登陆注册
4811400000117

第117章

IV. CASTING OUT THE RESIDUE OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE.

Two stages in this operation. - Voltaire, Montesquieu, the deists and the reformers represent the first one. - What they destroy and what they respect.

In this great undertaking there are two stages. Owing to common sense or timidity many stop half-way. Motivated by passion or logic others go to the end. -- A first campaign results in carrying the enemy's out-works and his frontier fortresses, the philosophical army being led by Voltaire. To combat hereditary prejudice, other prejudices are opposed to it whose empire is as extensive and whose authority is not less recognized. Montesquieu looks at France through the eyes of a Persian, and Voltaire, on his return from England, describes the English, an unknown species. Confronting dogma and the prevailing system of worship, accounts are given, either with open or with disguised irony, of the various Christian sects, the Anglicans, the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the Socinians, those of ancient or of remote people, the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Muslims, and Guebers, of the worshippers of Brahma, of the Chinese and of pure idolaters. In relation to established laws and customs, expositions are made, with evident intentions, of other constitutions and other social habits, of despotism, of limited monarchy, of a republic, here the church subject to the state, there the church free of the state, in this country castes, in another polygamy, and, from country to country, from century to century, the diversity, contradiction and antagonism of fundamental customs which, each on its own ground, are all equally consecrated by tradition, all legitimately forming the system of public rights. From now on the charm is broken. Ancient institutions lose their divine prestige; they are simply human works, the fruits of the place and of the moment, and born out of convenience and a covenant. Skepticism enters through all the breaches. With regard to Christianity it at once enters into open hostility, into a bitter and prolonged polemical warfare; for, under the title of a state religion this occupies the ground, censuring free thought, burning writings, exiling, imprisoning or disturbing authors, and everywhere acting as a natural and official adversary. Moreover, by virtue of being an ascetic religion, it condemns not only the free and cheerful ways tolerated by the new philosophy but again the natural tendencies it sanctions, and the promises of terrestrial felicity with which it everywhere dazzles the eyes. Thus the heart and the head both agree in their opposition. -- Voltaire, with texts in hand, pursues it from one end to the other of its history, from the first biblical narration to the latest papal bulls, with unflagging animosity and energy, as critic, as historian, as geographer, as logician, as moralist, questioning its sources, opposing evidences, driving ridicule like a pick-ax into every weak spot where an outraged instinct beats against its mystic walls, and into all doubtful places where ulterior patchwork disfigures the primitive structure. -- He respects, however, the first foundation, and, in this particular, the greatest writers of the day follow the same course. Under positive religions that are false there is a natural religion that is true. This is the simple and authentic text of which the others are altered and amplified translations. Remove the ulterior and divergent excesses and the original remains; this common essence, on which all copies harmonize, is deism. -- The same operation is to be made on civil and political law. In France, where so many survive their utility, where privileges are no longer paid for with service, where rights are changed into abuses, how incoherent is the architecture of the old Gothic building! How poorly adapted to a modern nation ! Of what use, in an unique and compact state, are those feudal compartments separating orders, corporations and provinces? What a living paradox is the archbishop of a semi-province, a chapter owning 12,000 serfs, a drawing room abbé well supported by a monastery he never saw, a lord liberally pensioned to figure in antechambers, a magistrate purchasing the right to administer justice, a colonel leaving college to take the command of his inherited regiment, a Parisian trader who, renting a house for one year in Franche-Comté, alienates through this act alone the ownership of his property and of his person. Throughout Europe there are others of the same character. The best that can be said of "a civilized nation" [12] is that its laws, customs and practices are composed "one-half of abuses and one-half of tolerable usage". --But, underneath these concrete laws, which contradict each other, and of which each contradicts itself, a natural law exists, implied in the codes, applied socially, and written in all hearts.

"Show me a country where it is honest to steal the fruits of my labor, to violate engagements, to lie for injurious purposes, to calumniate, to assassinate, to poison, to be ungrateful to one's benefactor, to strike one's father and mother on offering you food". -"Justice and injustice is the same throughout the universe,"and, as in the worst community force always, in some respects, is at the service of right, so, in the worst religion, the extravagant dogma always in some fashion proclaims a supreme architect. --Religions and communities, accordingly, disintegrated under the investigating process, disclose at the bottom of the crucible, some residue of truth, others a residue of justice, a small but precious balance, a sort of gold ingot of preserved tradition, purified by Reason, and which little by little, freed from its alloys, elaborated and devoted to all usage, must solely provide the substance of religion and all threads of the social warp.

