I : Of the reciprocal Contempt of Nations, an Effay. T is with nations as with individuals if every one of us believes himself infallible, places contradiction in the rank of offences, and can neither esteem nor admire any thing in another, but what refembles fomething in himself; fo every nation, in like manner, never efteems in others, any ideas that are not analogous to its own; and every contrary opinion is a feed of contempt. Let us caft our eyes with rapidity over the univerfe: there are the English, who take the French for giddy-headed mortals, while the French fay that their brains are difordered. There is the Arab, who, perfuaded of the infallibility of his khalif, laughs at the credulity of the Tartar, who believes the Great Lama immortal. In Africa is the negro, who, paying his adorations to a root, the claw of a lobiter, or the horn of an animal, fees nothing on the earth but an immenfe mafs of deities, and laughs at the scarcity of gods among us; while the ill-inform ed Muffelman accufes us with acknowledging three. Farther ftill are the inhabitants of the mountain of Bata, who are perfuaded that every man who eats a roafted cuckow before his death is a faint; they confequently make a mock of the Indian. "What can be more ridiculous," fay they," than to bring a cow to the "bed of the fick; and to imagine, "that if the cow which they draw 66 along by the tail, happens to pifs, "and fome drops of her urine fall upon the dying, this renders him 66 66 a faint? What more abfurd in "the bramins, than to require of "their new converts to eat no other "food for fix months than cows dung *” 66 The reciprocal contempt of nations is always founded on fome difference of manners and cuftoms. From this motive † the inhabitant of Antioch, + formerly defpifed, in the emperor Julian, that fimplicity of manners, and that frugality which justly obtained the admiration of the Gauls. The difference of religion, and confequently of opinion, induced at the fame time the chriftians, more zealous than juft, to blacken with the most infamous calumnies, the memory of a prince, who, by diminishing the taxes, reftoring military difcipline, and reviving the expiring virtue of the Romans, fo juftly deferved to be placed in the rank of the greatest emperors 1. If we caft our eyes on all fides, we fee every place thus unjuft. Each nation, convinced that he is the fole poffeffor of wisdom, takes all others for fools; and nearly resembles the inhabitants of the Marian iflands |, who, being perfuaded that theirs was the only language in the universe, concluded from thence, "Theatre of idolatry, by Abraham Roger." The cow, according to Vincent le Blanc, is reputed holy and venerable at Calicut. There is nothing that has in general a greater reputation for fanctity: it feems that the custom of eating cows dung by way of pennance, is very antient in the Eaft. One of the inhabitants of the Caribbee iflands, offended at our contempt cried out, "I know no other favages but the Europeans, who adopt none of our customs." Of the origin and manners of the Caribbees, by La Borde. There was engraven on the tomb of Julian at Tarfus, "Here lies Julian, who loft his life on the banks of the Tigris. He was an excellent emperor, and a valiant warrior." Voyages of the Dutch Eaft-India company. H VOL. I that that all other men knew not how to speak. If a fage defcended from heaven, and in his conduct confulted only the light of reason, he would univerfally pafs for a fool. He would be, as Socrates fays, like a phyfician, whom the pastry-cooks accufed before a tribunal compofed of children, for having prohibited the eating of pies and tarts; and would certainly be condemned. In vain would this fage fupport his opinions, by the ftrongelt demonftrations; all the nations would be with refpect to him, as the nation of hump-backed people, among whom, as the Indian fabulift fays, came a god, beautiful, young, and well-proportioned. This god, they add, entered into the capital, where he was foon furrounded by a multitude of the inhabitants: his figure appeared extraordinary; their laughter and taunts declared their altonishment: and they were going to carry their affronts ftill farther, if, to fave him from danger, one of the inhabitants, who had doubtless feen other men that were not hump-backed, had not fuddenly cried out, O my friends! what are we going to do? Let us not infult this unhappy piece of deformity: if Heaven has granted to us all the gifts of beauty; if it has adorned our backs with a mountain of flesh, let us be filled with gratitude to the immortals, repair to the temple, and return thanks to the gods. This fable is the hiftory of human vanity. All people admire their own defects, and defpife the contrary qualities. To fucceed in any country, we must carthe hump of the nation into which we travel. ry There are in every country but few advocates who plead the caufe of the neighbouring nations; few men who acknowledge in themselves the ridicule they caft upon ftrangers, and take example from I do not know what Tartar, who, on this fubject, had the addrefs to make the Great Lama himfelf blush at his injuftice. This Tartar had travelled through the North, vifited the country of the Laplanders, and even purchafed a wind of their forcerers §. On his return to his native country, he related his adventures; and the Great Lama refolving to hear him, was ready to burft his fides with laughing at his story. Of what folly, cried he, is the human mind capable! What fantastic cuftoms! How credu lous are the Laplanders! Are these men? Yes indeed, replied the Tartar: I might inform you of fomething even ftill more furprifing. Thefe Laplanders, with their ridiculous" wizards, laugh