Part 15

XCVII. The genuine and true reason of this is, that the existence of a Supreme Being, although it is most plain and clear, is not with respect to the human understanding, self-evident, or, as the Theologians explain the thing, is not _per se nota quo ad nos_; but is made infallibly evident, by deductions drawn from other principles; and where a deduction of this sort is absolutely necessary, a person may suspect, that it is very possible now and then some fallacy may creep in. But the deformity of such vicious actions as we have been speaking of, is evident of itself; and whenever such actions are represented to the understanding, it clearly comprehends their baseness, and the operation of them is odious and apparent in the eyes of every man, unless as we observed before, some circumstance intervenes to disturb his reason.

XCVIII. To this it may be urged by way of objection, in the first place, that in order to perceive and be convinced of the turpitude of those actions, there is no necessity for a man to be possessed of a bright understanding, as a middling one, or even one below the middle class, would be sufficient for this purpose; so that this reasoning will prove the turpitude to be plain to every understanding, high, middling, and low, or else that it is evident to neither of them.

XCIX. To this I answer, that although the thing may be known with intire certainty to every one of them, there is a great difference between the knowledge and comprehension of one man, and that of another. Two understandings that are unequal, notwithstanding they may both know, and be thoroughly persuaded of the same truth, may be struck with it very differently; and in proportion as one of these understandings is the most clear, that one will know it more distinctly, more strikingly, and with a more refined degree of penetration; and in proportion as the other is less clear, that other will perceive it less distinctly, and more confusedly. In consequence of this inequality of understandings, objects make a more strong or a more weak impression on the soul, and have more or less influence to excite in it, these, or those affections. The same infinite goodness of God which is known to the blessed, is known with infallible certainty by the worldly also. How then comes it to pass, that the first love him necessarily and intensely, and that we worldly mortals are so luke-warm in our love of him? This is occasioned by no other cause than the following, that although our knowledge of him is evident, that of the blessed is the most clear, and ours the most obscure; and in proportion as the understanding knows a good or an evil with greater clearness, the will is moved with a greater impetus, to love the first, and abhor the last.

C. This may be very opportunely and aptly explained, by the operation of any corporeal sense; for he whose olfactory nerves are very quick, will be more offended with an ill smell, than one in whom that sensation is more languid and remiss; and although this last may be able clearly to distinguish the ill smell, he will be less disgusted at it; nor will it appear so hateful to him; and this happens from no other reason, than that the olfactory perception of the first is very clear, and that of the second rather obstructed or more dull; and although not only the man who has a very quick and delicate ear, but also he who has one that is more obtuse, may evidently perceive the dissonance of three or four voices which are totally discordant; the last will bear it without being much affected, and the other will be almost distracted by it; and this is all derived from the cause above-mentioned.

CI. And it happens just so with regard to intellectual perception. The deformity of vicious actions, which are self-evident, is apparent and clear, not only to men of perspicuous understandings, but to those of the most inferior capacities, provided they are not quite stupid; but by the first perceiving them with a lively clearness, and the others somewhat confusedly, they produce a kind of horror in those who have that clearness of perception, which does not permit their wills to embrace such objects; while those to whom they do not appear so disgusting and unpleasant, may be betrayed into grasping turpitudes, under the disguise of delights and pleasures. But I would not have it understood that I mean to insinuate by what I have said here, that there ever is a suspension, or obstruction of the operation, of every, or any man’s free will.

CII. It may be objected in the second place, that there are entire nations, among whom it cannot be denied, that there are to be found many men of excellent understandings, who hold robbery, deceit, and even cruelty to be lawful, and that consequently, they cannot consider these things as turpitudes, or have a just sense of their baseness. To this I answer, that our assertion with respect to a good understanding, does not allude to one placed in such a situation. The general error of a nation in any matter whatever, is like a dark fog which bewilders people, causes them to mistake their way, and perplexes the clearest understandings. If in early infancy, when the rational faculties are weak, children are familiarized to, and brought up under the influence of deceitful prejudices; and when they come to years of maturity, they are accustomed to reverence a common error as irrefragable authority; if it should happen afterwards, that a ray of light breaks in upon them, which discovers to them the truth, they timidly fly from the elucidation, distrust their own reason and reflexion, and are apt to suspect such elucidation to be a delusion, and to suppose that it would be criminal in them to regard it.

