contributed to ruine the Sincerity of several Historians is that they undertook the writing of History to obtain some Reward or to Advance themselves in the Party wherein they were obliged Suppose that an Historian lies really under such Circumstances that he has occasion for some Acknowledgment and that he believes to obtain it by favouring a Party 't is a hundred to one if his Occasions don't prevail over his Love for Truth There are but few Men that are able without some regret to behold Flatterers recompens'd for their Writings living in Reputation and enjoying their Pleasures when melancholy Truth is discouraged and contemned together with all those that dare admire her or speak of her in public And there are as few learned Men whose Fortunes generally speaking are none of the greatest whom Rewards cannot gain or at least prevail with to conceal what is III if they don't invent advantagious Facts for those that recompence them From hence it follows that the business of writing modern History in those places where a Man is any ways interessed ought not to be an Office or Employment by which one proposes purely Profit to himself A Man may write foreign or ancient Histories in which all the World is pleased to hear the truth because we are no farther concern'd in that than only to know what has happen'd But 't is almost impossible to write in any Government by public Order and in consequence of a Pension the Transactions that lately fell out in it and at the same time to confine himself religiously to the Truth After this when we see throngs of People crowd and press to obtain the like Employments who can forbear crying out Oh! Homines ad mentiendum paratos Here are Men that are ready to tell Lies for their Interest But may it not so happen that a Prince or a Government may be pleas'd for a Man to say the Truth nay and even recompense the generous Liberty of an Historian who has told both the good and bad without dissembling in the least Is this Virtue impracticable or above Humane Nature There is no question to be made but this is possible to God who is able to change the Hearts of Men as he pleases but I look upon it to be impossible to Men in the present Condition wherein we find them Flatterers are not only rewarded in all places of the World but we look upon those Persons to be disaffected and seditious that dare proclaim any Faults that we have committed and we are more severe in punishing such People than we are liberal in rewarding those that Flatter us Princes imagine that it is not so advantageous for them that we speak Well of them as 't is dangerous to suffer us to speak the least III of them Mankind is every-where violently prejudiced against the Praises of those that cannot blame without exposing themselves to some Disgrace and easily believe the Ill which it is dangerous to speak This is the reason why we are much more afraid of a sincere Writer than we love those that are ready to say all that we wou'd have them say Thus even those Persons who wou'd scorn to prostitute themselves so meanly as to tell Lies for a Reward have not Courage enough oftentimes to expose themselves to Persecutions for speaking the Truth If Sovereign Princes had a mind to instruct Posterity at their own Expence they ought so to manage Matters that Historians might have nothing to fear from them for describing their Defects as well as their Virtues and the Faults they have committed as well as their fine Actions Those to whom they address themselves to write their History ought to answer them in some such a manner as follows If you wou'd have the World believe the Good I can write of you give me leave not to dissemble whatever may with truth be said to your disadvantage If you wou'd have them think that it is not out of Interest that I commend you take care that they have not any reason to suspect that the fear of being Ill-used has not hinder'd my Pen from writing what may be justly censured Otherwise leave me at liberty to hold my Tongue and reserve your Favours for other Persons than for Flatterers who are as little believed when they praise those to whom they have sold their Liberty as when they blame without reason the Enemies of their Benefactors For my part there are no Lies or Dissimulations to be bought of me and I will never sell the Truth But to make such a plain-dealing Speech as this is a Man must be of the Humour of Philoxenus who rather chose to drudge in the vilest Employment with Irons upon his Feet than not to ridicule the wretched Verses of a certain Tyrant of Syracuse But we have few Men of this Temper But it is not only Passion that may mislead an Historian for there are Prepossessions that may have the same Effect upon him and equally lead him out of his way When we have once entertained a good Opinion of a Man we are resolved without farther Examination to believe all that is said to his Advantage and on the other hand we readily believe all the Ill that is reported of those whom we don't esteem However it may so fall out that Persons who in all Respects deserve our Admiration may commit very great Faults and that others who little deserve to be esteem'd may sometimes do very good Actions Humane Nature is not so equal in itself whatever condition it may be in but it frequently passes from Good to Evil and from Evil to Good when we least intend it The Examples of Aratus and Agathocles which I have already cited are an evident Proof of it Therefore an Historian ought to disengage himself from all Prevention and to exanine in themselves the Proofs of those Facts he is going to relate To censure if there be a just Occasion for it those whom he has Esteem'd and on the contrary to praise those of whom he had a bad Opinion if they deserve it Polybius infinitely esteem'd the Romans upon the score of moral and military Virtues and in truth he had reason to admire them upon several Accounts It is not to be supposed that he cou'd have so advantageous an Idea of the Carthaginians and to say the truth they did not equal the Romans However this does not hinder him from publishing the Faults of the former and their Violation of Faith upon diverse occasions as particularly their Usage of the Carthaginians after the end of the first Punic War In like manner he commends the good conduct of the Carthaginian Generals when they deserved it Thus the Romans had so great an esteem for his Sincerity and Judgment that Brutus who kill'd Julius Caesar made an Abridgment of his History in the latter part of his Life at which time he was most of all taken up with Business But we find few Historians so impartial and sincere The present
contrary who believed that their Wise Man never conjectured and that whatever he believed could be demonstrated Neither yet is every thing uncertain as the Academians held and there is an infinite number of Things which can be demonstrated or rendred very likely as Mr. L. C. has shewn at large in the second Part of his Logick We ought to speak more or less affirmatively according to the several degrees of Likelihood or Certainty As it would be ridiculous to speak doubtfully of a clear Mathematical Proposition so it would not be less absurd to propose a Conjecture as a Demonstration Men have always been allowed to Conjecture and say what seem'd to them to be probable but upon condition that they should remember that their Conjectures were not certain Truths Reason therefore teaches a Man to act differently when any Body writes against a Conjecture which he has published or when he perceives that they write against a clear Truth out of Malice or Obstinacy If any one shews that a Conjecture may be false the Author of that Conjecture must not take it ill because a Conjecture is an Opinion wherein one may be mistaken And if after a more careful Examination he thinks that his Conjecture is less probable than it seem'd to be at first he ought to look upon it with greater Indifferency and even give it up if he finds out something better A Man must never be positive in Things which cannot at all be demonstrated so as to embrace or defend as certain what is only probable This Mr. L. C. thought he might very well do with respect to the Conjecture which is to be found in the VI. Letter of the Sentiments concerning the Compiler of the Pentateuch who as he thought might have been an Honest Israelite who collected all the Writings of Moses and added to them some other Facts taken out of some ancient and creditable Books for the use of the Samaritans about the time of the Captivity As he always call'd that Opinion a Conjecture so he never defended it but as such and thought not himself obliged to maintain it as a thing he was sure of against those who opposed it Nay he shewed some Years after as I shall say in its due place that tho' there are some Passages in the Pentateuch which are later than Moses yet that can be no reason against his being the Author of it He was so much the more willing to give up that Conjecture because it is one of those Complex Conjectures if I may so speak wherein too many uncertain Things are supposed