresy
|
|
is not explaining it sometimes by all. Bibite ex hoc omnes;* The
|
|
Huguenots are heretics in explaining it by all. In quo omnes
|
|
peccaverunt,*(2) the Huguenots are heretics in excepting the
|
|
children of true believers. We must, then, follow the Fathers and
|
|
tradition in order to know when to do so, since there is heresy to
|
|
be feared on both sides.
|
|
|
|
* Matt. 26. 27. "Drink ye all of it."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Rom. 5. 12. "for that all have sinned."
|
|
|
|
776. Ne timeas pusillus grex.* Timore et tremore.*(2)- Quid
|
|
ergo? Ne timeas modo timeas. Fear not, provided you fear; but if you
|
|
fear not, then fear.
|
|
|
|
Qui me recipit, non me recipit, sed eum qui me misit.*(3)
|
|
|
|
Nemo scit, neque Filius.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Nubes lucida obumbravit.*(5)
|
|
|
|
* Luke 12. 32. "Fear not little flock."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Phil. 2. 12. "With fear and trembling."
|
|
|
|
*(3) Mark 9. 37. "Whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but
|
|
him that sent me."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Mark 13. 32. "No one knows, neither the Son, but the Father."
|
|
|
|
*(5) "Clouds shadowed over the light."
|
|
|
|
Saint John was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
|
|
children, and Jesus Christ to plant division. There is not
|
|
contradiction.
|
|
|
|
777. The effects in communi and in particulari. The semi-Pelagians
|
|
err in saying of in communi what is true only in particulari; and
|
|
the Calvinists in saying in particulari what is true in communi. (Such
|
|
is my opinion.)
|
|
|
|
778. Omnis Judaea regio, et Jerosolmymi universi, et
|
|
baptizabantur.* Because of all the conditions of men who came there.
|
|
|
|
* Mark 1. 5. "All the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and
|
|
were all baptized of him."
|
|
|
|
From these stones there can come children unto Abraham.
|
|
|
|
779. If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them. Ne
|
|
convertantur et sanem eos, et dimittantur eis peccata.*
|
|
|
|
780. Jesus Christ never condemned without hearing. To Judas:
|
|
Amice, ad guid venisti?*(2) To him that had not on the wedding
|
|
garment, the same.
|
|
|
|
* Mark 4. 12. "Lest they should be converted, and their sins
|
|
should be forgiven them."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Matt. 26. 50. "Friend, wherefore art thou come?"
|
|
|
|
781. The types of the completeness of the Redemption, as that
|
|
the sun gives light to all, indicate only completeness; but the
|
|
types of exclusions, as of the Jews elected to the exclusion of the
|
|
Gentiles, indicate exclusion.
|
|
|
|
"Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all." Yes, for He has offered,
|
|
like a man who has ransomed all those who were willing to come to Him.
|
|
If any die on the way, it is their misfortune; but, so far as He was
|
|
concerned, He offered them redemption. That holds good in this
|
|
example, where he who ransoms and he who prevents death are two
|
|
persons, but not of Jesus Christ, who does both these things. No,
|
|
for Jesus Christ, in the quality of Redeemer, is not perhaps Master of
|
|
all; and thus, in so far as it is in Him, He is the Redeemer of all.
|
|
|
|
When it is said that Jesus Christ did not die for all, you take
|
|
undue advantage of a fault in men who at once apply this exception
|
|
to themselves; and is to favour despair, instead of turning them
|
|
from it to favour hope. For men thus accustom themselves in inward
|
|
virtues by outward customs.
|
|
|
|
782. The victory over death. "What is a man advantaged if he
|
|
gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Whosoever will save his
|
|
soul, shall lose it."
|
|
|
|
"I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil."
|
|
|
|
"Lambs took not away the sins of the world, but I am the lamb
|
|
which taketh away the sins."
|
|
|
|
"Moses hath not led you out of captivity, and made you truly
|
|
free."
|
|
|
|
783.... Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no
|
|
other enemies but themselves; that it is their passions which keep
|
|
them apart from God; that He comes to destroy these, and give them His
|
|
grace, so as to make of them all one Holy Church; that He comes to
|
|
bring back into this Church the heathen and Jews; that He comes to
|
|
destroy the idols of the former and the superstition of the latter. To
|
|
this all men are opposed, not only from the natural opposition of
|
|
lust; but, above all, the kings of the earth, as had been foretold,
|
|
join together to destroy this religion at its birth. (Proph.: Quare
|
|
fremuerunt gentes... reges terrae... adversus Christum.)*
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 2. 1, 2. "Why do the heathen rage... and the rulers of the
|
|
earth... against the Lord."
|
|
|
|
All that is great on earth is united together; the learned, the
|
|
wise, the kings. The first write; the second condemn; the last kill.
|
|
And notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, simple and weak,
|
|
resist all these powers, subdue even these kings, these learned men
|
|
and these sages, and remove idolatry from all the earth. And all
|
|
this is done by the power which had foretold it.
|
|
|
|
784. Jesus Christ would not have the testimony of devils, nor of
|
|
those who were not called, but of God and John the Baptist.
|
|
|
|
785. I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves:
|
|
Jesus Christ as a Father in His Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother in
|
|
His Brethren, Jesus Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich
|
|
in the rich, Jesus Christ as Doctor and Priest in priests, Jesus
|
|
Christ as Sovereign in princes, etc. For by His glory He is all that
|
|
is great, being God; and by His mortal life He is all that is poor and
|
|
abject. Therefore He has taken this unhappy condition, so that He
|
|
could be in all persons and the model of all conditions.
|
|
|
|
786. Jesus Christ is an obscurity (according to what the world
|
|
calls obscurity), such that historians, writing only of important
|
|
matters of states, have hardly noticed Him.
|
|
|
|
787. On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other
|
|
historians have spoken of Jesus Christ.- So far is this from telling
|
|
against Christianity that, on the contrary, it tells for it. For it is
|
|
certain that Jesus Christ has existed; that His religion has made a
|
|
great talk; and that these persons were not ignorant of it. Thus it is
|
|
plain that they purposely concealed it, or that, if they did speak
|
|
of it, their account has been suppressed or changed.
|
|
|
|
788. "I have reserved me seven thousand." I love the worshippers
|
|
unknown to the world and to the very prophets.
|
|
|
|
789. As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so His truth
|
|
remains among common opinions without external difference. Thus the
|
|
Eucharist among ordinary bread.
|
|
|
|
790. Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it
|
|
is far more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
|
|
|
|
791. The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus
|
|
Christ suffer; for he causes Him to be scourged by his false
|
|
justice, and afterwards puts Him to death. It would have been better
|
|
to have put Him to death at once. Thus it is with the falsely just.
|
|
They do good and evil works to please the world, and to show that they
|
|
are not altogether of Jesus Christ; for they are ashamed of Him. And
|
|
at last, under great temptation and on great occasions, they kill Him.
|
|
|
|
792. What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people
|
|
foretell Him before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after
|
|
His coming. The two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their
|
|
centre.
|
|
|
|
And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years,
|
|
He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an
|
|
impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and
|
|
His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one
|
|
of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
|
|
|
|
What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much
|
|
renown; never had man more ignominy. All that renown has served only
|
|
for us, to render us capable of recognising Him; and He had none of it
|
|
for Himself.
|
|
|
|
793. The infinite distance between body and mind is a symbol of
|
|
the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity; for
|
|
charity is supernatural.
|
|
|
|
All the glory of greatness has no lustre for people who are in
|
|
search of understanding.
|
|
|
|
The greatness of clever men is invisible to kings, to the rich, to
|
|
chiefs, and to all the worldly great.
|
|
|
|
The greatness of wisdom, which is nothing if not of God, is
|
|
invisible to the carnal-minded and to the clever. These are three
|
|
orders differing in kind.
|
|
|
|
Great geniuses have their power, their glory, their greatness,
|
|
their victory, their lustre, and have no need of worldly greatness,
|
|
with which they are not in keeping. They are seen, not by the eye, but
|
|
by the mind; this is sufficient.
|
|
|
|
The saints have their power, their glory, their victory, their
|
|
lustre, and need no worldly or intellectual greatness, with which they
|
|
have no affinity; for these neither add anything to them, nor take
|
|
away anything from them. They are seen of God and the angels, and
|
|
not of the body, nor of the curious mind. God is enough for them.
|
|
|
|
Archimedes, apart from his rank, would have the same veneration.
|
|
He fought no battles for the eyes to feast upon; but he has given
|
|
his discoveries to all men. Oh! how brilliant he was to the mind!
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ, without riches and without any external exhibition
|
|
of knowledge, is in His own order of holiness. He did not invent; He
|
|
did not reign. But He was humble, patient, holy, holy to God, terrible
|
|
to devils, without any sin. Oh! in what great pomp and in what
|
|
wonderful splendour He is come to the eyes of the heart, which
|
|
perceive wisdom!
|
|
|
|
It would have been useless for Archimedes to have acted the prince
|
|
in his books on geometry, although he was a prince.
|
|
|
|
It would have been useless for our Lord Jesus Christ to come
|
|
like a king, in order to shine forth in His kingdom of holiness. But
|
|
He came there appropriately in the glory of His own order.
|
|
|
|
It is most absurd to take offence at the lowliness of Jesus
|
|
Christ, as if His lowliness were in the same order as the greatness
|
|
which He came to manifest. If we consider this greatness in His
|
|
life, in His passion, in His obscurity, in His death, in the choice of
|
|
His disciples, in their desertion, in His secret resurrection, and the
|
|
rest, we shall see it to be so immense that we shall have no reason
|
|
for being offended at a lowliness which is not of that order.
|
|
|
|
But there are some who can only admire worldly greatness, as
|
|
though there were no intellectual greatness; and others who only
|
|
admire intellectual greatness, as though there were not infinitely
|
|
higher things in wisdom.
|
|
|
|
All bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth and its
|
|
kingdoms, are not equal to the lowest mind; for mind knows all these
|
|
and itself; and these bodies nothing.
|
|
|
|
All bodies together, and all minds together, and all their
|
|
products, are not equal to the least feeling of charity. This is of an
|
|
order infinitely more exalted.
|
|
|
|
From all bodies together, we cannot obtain one little thought;
|
|
this is impossible and of another order. From all bodies and minds, we
|
|
cannot produce a feeling of true charity; this is impossible and of
|
|
another and supernatural order.