CIII. I answer secondly, that it is not known with any degree of certainty, that men of excellent understandings, who are educated and brought up in those nations we call barbarous, are infected with all the errors that prevail in those nations; and with respect to myself, I am fully persuaded they are not. We know that various eminent men among the Gentiles, in matters of religion, thought very differently from the populace. It is true however, that there were but few of them who had sufficient resolution to speak out, as they for the most part disguised their opinions, from motives of fear or policy. We ought also to admit, that among the barbarous nations of these times, there are still to be found men of this character. Nor is there any necessity for limiting such an opinion within the bounds of mere conjecture; for there are various historical relations, which bear testimony to actions of heroic virtue, that have been lately done by some of the individuals of those very nations, where maxims of inhumanity are prevalent at this day; of which if it was necessary, a long catalogue might be adduced.

CIV. In the third place, it may be objected, that experience teaches us, there is scarce a country or populous city, where you may not find some people of perspicuous understandings, and who, although they are of wayward dispositions and depraved inclinations, are subtil and penetrating. To this I answer resolutely and determinedly, that I defy any man to produce such an instance. I have known and conversed with many of those people, who have been esteemed men of good understanding, and perverse dispositions, but have always found the common opinion of those persons to be extremely erroneous. The vulgar frequently look upon persons of very superficial talents, as men of great understanding; and upon hearing them talk off hand, although there is nothing solid in what they say, and observing in them a readiness at expressing themselves, and more especially if they deliver themselves with confidence, and a magisterial air, most people are apt to give them credit for being men of admirable understandings; when in truth, there is hardly one out of a hundred of them, who can penetrate more than skin-deep into the objects he converses upon. There is another very common deception in this matter, and that is, looking upon cunning people as men of depth or penetration, when they are as palpably different from one another, as light is from darkness. I call those cunning people, who are solely attentive to nothing but their own concerns, and who by all sorts of under-hand ways and means, and by all kinds of little arts and deceits, are endeavouring to promote their own particular interest. Can these be called men of sublime understandings? To do this, requires but little depth or penetration, as all that is necessary to accomplish such ends, is low craft and roguery; and there is hardly any capacity, be it ever so mean, which cannot comprehend and apply such trivial artifices: every one may arrive at doing this; but a noble understanding, discerning the baseness of them, abominates such practices; although the vulgar, to whose bastard dispositions they are better suited, embrace them with eagerness. Dissimulation, so far from requiring an exalted understanding to support and carry it on, requires none at all, for we see some irrational animals who exercise it with great address. The foxes are very expert at it, but that does not in any wise render their nature superior to that of brutes; and I repeat again, that I never knew an understanding that had any thing of the elevated or sublime in its composition, that did not abhor all duplicity and fraud.

CV. If we see this matter in the other extreme point of view, we shall find it liable to great equivocation. It frequently happens, that a man of very pure virtue, who has somewhat of native dryness or bluntness in his composition, appears to those of rude and uncultivated capacities, as a person of a depraved disposition. Those who are zealous lovers of truth and justice, are accustomed, not always to accommodate themselves to those courteous condescensions; by which people acquire popular acceptation; as by attending to the substance of things, they are apt to overlook forms and ceremonies. Words from their mouths, signify what the sound and sense of them express: they confider courteous dissimulation as a treacherous enemy of virtue; and are ignorant of the art of painting vice in counterfeit colours, for the sake of pleasing or flattering any man; but on the contrary, are always careful to describe it so, as that it may appear in its true native shape, and in all its deformity. The more prevalent lying, deceit, and perfidy is, the more they loath and nauseate it, and are observed to be more strict and severe in their reprehensions of it; and besides, they never look smilingly, but upon those in whom they perceive a clean mind. This unpleasing integrity, is regarded by the bulk of the world, as a kind of misanthropy, or malevolence towards the generality of mankind; and the number of those, who busy themselves in painting such men, as impracticable, perverse, and ill-intentioned is infinite; for they are pleasing but to very few, as there are but few who are pleased with them; so that either from the malice of their opponents, or from the want of a proper knowledge of the world in those that are indifferent with respect to their opinions of them, it easily comes to pass, that a man of exalted and sincere virtue, is often looked upon by a whole town, as a person of intentional malignity.