every one of which being possibly false it follows from thence that such a Conjecture is not probable enough to serve as a Principle for the Explication of the Pentateuch For the more doubtful Things there are in a Conjecture the more uncertain it is and the more danger there is in supposing it to draw Consequences from it 'T is with Conjectures as 't is with Accounts made up of several Sums If you make an uncertain Supposition concerning the value of one of those Sums in case you mistake you mistake but in one particular but the more uncertain Suppositions you make the more doubtful will the Account be and liable to more Errors What must a Man therefore do in such a Case He must Conjecture as little as he can and draw few Consequences from what he has Conjectured that he may be mistaken as little as may be if he is in an Error If Learned Men had always done this we might have had a more real and solid knowledge of many Things than we have and could better distinguish what is certain from what is uncertain whereas when Conjectures are confounded with certainties we think we know many Things which we really know not For Example Joseph Scaliger who was a very Learned Man mixed so many Conjectures in his Book de Emendations Temporum with what he might have undeniably proved and drew so many Consequences from them that a great part of his Chronology is become thereby very suspicious if not false as the famous Dionysius Petavius pretends I know a Man of great Learning who has published several Learned Books about Ecclesiastical History and the Opinions of the ancient Christians but he is so full of Conjectures some of which are grounded upon ethers that his Arguments are seldom cogent and convince few judicious and attentive Readers 'T is much better to say nothing of doubtful Things or at least to draw no Consequences from them and run the hazard of appearing less knowing than to vent too many Uncertainties But it is a common Fault among Men of Parts After they have wearied themselves in searching after fugitive Truth they make to themselves a Phantom of their own Conjectures which they substitute in its place lest they should seem to have altogether lost their time Then to maintain that Phantom they make other Conjectures especially when they are hard put to it and so by degrees instead of solid Truths they vent only Dreams to those that hear them When they think they have much contributed to the discovery of Truths unknown before their time they often remove them farther from Men's sight like Turnus in Virgil's Aeneids who the more he followed Aeneas's Spectrum the farther he went from the place where the Enemies stood I think one might make a very useful Treatise concerning the Art of Conjecturing which would be reduced into Maxims the chief whereof are the following 1. Every Conjecture must be probable 2. It ought to be as simple as possible 3. No Consequences must be drawn from it 4. One must speak of it doubtfully as of a thing not certain 5. No Body should think himself obliged in Honour to defend it nor scruple to give it up 6. He who thinks himself obliged to maintain it must not have recourse to new Suppositions The usefulness of those Maxims might be shewn by very good Reasons and several Examples taken out of the Writings of Philosophers and Criticks who have neglected them and have therefore committed great Errors and maintained the most uncertain Things in the World with such a Heat and Confidence as is only to be used in the defence of a certain Truth Several People stand in need of these Remarks to learn to be less positive about Things they are not certain of and not to wonder if any one yields up a Conjecture which he never took for a certain Truth They who have little thought of the several degrees of Probability are wont to speak of every thing with an equal assurance and maintain with Obstinacy whatever they say without distinguishing what can be maintained from that which cannot But this ought not to be the practice of those who can reason well and who love the Truth to which they must consequently sacrifice all their Conjectures Of the Treatise concerning the Inspiration of the Sacred Writers THE XI and XII Letters of the Sentiments c. contain a
of proving Things themselves and the manner of proving them That Commentary was very acceptable to the Publick as it appeared in that not only it Sold well but was likewise approved of by many Learned Men. But because there are always some Men who being not able to Compose any Thing of their own think notwithstanding that they are good Judges of other Men's Works the Envy and Malice of some Divines soon broke out against him Had he made a pitiful Rapsody out of the several Interpreters who wrote before him they would perhaps have approved or said nothing of him But whoever endeavours to teach 'em something new and do better than others cannot fail to undergo their Censure A Divine of that Temper took care to Incense against him Dr. Kidder Bishop of Bath and Wells who published some English Notes on the Pentateuch in the Year 1694. That Learned Man being deceived by a Person whom he did not mistrust spoke somewhat unkindly of Mr. L. C. because he believed that some Places of the Pentateuch were not written by Moses tho Monsieur Huet and Mr. Witsius and several others scrupled not to acknowledge the like Additions which indeed are manifest But Mr. L. C. having complained to the Bishop in a Letter he received a more obliging Answer from him as he has already said in his Preface before Exodus He perceived by that Answer that some Men who have Reason to speak well of him and dislike not his Opinions had given that Prelate an ill Character of him Mr. Edzard Professor of Philosophy at Wittemberg an University from which no good can be expected whilst the Spirit of Calovius reigns in it wrote a very sharp Dissertation against Mr. L. C.'s Explication of the Prophecy concerning the Schilo which he published without being positive in it because it is an obscure Passage But the German Doctor to whom every thing seems to be easie made a confused Collection of most trivial things and reviling Words which are peculiar to himself without caring to reason well or understand the Author whom he critizes on purpose to make him odious as if he should favour the Jews He fancies that by bawling like a Porter against Mr. L. C. he 'll make People believe that White is Black and that by often saying that what is obscure is clear it will be so in effect Let any one read Mr. L. C.'s Explication of the Schilo and compare it with the Book of that Lutheran Doctor and then give his Judgment upon the matter Mr. L. C. is not afraid that the Arguments of Mr. Edzard and the blind Zeal by which he is acted should do him any Prejudice and he will not leave off his Studies to answer him Otherwise all the Students of the Universities of Germany would enter into the Lists with him after they have transcribed a pitiful common Place or a wretched Commentary and set it off with reviling Words If those who despise Grotius and admire Calovius do not like Mr. L. C.'s Works he has no more reason to wonder at it than they have when they see that he praises Grotius in his Writings and never expresses any esteem for Calovius and his Imitators Qui Bavium non odit amet tua carmina Maevi It was necessary that the German Students should be informed of this lest they should think that 't is in their Power to disturb when they please Mr. L. C.'s rest with their Libels and to get some Reputation by putting him upon answering them Mr. Vander Waeyen had likewise a mind to signalize himself by writing against Mr. L. C.'s Commentary on Genesis in some Theological Disputes held in the University of Franeker But Mr. L. C. would not answer that Divine because his way of Disputing shewed that he had no love for Truth For Instance he wondred that Mr. L. C. should say That the three Men mention'd Gen. xviii who appeared to Abraham were three Angels tho' Mr. L. C. followed therein St. Augustin's Opinion whom he quoted in his Note on that Chapter of Genesis Nay he charges Mr. L. C. with want of Sincerity which is a very absurd Accusation and unbecoming an honest Man For none can be suspected of want of Sincerity but they who maintain a ridiculous Opinion especially when they get something by it Whereas in this case no other Opinion can reasonably be maintained and Mr. Vander Waeyen knew very well that Mr. L. C. did not do this to Court any Body Mr. Vander Waeyen falls upon him again in his Dissertation concerning the Logos and in the very beginning finds fault with some Passages of Mr. L. C.'s Commentary on the other Books of Moses But because he does it only by the by and to render him odious the best answer Mr. L. C. can make is to desire the Reader to read attentively those Passages in the Original if he designs to be a Judge between Mr. Vander Waeyen and Mr. L. C. A just and judicious Reader will easily see which of 'em is in the wrong Mr. Vander Waeyen here and else-where charges Mr. L. C. with favouring the Socinians whom