|
|
|
|
794. Why did Jesus Christ not come in a visible manner, instead of
|
|
obtaining testimony of Himself from preceding prophecies? Why did He
|
|
cause Himself to be foretold in types?
|
|
|
|
795. If Jesus Christ had only come to sanctify, all Scripture
|
|
and all things would tend to that end; and it would be quite easy to
|
|
convince unbelievers. If Jesus Christ had only come to blind, all
|
|
His conduct would be confused; and we would have no means of
|
|
convincing unbelievers. But as He came in sanctificationem et in
|
|
scandalum,* as Isaiah says, we cannot convince unbelievers, and they
|
|
cannot convince us. But by this very fact we convince them; since we
|
|
say that in His whole conduct there is no convincing proof on one side
|
|
or the other.
|
|
|
|
* Is. 8. 14. "For a sanctuary and for a rock of offence."
|
|
|
|
796. Jesus Christ does not say that He is not of Nazareth, in
|
|
order to leave the wicked in their blindness; nor that He is not
|
|
Joseph's son.
|
|
|
|
797. Proofs of Jesus Christ.- Jesus Christ said great things so
|
|
simply that it seems as though He had not thought them great; and
|
|
yet so clearly that we easily see what He thought of them. This
|
|
clearness, joined to this simplicity, is wonderful.
|
|
|
|
798. The style of the gospel is admirable in so many ways, and
|
|
among the rest in hurling no invectives against the persecutors and
|
|
enemies of Jesus Christ. For there is no such invective in any of
|
|
the historians against Judas, Pilate, or any of the Jews.
|
|
|
|
If this moderation of the writers of the Gospels had been assumed,
|
|
as well as many other traits of so beautiful a character, and they had
|
|
only assumed it to attract notice, even if they had not dared to
|
|
draw attention to it themselves, they would not have failed to
|
|
secure friends who would have made such remarks to their advantage.
|
|
But as they acted thus without pretence and from wholly
|
|
disinterested motives, they did not point it out to any one; and I
|
|
believe that many such facts have not been noticed till now, which
|
|
is evidence of the natural disinterestedness with which the thing
|
|
has been done.
|
|
|
|
799. An artisan who speaks of wealth, a lawyer who speaks of
|
|
war, of royalty, etc.; but the rich man rightly speaks of wealth, a
|
|
king speaks indifferently of a great gift he has just made, and God
|
|
rightly speaks of God.
|
|
|
|
800. Who has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly
|
|
heroic soul, that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why do
|
|
they make Him weak in His agony? Do they not know how to paint a
|
|
resolute death? Yes, for the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint
|
|
Stephen as braver than that of Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
They make Him, therefore, capable of fear, before the necessity of
|
|
dying has come, and then altogether brave.
|
|
|
|
But when they make Him so troubled, it is when He afflicts
|
|
Himself; and when men afflict Him, He is altogether strong.
|
|
|
|
801. Proof of Jesus Christ.- The supposition that the apostles
|
|
were impostors is very absurd. Let us think it out. Let us imagine
|
|
those twelve men, assembled after the death of Jesus Christ,
|
|
plotting to say that He was risen. By this they attack all the powers.
|
|
The heart of man is strangely inclined to fickleness, to change, to
|
|
promises, to gain. However little any of them might have been led
|
|
astray by all these attractions, nay more, by the fear of prisons,
|
|
tortures, and death, they were lost. Let us follow up this thought.
|
|
|
|
802. The apostles were either deceived or deceivers. Either
|
|
supposition has difficulties; for it is not possible to mistake a
|
|
man raised from the dead...
|
|
|
|
While Jesus Christ was with them, He could sustain them. But,
|
|
after that, if He did not appear to them, who inspired them to act?
|
|
|
|
SECTION XIII
|
|
|
|
THE MIRACLES
|
|
|
|
803. The beginning.- Miracles enable us to judge of doctrine,
|
|
and doctrine enables us to judge of miracles.
|
|
|
|
There are false miracles and true. There must be a distinction, in
|
|
order to know them; otherwise they would be useless. Now they are
|
|
not useless; on the contrary, they are fundamental. Now the rule which
|
|
is given to us must be such that it does not destroy the proof which
|
|
the true miracles give of the truth, which is the chief end of the
|
|
miracles.
|
|
|
|
Moses has given two rules: that the prediction does not come to
|
|
pass (Deut. 18.), and that they do not lead to idolatry (Deut. 13.);
|
|
and Jesus Christ one.
|
|
|
|
If doctrine regulates miracles, miracles are useless for doctrine.
|
|
|
|
If miracles regulate...
|
|
|
|
Objection to the rule.- The distinction of the times. One rule
|
|
during the time of Moses, another at present.
|
|
|
|
804. Miracle.- It is an effect, which exceeds the natural power of
|
|
the means which are employed for it; and what is not a miracle is an
|
|
effect, which does not exceed the natural power of the means which are
|
|
employed for it. Thus, those who heal by invocation of the devil do
|
|
not work a miracle; for that does not exceed the natural power of
|
|
the devil. But...
|
|
|
|
805. The two fundamentals; one inward, the other outward; grace
|
|
and miracles; both supernatural.
|
|
|
|
806. Miracles and truth are necessary, because it is necessary
|
|
to convince the entire man, in body and soul.
|
|
|
|
807. In all times, either men have spoken of the true God, or
|
|
the true God has spoken to men.
|
|
|
|
808. Jesus Christ has verified that He was the Messiah, never in
|
|
verifying His doctrine by Scripture and the prophecies, but always
|
|
by His miracles.
|
|
|
|
He proves by a miracle that He remits sins.
|
|
|
|
Rejoice not in your miracles, said Jesus Christ, but because
|
|
your names are written in heaven.
|
|
|
|
If they believe not Moses, neither will they believe one risen
|
|
from the dead.
|
|
|
|
Nicodemus recognises by His miracles that His teaching is of
|
|
God. Scimus quia venisti a Deo magister; nemo enim potest haec signa
|
|
facere quae tu facis nisi Deus fuerit cum eo.* He does not judge of
|
|
the miracles by the teaching, but of the teaching by the miracles.
|
|
|
|
* John 3. 2. "We know that thou art a teacher come from God; for
|
|
no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."
|
|
|
|
The Jews had a doctrine of God as we have one of Jesus Christ, and
|
|
confirmed by miracles. They were forbidden to believe every worker
|
|
of miracles; and they were further commanded to have recourse to the
|
|
chief priests and to rely on them.
|
|
|
|
And thus, in regard to their prophets, they had all those
|
|
reasons which we have for refusing to believe the workers of miracles.
|
|
|
|
And yet they were very sinful in rejecting the prophets and
|
|
Jesus Christ because of their miracles; and they would not have been
|
|
culpable, if they had not seen the miracles. Nisi fecissem... peccatum
|
|
non haberent.* Therefore all belief rests upon miracles.
|
|
|
|
* John. 15. 24 "If I had not done... they had not had sin."
|
|
|
|
Prophecy is not called miracle; as Saint John speaks of the
|
|
first miracle in Cana and then of what Jesus Christ says to the
|
|
woman of Samaria, when He reveals to her all her hidden life. Then
|
|
He heals the centurion's son; and Saint John calls this "the second
|
|
miracle."
|
|
|
|
809. The combinations of miracles.
|
|
|
|
810. The second miracle can suppose the first, but the first
|
|
cannot suppose the second.
|
|
|
|
811. Had it not been for the miracles, there would have been no
|
|
sin in not believing in Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
812. "I should not be a Christian, but for the miracles," said
|
|
Saint Augustine.
|
|
|
|
813. Miracles.- How I hate those who make men doubt of miracles!
|
|
Montaigne speaks of them as he should in two places. In one, we see
|
|
how careful he is; and yet, in the other, he believes and makes
|
|
sport of unbelievers.
|
|
|
|
However it may be, the Church is without proofs if they are right.
|
|
|
|
814. Montaigne against miracles.
|
|
|
|
Montaigne for miracles.
|
|
|
|
815. It is not possible to have a reasonable belief against
|
|
miracles.
|
|
|
|
816. Unbelievers the most credulous. They believe the miracles
|
|
of Vespasian, in order not to believe those of Moses.
|
|
|
|
817. Title: How it happens that men believe so many liars, who say
|
|
that they have seen miracles, and do not believe any of those who
|
|
say that they have secrets to make men immortal, or restore youth to
|
|
them.- Having considered how it happens that so great credence is
|
|
given to so many impostors, who say they have remedies, often to the
|
|
length of men putting their lives into their hands, it has appeared to
|
|
me that the true cause is that there are true remedies. For it would
|
|
not be possible that there should be so many false remedies and that
|
|
so much faith should be placed in them, if there were none true. If
|
|
there had never been any remedy for any in, and all ills had been
|
|
incurable, it is impossible that men should have imagined that they
|
|
could give remedies, and still more impossible that so many others
|
|
should have believed those who boasted of having remedies; in the same
|
|
way as did a man boast of preventing death, no one would believe
|
|
him, because there is no example of this. But as there were a number
|
|
of remedies found to be true by the very knowledge of the greatest
|
|
men, the belief of men is thereby induced; and, this being known to be
|
|
possible, it has been therefore concluded that it was. For people
|
|
commonly reason thus: "A thing is possible, therefore it is";
|
|
because the thing cannot be denied generally, since there are
|
|
particular effects which are true, the people, who cannot
|
|
distinguish which among these particular effects are true, believe
|
|
them all. In the same way, the reason why so many false effects are
|
|
credited to the moon is that there are some true, as the tide.
|
|
|
|
It is the same with prophecies, miracles, divination by dreams,
|
|
sorceries, etc.
|
|
|
|
For if there had been nothing true in all this, men would have
|
|
believed nothing of them; and thus, instead of concluding that there
|
|
are no true miracles because there are so many false, we must, on
|
|
the contrary, say that there certainly are true miracles, since
|
|
there are false, and that there are false miracles only because some
|
|
are true. We must reason in the same way about religion; for it
|
|
would not be possible that men should have imagined so many false
|
|
religions, if there had not been a true one. The objection to this
|
|
is that savages have a religion; but the answer is that they have
|
|
heard the true spoken of, as appears by the Deluge, circumcision,
|
|
the cross of Saint Andrew, etc.