CVI. Whoever is upon his guard not to fall into one of the two beforementioned errors, and has capacity to distinguish true virtue from false, and a clear and good understanding, from a cloudy, crooked, or crafty one, will be convinced as I myself have been convinced, that there never fails to be much virtue lodged in the person, in whom you find a real good and clear understanding. I would not however be understood to insinuate, that all men of great genius and capacity should be saints; for meritorious virtue, or such as entitles a man to inherit eternal life, is the child of grace, and not of nature. Neither would I be understood to say, that all kinds of moral virtues should be resplendent in such a man as I have been describing, but only those, whose opposite vices, at first sight, and without the assistance of any reasoning or reflection, are manifest and apparent; and whose deformity, at a glance, strikes the eye of every beholder; nor would I even be understood to assert so much as this, without some limitation and exception; for every vehement passion during the time it lasts, will make the most prudent man act like a mad one, and the most acute one, like a fool; but abstracted from the intervention of such accidents, it is my firm opinion, that every man of a clear and good understanding, is an honest and a good-intentioned one.

THE GREAT AND MASTERLY AUTHORITY of EXPERIENCE.

SECT. I.

I. There arrived in the kingdom of Cosmosia, two famous women, who were very opposite to each other; but both with the same design, which was that of obtaining the absolute dominion over that empire. The first was called Solidina, the other Idearia; the first was learned, but simple; the second ignorant, and ostentatious. The people of the country, were ignorant like the last, and simple as the first. Hence, Solidina thought to win them to her by kindness, and by instructing them; and Idearia, to subdue them by craft and imposition. Idearia opened a public school, and promised in pompous language, that in a very short time, and with little or no trouble, she would make all those extremely learned and wise, who chose to attend her lectures. The greatness of the promise, joined to the imposing appearance of the new doctress, mounted in the professional chair, together with her great volubility, and flow of mountebank rhetoric, soon filled the school with pupils. She began her lectures, which all consisted, in laying before her auditors in new and unusual language, the chimeras, contained in the extensive field of the imagination. And, oh wonderful to relate! either Idearia had somewhat of enchantment about her, or else there was something very singular in her method of applying her artifice and cunning; for in a few years after opening her school, she persuaded those miserable people, they perfectly understood all that could be learned.

II. Solidina, pursued a course diametrically opposite to that taken by Idearia. In an humble garb, and without any parade or ostentation, she went from house to house, and familiarizing herself with all men, taught them in plain and easy language, true and useful documents. The most retired cottages, and the most humble work-shops, were schools suited to her doctrines, for she found in all of them, sensible objects, which examined by the help, or auxiliary aid of the understanding, served the purpose of books for teaching and explaining her lessons; and so far was she from inspiring an indiscreet presumption in her disciples, that she ingenuously told them, that all she taught, was a mere trifle, compared to the infinite deal there is to be learned; and that to arrive at a moderate knowledge of things, required infinite labour and application. This modesty of Solidina’s, was very prejudicial to her, because at the very time she made this declaration, Idearia, was boasting and blazoning in her school, that in a concise mode, and with very little trouble, she would make all her auditors universally learned; the consequence of which was, that the pupils of Solidina one after another began to drop off, and go over to Idearia, in hopes that in her school, they should arrive at the summit of learning _per saltum_. What contributed much to forward this defection, was, that Idearia also spoke of Solidina with contempt, calling her base, vile, mechanical, and stupid; by which means, the poor tutress became abandoned by all the people of rank, and was obliged to retire from the city to the villages, where she applied herself to instructing poor husbandmen, in that sort of knowledge, that was necessary and useful, for the cultivation and improvement of their lands.