he no more thought on when he wrote his Commentary than if there had never been any such Men in the World If the Socinians speak truth in some things and another Man does the same after them is it a Crime and does it follow from thence that such a Man believes in all Respects as they do What would Mr. Vander Waeyen say if he knew that Mr. L. C. has been very little conversant with the Writings of the Socinians that he seldom consults them and never read any thing of 'em concerning Types which is the thing wherein he accuses him of favouring the Socinians He could not at least charge him with imitating them But 't is now the constant Practice of some Protestant Divines to call Socinianism all the Opinions they have a mind to traduce as in Spain and Italy they call Calvinism or Lutheranism the Opinions with which they charge those whom they hate This is Argumentum Theologicum ex invidia ductum to give an odious Name to a thing that it may be Condemned without any Examination Mr. L. C. is no Socinian but he is not bound to make a Confession of his Faith as often as some Divines will be pleased to give him hard Words and pick a Quarrel with him about things of no moment as Mr. Vander Waeyen has done Of his Notes on the beginning of St. John's Gospel WHILST Mr. L. C.'s Commentary on the four last Books of Moses was a Printing in the beginning of the Year 1695. he had †See the Preface of the Edit in 8. occasion to publish his Thoughts concerning the beginning of St. John's Gospel and he did it so much the more willingly because some ill Men were pleased to confound Mr. Clark an English Man who favoured the Socinians some of whom wrote in English concerning St. John's Gospel so as to make one
Poets is the pleasant Cadence of their Verse which flatters our Ears after the same manner as Music does When an Air pleases us we never consider the Words as we find it by experience at an Opera which we are not able to read with any tolerable patience but when 't is represented on the Theatre we hear it with admiration As Music charms our Ears by striking them differently at several certain measur'd times by never passing all on the sudden from one extreme Tone to another which is quite opposite to it by carrying no Tone too high for fear of shocking our Ears but by employing Tones that are proportion'd to our Organs and lastly by making us hear the same Cadences in the same Order more than once After the same manner the Poets by using Syllables of a certain quantity I speak of the Latines and Greeks in certain places by choosing Words of an agreeable Sound by breaking their Course which wou'd otherwise seem harsh with Caesuras and by making us feel this Harmony some time after fill our Ears so deliciously that they obtain our Favour for a world of false Thoughts To be convinced of the truth of this Assertion a Man need only set the finest Passages of the Poets in the natural order of Construction and he will find nothing in them to please him Altho' we may there discover Disjecti membra Poetae to use Horace's Expression 't is all of it nothing but a cold heap of great Words Let us take for Instance the beginning of Simon 's Speech in the second Book of the Aeneis which is assuredly the most artificial Speech that can be made and Charms every one that reads it Equidem Rex fâ—â—t â—bor tibi cuncta quaecunque sucrint vera neque negaâ—â—o nâ—e de gente Argolicâ Hoc primum nec si improba fortuna finxit Sinonem miserum finget etiam vaâ—â—â—â— mendacémque Here indeed is a Latin Discourse however it does not come up to the Majesty of Verse I will not give any more Instances of this Nature because every Man may try this Experiment in any place he thinks fit to single out 'T is likewise easie to transpose after the same manner the description of Aeolus's Den and the Reader will soon perceive that the Cadence of the Verse serves very much to help it off The Inconveniences of Poetry HOWEVER there 's one thing to be observ'd in relation to Verse which is That if the Poets have some Advantage over those that write in Prose by reason of their Cadence there are several Inconveniences which they cannot always avoid For Instance They cannot say all they have a mind to say neither do they say it in that manner as they cou'd wish they are forc'd to convert the Order of the Words tho' never so much against their Inclination they frequently say that which they wou'd not say and clog their Discourse with superfluous Epithets and sometimes forced ones to fill up the Measure of their Verse There are abundance of noble significant Words that cannot stand in some sorts of Poetry especially the Heroic so that they are often forced to lay aside good Thoughts that come into their Head because Words that are necessary to express them fully cannot come into the Verse If the Poet is not resolved to part with his Thought he must employ other Words that are not proper and often invert them strangely to make up his Measure 'T is true indeed that in this respect we are apt to do the Poets Justice enough in favour of their Cadence since we have been so complaisant as to bestow the Name of Figures upon real Faults of Discourse according to the Observation of Quintilian †Lib. 1. c. 8. Poetis quia plerumque metro servire coguntur adeò ignoscitur ut vitia ipsa aliis in carmine appellationibus nominantur Metaplasmos enim Schematismos Schemata vocamus laudem virtutis necessitati damus We are so favourable to the Poets because they are confin'd to measure that even Vices in Verse go under other Names We call them Metaplasms and Figures and praise that as a Beauty which was the meer effect of Necessity But there is nothing so inconvenient as when being at a loss how to fill up a Verse which is well begun they are obliged to end it ill Nothing is more common in Homer and Hesiod than these Botches of a word or more to stop up the Gap Nay we find whole Verses and Expressions that return every moment upon us rather to serve for Passevolans if I may be allow'd so to speak and to make up the number than for any real Necessity What they might very well express in one word or two they frequently employ a whole Verse to do it in and sometimes more and all this to no other purpose than to make the Discourse more insipid and tiresome Had I written this Book in Latin I wou'd have cited Examples enough to justifie this Assertion in the mean time I appeal for the truth of it to all those that have read these Poets with a mind disengaged from the Prejudices of the Grammarians 'T is very probable that the Reason why Virgil who has avoided these Faults more carefully than the above-mention'd Greek Poets left some imperfect Verses in his Aeneis was only because he cou'd not at first fill them up without making some Botches or at least some useless Repetitions There are some Passages in his life relating to this Affair which deserve our Observation However he cou'd not avoid and that very often to use several Words and Expressions that only serve to fill up the Measure Thus in the first Book of his Aeneis having assign'd a little before the Reasons why Juno was so implacable an Adversary to Aeneas he repeats it again about the fortieth Verse Aeternum servans sub pectore vulnus Carrying an eternal Wound in her Soul Take away these words and you maim the Verse indeed but not the Sense A little lower Juno promises Deiopeia for a Wife to Aeolus in these Words Connubio jungam stabili propriámque dicabo Omnes let tecum meritis pro talibus annos Exigat pulchrâ faciat to prole parentem I will give her you in Marriage for ever that she may pass her Days with you and make you the Father of fine Children There 's nothing more belongs to the Sense than these Words Connubio jungam quae pulcrâ faciat to prole parentem I will give her you in Marriage that she may bring you fine Children whatever the Interpreters have said upon this place Jupiter as he is telling Venus what the Fortune wou'd be of Aeneas's Posterity to let her know that Ascanius wou'd Reign thirty Years thus expresses himself v. 271. At puer Ascanius cui nunc cognomen Iulo Additur Ilus erat dum res stetit Ilia Regno Trignta magnos volvendis mensibus orbes Imperio explebit But young Ascanius who is