|
|
|
|
818. Having considered how it comes that there are so many false
|
|
miracles, false revelations, sorceries, etc., it has seemed to me that
|
|
the true cause is that there are some true; for it would not be
|
|
possible that there should be so many false miracles, if there were
|
|
none true, nor so many false revelations, if there were none true, nor
|
|
so many false religions, if there were not one true. For if there
|
|
had never been all this, it is almost impossible that men should
|
|
have imagined it, and still more impossible that so many others should
|
|
have believed it. But as there have been very great things true, and
|
|
as they have been believed by great men, this impression has been
|
|
the cause that nearly everybody is rendered capable of believing
|
|
also the false. And thus, instead of concluding that there are no true
|
|
miracles, since there are so many false, it must be said, on the
|
|
contrary, that there are true miracles, since there are so many false;
|
|
and that there are false ones only because there are true; and that in
|
|
the same way there are false religions because there is one true.-
|
|
Objection to this: savages have a religion. But this is because they
|
|
have heard the true spoken of, as appears by the cross of Saint
|
|
Andrew, the Deluge, circumcision, etc. This arises from the fact
|
|
that the human mind, finding itself inclined to that side by the
|
|
truth, becomes thereby susceptible of all the falsehoods of this...
|
|
|
|
819. Jeremiah 23. 32. The miracles of the false prophets. In the
|
|
Hebrew and Vatable they are the tricks.
|
|
|
|
Miracle does not always signify miracle. I Sam. 14. 15; miracle
|
|
signifies fear, and is so in the Hebrew. The same evidently in Job 33.
|
|
7; and also Isaiah 21. 4; Jeremiah 44. 12. Portentum signifies
|
|
simulacrum, Jeremiah 50. 38; and it is so in the Hebrew and Vatable.
|
|
Isaiah 8. 18. Jesus Christ says that He and His will be in miracles.
|
|
|
|
820. If the devil favoured the doctrine which destroys him, he
|
|
would be divided against himself, as Jesus Christ said. If God
|
|
favoured the doctrine which destroys the Church, He would be divided
|
|
against Himself. Omne regnum divisum.* For Jesus Christ wrought
|
|
against the devil, and destroyed his power over the heart, of which
|
|
exorcism is the symbolisation, in order to establish the kingdom of
|
|
God. And thus He adds, Si in digito Dei... regnum Dei ad Vos.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Matt. 12. 25; Luke 11. 17. "Every kingdom divided against
|
|
itself."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Luke 11. 20. "If with the finger of God... the kingdom of God
|
|
is come upon you."
|
|
|
|
821. There is a great difference between tempting and leading into
|
|
error. God tempts, but He does not lead into error. To tempt is to
|
|
afford opportunities, which impose no necessity; if men do not love
|
|
God, they will do a certain thing. To lead into error is to place a
|
|
man under the necessity of inferring and following out what is untrue.
|
|
|
|
822. Abraham and Gideon are above revelation. The Jews blinded
|
|
themselves in judging of miracles by the Scripture. God has never
|
|
abandoned His true worshippers.
|
|
|
|
I prefer to follow Jesus Christ than any other, because He has
|
|
miracle, prophecy, doctrine, perpetuity, etc.
|
|
|
|
The Donatists. No miracle which obliges them to say it is the
|
|
devil.
|
|
|
|
The more we particularise God, Jesus Christ, the Church.
|
|
|
|
823. If there were no false miracles, there would be certainty. If
|
|
there were no rule to judge of them, miracles would be useless and
|
|
there would be no reason for believing.
|
|
|
|
Now there is, humanly speaking, no human certainty, but we have
|
|
reason.
|
|
|
|
824. Either God has confounded the false miracles, or He has
|
|
foretold them; and in both ways He has raised Himself above what is
|
|
supernatural with respect to us, and has raised us to it.
|
|
|
|
825. Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. Part I-II
|
|
(Q. 113, A. 10, Ad. 2.)*
|
|
|
|
* St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica.
|
|
|
|
826. Reasons why we do not believe.
|
|
|
|
John xii. 37. Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in
|
|
eum, ut sermo Isayae impleretur... Excaecavit,* etc.
|
|
|
|
Haec dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de
|
|
eo.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Judaei signa petunt et Graeci sapientiam quaerunt, nos autem Jesum
|
|
crucifixum.*(3) (Sed plenum signis, sed plenum sapientia; vos autem
|
|
Christum non crucifixum et religionem sine miraculis et sine
|
|
sapientia.)*(4)
|
|
|
|
What makes us not believe in the true miracles is want of love.
|
|
John: Sed vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus.*(5) What makes
|
|
us believe the false is want of love. Thess. 2.
|
|
|
|
* "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they
|
|
believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be
|
|
fulfilled... He hath blinded their eyes."
|
|
|
|
*(2) John 12. 41. "These things said Esaias, when he saw his
|
|
glory, and spake of him."
|
|
|
|
*(3) I Cor. 1. 22, 23. "For the Jews require a sign, and the
|
|
Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified."
|
|
|
|
*(4) "But full of signs, full of wisdom; you the Jesuits, what you
|
|
wish is a Christ not crucified, a religion without miracles and
|
|
without wisdom."
|
|
|
|
*(5) 10. 26 "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep."
|
|
|
|
The foundation of religion. It is the miracles. What then? Does
|
|
God speak against miracles, against the foundations of the faith which
|
|
we have in Him?
|
|
|
|
If there is a God, faith in God must exist on earth. Now the
|
|
miracles of Jesus Christ are not foretold by Antichrist, but the
|
|
miracles of Antichrist are foretold by Jesus Christ. And so, if
|
|
Jesus Christ were not the Messiah, He would have indeed led into
|
|
error. When Jesus Christ foretold the miracles of Antichrist, did He
|
|
think of destroying faith in His own miracles?
|
|
|
|
Moses foretold Jesus Christ and bade to follow Him. Jesus Christ
|
|
foretold Antichrist and forbade to follow him.
|
|
|
|
It was impossible that in the time of Moses men should keep
|
|
their faith for Antichrist, who was unknown to them. But it is quite
|
|
easy, in the time of Antichrist, to believe in Jesus Christ, already
|
|
known.
|
|
|
|
There is no reason for believing in Antichrist, which there is not
|
|
for believing in Jesus Christ. But there are reasons for believing
|
|
in Jesus Christ, which there are not for believing in the other.
|
|
|
|
827. Judges 13. 23: "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would
|
|
not have shewed us all these things."
|
|
|
|
Hezekiah, Sennacherib.
|
|
|
|
Jeremiah. Hananiah, the false prophet, dies in seven months.
|
|
|
|
II Macc. 3. The temple, ready for pillage, miraculously
|
|
succoured.- II Macc. 15.
|
|
|
|
I Kings 17. The widow to Elijah, who had restored her son, "By
|
|
this I know that thy words are true."
|
|
|
|
I Kings 18. Elijah with the prophets of Baal.
|
|
|
|
In the dispute concerning the true God and the truth of
|
|
religion, there has never happened any miracle on the side of error,
|
|
and not of truth.
|
|
|
|
828. Opposition.- Abel, Cain; Moses, the Magicians; Elijah, the
|
|
false prophets: Jeremiah, Hananiah; Micaiah, the false prophets; Jesus
|
|
Christ, the Pharisees; Saint Paul, Bar-jesus; the Apostles, the
|
|
Exorcists; Christians, unbelievers; Catholics, heretics; Elijah,
|
|
Enoch, Antichrist.
|
|
|
|
829. Jesus Christ says that the Scriptures testify of Him. But
|
|
He does not point out in what respect.
|
|
|
|
Even the prophecies could not prove Jesus Christ during His
|
|
life; and so men would not have been culpable for not believing in Him
|
|
before His death had the miracles not sufficed without doctrine. Now
|
|
those who did not believe in Him, when He was still alive, were
|
|
sinners, as He said himself, and without excuse. Therefore they
|
|
must have had proof beyond doubt, which they resisted. Now, they had
|
|
not the prophecies, but only the miracles. Therefore the latter
|
|
suffice, when the doctrine is not inconsistent with them; and they
|
|
ought to be believed.
|
|
|
|
John 7. 40. Dispute among the Jews as among the Christians of
|
|
to-day. Some believed in Jesus Christ; others believed Him not,
|
|
because of the prophecies which said that He should be born in
|
|
Bethlehem. They should have considered more carefully whether He was
|
|
not. For His miracles being convincing, they should have been quite
|
|
sure of these supposed contradictions of His teaching to Scripture;
|
|
and this obscurity did not excuse, but blinded them. Thus those who
|
|
refuse to believe in the miracles in the present day on account of a
|
|
supposed contradiction, which is unreal, are not excused.
|
|
|
|
The Pharisees said to the people, who believed in Him, because
|
|
of His miracles: "This people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
|
|
But have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? For we
|
|
know that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Nicodemus answered:
|
|
"Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and specially such a
|
|
man who works such miracles"?
|
|
|
|
830. The prophecies were ambiguous; they are no longer so.
|
|
|
|
831. The five propositions were ambiguous; they are no longer so.
|
|
|
|
832. Miracles are no longer necessary, because we have had them
|
|
already. But when tradition is no longer minded; when the Pope alone
|
|
is offered to us; when he has been imposed upon; and when the true
|
|
source of truth, which is tradition, is thus excluded; and the Pope,
|
|
who is its guardian, is biased; the truth is no longer free to appear.
|
|
Then, as men speak no longer of truth, truth itself must speak to men.
|
|
This is what happened in the time of Arius. (Miracles under Diocletian
|
|
and under Arius.)
|
|
|
|
833. Miracle.- The people concluded this of themselves; but if the
|
|
reason of it must be given to you...
|
|
|
|
It is unfortunate to be in exception to the rule. The same must be
|
|
strict, and opposed to exception. But yet, as it is certain that there
|
|
are exceptions to a rule, our judgment must though strict, be just.
|
|
|
|
834. John 6. 26: Non quia vidisti signum, sed quia saturati
|
|
estis.*
|
|
|
|
* "Not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye... were
|
|
filled."
|
|
|
|
Those who follow Jesus Christ because of His miracles honour His
|
|
power in all the miracles which it produces. But those who, making
|
|
profession to follow Him because of His miracles, follow Him in fact
|
|
only because He comforts them and satisfies them with worldly
|
|
blessings, discredit His miracles, when they are opposed to their
|
|
own comforts.
|
|
|
|
John 9: Non est hic homo a Deo, quia sabbatum non custodit.
|
|
Alii: Quomodo potest homo peccator haec signa facere?*
|
|
|
|
* 16. "This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the
|
|
Sabbath day. Others said: How can a man that is a sinner do such
|
|
miracles?"