III. Idearia by the banishment of her rival, now becoming triumphant, entertained thoughts of establishing an absolute and despotic sway over her disciples; and to accomplish this purpose, she published an edict, by which every one was required not to believe in future, aught he should see with his eyes, or touch with his hands, but only to credit such things as she should be pleased to order him to believe; requiring further, that he should look upon it as an indispensable obligation, always to defend with invincible obstinacy and unremitting vociferation her doctrines, against whoever should presume to contradict them. All heads bowed obedient to this tyrannic decree, and people began firmly to believe many maxims, which before they had found a difficulty in assenting to; such for example, as that the truth can never be found out or ascertained but by means of fiction; that there is a mode of coming at the knowledge of things, which may be taught to a child in four days; that mankind are all alike, which is a rule that will hold good with respect to every other species, and if you know what one of a sort is, you know what they all are; that insensible and inanimate things, have their desires, their prejudices, and their affections, the same as animate ones; that that body, which is the most brilliant, and most heating of any, has nothing igneous in its composition; and that on the other hand, there is another very large body, which is purely igneous, that is neither luminous, nor heating, nor does it stand in need of any pabulum to sustain it; that all living creatures have a large portion of fire in their composition, without excepting even the fish, although they are always in or under the water, nor the turtle, whose blood is positively cold.

IV. These and many other such-like portentous particulars, did Idearia teach to, and impose on her credulous disciples; who all received and embraced them as infallible truths; but at length there arose in the very school of the doctress herself, a contentious schism, or scandalous disagreement, which was begun by one Papyratius, a man of subtil and animated genius, but a great lover of novelties. This man introduced new and not less astonishing dogmas than the others; such as that all the living creatures in the world, man only excepted, have no more sensation or feeling than stocks or stones; and that in every man, there is but a very small portion of the body which possesses the presence of the soul; that the extension of the world is infinite; that the motion of sublunary bodies, is equally semper-eternal with that of the cœlestial ones; that the imaginary space, is really and truly a body; that every thing upon the face of the earth, is in so continual and rapid a motion, as in the space of every twenty-four hours, to travel some thousands of leagues; that we in all things, should give credit to our imaginations, but none to our senses; for that the representations made by these last, are apt grossly to deceive us; and that neither is the swan white, or the crow black, nor is fire hot, or snow cold, &c.

V. These novelties, and others of the same sort, although they were condemned from the beginning by the majority of Idearia’s disciples, did not fail to attract a number of votaries, sufficient to form a new school. The two parties inveighed against each other with great bitterness, and one side reprobated as absurd errors, what the other maintained as conclusive dogmas.

VI. This division, after long and obstinate disputes, in which the arguments were so nearly poised in equilibrium, that neither side could claim the victory, in the course of time, opened the eyes of many, and made them doubt whether they had not lightly, or even blindly, admitted as articles of human faith, doctrines, that were uncertain, and exposed to be terribly contested. They observed, that the arguments with which each side attacked the opinions of their opponents, were beyond comparison stronger, than the reasons with which they defended their own. From hence they inferred, that both the one and the other were evidently doubtful, and might very probably be false. This brought to their remembrance the poor and neglected Solidina, and made them reflect, that she proved all she advanced, by sensible and plain demonstrations. This remark becoming every day more general, and more adverted to by men of the first-rate ingenuity in the schools; they took the matter into consideration, and the result of their deliberations was, a determination to recall Solidina from her retirement, and to bring her back to the city; which after having done with solemn pomp, they erected a magnificent school for her, where she has continued to teach from that time, with a reputation that has increased daily; and her being favoured with the countenance and protection of some illustrious personages of high rank, has greatly contributed to advance her credit, and particularly the encouragement she has met with from the princes, Galindo and Anglosio, who are both great lovers, and patrons of Solidina.

SECT. II.

VII. This History, which was printed in French, was given me to read by a stranger who was on his travels; but as soon as I had read what I have just related, he snatched the book out of my hands, and asked me if I comprehended what I had read? The question gave me to understand, there was something mysterious in the History, and that under the plain letter, was conveyed some signification, different from what the words expressed. I answered him, that I had not understood it in any other sense, than what the language seemed to imply; but that if he would permit me to read it over again with a little attention, I might perhaps be able to comprehend its meaning. He gave me leave, and then upon reflection, first on the nature of the doctrines it mentioned, although they were not pointed out very clearly, and secondly, on the allusion of the names given to the personages who were introduced into the scene, I found it was not very difficult to decypher the riddle, which I interpreted in the following manner.