the same Spirit and Conduct which had made this Empire so great A wise Roman say they who was an able Politician in his time 't is Cicero they mean informs us that Clemency was so peculiar to this Government that it reign'd there even in the midst of War and that nothing but downright absolute Necessity cou'd make them suspend the Observing of it They maintain that this is the Instruction which Virgil design'd to give the Roman Emperours in his Aeneis But to this it may be replied in the first place that Virgil indeed represents Aeneas all along as one that was very devout and ready on all occasions to follow the Orders of Heaven but he does not make him exercise any extraordinary Compassion towards the Vanquished We don't find that he any where signalizes his Clemency On the contrary he makes him in all his Battels kill those that cry'd to him for Quarter without the least remorse In the second place If we had a mind to reason upon the Supposition that Virgil design'd to give us moral Instructions 't is more natural to imagine that his Intention was to demonstrate that we ought to submit to the Orders of Providence altho' they appear hard and difficult to execute This is a Thought which runs through the whole Aeneis as it wou'd be easie to demonstrate We might likewise say That he design'd to inform the Romans that the Establishment of a great Empire is not made without a particular Providence of Heaven and to possess them consequently with devout Thoughts But these Projects are by no means fit for an Epicurean and all the World knows that Virgil embraced the Opinions of Epicurus as well as his Friend Horace If we must plainly deliver the Truth 't is highly probable that Virgil meant nothing else than to flatter Augustus and the Romans in particular by making a Romance about the Origine of their Empire and of the Iulian Family which he deduces from Iulus the Son of Aeneas according to the Tradition of that Family This was certainly the Poet's Aim who seldom loses any occasion to flatter Augustus and the Romans in general and not to exhort the Emperours to Clemency Thus you have beheld the moral Projects of the three finest Epic Poems that were ever composed intirely overthrown after which it will not be hard to believe that Tragic Poems are not written for nobler Ends. Aristotle defines Tragedy thus 'T is †Ch. IV. Of his Poetry says he the Imitation of a grave entire Action which has a just Greatness c. which by the means of Compassion and Terrour fully purgeth in us these and the like Passions Thus the Tragic Poets wou'd pretend to heal the Passions of their Auditors or at least to lessen them by exciting Terrour and Compassion in their Souls I won't say that no Tragic Poet in the World ever propos'd a moral Design to himself but I believe that for the generality they have not troubled themselves about that matter and that the moral Passages scattered up and down in their Compositions are rather to embellish the Subject and please the Audience than with a Design to calm their Passions It may indeed sometimes so fall out that the Spectator by seeing the Calamities of Humane Life represented on the Stage and the incertainty of Honour and Greatness described in a lively manner on purpose to affect him may moderate himself a little better in his Desires and Transports but Terrour and Pity are not healed by being often rais'd in the Heart On the contrary in process of time Men accustom themselves to them so well that the least thing at long run is capable to disturb them After this manner all Habitudes are formed By having the same Movements often within us they become so natural that 't is very difficult to disengage ourselves from them But it will be objected perhaps that by virtue of seeing these sad and terrible Objects which are represented in Tragedies we may come in time to be less sensible of the impressions of Pity and Fear as Soldiers use to despise Dangers wherein they frequently find themselves engaged But this Comparison signifies just nothing for Soldiers as often as they find themselves in Danger do all they can to dissipate their Fears and encourage one another whereas a Tragic Poet sets all his Engines on work to raise the Passions of the Auditors and as the latter takes no manner of care to oppose his Design 't is no wonder that at last they contract a habit of those very Passions which the Poet excites in them It will still be urged that Examples of the Misfortunes of Human Life which we see in Tragedies dispose those that behold them often represented on the Theatre to be less surprized at them when-ever they fall upon themselves †Vide Marc. Antoninum L. XI n. 6. ad eum locum Tho. Gatakerum It is true that the Philosophers endeavour to make this use of Tragedy and that they frequently cite Instances out of them to perswade Men to Constancy But 't is one thing to endeavour to draw some Profit from a thing which is establish'd and another to do the same thing with a certain Design The Philosophers are to be commended for their Endeavours to lead Men to Virtue by the very Objects of their Passions and their Pleasures but the Tragic Poets rather busied their Brains to procure the Applause of the People and their Diversion than their Reformation or Amendment Thus they oftner arrive at the first of these Ends than at the second The Comic Poets pretended also to have a share in this Honour and it was commonly said To Teach Comedy as well as Tragedy to mean the publishing of any Dramatic Compositions In effect by representing common Life and rallying the Follies of the World they might perhaps make a better Impression upon their Auditors than by pompously setting forth the extraordinary Calamities of Heroes and Princes after the manner of the Tragic Poets There are but few Kings and Great Men in the World to whom alone the Examples of Tragedy can be well suited But on the contrary we have infinite numbers of private Men who may to their great Advantage behold their Passions and Humours lash'd and ridicul'd in Comedy But before the Comic Poets can pretend to pass for public Teachers of Virtue 't is necessary that they should be first Philosophers or else that none but Philosophers should deal in Comedy As we find it to be quite othewise 't is no wonder that our Comedies being composed by those that are not the most regular Men in the World have no less contributed to propagate Vice than to show the Folly of it They don't represent Intemperance and divers other Vices as blamable but when they are carried to great Excess that is to say never but when they may hurt the Estabishment or Fortune of those People who abandon themselves to them Now sound Philosophy
demands a great deal more Virtue from us than will just keep us from being Scandalous or ruining ourselves in the World Thus whatever they allege for themselves the Comic Poets seem to have nothing else in view but to divert the Public and to get Reputation and Mony by diverting them To compass this they were obliged to mix abundance of moral Sentences in the Conversation of their Persons because they frequently hold such sorts of Discourses and because that after they have laughed heartily the Public is diverted with these Sallies of Morality rather for the variety of the Entertainment than for any Instruction A sufficient Proof of this is that they are not a jot the better for it as a †Plautus in Rud. Act. IV. Sec. 7. Comic Poet has very well observ'd in these Verses Spectavi ego pridem Comicos ad istum modum Sapienter dicta dicere atque iis plaudier Cum illos sapientes mores monstrabant populo Sed cùm inde suam quisque ibant divorsi domum Nullus erat illo pacto ut illi jusserunt I have often seen that after the Comic Poets have said good things and that they have been applauded for them while they taught good Manners to the People as soon as they were got home no body was the better for their Advice I don't pretend to prove by this Discourse that we cannot give very useful Precepts in Verse and that they have not been actually given in them All that I wou'd show by it is that whatever has been said of the moral Designs of the finest Compositions of ancient Poetry has much more appearance than Solidity in it when we come to examine it nearly This does not in the least hinder but that a Poet who has tasted the good Maxims of a Philosophy which is somewhat severer than that of the greatest Poets of Antiquity was and who possesseth them as they did the Opinions of their own time may not undertake a Poem with the same Views that have been vainly ascribed to them and by this means re-establish the Honour of Poetry which has been defamed by the Faults we have already taken notice of 'T is of such a Poet that we may truely say what Horace says of him whom he endeavour'd to instruct in his Art of Poetry Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci Lectorem delectando paritérque monendo that Writer gains the good Opinion of the whole World who mixes the useful with the agreeable by diverting his Reader and giving him good Advice at the same time But I am mightily afraid that such a Poet has for a long while been nothing else but a pure Idea without reality CHAP. II. Of True and False Eloquence NOTHING is more esteemed than Eloquence not only among Men of Learning but even the Vulgar However there is scarce any thing of which for the generality we have a wronger Idea 'T is certain that 't is the most useful thing in the World when we really possess it but 't is as certain that when we only believe we possess it and have perswaded the Multitude of it there is scarce any thing so pernicious We not only take a Phantom for something Real but we frequently put off a Falsehood for a Truth or at least instead of illustrating the Truth we lose it in the thickest Darkness I call true Eloquence that the Reader may not be deceived The Art of speaking Truth as we ought to speak it to convince reasonable Men to render them attentive