|
|
|
|
Which is the most clear?
|
|
|
|
This house is not of God; for they do not there believe that the
|
|
five propositions are in Jansenius. Others: This house is of God;
|
|
for in it there are wrought strange miracles.
|
|
|
|
Which is the most clear?
|
|
|
|
Tu quid dicis? Dico quia propheta est. Nisi esset hic a Deo, non
|
|
poterat facere quidquam.*
|
|
|
|
* John 9. 17, 33. "What sayest thou of him? He said, He is a
|
|
prophet. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."
|
|
|
|
835. In the Old Testament, when they will turn you from God. In
|
|
the New, when they will turn you from Jesus Christ. These are the
|
|
occasions for excluding particular miracles from belief. No others
|
|
need be excluded.
|
|
|
|
Does it, therefore, follow that they would have the right to
|
|
exclude all the prophets who came to them? No; they would have
|
|
sinned in not excluding those who denied God, and would have sinned in
|
|
excluding those who did not deny God.
|
|
|
|
So soon, then, as we see a miracle, we must either assent to it or
|
|
have striking proofs to the contrary. We must see if it denies a
|
|
God, or Jesus Christ, or the Church.
|
|
|
|
836. There is a great difference between not being for Jesus
|
|
Christ and saying so, and not being for Jesus Christ and pretending to
|
|
be so. The one party can do miracles, not the others. For it is
|
|
clear of the one party that they are opposed to the truth, but not
|
|
of the others; and thus miracles are clearer.
|
|
|
|
837. That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that
|
|
it does not require miracles to prove it.
|
|
|
|
838. Jesus Christ performed miracles, then the apostles, and the
|
|
first saints in great number; because the prophecies not being yet
|
|
accomplished, but in the process of being accomplished by them, the
|
|
miracles alone bore witness to them. It was foretold that the
|
|
Messiah should convert the nations. How could this prophecy be
|
|
fulfilled without the conversion of the nations? And how could the
|
|
nations be converted to the Messiah, if they did not see this final
|
|
effect of the prophecies which prove Him? Therefore, till He had died,
|
|
risen again, and converted the nations, all was not accomplished;
|
|
and so miracles were needed during all this time. Now they are no
|
|
longer needed against the Jews; for the accomplished prophecies
|
|
constitute a lasting miracle.
|
|
|
|
839. "Though ye believe not Me, believe at least the works." He
|
|
refers them, as it were, to the strongest proof.
|
|
|
|
It had been told to the Jews, as well as to Christians, that
|
|
they should not always believe the prophets; but yet the Pharisees and
|
|
Scribes are greatly concerned about His miracles and try to show
|
|
that they are false, or wrought by the devil. For they must needs be
|
|
convinced, if they acknowledge that they are of God.
|
|
|
|
At the present day we are not troubled to make this distinction.
|
|
Still it is very easy to do: those who deny neither God nor Jesus
|
|
Christ do no miracles which are not certain. Nemo facit virtutem in
|
|
nomine meo, et cito possit de me male loqui.*
|
|
|
|
* Mark 9. 39. Nemo est enim qui faciat. "There is no man which
|
|
shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me."
|
|
|
|
But we have not to draw this distinction. Here is a sacred
|
|
relic. Here is a thorn from the crown of the Saviour of the world,
|
|
over whom the prince of this world has no power, which works
|
|
miracles by the peculiar power of the blood shed for us. Now God
|
|
Himself chooses this house in order to display conspicuously therein
|
|
His power.
|
|
|
|
These are not men who do miracles by an unknown and doubtful
|
|
virtue, which makes a decision difficult for us. It is God Himself. It
|
|
is the instrument of the Passion of His only Son, who, being in many
|
|
places, chooses this, and makes men come from all quarters there to
|
|
receive these miraculous alleviations in their weaknesses.
|
|
|
|
840. The Church has three kinds of enemies: the Jews, who have
|
|
never been of her body; the heretics, who have withdrawn from it;
|
|
and the evil Christians, who rend her from within.
|
|
|
|
These three kinds of different adversaries usually attack her in
|
|
different ways. But here they attack her in one and the same way. As
|
|
they are all without miracles, and as the Church has always had
|
|
miracles against them, they have all had the same interest in
|
|
evading them; and they all make use of this excuse, that doctrine must
|
|
not be judged by miracles, but miracles by doctrine. There were two
|
|
parties among those who heard Jesus Christ: those who followed His
|
|
teaching on account of His miracles; others who said. There were two
|
|
parties in the time of Calvin... There are now the Jesuits, etc.
|
|
|
|
841. Miracles furnish the test in matters of doubt, between Jews
|
|
and heathens, Jews and Christians, Catholics and heretics, the
|
|
slandered and slanderers, between the two crosses.
|
|
|
|
But miracles would be useless to heretics; for the Church,
|
|
authorised by miracles which have already obtained belief, tells us
|
|
that they have not the true faith. There is no doubt that they are not
|
|
in it, since the first miracles of the Church exclude belief of
|
|
theirs. Thus there is miracle against miracle, both the first and
|
|
greatest being on the side of the Church.
|
|
|
|
These nuns, astonished at what is said- that they are in the way
|
|
of perdition; that their confessors are leading them to Geneva; that
|
|
they suggest to them that Jesus Christ is not in the Eucharist, nor on
|
|
the right hand of the Father- know that all this is false and,
|
|
therefore, offer themselves to God in this state. Vide si via
|
|
iniquitatis in me est.* What happens thereupon? This place, which is
|
|
said to be the temple of the devil, God makes His own temple. It is
|
|
said that the children must be taken away from it. God heals them
|
|
there. It is said that it is the arsenal of hell. God makes of it
|
|
the sanctuary of His grace. Lastly, they are threatened with all the
|
|
fury and vengeance of heaven; and God overwhelms them with favours.
|
|
A man would need to have lost his senses to conclude from this that
|
|
they are therefore in the way of perdition.
|
|
|
|
(We have without doubt the same signs as Saint Athanasius.)
|
|
|
|
842. Si tu es Christus, dic nobis.*(2)
|
|
|
|
Opera quae ego facio in nomine patris mei, haec testimonium
|
|
perhibent de me. Sed vos non creditis quia non estis ex ovibus meis.
|
|
Oves meae vocem meam audiunt.*(3)
|
|
|
|
John 6. 30. Quod ergo tu facis signum ut videamus et credamus
|
|
tibi? (Non dicunt: Quam doctrinam praedicas?)*(4)
|
|
|
|
Nemo potest facere signa quae tu facis nisi Deus.*(5)
|
|
|
|
II Macc. 14. 15 Deus qui signis evidentibus suam portionem
|
|
protegit.*(6)
|
|
|
|
Volumus signum videre de coelo, tentantes eum.*(7) Luke 11. 16.
|
|
|
|
Generatio prava signum quaerit; et non dabitur.*(8)
|
|
|
|
Et ingemiscens ait: Quid generatio ista signum quaerit?*(9)
|
|
(Mark 8. 12.) They asked a sign with an evil intention.
|
|
|
|
Et non poterat facere.*(10) And yet he promises them the sign of
|
|
Jonah, the great and wonderful miracle of his resurrection.
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 138.24. "And see if there be any wicked way in me."
|
|
|
|
*(2) Luke 22. 66. "Art thou the Christ? tell us."
|
|
|
|
*(3) John 5. 36. "The works which the father hath given me to
|
|
finish... bear witness of me." John 10. 26-27. "But ye believe not,
|
|
because ye are not of my sheep... My sheep hear my voice.
|
|
|
|
*(4) "What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe
|
|
thee. (They do not say: What doctrine do you preach?)"
|
|
|
|
*(5) John 3. 2. "No man can do these miracles that thou doest,
|
|
except God be with him."
|
|
|
|
*(6) "The Lord, making manifest his presence, upholdeth them
|
|
that are his own portion."
|
|
|
|
*(7) "And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven."
|
|
|
|
*(8) Matt. 12. 39. "An evil generation seeketh after a sign; and
|
|
there shall no sign be given to it."
|
|
|
|
*(9) "And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, why doth this
|
|
generation seek after a sign?"
|
|
|
|
*(10) "Mark 6. 5. "And he could there do no mighty work."
|
|
|
|
Nisi videritis, non creditis.* He does not blame them for not
|
|
believing unless there are miracles, but for not believing unless they
|
|
are themselves spectators of them.
|
|
|
|
Antichrist in signis mendacibus,*(2) says Saint Paul, II Thess. 2.
|
|
|
|
Secundum operationem Satanae, in seductione iis qui pereunt eo
|
|
quod charitatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent, ideo mittet
|
|
illis Deus optationes erroris ut credant mendacio.*(3)
|
|
|
|
As in the passage of Moses: Tentat enim vos Deus, utrum
|
|
diligatis eum.*(4)
|
|
|
|
Ecce praedixi vobis: vos ergo videte.*(5)
|
|
|
|
* John 4. 48. "Except ye see... ye will not believe."
|
|
|
|
*(2) 9. "In signs and lying wonders."
|
|
|
|
*(3) II Thess. 2. 9-11 "After the working of Satan... and with all
|
|
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they
|
|
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
|
|
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
|
|
believe a lie."
|
|
|
|
*(4) Deut. 13. 3. "for the Lord your God proveth you, to know
|
|
whether ye love the Lord."
|
|
|
|
*(5) Matt. 24. 25-26. "Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore
|
|
if they shall say unto you, Behold."
|
|
|
|
843. Here is not the country of truth. She wanders unknown amongst
|
|
men. God has covered her with a veil, which leaves her unrecognised by
|
|
those who do not hear her voice. Room is opened for blasphemy, even
|
|
against the truths that are at least very likely. If the truths of the
|
|
Gospel are published, the contrary is published too, and the questions
|
|
are obscured, so that the people cannot distinguish. And they ask,
|
|
"What have you to make you believed rather than others? What sign do
|
|
you give? You have only words, and so have we. If you had miracles,
|
|
good and well." That doctrine ought to be supported by miracles is a
|
|
truth, which they misuse in order to revile doctrine. And if
|
|
miracles happen, it is said that miracles are not enough without
|
|
doctrine; and this is another truth, which they misuse in order to
|
|
revile miracles.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ cured the man born blind and performed a number of
|
|
miracles on the Sabbath day. In this way He blinded the Pharisees, who
|
|
said that miracles must be judged by doctrine.