V. THE DREAM OF A RETURN TO NATURE.

同类推荐
  • 明伦汇编宫闱典公主驸马部

    明伦汇编宫闱典公主驸马部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 六十种曲浣纱记

    六十种曲浣纱记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 郴江百咏

    郴江百咏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 真仙真指语录

    真仙真指语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 咏慵

    咏慵

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 丑女来让祸水爱

    丑女来让祸水爱

    玩弄人于股掌之中,是他的兴趣,慵懒的笑容,是他的面具,而潇洒过人生则就是他奉为宗旨的人生哲理了。所以,迄今为止,风度翩翩,拥有“祸水”容颜的他依然是快乐的单身贵族一个,而且纯洁如昔!容颜被毁,家遭惨变,寄人篱下,总之所有的倒霉事都让她遇见了。就在她的日子过得凄惨无比时,她遇见了他。这、这拥有天人般容颜的男人在朝她笑?当即以为他在嘲弄自己的她,转身撒腿就跑了!咦?他、他干嘛追着自己不放,难道他的眼睛被糊住,没看见她长得什么样吗?这赖在她身边,笑得傻呆呆的他,竟然出得厅堂,入得厨房,把她当宝宠,她是在做梦吗?天上竟然掉下这么好的事!?难不成老天在补偿她,给她这个丑女送来一位权高位重的“大祸水”?
  • 三少奶奶

    三少奶奶

    她睁开眼时,全身尽湿,据说,是刚被人从池塘里救上来。原来,自己穿越成首富祁家刚过门的三少奶奶,新婚夜贪杯,失足落了水。新婚当晚,新郎留恋赌坊、夜深未归,整个祈府,能将他从赌坊带回的,却只有二少奶奶!祁家四世同堂,祁老爷是商界奇才,声名赫赫,只是到了祁家第三代……大少爷天生体弱多病、双腿残废;二少爷掌管米店,有点小聪明,但却好色成性;三少爷……,则只有在赌场才能见到他的人;四少爷则在十岁那年,一场高烧,烧成了傻子!本只想冷眼旁观地逍遥度日,无奈总有人撩拨是非,别以为她平日闷声不吭便是好欺负,殊不知,她最擅长的,便是扮猪吃老虎!片段1:目睹了一场男女纠缠后,有人皮笑肉不笑,“二哥似乎对和我有关系的女人,都特别地感兴趣。”某二少说,“我能抢你一次,自然也能抢你第二次。”无所谓地笑,“随你,只要你能让一切名正言顺。”片段2:“这是咱们府里新打造的饰品?”男人嬉笑着将手里的金器不停把玩。“嗯。”女人埋首画图,头也不抬。男人见状,悄悄地将金器往袖笼里塞。“别藏了,我这有现成的银两给你去赌,不是更方便?”文案纠结!本文种田,宅斗少不了,争风吃醋更是家常便饭,过程励志,结局一对一,耐心看下去,绝对精彩。推荐好友的文文:《逼良为兽》《悍妾当家》
  • 邪王擒妻:宠你入骨

    邪王擒妻:宠你入骨

    [1V1独宠]莫深,无人知他从何而来,于朝堂有何干系,满门抄斩却都能被他救下性命,他只一句“我不要这天下,这天下就会要了你!”,便将世人口口相传的“梅神”
  • 盛世狂妃:冰山上神宠妻无度

    盛世狂妃:冰山上神宠妻无度

    【男强女强+双至尊+绝宠无双】至亲陷害?好友背叛?一朝穿越,成为尊贵却卑微的相府三小姐。当她成为她,薄唇微勾,弹指之间算尽计谋,步步为营,虐姨娘庶姐,夺神器丹药,看她如何大杀四方,在混沌九州里素手白衣掀起风云!盛世之中,她却遇见玄衣谪仙居于九重冥界的他,自此便定要执手踏遍浮生烈焰,看尽六界众生冥冥,我主沉浮!
  • 榜样的力量

    榜样的力量

    职场上,一个有感召力的领导,是团队的核心,是团队成员的效仿对象;生活中,一个有感召力的人,是圈子中的焦点,是周围人眼中的榜样。感召力是一种领袖气质,只有不断追求超越的人才能驾驭它,用好它。《榜样的力量》共十二章节,内容包括超越自我,追逐成功、理想是船,信念是帆、精神凝聚力量、魅力即是引力、形象营造气场、做最好的自己等。
  • 军火狂后

    军火狂后

    沈如歌,一朝穿越,遇神杀神,遇魔杀魔,谁人欺她一分,她便还以十分颜色。夜无忧,皇城翻云覆雨的黑暗之王,传说,他喜怒无常,残暴不仁,嗜血成魔,她,惹上了他,她让他街头秀春宫,他欲拿她犒赏三军,
  • 我相信勇者不会拯救世界

    我相信勇者不会拯救世界

    勇者、贤者,属于传说中的存在,真的会出现在这个世界吗?如果真的会出现这样的存在,那请你们不要拯救世界。当自私的愿望传达到另一个世界后,游戏高玩也被世界所选中。相斥的愿望下,他的命运就此展开。(新人非主流小说,可能是多视角,可能是多主角,可能是多虐文,深坑慎入。)
  • 春去樱花花正阳

    春去樱花花正阳

    “桃李花开,即是春来而季,缓缓岁月,洗刷浅浅伤痕”,选择环境成就事业,让青春在事业中实习,不会失去,只是汲取的开始……
  • 猎明

    猎明

    大明的锦衣卫与忠勇将士、朝鲜的僧人与青楼义女、日本的忍者与武士,共同激荡在四百多年前的东北亚战场上,万历皇帝、丰臣秀吉、朝鲜王子、努尔哈赤、西洋传教士等各大派别人物陆续登场。忠与义、刀与火、野心与权谋、智略与武勇,爱恨情仇交织在一起!三尺寒锋开天地,一腔热血为谁流?!
  • 剪窗烛

    剪窗烛

    别人穿越混的风生水起,她白笙池穿越却是……唉!这可如何是好?