no lefs at our credu lity than thou doft at theirs. Impious! cried the Great Lama, darest thou pronounce this blafphemy, and compare my religion with theirs? Eternal Father, replied the Tartar, before the fecret impofition of thy hand on my head had washed me from my fin, I would have reprefented that thou oughtest not to have engaged thy fubjects to make a profane ufe of their reafon. If the fevere eye of examination and doubt was fpread over all the objects of human belief, who knows whether thy worship itself would be sheltered from the raillery of the incredulous ? Perhaps thy holy urine, and thy facred excrements, which thou doft diftribute in presents to the princes of the earth, would lefs appear precious; perhaps they would not find they had ftill the fame favour: they would no longer put it powdered into The Laplanders have forcerers, who fell to mariners, pieces of cord with knots tied at certain diftances, which are to give them a favourable wind. their Of the reciprocal Contempt of Nations. their ragouts, nor any longer mix it in their fauces. Already, in China, does impiety deny the nine incarnations of Vifthnou. Thou, whofe penetrating view comprehends the paft, the prefent, and the future, haft often repeated it to us: it is to the talifman of blind belief that thou owest thine immortality, and thy power on earth: without this entire fubmiffion to thy doctrines, thou wouldeft be obliged to quit this abode of darkness, and afcend to heaven, thy native country. Thou knoweft that the Lamas, fubject to thy power, are one day to raife altars to thee in all the countries of the world. Who can affure thee, that they will execute this project, without the affiftance of human credulity; and that without it, enquiry, which is always impious, will not take the Lamas for Lapland wizards, who fell winds to the fools that buy them? Excufe then, O living Fo, the difcourfe dictated by my regard for thy worship; and may the Tartar learn of thee to refpect the ignorance and credulity which Heaven, ever impenetrable in is views, feems to ordain in order to make the earth fubmit to thee. Few men perceive the ridicule of their own nation, which they cover from the eye of reafon, while, under a foreign name, they laugh at their own folly but there are ftill fewer nations capable of improving by fuch advice. All are fo fcrupulously attached to the intereft of their own vanity, that, in every country, they give the title of wife only to thofe who, as Fontenelle fays, are the fools of the common folly. How fantastic foever a fable is, it is in fome nations believed, and whoever doubts of its truth is treated by that nation as a fool. In the kingdom of Juida, where they adore the ferpent, what man dare deny the tale which the Marabouts tell of a hog, which, fay they, infulted the divinity of the ferpent, and eat it up. An holy $5 Marabout, they fay, perceived it, and carried his complaints to the king. In an inftant, sentence of death was paffed upon all the swine : the execution followed, and the whole race was going to be extirpated, when the people reprefented to his majefty, that it was not just to punish fo many innocent fwine for one guilty hog. These remonftrances fufpended the prince's wrath: they appeafed the grand Marabout, the maffacre ceafed, and the hogs were ordered to behave with more respect to the deity for the future. Thus, cry the Marabouts, the ferpent, to be revenged on the impious, kindled the wrath of kings, that the whole universe might acknowledge his divinity, his temple, and his highpriest, at the order of the Marabout appointed to ferve him, and of the virgins confecrated to his worship. If, retired at the bottom of his fanctuary, the ferpent-god, invifible to the fight even of the king himself, receives not his questions, and makes no answer to his requelts, but by the mouth of the priest; it is not for mortals to pry into these myfteries with a profane eye: their duty is to believe, to proftrate themselves, and adore. In Afia, on the contrary, when the Perfians, ftained with the blood of the ferpents facrificed to the god of goodnefs, ran to the temple of the Magi, to boast of this act of piety; can it be thought, that, if a man had ftopped them in order to prove the ridiculoufnefs of their opinion, he would have been well received? The more foolish an opinion is, the more it is praife-worthy, and the more dangerous it is to prove its folly. Thus, Fontenelle was accustomed to fay, that, if he held every truth in his hand, he would take great care not to open it to fhew them to men." In fact, if the difcovery of one truth alone, even in Europe, H 2 threw threw Galileo into the prifons of the inquifition, to what punishment would he be condemned who revealed them all * ? Among the rational part of my readers, who at this inftant laugh at the folly of the human mind, and are filled with indignation at the treatment of Galileo, perhaps there is not one, who in the age of that philofopher, would not have folicited for his death. They would then have been of different fentiments, and in what cruelties are we involved when barbarity and fanaticifm are united to our opinions? How has this union deluged the earth with the most dreadful evils! And yet it is an union that it must be equally juft, ufeful, and eafy to diffolve. In order to learn to doubt of our opinions, it is fufficient that we examine the powers of our minds, confider the picture of human follies, and recollect that fix hundred years after the establishment of universities, there arofe an extraordinary man †, who was perfecuted by the age in which he lived, and at length placed in the rank of demi-gods, for having taught men to admit nothing for truth