|
|
|
|
"We have Moses: but, as for this fellow, we know not from whence
|
|
he is." It is wonderful that you know not whence He is, and yet He
|
|
does such miracles.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ spoke neither against God, nor against Moses.
|
|
|
|
Antichrist and the false prophets, foretold by both Testaments,
|
|
will speak openly against God and against Jesus Christ. Who is not
|
|
hidden... God would not allow him, who would be a secret enemy, to
|
|
do miracles openly.
|
|
|
|
In a public dispute where the two parties profess to be for God,
|
|
for Jesus Christ, for the Church, miracles have never been on the side
|
|
of the false Christians, and the other side has never been without a
|
|
miracle.
|
|
|
|
"He hath a devil." John 10. 21. And others said, "Can a devil open
|
|
the eyes of the blind?"
|
|
|
|
The proofs which Jesus Christ and the apostles draw from Scripture
|
|
are not conclusive; for they say only that Moses foretold that a
|
|
prophet should come. But they do not thereby prove that this is He;
|
|
and that is the whole question. These passages, therefore, serve
|
|
only to show that they are not contrary to Scripture and that there
|
|
appears no inconsistency, but not that there is agreement. Now this is
|
|
enough, namely, exclusion of inconsistency, along with miracles.
|
|
|
|
There is a mutual duty between God and men. We must pardon Him
|
|
this saying: Quid debui?* "Accuse me, " said God in Isaiah.
|
|
|
|
* Is. 5. 4. Quis est quod debui ultra facere vineae meae, et non
|
|
faci ei? "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have
|
|
not done in it?"
|
|
|
|
"God must fulfil His promises," etc.
|
|
|
|
Men owe it to God to accept the religion which He sends. God
|
|
owes it to men not to lead them into error. Now, they would be led
|
|
into error, if the workers of miracles announced a doctrine which
|
|
should not appear evidently false to the light of common sense, and if
|
|
a greater worker of miracles had not already wamed men not to
|
|
believe them.
|
|
|
|
Thus, if there were divisions in the Church, and the Arians, for
|
|
example, who declared themselves founded on Scripture just as the
|
|
Catholics, had done miracles, and not the Catholics, men should have
|
|
been led into error.
|
|
|
|
For, as a man, who announces to us the secrets of God, is not
|
|
worthy to be believed on his private authority, and that is why the
|
|
ungodly doubt him; so when a man, as a token of the communion which he
|
|
has with God, raises the dead, foretells the future, removes the seas,
|
|
heals the sick, there is none so wicked as not to bow to him, and
|
|
the incredulity of Pharaoh and the Pharisees is the effect of a
|
|
supernatural obduracy.
|
|
|
|
When, therefore, we see miracles and a doctrine not suspicious,
|
|
both on one side, there is no difficulty. But when we see miracles and
|
|
suspicious doctrine on the same side, we must then see which is the
|
|
clearest. Jesus Christ was suspected.
|
|
|
|
Bar-jesus blinded. The power of God surpasses that of His enemies.
|
|
|
|
The Jewish exorcists beaten by the devils, saying, "Jesus I
|
|
know, and Paul I know; but who are ye"?
|
|
|
|
Miracles are for doctrine, and not doctrine for miracles.
|
|
|
|
If the miracles are true, shall we be able to persuade men of
|
|
all doctrine? No; for this will not come to pass. Si angelus...*
|
|
|
|
* Gal. 1. 8. "But though an angel."
|
|
|
|
Rule: we must judge of doctrine by miracles; we must judge of
|
|
miracles by doctrine. All this is true, but contains no contradiction.
|
|
|
|
For we must distinguish the times.
|
|
|
|
How glad you are to know the general rules, thinking thereby to
|
|
set up dissension and render all useless! We shall prevent you, my
|
|
father; truth is one and constant.
|
|
|
|
It is impossible, from the duty of God to men, that a man,
|
|
hiding his evil teaching, and only showing the good, saying that he
|
|
conforms to God and the Church, should do miracles so as to instil
|
|
insensibly a false and subtle doctrine. This cannot happen.
|
|
|
|
And still less that God, who knows the heart should perform
|
|
miracles in favour of such a one.
|
|
|
|
844. The three marks of religion: perpetuity, a good life,
|
|
miracles. They destroy perpetuity by their doctrine of probability;
|
|
a good life by their morals, miracles by destroying either their truth
|
|
or the conclusions to be drawn from them.
|
|
|
|
If we believe them, the Church will have nothing to do with
|
|
perpetuity, holiness, and miracles. The heretics deny them, or deny
|
|
the conclusions to be drawn from them; they do the same. But one would
|
|
need to have no sincerity in order to deny them, or again to lose
|
|
one's senses in order to deny the conclusions to be drawn from them.
|
|
|
|
Nobody has ever suffered martyrdom for the miracles which he
|
|
says he has seen; for the folly of men goes perhaps to the length of
|
|
martyrdom, for those which the Turks believe by tradition, but not for
|
|
those which they have seen.
|
|
|
|
845. The heretics have always attacked these three marks, which
|
|
they have not.
|
|
|
|
846. First objection: "An angel from heaven. We must not judge
|
|
of truth by miracles, but of miracles by truth. Therefore the miracles
|
|
are useless.
|
|
|
|
Now they are of use, and they must not be in opposition to the
|
|
truth. Therefore what Father Lingende has said that "God will not
|
|
permit that a miracle may lead into error..."
|
|
|
|
When there shall be a controversy in the same Church, miracle will
|
|
decide.
|
|
|
|
Second objection: "But Antichrist will do miracles."
|
|
|
|
The magicians of Pharaoh did not entice to error. Thus we cannot
|
|
say to Jesus respecting Antichrist, "You have led me into error."
|
|
For Antichrist will do them against Jesus Christ, and so they cannot
|
|
lead into error. Either God will not permit false miracles, or He will
|
|
procure greater.
|
|
|
|
Jesus Christ has existed since the beginning of the world: this is
|
|
more impressive than all the miracles of Antichrist.
|
|
|
|
If in the same Church there should happen a miracle on the side of
|
|
those in error, men would be led into error. Schism is visible; a
|
|
miracle is visible. But schism is more a sign of error than a
|
|
miracle is a sign of truth. Therefore a miracle cannot lead into
|
|
error.
|
|
|
|
But, apart from schism, error is not so obvious as a miracle is
|
|
obvious. Therefore a miracle could lead into error.
|
|
|
|
Ubi est Deus tuus?* Miracles show Him, and are a light.
|
|
|
|
847. One of the anthems for Vespers at Christmas: Exortum est in
|
|
tenebris lumen rectis corde.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 41. 4. "Where is thy God?"
|
|
|
|
*(2) Ps. 111. 4. "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the
|
|
darkness."
|
|
|
|
848. If the compassion of God is so great that He instructs us
|
|
to our benefit, even when He hides Himself, what light ought we not to
|
|
expect from Him when He reveals Himself?
|
|
|
|
849. Will Est et non est.* be received in faith itself as well
|
|
as in miracles? And if it is inseparable in the others...
|
|
|
|
* "The yes and the no."
|
|
|
|
When Saint Xavier works miracles. Saint Hilary. "Ye wretches,
|
|
who oblige us to speak of miracles."
|
|
|
|
Unjust judges, make not your own laws on the moment; judge by
|
|
those which are established, and by yourselves. Vae qui conditis leges
|
|
iniquas.*
|
|
|
|
* Is. 10. 1. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees."
|
|
|
|
Miracles endless, false.
|
|
|
|
In order to weaken your adversaries, you disarm the whole Church.
|
|
|
|
If they say that our salvation depends upon God, they are
|
|
"heretics." If they say that they are obedient to the Pope, that is
|
|
"hypocrisy." If they are ready to subscribe to all the articles,
|
|
that is not enough. If they say that a man must not be killed for an
|
|
apple, "they attack the morality of Catholics." If miracles are done
|
|
among them, it is not a sign of holiness, and is, on the contrary a
|
|
symptom of heresy.
|
|
|
|
This way in which the Church has existed is that truth has been
|
|
without dispute, or, if it has been contested, there has been the
|
|
Pope, or, failing him, there has been the Church.
|
|
|
|
850. The five propositions condemned, but no miracle; for the
|
|
truth was not attacked. But the Sorbonne... but the bull...
|
|
|
|
It is impossible that those who love God with all their heart
|
|
should fail to recognise the Church; so evident is she. It is
|
|
impossible that those who do not love God should be convinced of the
|
|
Church.
|
|
|
|
Miracles have such influence that it was necessary that God should
|
|
warn men not to believe in them in opposition to Him, all clear as
|
|
it is that there is a God. Without this they would have been able to
|
|
disturb men.
|
|
|
|
And thus so far from these passages, Deut. 13, making against
|
|
the authority of the miracles, nothing more indicates their influence.
|
|
And the same in respect of Antichrist. "To seduce, if it were
|
|
possible, even the elect."
|
|
|
|
851. The history of the man born blind.
|
|
|
|
What says Saint Paul? Does he continually speak of the evidence of
|
|
the prophecies? No, but of his own miracle. What says Jesus Christ?
|
|
Does He speak of the evidence of the prophecies? No; His death had not
|
|
fulfilled them. But he says, Si non fecissem.* Believe the works.
|
|
|
|
* John 15. 24. "If he had not done."
|
|
|
|
Two supernatural foundations of our wholly supernatural
|
|
religion; one visible, the other invisible; miracles with grace,
|
|
miracles without grace.
|
|
|
|
The synagogue, which had been treated with love as a type of the
|
|
Church, and with hatred, because it was only the type, has been
|
|
restored, being on the point of falling when it was well with God, and
|
|
thus a type.
|
|
|
|
Miracles prove the power which God has over hearts, by that
|
|
which He exercises over bodies.
|
|
|
|
The Church has never approved a miracle among heretics.
|
|
|
|
Miracles a support of religion: they have been the test of Jews;
|
|
they have been the test of Christians, saints, innocents, and true
|
|
believers.
|
|
|
|
A miracle among schismatics is not so much to be feared; for
|
|
schism, which is more obvious than a miracle, visibly indicates
|
|
their error. But, when there is no schism and error is in question,
|
|
miracle decides.
|
|
|
|
Si non fecissem quae alius non fecit.* The wretches who have
|
|
obliged us to speak of miracles.
|
|
|
|
* John 15. 24 "If he had not done among them the works which
|
|
none other man did."
|
|
|
|
Abraham and Gideon confirm faith by miracles.