and to affect them if 't is necessary while we speak it On the contrary false Eloquence is an Art if it deserves such a Name of recommending Falsehood instead of Truth and of making the same Respect be paid to the former which is only due to the latter To which we ought to add the want of Address in those that propose Truth itself but do it in so awkward and silly a manner that they make their Hearers doubt of it and that no one listens to them nor is affected by their Discourse altho' in the bottom 't is true To shew the Excellence of true Eloquence and the Disadvantages of the false wou'd take up a compleat Treatise of Rhetoric which is far from my Thoughts at present I will only make some general Reflexions upon the four parts of this Science Invention Disposition Expression and Pronunciation I. INVENTION consists Of Invention as every one knows in discovering all that can be said upon a Subject we have chose to treat of but as we ought not to say every thing that comes into our Heads altho' it belongs to the Subject in hand because then we should never make an end we ought necessarily to make choice of those Thoughts that are proper to the end we propose to ourselves and herein the Art and Address of an Orator consists Unless a Man is perfectly Stupid and has never read in his Life 't is impossible for him to be wholly unprovided of Matter when he has any Truth or historical Fact to discourse upon but then unless he understands the Art of Thinking justly and has often made long and profound Reflexions upon it unless he has a true Relish and Discernment we find that he generally makes an ill Choice of the things that present themselves to his Mind he will enlarge too much upon things of little Importance or dwell upon such as have no connexion with the Subject in hand while he omits those that are more important and Effential or touches them but slightly This is what happens daily but especially to Preachers who without Understanding the Rules of Art learn to preach by Rote and Custom But to talk more particularly upon this Occasion we are apt to commit three Faults principally which don't appear so to the Eyes of those who are not able to distinguish true Eloquence from the false but which are not the less for all that and which for that very Reason produce very ill Effects The first is that abundance of People are of the Opinion That provided they talk a great deal so that their Matter never fails them 't is enough to give them the Character of eloquent Men unless it happens that they are altogether destitute of exterior Talents that relate to the Stile and Pronunciation To be able to talk an Hour or too about a Trifle of no Consequence altho' without Choice and Judgment seems to be the finest thing in the World provided a Man does not hesitate but runs glibly on and moves his Auditors We foolishly perswade ourselves that we acquire the Reputation of Men of Wit in spite of good Sense as if it were possible to be one without the other 'T is the same with Authors as with Orators altho' they ought to be much more severe in the Choice of their Thoughts as a Reader is infinitely harder to please than one that hears However if they can so order Matters as to make a large
contrary if he had thought it worth his while cou'd have soared as high as Brebeuf We have several pieces of La Fontaine written in as good an Heroic Stile as any by those that have always practis'd the elevated Stile but there is not one of these sublime Genius's that cou'd ever come near his Fables What I have here maintain'd may seem a Paradox to those that have not sufficiently reflected upon it However to convince these Gentlemen I wou'd only desire them to try how they can imitate any Author that has written in a proper and simple Stile and is esteem'd in his kind and afterwards to imitate the sublime Stile of any of our most elevated Writers They will then be convinced by experience that the ancient Masters of this Art had reason to judge the first more difficult than the second altho' the first does not seem to be so at first sight †Cicero in Oratore c. 23. Orationis sublimitas imitabilis quidem illa videtur esse existimanti sed nihil est experienti minùs The exactness of Discourse seems easie to imitate when we content our selves with judging without making a trial But when we have tried it we shall find it to be quite otherwise Horace said the same thing speaking of the natural Stile of Conversation I will make Verses composed of known Expressions so that in reading them every one shall hope to do the like But those that will endeavour to make the Experiment will sweat and take a world of Pains to no purpose so much force is there in Order and Connexion and so much elegance in a Stile that is taken from the common Language Art Poet. ver 240. Ex noto fictum carmen se quar ut sibi quivis Speret idem suder multùm frustráque laboret Ausus idem tantùm series juncturáque pollet Tantùm de medio sumptis accedit honoris This Talent says another is neglected by abundance of People who look after nothing but the Acclamations of the Multitude whom they have to applaud them or else come accidentally to hear them and who cannot endure that silence which Approbation produces They fancy that they are not Eloquent unless they deafen all that are about them with their Cries and Clamours They believe that it only belongs to Conversation to describe what they are talking of in vulgar Terms and that even ignorant People may do it whereas no Body knows whether they don't do that which they despise as easie either because they will not do it or because they find it impossible and out of their reach For there is nothing in the extent of Eloquence which those who have tried all find so difficult to imitate as that which every one thinks he should have said in the same manner when he heard it Because People don't believe that this Stile is elegant but that it is sincere An Orator never speaks better than when he appears to speak the Truth †Quintil. Lib. IV. c. 2. Neque enim aliud in eloquentia cuncta experti difficilius reperient quâm id quod se dicturos fuisse omnes putant postquà m audierunt quia non bona judicant illa sed vera Tum autem optimè dicit Orator cùm videtur vera dicere If we may believe any one in his own Profession when there is no Temptation to conceal the Truth we cannot reasonably doubt of what the three great Masters in the Art of writing both in Verse and Prose have told us This Stile which they commend so warmly is composed only of pure and proper Expressions of obvious easie Metaphors and Figures that arise from the thing itself which are never used but for necessity and to illustrate their meaning The principal Rock which we ought to avoid in this simple and natural Language is Obscurity and 't is for that reason that we carefully shun every thing that may produce it as equivocal Terms too great plenty of Figures and an ill Disposition of Words and Thoughts This is the Stile we should employ to instruct this is the Language of Truth which desires nothing more than to appear all naked to the Eyes of Men. Those who have no other Design but to make her appear chuse to express themselves in this manner where every thing frequently is neglected except Perspicuity and where Negligence according to the Judgment of Cicero Is a Negligence which is not disagreeable and which comes from a Man who is more sollicitous about Things than Words †In Oratore c. 23. Non ingrata negligentia de re hominis magis quà m de verbis laborantis Those that can talk and write after this manner avoid two Faults which in my Opinion are unpardonable in those that value themselves upon declaiming The first is Obscurity the greatest fault that a Man can commit in speaking since the end of speaking as I suppose is to be understood This Fault principally reigns in the Stile of Declaimers who speak nothing naturally but muffle up all in figurative Expressions for fear they shou'd fall into a low frigid Stile who give us a clear and distinct Idea of nothing so that 't is difficult to know exactly what they mean With this Fault we may justly charge the greatest part of the Greek and Latin Fathers who are almost perpetually upon the Harangue and who avoid clear and proper Expressions with as much care as the Athenian Orators sought after them Thus every thing almost is disguis'd and swell'd in their Writings in so extraordinary a manner that a Man has all the difficulty in the World to understand them when they treat of a Subject which is somewhat obscure in itself Sometimes they carry Matters so extravagantly high that one cannot tell whether they talk seriously or have a mind only to impose upon the Populace This in truth was the Fault of the Times as well as of the Men for the Eloquence of those Ages was extremely different from that of the ancient Orators either Athenian or Roman as a Woman that is loaded and encumbred with superfluity of Habits is from one in a modest Garb. Thus we must excuse this Fault in them but we ought to take care not to imitate them in it The Reader may see this Subject treated more at large in †Vide Artem Crit. P. 2. S. 1. cap. 15 16. Authors that have composed the History of Rhetoric Another Fault which we find not in a simple and natural Stile is that there is nothing in it to make those that write so suspected of a sort of Affectation which is exceedingly prejudicial to those that wou'd perswade I mean the Affectation to appear eloquent which a discerning Hearer is no sooner sensible of but he suspects that the Orator whom he hears or the Author whom he reads is more intent to display his own Eloquence than to teach him the Truth and give him any useful Instructions from that very minute he believes that