of which they had not clear ideas few men were capable of knowing the extent of this principle, for among the greatest part of mankind principles include no confe quences. However great the vanity of mankind may be, it is certain that if they frequently call to mind fuch facts; if, like Fontenelle, they often fay to themselves, "Nobody efcapes from error, and am I alone infallible? May I not be deceived in those very things which I maintain with the greatest fanaticifm?" If men had this idea habitually prefent to their minds, they would be more on their guard against vanity, more attentive to the objections of their adverfaries, and better prepared to perceive the force of truth: they would be more mild; more inclined to toleration, and doubtless would have a less high opinion of their own wifdom. Socrates frequently repeated, "All that I know, is, that I know nothing." In our age we know every thing except what Socrates knew. Men would not be fo often furprised into error, were it not for their ignorance; and their folly is in general the more incurable, from their believing themfelves wife. This folly, which is common to all nations, and is in part produced by their vanity, makes them not only defpife the manners and cuftoms that are different from their own, but makes them alfo difregard as a gift of nature that fuperiority which fome of them have over others: a fuperiority that is folely owing to the political conftitution of their nation. The Generous Country-Maid; or, Difinterested Love. T has been frequently obferved, and obferved with reafon, that what we often intend only as an amufement in love, is generally productive of very ferious confequences: many inftances have been given to fupport this opinon; the following narrative will tend to confirm it. The Marquis de Clerville, young, amiable, formed to pleafe, had re To think, fays Ariftippus, is to draw upon ourfelves the irreconcilable hatred of the ignorant, the weak, the fuperftitious, and the corrupt, who all loudly declare themselves against thofe who would take hold of truth, and in every thing feize whatever is effentially neceflary to be known. + Defcartes. fufed The Generous Country Maid: or, Difinterested Love. fufed feveral confiderable offers; his inclination for freedom had proved an unfurmountable obftacle to his fettling in life-a fimple country girl, at laft, however, deftroyed the plan of independance he had laid down for himself; he fubmitted to give his hand to his tenant's daughter. -De Clerville, for fo we fhall call him, purchased a very fine feat contiguous to one of his own farms, at the folicitation of one Boiffart his tenant, a man of great worth and property. The Marquis foon found an inclination in himself to improve this eitate; and, notwithstanding he had no thoughts of refiding there himfelf, was impatient till the work was began. Every man must have fome object in view; and this eftate, for want of ahother, became an object to the Marquis. One day, when he was at Boiffart's farm, he faw a young perfon, extreamly beautiful, and afked, with fome earnestness, who fhe was. The farmer told him she was his daughter; adding, that he had brought her up in a convent. As this was not customary with people in the country, Clerville, afked why he did not rather keep her at home, to affift her mother? 66 Because," replied Boiffart, "my only aim is her happiness; I would have Angelica refolve to be a nun. "Do not imagine," added he, "that this is propofed with a view to facrifice her to the intereft of my fon; they are both equally dear to me; but I would willingly confent to give the one half of the little I am worth to fee her take the veil. Her good alone has induced me to form this wish; for what other fettlement can I hope to procure her? None, furely, where the will find fo much fatisfaction. I may add, which will be fo worthy of her. Yes;" continued the good old man, I fpeak from my heart; and those who know her, cannot attribute 57 this little offering of praise to blind partiality. "Her own fentiments, then, don't quite agree with yours," replied the marquis: " a cloyfter is not her choice." "Pardon me," anfwered the father, "though fhe cannot refolve to take the veil, yet her diffidence does not proceed from any hopes of being married. She is as fenfible as myself, of my inability to procure her happiness in that state equal to her merit. Her mind is infinitely fuperior to her condition and without defpifing her equals, fhe finds her own fentiments and theirs too oppofite to permit a thought of living happily amongst them; or to employ herself in thofe occupations which her little fortune will oblige her to follow. Thus fhe fears to engage in a ftate of life, from which death alone can deliver her; and I have every thing to fear fhould death fnatch me away before she has made her choice. At prefent, fhe has a juft way of thinking; but what affurance can I have, that, when left to herself, her fentiments will not alter; efpecially if her heart fhould incline to favour any individual. She will then lie expofed to every danger." As he finished thefe words, his daughter entered the room, and the marquis could not behold her without admiration. He addreffed himfelf to her; fhe answered with the moft becoming modefty; but, at the fame time, fhewed fhe poffeffed no fmall fhare of wit and good sense. The marquis returned to his feat; but the image of Angelica followed him and from that time his vifits to his tenant became more frequent. He often faw the charmer of his foul, and used every art that the might read in his eyes the pleasure of feeing her brought him there. One day he found her fitting alone; fhe offered to go and feek her father. : "No," |