|
|
|
|
Judith. God speaks at last in their greatest oppression.
|
|
|
|
If the cooling of love leaves the Church almost without believers,
|
|
miracles will rouse them. This is one of the last effects of grace.
|
|
|
|
If one miracle were wrought among the Jesuits!
|
|
|
|
When a miracle disappoints the expectation of those in whose
|
|
presence it happens, and there is a disproportion between the state of
|
|
their faith and the instrument of the miracle, it ought- then to
|
|
induce them to change. But with you it is otherwise. There would be as
|
|
much reason in saying that, if the Eucharist raised a dead man, it
|
|
would be necessary for one to turn a Calvinist rather than remain a
|
|
Catholic. But when it crowns the expectation, and those, who hoped
|
|
that God would bless the remedies, see themselves healed without
|
|
remedies.
|
|
|
|
The ungodly.- No sign has ever happened on the part of the devil
|
|
without a stronger sign on the part of God, or even without it
|
|
having been foretold that such would happen.
|
|
|
|
852. Unjust persecutors of those whom God visibly protects. If
|
|
they reproach you with your excesses, "they speak as the heretics." If
|
|
they say that the grace of Jesus Christ distinguishes us, "they are
|
|
heretics." If they do miracles, "it is the mark of their heresy."
|
|
|
|
Ezekiel. They say: These are the people of God who speak thus.
|
|
|
|
It is said, "Believe in the Church"; but it is not said,
|
|
"Believe in miracles"; because the last is natural, and not the first.
|
|
The one had need of a precept, not the other. Hezekiah.
|
|
|
|
The synagogue was only a type, and thus it did not perish; and
|
|
it was only a type, and so it is decayed. It was a type which
|
|
contained the truth, and thus it has lasted until it no longer
|
|
contained the truth.
|
|
|
|
My reverend father, all this happened in types. Other religions
|
|
perish; this one perishes not.
|
|
|
|
Miracles are more important than you think. They have served for
|
|
the foundation, and will serve for the continuation of the Church till
|
|
Antichrist, till the end.
|
|
|
|
The two witnesses.
|
|
|
|
In the Old Testament and the New, miracles are performed in
|
|
connection with types. Salvation, or a useless thing, if not to show
|
|
that we must submit to the Scriptures: type of the sacrament.
|
|
|
|
853. We must judge soberly of divine ordinances, my father.
|
|
Saint Paul in the isle of Malta.
|
|
|
|
854. The hardness of the Jesuits, then, surpasses that of the
|
|
Jews, since those refused to believe Jesus Christ innocent only
|
|
because they doubted if His miracles were of God. Whereas the Jesuits,
|
|
though unable to doubt that the miracles of Port-Royal are of God,
|
|
do not cease to doubt still the innocence of that house.
|
|
|
|
855. I suppose that men believe miracles. You corrupt religion
|
|
either in favour of your friends or against your enemies. You
|
|
arrange it at your will.
|
|
|
|
856. On the miracle.- As God has made no family more happy, let it
|
|
also be the case that He find none more thankful.
|
|
|
|
SECTION XIV
|
|
|
|
APPENDIX: POLEMICAL FRAGMENTS
|
|
|
|
857. Clearness, obscurity.- There would be too great darkness,
|
|
if truth had not visible signs. This is a wonderful one, that it has
|
|
always been preserved in one Church and one visible assembly of men.
|
|
There would be too great clearness, if there were only one opinion
|
|
in this Church. But in order to recognise what is true, one has only
|
|
to look at what has always existed; for it is certain that truth has
|
|
always existed, and that nothing false has always existed.
|
|
|
|
858. The history of the Church ought properly to be called the
|
|
history of truth.
|
|
|
|
859. There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a
|
|
storm, when we are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions
|
|
which harass the Church are of this nature.
|
|
|
|
860. In addition to so many other signs of piety, they are also
|
|
persecuted, which is the best sign of piety.
|
|
|
|
861. The Church is in an excellent state when it is sustained by
|
|
God only.
|
|
|
|
862. The Church has always been attacked by opposite errors, but
|
|
perhaps never at the same time, as now. And if she suffer more because
|
|
of the multiplicity of errors, she derives this advantage from it,
|
|
that they destroy each other.
|
|
|
|
She complains of both, but far more of the Calvinists, because
|
|
of the schism.
|
|
|
|
It is certain that many of the two opposite sects are deceived.
|
|
They must be disillusioned.
|
|
|
|
Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.
|
|
There is a time to laugh, and time to weep, etc. Responde. Ne
|
|
respondeas,* etc.
|
|
|
|
* Prov. 26. 4-5. "Answer... Answer not."
|
|
|
|
The source of this is the union of the two natures in Jesus
|
|
Christ; and also the two worlds (the creation of a new heaven and a
|
|
new earth; a new life and a new death; all things double, and the same
|
|
names remaining); and finally the two natures that are in the
|
|
righteous (for they are the two worlds, and a member and image of
|
|
Jesus Christ. And thus all the names suit them: righteous, yet
|
|
sinners; dead, yet living; living, yet dead; elect, yet outcast,
|
|
etc.).
|
|
|
|
There are then a great number of truths, both of faith and of
|
|
morality, which seem contradictory and which all hold good together in
|
|
a wonderful system. The source of all heresies is the exclusion of
|
|
some of these truths; and the source of all the objections which the
|
|
heretics make against us is the ignorance of some of our truths. And
|
|
it generally happens that, unable to conceive the connection of two
|
|
opposite truths, and believing that the admission of one involves
|
|
the exclusion of the other, they adhere to the one, exclude the other,
|
|
and think of us as opposed to them. Now exclusion is the cause of
|
|
their heresy; and ignorance that we hold the other truth causes
|
|
their objections.
|
|
|
|
1st example: Jesus Christ is God and man. The Arians, unable to
|
|
reconcile these things, which they believe incompatible, say that He
|
|
is man; in this they are Catholics. But they deny that He is God; in
|
|
this they are heretics. They allege that we deny His humanity; in this
|
|
they are ignorant.
|
|
|
|
2nd example: On the subject of the Holy Sacrament. We believe
|
|
that, the substance of the bread being changed, and being
|
|
consubstantial with that of the body of our Lord, Jesus Christ is
|
|
therein really present. That is one truth. Another is that this
|
|
Sacrament is also a type of the cross and of glory, and a
|
|
commemoration of the two. That is the Catholic faith, which
|
|
comprehends these two truths which seem opposed.
|
|
|
|
The heresy of to-day, not conceiving that this Sacrament
|
|
contains at the same time both the presence of Jesus Christ and a type
|
|
of Him, and that it is a sacrifice and a commemoration of a sacrifice,
|
|
believes that neither of these truths can be admitted without
|
|
excluding the other for this reason.
|
|
|
|
They fasten to this point alone, that this Sacrament is typical;
|
|
and in this they are not heretics. They think that we exclude this
|
|
truth; hence it comes that they raise so many objections to us out
|
|
of the passages of the Fathers which assert it. Finally, they deny the
|
|
presence; and in this they are heretics.
|
|
|
|
3rd example: Indulgences.
|
|
|
|
The shortest way, therefore, to prevent heresies is to instruct in
|
|
all truths; and the surest way to refute them is to declare them
|
|
all. For what will the heretics say?
|
|
|
|
In order to know whether an opinion is a Father's...
|
|
|
|
863. All err the more dangerously, as they each follow a truth.
|
|
Their fault is not in following a falsehood, but in not following
|
|
another truth.
|
|
|
|
864. Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so
|
|
established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
|
|
|
|
865. If there is ever a time in which we must make profession of
|
|
two opposite truths, it is when we are reproached for omitting one.
|
|
Therefore the Jesuits and Jansenists are wrong in concealing them, but
|
|
the Jansenists more so, for the Jesuits have better made profession of
|
|
the two.
|
|
|
|
866. Two kinds of people make things equal to one another, as
|
|
feasts to working days, Christians to priests, all things among
|
|
them, etc. And hence the one party conclude that what is then bad
|
|
for priests is also so for Christians, and the other that what is
|
|
not bad for Christians is lawful for priests.
|
|
|
|
867. If the ancient Church was in error, the Church is fallen.
|
|
If she should be in error to-day, it is not the same thing; for she
|
|
has always the superior maxim of tradition from the hand of the
|
|
ancient Church; and so this submission and this conformity to the
|
|
ancient Church prevail and correct all. But the ancient Church did not
|
|
assume the future Church and did not consider her, as we assume and
|
|
consider the ancient.
|
|
|
|
868. That which hinders us in comparing what formerly occurred
|
|
in the Church with what we see there now is that we generally look
|
|
upon Saint Athanasius, Saint Theresa, and the rest, as crowned with
|
|
glory and acting towards us as gods. Now that time has cleared up
|
|
things, it does so appear. But at the time when he was persecuted,
|
|
this great saint was a man called Athanasius; and Saint Theresa was
|
|
a nun. "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are," says
|
|
Saint James, to disabuse Christians of that false idea which makes
|
|
us reject the example of the saints as disproportioned to our state.
|
|
"They were saints," say we, "they are not like us." What then actually
|
|
happened? Saint Athanasius was a man called Athanasius, accused of
|
|
many crimes, condemned by such and such a council for such and such
|
|
a crime. All the bishops assented to it, and finally the Pope. What
|
|
said they to those who opposed this? That they disturbed the peace,
|
|
that they created schism, etc.
|
|
|
|
Zeal, light. Four kinds of persons: zeal without knowledge;
|
|
knowledge without zeal; neither knowledge nor zeal; both zeal and
|
|
knowledge. The first three condemned him. The last acquitted him, were
|
|
excommunicated by the Church and yet saved the Church.
|
|
|
|
869. If Saint Augustine came at the present time and was as little
|
|
authorised as his defenders, he would accomplish nothing. God
|
|
directs His Church well, by having sent him before with authority.
|
|
|
|
870. God has not wanted to absolve without the Church. As she
|
|
has part in the offence, He desires her to have part in the pardon. He
|
|
associates her with this power, as kings their parliaments. But if she
|
|
absolves or binds without God, she is no longer the Church. For, as in
|
|
the case of parliament, even if the king have pardoned a man, it
|
|
must be ratified; but if parliament ratifies without the king, or
|
|
refuses to ratify on the order of the king, it is no longer the
|
|
parliament of the king, but a rebellious assembly.
|
|
|
|
871. The Church, the Pope. Unity, plurality.- Considering the
|
|
Church as a unity, the Pope, who is its head, is as the whole.