Writers of France don't think that 't is possible for the Council that governs it to commit the least Indiscretions so high an Idea they have of their wise Maxims and steddy Conduct I will not pretend to oppose this Idea of theirs because in truth it is founded upon diverse weighty Reasons But they should judge of Facts and their Consequences without having any regard to them because the most prudent Councils are not always infallible but are subject to take false Measures altho' this does not happen so often to them It is likewise reasonable that those that admire the Conduct of the other Princes of Europe who join'd against France should remember that the best Heads are sometimes over-seen We ought to do Justice reciprocally one to another and to judge of Faults and great Actions by themselves and by their Consequences and not altogether by Preposession Of Ecclesiastic History THESE Precautions in my Opinion are absolutely necessary for an Historian if he wou'd acquit himself as he ought in his Undertaking We may find as already has been observ'd Examples and Proofs of it in the best Historians of Pagan Antiquity But there is a sort of History among Christians wherein if we must talk Historically that is to say without being byass'd all the above-mention'd Rules that have been prescrib'd for the Writing of History are neglected and violated An Orthodox Author that undertakes to Compose an Ecclesiastic History cannot be too hot-headed and zealous for his own Party nor have too violent an Aversion for the other Sects He must shew this Disposition of Mind all along in his Work for therwise he will be defamed not only for a Man of no Abilities but likewise for an impious Person 'T is but just he should propose to himself as a Recompense for his Labour some Ecclesiastic Dignities if he is of a Profession to pretend to them or some other equivalent if he is a Laic upon condition he all along favour Orthodoxy that is his own Party If he be so ill advised as to speak never so little in favour of the Heretics or such as are opposite to his own side he must expect to be expos'd to the fury of Zealots to their Accusations and perhaps to all the Punishments Ecclesiastic and Civil that are inflicted in the place where he lives unless he will retract these rash Truths which are to be found in him advantageous to Heresy He ought to fore-arm himself with this Prejudice and never lay it aside viz. That all that may be honourable in Heretics is false and that all that is said to their Disreputation is true As on the contrary every thing that can do honour to the Orthodox is undoubted and all that reflects upon them is a downright Life 'T is necessary that an Orthodox Historian should carefully suppress or at least extenuate as far as in him lies the Errors and Vices of those that are respected among the Orthodox altho' they are not well known by them and on the other hand that he exaggerate as much as he can the Mistakes and Faults of the Heretics Besides he ought to remember that any Orthodox may serve as a Witness against a Heretic and ought to be believed upon his word and that on the contrary a Heretic's word ought never to be taken against the Orthodox All the honour that must be allow'd him is to hearken to him when he has any thing to say in favour of Orthodoxy or against himself An Orthodox may be cited as a Witness in his own proper Cause but a Heretic must not be so even in that of another In short there are Maxims which he must not examine but follow if he undertakes to write Ecclesiastic History under pain of Infamy Excommunication Banishment c. After this manner the Centuriators of Magdeburg have written on one side and Cardinal Baronius on the other which has obtain'd both of them among their own Party an immortal Reputation But we must confess at the same time that they were not the first and that they only imitated the generality of those that preceded them in this way of Writing It had been the fashion several Ages before this to search out in Antiquity not what was really there but what we judged ought to be there for the good of the Party which we had espous'd and to represent the Ancients such as we found it for our porpose that they should be for the advantage of the Cause which we have undertaken to defend A Man certainly found his profit in writing after this manner and danger in doing otherwise Sozomen in * Lib. I. c. 1. his Ecclesiastic History after having enumerated the Monuments out of which he compil'd it goes on as follows For fear lest any one should condemn my Work of Falsehood upon my not being sufficiently instructed in Matters as they happen'd because he finds the Relations in other Authors different from mine he must understand that upon the occasion of Arius's Opinions and those which sprung up afterwards the Governours of the Church being divided every one writ to those of his own Opinion concerning those things which he himself had taken to Heart That having assembled Synods a-part they confirm'd whatever they had a mind to and frequently condemn'd their Adversaries in their absence That they made their Court to the Emperors and the Great Men about them and left no Stone unturn'd to gain them over to their side and make them receive their own Opinions That in order to pass for Orthodox in the World each Party took a particular care to collect the Letters which favour'd their Sect and omitted the rest And this says he has given me abundance of trouble in my Search after the Truth But since the Sincerity of History requires that we should do all that in us lies to discover the Truth I thought myself oblig'd diligently to examine these sorts of Writings If I relate the Quarrels which the Ecclesiastics have had among one another about the Preference of their Sects let no one believe that this proceeds from Malice or any sinister Design Besides that 't is just as I have already observ'd that an Historian should prefer the Truth to all things the Truth of the Doctrins of the Catholick Church does but appear the more by it having been several times put to the Proof by the cunning Designs of those that opposed it c. It seems that he durst not speak all that he thought for after he had taken notice of the Quarrels and Ambition of the Ecclesiastics as well as of their Writings and Letters directly opposite one to the other he ought to have told his Reader what Rules he had follow'd in his History to distinguish the Truth from Falsehood Besides he ought to have concluded otherwise than he has done and have said that the vitious Lives and wicked Actions of the Ecclesiastics have no Connexion with the Christian Religion which condemns them and
consequently ought not to be set down to her Account That therefore for his speaking Truth of the first Fathers of the Church altho' it was not advantageous for them no such Conclusion ought to be drawn as that he design'd to do the least injury to Religion That we ought not to confound the private and personal Interests of the Church-men with the general Interest of the Gospel That this was an Artifice which the irregular Clergy made use of to authorize their ill living or hinder others from daring to reprove it as if what was levell'd only at their disorders must needs strike directly at Religion itself whose unworthy Ministers they must own themselves to be That we ought likewise to distinguish between good and bad between Orders that were instituted with Reason in the Church and the Abuse that was made of them in order to let the World see that those who blame the Abuse don't censure the thing itself and that those who recount the ill Actions of wicked Men don't lose the Respect which ought to be paid to the Good That it is notoriously manifest that the Truth of Opinions don't make all such as profess them virtuous and that speculative Errors don't corrupt the Manners of all those who are engaged in them so that the mixture of good and bad in the Conduct of Life is almost equal between the Orthodox and the Heretics That therefore we ought not to take all for Gospel which the former say nor yet to reject every thing as false that comes from the second but that we ought to examine what both of them can say according to the same Rules which the Law prescribes for sifting of Witnesses in Civil and Criminal Affairs That in fine it is of the last importance to speak out the truth freely in all this lest the Libertines should imagine that 't is a Belief among the Christians that the Opinions of the Mind or Employments in the Church change Vice into Virtue and Virtue into Vice and lest Persons of weak Judgments should insensibly be led into it by seeing both one and the other equally consecrated in the Person of Ecclesiastics and at last forget that the Christian Religion consists in believing the Doctrins of the Gospel and obeying its Precepts and not in the Respect that is paid to Men who are neither made better nor more knowing by their Dignities This is what ought to be said in a Preface to an Ecclesiastic History and what Sozomen perhaps wou'd have said if he had dared to speak all that he thought But it was too dangerous at that time to speak thus at Constantinople as it is still so in the greatest part of Europe Of the Stile of History III. IT is not necessary that I should speak of the Order which an Historian ought to observe because the Series of the Time sufficiently directs him in that and the Rhetors have assign'd Rules for the Narration which are as suitable to an Historian as they are to an Orator As for the Style the only Qualities which it ought to have is to be pure clear and as concise as possible without becoming obscure 'T is in History where we ought principally to employ that simple and natural Style which the Masters of this Art so exceedingly commend As an Historian only proposes to himself to inform his Reader of what has happen'd without any design to move or divert him any farther than the Matter may contribute to it without the Historians having any such Thought all sorts of studied Ornaments are superfluous and an Affectation of shewing one's Eloquence is altogether impertinent We ought to hear what is said upon this Head by Lucian or by d'Ablancourt for it signifies nothing which of the two speaks provided that the Rules are good History say they is more chast than Poetry and can no more employ the Ornaments of the latter than a virtuous Woman those of a Harlot and so much the more as it has no occasion to be beholding to Fiction and has none of those Figures and Movements which transport and disorder the Soul If you bestow too much Decoration upon it you make it resemble Hercules when he has Omphale's Cloaths on which is the highest piece of Extravagance They likewise say in another place discoursing of an Historian That his Style ought to be clear and natural without being low for as we assign him Freedom and Truth to regulate the Matter of his Narration so Clearness and Perspicuity ought to regulate the Manner of it The Figures ought neither to be too sublime nor too far fetch'd unless when he comes to describe a Battel or to make an Harangue For upon those occasions he is allow'd to elevate his Style and if I may so express myself to unfurl all the Sails of his Eloquence However it is not necessary that he should raise himself in proportion to the things of which he talks and he ought to preserve his Style altogether free from the Enthusiasm and Fury of Poetry for 't is to be fear'd that if he rises too high his Head will be apt to grow giddy and lose itself in Fiction Therefore if he has a mind to rise let it rather be by the Things than the Words for 't is infinitely better that his Style should be ordinary and his Thoughts sublime than that his Thoughts should be mean and his Style elevated or that he should suffer himself to be too violently hurried by the force of his Imagination Let his Periods be neither too long nor too much studied his Style neither too harmonious nor too negligent because one has a tincture of Barbarity and the other of Affectation This is all that may reasonably be said in general of an Historical Style for I am by no means of their Opinion who pretend that the Style of an Historian ought to be more elevated than that of an Orator and almost Poetical as * Lib. X. c. 1. Quintilian believed Neither do I believe that 't is necessary for a Man to be an Orator to be an Historian as †Lib. II. de Oratore c. 9. seq Cicero has maintain'd As Instruction is his main and principal Business all that is not serviceable to that end has no relation to the History what Taste soever the Ancients had of these Matters who were somewhat too fond of the Ornaments of Rhetoric If a Man has a mind to please his Reader by his Style 't is enough if it has the above-mention'd Qualities A Narration conceiv'd in pure Terms clear and short is sufficiently agreeable of itself and needs no Foreign Ornaments to recommend it if the things we relate do otherwise deserve to be read So soon as the Reader perceives that an Historian makes it his Business to display his Eloquence he has a very just Reason to suspect his want of Integrity because 't is the Custom of Declamers to alter the things they relate that they may make a
is past doubt it were better to be an Origenist than a Deist an Atheist or a Manichee For my part I undertook this small Essay only to take off a little of the Manichees Presumption and excite Divines to treat of this Matter which would require a whole Volume if it were particularly examined CHAP. VII Men easily believe what their Passions suggest to them MEN are apt to Believe what they Desire and the weakest Reasons which persuade 'em appear to 'em like Demonstrations After they have thus deceived themselves the decisive way wherewith they discourse of what they Believe serves to deceive others or at least they fancy they have persuaded them with Reasons the weakness whereof would be palpable if they were free from Passion Quae volumus credimus libenter quae sentimus ipsi reliquos sentire putamus They are Caesar's words in this Commentaries Book II. Chap. 27. We willingly Believe says he what we Desire and easily persuade ourselves that others are of the same Mind We find in the Perroniana That Cardinal Sforza who did not believe the Power of the Pope no more than several other things told Cardinal du Perron that it was an easie thing to prove it at Rome The reason of it is that they who have a mind to get Preferments at Rome must either believe the Pope's Power or pretend to believe it The Ground of this Thought is not new nor the manner of expressing it Socrates said in like manner as Aristotle †Rhet. Lib. II. c. 9. relates it That it was no difficult thing to Praise the Athenians at Athens The reason of it was that the Athenians out of Self-love were so well pleased with their own Praises that they admired the worse Reasonings when they tended to prove something which was glorious to their City They applauded the worse Orators provided the Praises of the Athenians were the Subject of their Discourses They who only reason out of Passion and Interest should think sometimes of this and ask themselves whether those who have contrary Passions and Interests would like their Reasons and then perhaps they would perceive that Self-love imposes on them For certainly no Man has a greater right than another to establish this Rule for himself That what favours him is true and what is disadvantageous to him is false If the Europeans pretend to make use of it they must not take it ill if the Asiaticks will do the same or if they disapprove of it in the Asiaticks they ought to make use of the same Rules which they will have the Asiaticks to submit to and must admit of whatever can be proved by those Rules Such are the Rules of Logick which cannot be neglected in any part of the World without reasoning ill But it is as difficult to follow those Principles of Reason when some Passions or a long Custom oppose them as it is easie to acknowledge the Truth of 'em when they are proposed in general The Chineses for Example would readily approve of those Rules and consequently they should acknowledge all the Truths which can be proved by them as this for Example that Polygamy is unlawful Yet 't is impossible to convince 'em of it and it is the greatest Obstacle to their Conversion which the Missionaries meet with †Nouv. Mem. de la Chine Vol. II. Lett. 4. The Mandarins who are forbidden to use most Pleasures which the People are allow'd live as it were in a kind of Seraglio to make up that loss wherein they spend their time when they are free from Business Tho' they have but one lawful Wife yet they are allow'd to take as many Concubines as they can maintain and the Children born of 'em are look'd upon as Children of the lawful Wife and bred up with equal care with them To be admitted to Baptism they must promise to the Missionaries that they will part with all their Concubines and be contented with one lawful Wife They often promise to the Missionaries every thing else but their Passions and Customs are too much set against this Point they cannot believe that God requires of Men that they should have but one Wife tho' the conformity of this Doctrine with Reason may be more easily shewn than of several others which the Chineses approve of without any Reluctancy When we propose to the Mandarins says a Missionary the other Difficulties of our Religion they will dispute and endeavour to overcome them and despair not of doing