|
|
Considering it as a plurality, the Pope is only a part of it. The
|
|
Fathers have considered the Church now in the one way, now in the
|
|
other. And thus they have spoken differently of the Pope. (Saint
|
|
Cyprian: Sacerdos Dei.)* But in establishing one of these truths, they
|
|
have not excluded the other. Plurality which is not reduced to unity
|
|
is confusion; unity which does not depend on plurality is tyranny.
|
|
There is scarcely any other country than France in which it is
|
|
permissible to say that the Council is above the Pope.
|
|
|
|
* Epistle 63. "Priest of the Lord."
|
|
|
|
872. The Pope is head. Who else is known of all? Who else is
|
|
recognised by all, having power to insinuate himself into all the
|
|
body, because he holds the principal shoot, which insinuates itself
|
|
everywhere? How easy it was to make this degenerate into tyranny! That
|
|
is why Christ has laid down for them this precept: Vos autem non sic.*
|
|
|
|
* Luke 22. 26. "But ye shall not be so."
|
|
|
|
873. The Pope hates and fears the learned, who do not submit to
|
|
him at will.
|
|
|
|
874. We must not judge of what the Pope is by some words of the
|
|
Fathers- as the Greeks said in a council, important rules- but by
|
|
the acts of the Church and the Fathers, and by the canons.
|
|
|
|
Duo* aut tres.*(2) In unum. Unity and plurality. It is an error to
|
|
exclude one of the two, as the papists do who exclude plurality, or
|
|
the Huguenots who exclude unity.
|
|
|
|
* John 10. 30. "I and my father are one."
|
|
|
|
*(2) John 5. 7. "And these three agree in one.
|
|
|
|
875. Would the Pope be dishonoured by having his knowledge from
|
|
God and tradition; and is it not dishonouring him to separate him from
|
|
this holy union?
|
|
|
|
876. God does not perform miracles in the ordinary conduct of
|
|
His Church. It would be a strange miracle if infallibility existed
|
|
in one man. But it appears so natural for it to reside in a multitude,
|
|
since the conduct of God is hidden under nature, as in all His other
|
|
works.
|
|
|
|
877. Kings dispose of their own power; but the Popes cannot
|
|
dispose of theirs.
|
|
|
|
878. Summum jus, summa injuria.*
|
|
|
|
* "The strictest law is the greatest injustice." Terrence, Heauton
|
|
Timorumenus, iv. 5. 47; and Cicero, De officiis, i. 10.
|
|
|
|
The majority is the best way, because it is visible and has
|
|
strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least
|
|
able.
|
|
|
|
If men could have done it, they would have placed might in the
|
|
hands of justice. But as might does not allow itself to be managed
|
|
as men want, because it is a palpable quality, whereas justice is a
|
|
spiritual quality of which men dispose as they please, they have
|
|
placed justice in the hands of might. And thus that is called just
|
|
which men are forced to obey.
|
|
|
|
Hence comes the right of the sword, for the sword gives a true
|
|
right. Otherwise we should see violence on one side and justice on the
|
|
other (end of the twelfth Provincial Letter). Hence comes the
|
|
injustice of the Fronde, which raises its alleged justice against
|
|
power. It is not the same in the Church, for there is a true justice
|
|
and no violence.
|
|
|
|
879. Injustice.- Jurisdiction is not given for the sake of the
|
|
judge, but for that of the litigant. It is dangerous to tell this to
|
|
the people. But the people have too much faith in you; it will not
|
|
harm them and may serve you. It should, therefore, be made known.
|
|
Pasce oves meas, not tuas.* You owe me pasturage.
|
|
|
|
* John 21. 17 "Feed my sheep." Not "yours."
|
|
|
|
880. Men like certainty. They like the Pope to be infallible in
|
|
faith, and grave doctors to be infallible in morals, so as to have
|
|
certainty.
|
|
|
|
881. The Church teaches, and God inspires, both infallibly. The
|
|
work of the Church is of use only as a preparation for grace or
|
|
condemnation. What it does is enough for condemnation, not for
|
|
inspiration.
|
|
|
|
882. Every time the Jesuits may impose upon the Pope, they will
|
|
make all Christendom perjured.
|
|
|
|
The Pope is very easily imposed upon, because of his
|
|
occupations, and the confidence which he has in the Jesuits; and the
|
|
Jesuits are very capable of imposing upon him by means of calumny.
|
|
|
|
883. The wretches who have obliged me to speak of the basis of
|
|
religion.
|
|
|
|
884. Sinners purified without penitence; the righteous justified
|
|
without love; all Christians without the grace of Jesus Christ; God
|
|
without power over the will of men; a predestination without
|
|
mystery; a redemption without certitude!
|
|
|
|
885. Any one is made a priest, who wants to be so, as under
|
|
Jeroboam.
|
|
|
|
It is a horrible thing that they propound to us the discipline
|
|
of the Church of to-day as so good that it is made a crime to desire
|
|
to change it. Formerly it was infallibly good, and it was thought that
|
|
it could be changed without sin; and now, such as it is, we cannot
|
|
wish it changed! It has indeed been permitted to change the custom
|
|
of not making priests without such great circumspection that there
|
|
were hardly any who were worthy; and it is not allowed to complain
|
|
of the custom which makes so many who are unworthy!
|
|
|
|
886. Heretics.- Ezekiel. All the heathen, and also the Prophet,
|
|
spoke evil of Israel. But the Israelites were so far from having the
|
|
right to say to him, "You speak like the heathen," that he is most
|
|
forcible upon this, that the heathen say the same as he.
|
|
|
|
887. The Jansenists are like the heretics in the reformation of
|
|
morality; but you are like them in evil.
|
|
|
|
888. You are ignorant of the prophecies, if you do not know that
|
|
all this must happen; princes, prophets, Pope, and even the priests.
|
|
And yet the Church is to abide. By the grace of God we have not come
|
|
to that. Woe to these priests! But we hope that God will bestow His
|
|
mercy upon us that we shall not be of them.
|
|
|
|
Saint Peter, Epistle ii: false prophets in the past, the image
|
|
of future ones.
|
|
|
|
889.... So that if it is true, on the one hand, that some lax
|
|
monks and some corrupt casuists, who are not members of the hierarchy,
|
|
are steeped in these corruptions, it is, on the other hand, certain
|
|
that the true pastors of the Church, who are the true guardians of the
|
|
Divine Word, have preserved it unchangeably against the efforts of
|
|
those who have attempted to destroy it.
|
|
|
|
And thus true believers have no pretext to follow that laxity,
|
|
which is only offered to them by the strange hands of these
|
|
casuists, instead of the sound doctrine which is presented to them
|
|
by the fatherly hands of their own pastors. And the ungodly and
|
|
heretics have no ground for publishing these abuses as evidence of
|
|
imperfection in the providence of God over His Church; since, the
|
|
Church consisting properly in the body of the hierarchy, we are so far
|
|
from being able to conclude from the present state of matters that God
|
|
has abandoned her to corruption, that it has never been more
|
|
apparent than at the present time that God visibly protects her from
|
|
corruption.
|
|
|
|
For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation,
|
|
have made profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the
|
|
monks' dress, in order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary
|
|
Christians, have fallen into excesses which horrify ordinary
|
|
Christians, and have become to us what the false prophets were among
|
|
the Jews; this is a private and personal misfortune, which must indeed
|
|
be deplored, but from which nothing can be inferred against the care
|
|
which God takes of His Church; since all these things are so clearly
|
|
foretold, and it has been so long since announced that these
|
|
temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we
|
|
are well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of God
|
|
than of His forgetfulness in regard to us.
|
|
|
|
890. Tertullian: Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur.*
|
|
|
|
* "The Church will never be reformed."
|
|
|
|
891. Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the
|
|
Jesuits, must be made to know that it is not that of the Church, and
|
|
that our divisions do not separate us from the altar.
|
|
|
|
892. If in differing we condemned, you would be right.
|
|
Uniformity without diversity is useless to others; diversity without
|
|
uniformity is ruinous for us. The one is harmful outwardly; the
|
|
other inwardly.
|
|
|
|
893. By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by
|
|
showing the injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind
|
|
is assured by a proof of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by
|
|
proof of injustice.
|
|
|
|
894. Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of
|
|
morals; but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model
|
|
is damaged.
|
|
|
|
895. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they
|
|
do it from religious conviction.
|
|
|
|
896. It is in vain that the Church has established these words,
|
|
anathemas, heresies, etc. They are used against her.
|
|
|
|
897. The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master
|
|
tells him only the act and not the intention. And this is why he often
|
|
obeys slavishly, and defeats the intention. But Jesus Christ has
|
|
told us the object. And you defeat that object.
|
|
|
|
898. They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality;
|
|
and therefore they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be
|
|
saints.
|
|
|
|
899. Against those who misuse passages of Scripture, and who pride
|
|
themselves in finding one which seems to favour their error.- The
|
|
chapter for Vespers, Passion Sunday, the prayer for the king.
|
|
|
|
Explanation of these words: "He that is not with me is against
|
|
me." And of these others: "He that is not against you is for you." A
|
|
person who says: "I am neither for nor against"; we ought to reply
|
|
to him...
|
|
|
|
900. He who will give the meaning of Scripture, and does not
|
|
take it from Scripture, is an enemy of Scripture. (St. Augustine, Of
|
|
Christian Doctrine.)
|
|
|
|
901. Humilibus dat gratiam;* an ideo non dedit humilitatem?*(2)
|
|
|
|
Sui eum non receperunt; quotquot autem non receperunt,*(3) an
|
|
non erant sui?*(4)
|
|
|
|
* Jas. 4. 6. "God giveth grace unto the humble."
|
|
|
|
*(2) "But did he not give them humility?"
|
|
|
|
*(3) John 1. 11-12. "The world knew him not; and his own
|
|
received him not."
|
|
|
|
*(4) "And were they not his?"
|
|
|
|
902. "It must indeed be," says Feuillant, "that this is not so
|
|
certain; for controversy indicates uncertainty (Saint Athanasius,
|
|
Saint Chrysostom, morals, unbelievers)."
|
|
|
|
The Jesuits have not made the truth uncertain, but they have
|
|
made their own ungodliness certain.
|
|
|
|
Contradiction has always been permitted, in order to blind the
|
|
wicked; for all that offends truth or love is evil. This is the true
|
|
principle.