themselves Violence but this last Point discourages them presently and takes away from them the thought of Converting themselves Then he alledges the Example of a Chinese who wou'd have been Baptized but was quite out of conceit with it by reason of that Article The difficulty of acknowledging the Truth encreases still among the Chineses by reason of the Laws which authorize that ill Custom and so perplex several of 'em who would turn Christians that they know not what to do They who turn Christians are permitted to take to Wife one of their Concubines if the lawful Wife will not embrace Chistianity but the Laws forbid the Chineses to do it and they are not allow'd to Divorce their Wives but in very few particular Cases Besides the Relations of the Wife thus Divorced by her Husband would not fail to Revenge themselves and force him in Law to take her again The Conversion of Women is more difficult still A Concubine for Example acknowledges the Truth of the Christian Religion and is very sensible of the miserable condition she is in She desires to be freed from it and admitted to Baptism She is told that the first thing which her Faith requires of her is to part with her pretended Husband She gives her Consent to it and even desires it with all Heart but she says I belong to a Mandarin who bought me If I leave his House the Law impowers him to apprehend and punish me as his Slave If by chance I escape him whither can I go to be safe My Parents who have Sold me durst not take me into their House and I cannot fail to fall into the Hands of another Man who will draw me into the same State of Life from which I desire to be freed I must therefore stay in the House where I am but how can I resist a brutish Man who only minds his Passion which he may justify by the Laws and Example of the whole Empire 'T is in vain for me to represent to him the Holiness of Christianity which I desire to embrace my Intreaties my Tears and even my Resistence and all my Endeavours are not able to move him It happens also sometimes that an Idolater being weary of his Christian Wife will accuse her unjustly and with much Money get a Permission to Sell her to another Man Nay sometimes he will Sell her without any other Formality and retire into another Province How can this Woman being in the Hands of an Adulterer
Happily in this present World and be acceptable to Him who placed Men on Earth for a short time to make 'em Happy after Death if they will observe his Laws which are very beneficial to them during this Life If Divines understanding Revelation as they should and making a good use of Reason were besides so Skill'd in Human Learning as to be able to read all sorts of Ecclesiastical and Prophane Authors in the Original Languages so many Materials joyned together and rectified by the invariable Rules of Revelation and Reason and beautified with all the solid Ornaments of a true Eloquence so many Materials I say would have a great influence on the Hearts and Minds of Men. Solid Thoughts being attended with the Order and Light which Philosophy affords and set off with all the Ornaments which Reason allows of would insinuate themselves into the Minds of the most Obstinate Men and Charm those who have a good Judgment and an upright Heart I will not say That we see now the quite contrary because Things which should be inseparable are now divided This I leave to the Judgment of those who are skill'd in those Sciences Mr. L. C. believes That the Famous Hugo Grotius whose Writings are above Envy joyned together the three Sciences I have mention'd For if he did not fully understand the Art of thinking well because the Philosophy of his Time was still full of Darkness he supplied that defect in great measure by the strength of his Reason If he shewed so much Sense and Judgment without the help of Art what would he not have done if he had been throughly acquainted as we have been since with the Art of Reasoning and ranging one's Thoughts in a good Order Suppose there were now in Holland many such Men as Grotius or more Learned than he was a thing not impossible if Men studied as they should how great an influence would their Learning have not only in the Vnited Provinces but also over all Europe Then indeed we might hope for such a general Reformation of all Sciences as would be worthy of Him who has given us Knowledge to make a good use of it Mr. L. C. has intimated several times That so noble an Idea has often Charm'd him and afforded him a thousand agreeable Reveries If the World never sees any thing answerable to it they at least who are Skill'd in those Things may innocently busie themselves about Thoughts which fill the Mind with Admiration for God and the Christian Religion and inspire the desire of knowing and teaching Truth without Anger and Animosity against those who are ignorant of it If Philosophers were also Divines and well versed in Human Learning how solid and sublime would their Thoughts appear How useful should we find their Principles As they would take out of Revelation what is wanting to Reason so they would by degrees dispose the Minds of those who learn Philosophy to take the right side in Matters of Religion and would shew 'em on all occasions the Excellency of the Light of Reason And as the Philosophy of the Schools which succeeded the wretched Rhetorick of the foregoing Ages made an end of corrupting Men's Minds and disfiguring Religion so a sound Philosophy would kindle again the Light of Reason which was extinguished only to introduce a thousand Errors and would dispose Men to perceive all the Beauties of the Gospel If the Discourses of Philosophers were full of useful Examples taken out of Ecclesiastical and Prophane Authors to which the Rules of the Art of Reasoning should be applied such a Method of teaching would make one apprehend the use of Philosophy which is otherwise altogether confined within the Walls of an Auditory and so becomes Contemptible I confess That most Philosophical Matters are not very susceptible of Ornaments but it is certain that if they can be exprest in proper Terms and such as agree with the use of the Language they are exprest in as much as possible they become thereby much clearer and more pleasant to every Body and consequently more useful because Men are more attentive to what they understand and like than to such Things as can hardly be understood and have I know not what that displeases tho' they are good in themselves This has been observed in France since they began there to Philosophize in French Some Books full of the most abstruse Philosophical Enquiries have been read by many People with Delight and Profit because they are well written and are free from the barbarous Terms of the Schools One might have seen the happy Effects of it if the Inhabitants of that Country were not unwilling to be undeceived To come now to the Study of Languages and Human Learning it is certain That if those who apply themselves to it would Study Philosophy and Divinity at the same time they would be much more useful to the Publick That Study concerns Things of the greatest Moment since the knowledge of the Scripture and Ecclesiastical History depends as much on it as on the knowledge of the Things themselves A great many new Discoveries might be made still in those Sciences which would raise and enlighten one's Mind and inspire it with a greater respect for the Divine Revelation Instead of which most of our Criticks grow Old in the Study of Grammatical Trifles which are of very little use and wherein one may be mistaken without any danger If they were also Skill'd in Philosophy they would judge much better of the Ancients than they do and give us a more exact Notion of them whereby we might be enabled to imitate them in what is good and avoid what is not so They would order their Thoughts so as to avoid Error and enlighten the Minds of their Readers For want of such a Method they oftener admire the Faults of the Ancients than what deserves their Admiration because they seldom have any certain Criteriums whereby they may distinguish True from False and what deserves to be esteem'd from what does not When they have a mind to Communicate their Thoughts it proves often a confused heap of indigested Learning which can hardly be reduced into any Order and is full of False Reasonings This is partly the reason why that sort of Study is so much despised and why so many People fancy that it is almost inconsistent with good Sense and Reason Mr. Vander Waeyen who in all likelihood never troubled himself much with Philosophy and Human Learning having first of all applied himself to the common Divinity of the Reformed and then to that of Cocceius seems to be angry because others Study the Sciences I have been speaking of and calls Mr. L. C. as it were out of Contempt Critico-Philosophus tho' he Complements him sometimes Indeed it is much more easie to say any thing that comes into one's Mind concerning the Sense of the Prophecies as when they boldly affirm that the Reformed are meant by Juda and the Lutherans by Ephraim in the