|
|
|
|
903. All religions and sects in the world have had natural
|
|
reason for a guide. Christians alone have been constrained to take
|
|
their rules from without themselves, and to acquaint themselves with
|
|
those which Jesus Christ bequeathed to men of old to be handed down to
|
|
true believers. This constraint wearies these good Fathers. They
|
|
desire, like other people, to have liberty to follow their own
|
|
imaginations. It is in vain that we cry to them, as the prophets
|
|
said to the Jews of old: "Enter into the Church; acquaint yourselves
|
|
with the precepts which the men of old left to her, and follow those
|
|
paths." They have answered like the Jews: "We will not walk in them;
|
|
but we will follow the thoughts of our hearts"; and they have said,
|
|
"We will be as the other nations."
|
|
|
|
904. They make a rule of exception.
|
|
|
|
Have the men of old given absolution before penance? Do this as
|
|
exceptional. But of the exception you make a rule without exception,
|
|
so that you do not even want the rule to be exceptional.
|
|
|
|
905. On confessions and absolutions without signs of regret.
|
|
|
|
God regards only the inward; the Church judges only by the
|
|
outward. God absolves as soon as He sees penitence in the heart; the
|
|
Church when she sees it in works. God will make a Church pure
|
|
within, which confounds, by its inward and entirely spiritual
|
|
holiness, the inward impiety of proud sages and Pharisees; and the
|
|
Church will make an assembly of men whose external manners are so pure
|
|
as to confound the manners of the heathen. If there are hypocrites
|
|
among them, but so well disguised that she does not discover their
|
|
venom, she tolerates them; for, though they are not accepted of God,
|
|
whom they cannot deceive, they are of men, whom they do deceive. And
|
|
thus she is not dishonoured by their conduct, which appears holy.
|
|
But you want the Church to judge neither of the inward, because that
|
|
belongs to God alone, nor of the outward, because God dwells only upon
|
|
the inward; and thus, taking away from her all choice of men, you
|
|
retain in the Church the most dissolute and those who dishonour her so
|
|
greatly that the synagogues of the Jews and sects of philosophers
|
|
would have banished them as unworthy and have abhorred them as
|
|
impious.
|
|
|
|
906. The easiest conditions to live in according to the world
|
|
are the most difficult to live in according to God, and vice versa.
|
|
Nothing is so difficult according to the world as the religious
|
|
life; nothing is easier than to live it according to God. Nothing is
|
|
easier, according to the world, than to live in high office and
|
|
great wealth; nothing is more difficult than to live in them according
|
|
to God, and without acquiring an interest in them and a liking for
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
907. The casuists submit the decision to the corrupt reason, and
|
|
the choice of decisions to the corrupt will, in order that all that is
|
|
corrupt in the nature of man may contribute to his conduct.
|
|
|
|
908. But is it probable that probability gives assurance?
|
|
|
|
Difference between rest and security of conscience. Nothing
|
|
gives certainty but truth; nothing gives rest but the sincere search
|
|
for truth.
|
|
|
|
909. The whole society itself of their casuists cannot give
|
|
assurance to a conscience in error, and that is why it is important to
|
|
choose good guides.
|
|
|
|
Thus they will be doubly culpable, both in having followed ways
|
|
which they should not have followed, and in having listened to
|
|
teachers to whom they should not have listened.
|
|
|
|
910. Can it be anything but compliance with the world which
|
|
makes you find things probable? Will you make us believe that it is
|
|
truth and that, if duelling were not the fashion, you would find it
|
|
probable that they might fight, considering the matter in itself.?
|
|
|
|
911. Must we kill to prevent there being any wicked? This is to
|
|
make both parties wicked instead of one. Vince in bono malum.*
|
|
(Saint Augustine.)
|
|
|
|
* Rom. 12. 2 "But overcome evil with good."
|
|
|
|
912. Universal.- Ethics and language are special, but universal
|
|
sciences.
|
|
|
|
913. Probability.- Each one can employ it; no one can take it
|
|
away.
|
|
|
|
914. They allow lust to act, and check scruples; whereas they
|
|
should do the contrary.
|
|
|
|
915. Montalte.- Lax opinions please men so much, that it is
|
|
strange that theirs displease. It is because they have exceeded all
|
|
bounds. Again, there are many people who see the truth, and who cannot
|
|
attain to it; but there are few who do not know that the purity of
|
|
religion is opposed to our corruptions. It is absurd to say that an
|
|
eternal recompense is offered to the morality of Escobar.
|
|
|
|
916. Probability.- They have some true principles; but they misuse
|
|
them. Now, the abuse of truth ought to be as much punished as the
|
|
introduction of falsehood.
|
|
|
|
As if there were two hells, one for sins against love, the other
|
|
for those against justice!
|
|
|
|
917. Probability.- The earnestness of the saints in seeking the
|
|
truth was useless, if the probable is trustworthy. The fear of the
|
|
saints who have always followed the surest way. (Saint Theresa
|
|
having always followed her confessor.)
|
|
|
|
918. Take away probability, and you can no longer please the
|
|
world; give probability, and you can no longer displease it.
|
|
|
|
919. These are the effects of the sins of the peoples and of the
|
|
Jesuits. The great have wished to be flattered. The Jesuits have
|
|
wished to be loved by the great. They have all been worthy to be
|
|
abandoned to the spirit of lying, the one party to deceive, the others
|
|
to be deceived. They have been avaricious, ambitious, voluptuous.
|
|
Coacervabunt tibi magistros.* Worthy disciples of such masters, they
|
|
have sought flatterers, and have found them.
|
|
|
|
* II Tim. 4. 3. "Shall they heap to themselves teachers."
|
|
|
|
920. If they do not renounce their doctrine of probability,
|
|
their good maxims are as little holy as the bad, for they are
|
|
founded on human authority; and thus, if they are more just, they will
|
|
be more reasonable, but not more holy. They take after the wild stem
|
|
on which they are grafted.
|
|
|
|
If what I say does not serve to enlighten you, it will be of use
|
|
to the people.
|
|
|
|
If these are silent, the stones will speak.
|
|
|
|
Silence is the greatest persecution; the saints were never silent.
|
|
It is true that a call is necessary; but it is not from the decrees of
|
|
the Council that we must learn whether we are called, it is from the
|
|
necessity of speaking. Now, after Rome has spoken, and we think that
|
|
she has condemned the truth, and that they have written it, and
|
|
after the books which have said the contrary are censured; we must cry
|
|
out so much the louder, the more unjustly we are censured, and the
|
|
more violently they would stifle speech, until there come a Pope who
|
|
hears both parties, and who consults antiquity to do justice. So the
|
|
good Popes will find the Church still in outcry.
|
|
|
|
The Inquisition and the Society are the two scourges of the truth.
|
|
|
|
Why do you not accuse them of Arianism? For, though they have said
|
|
that Jesus Christ is God, perhaps they mean by it not the natural
|
|
interpretation, but, as it is said, Dii estis.*
|
|
|
|
If my Letters are condemned at Rome, that which I condemn in
|
|
them is condemned in heaven. Ad tuum, Domine Jesu, tribunal
|
|
appello.*(2)
|
|
|
|
* Ps. 81. 6. "Ye are gods."
|
|
|
|
*(2) "To your tribunal, Lord Jesus, I call."
|
|
|
|
You yourselves are corruptible.
|
|
|
|
I feared that I had written ill, seeing myself condemned; but
|
|
the example of so many pious writings makes me believe the contrary.
|
|
It is no longer allowable to write well, so corrupt or ignorant is the
|
|
Inquisition!
|
|
|
|
"It is better to obey God than men."
|
|
|
|
I fear nothing; I hope for nothing. It is not so with the bishops.
|
|
Port-Royal fears, and it is bad policy to disperse them; for they will
|
|
fear no longer and will cause greater fear. I do not even fear your
|
|
like censures, if they are not founded on those of tradition. Do you
|
|
censure all? What! Even my respect? No. Say then what, or you will
|
|
do nothing, if you do not point out the evil, and why it is evil.
|
|
And this is what they will have great difficulty in doing.
|
|
|
|
Probability.- They have given a ridiculous explanation of
|
|
certitude; for, after having established that all their ways are sure,
|
|
they have no longer called that sure which leads to heaven without
|
|
danger of not arriving there by it, but that which leads there without
|
|
danger of going out of that road.
|
|
|
|
921.... The saints indulge in subtleties in order to think
|
|
themselves criminals and impeach their better actions. And these
|
|
indulge in subtleties in order to excuse the most wicked.
|
|
|
|
The heathen sages erected a structure equally fine outside, but
|
|
upon a bad foundation; and the devil deceived men by this apparent
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resemblance based upon the most different foundation.
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Man never had so good a cause as I; and others have never
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furnished so good a capture as you...
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The more they point out weakness in my person, the more they
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authorise my cause.
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You say that I am a heretic. Is that lawful? And if you do not
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fear that men do justice, do you not fear that God does justice?
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You will feel the force of the truth, and you will yield to it...
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There is something supernatural in such a blindness. Digna
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necessitas.* Mentiris impudentissime.*(2)
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Doctrina sua noscetur vir...*(3)
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* Wisd. of Sol. 19. 4. "Doom which they deserved."
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*(2) "Most impudent Liars." See Provincial Letter xvi.
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*(3) Prov. 12. 8. "A man shall be commended according to his
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wisdom."
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False piety, a double sin.
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I am alone against thirty thousand. No. Protect you, the court;
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protect, you, deception; let me protect the truth. It is all my
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strength. If I lose it, I am undone. I shall not lack accusations, and
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persecutions. But I possess the truth, and we shall see who will
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take it away.
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I do not need to defend religion, but you do not need to defend
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error and injustice. Let God, out of His compassion, having no
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regard to the evil which is in me, and having regard to the good which
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is in you, grant us all grace that truth may not be overcome in my
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hands, and that falsehood...
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922. Probable.- Let us see if we seek God sincerely, by comparison
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of the things which we love. It is probable that this food will not
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poison me. It is probable that I shall not lose my action by not
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prosecuting it...
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923. It is not absolution only which remits sins by the
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sacrament of penance, but contrition, which is not real if it does not
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seek the sacrament.
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924. People who do not keep their word, without faith, without
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honour, without truth, deceitful in heart, deceitful in speech; for
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which that amphibious animal in fable was once reproached, which
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held itself in a doubtful position between the fish and the birds...
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It is important to kings and princes to be considered pious;
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therefore they must confess themselves to you.
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THE END
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.
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