书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第124章

We stop here. It is pointless to follow the lost children of the party, Naigeon and Sylvain Maréchal, Mably and Morelly, the fanatics that set atheism up as an obligatory dogma and a superior duty; the socialists who, to suppress egoism, propose a community of property, and who found a republic in which any man that proposes to re-establish "detestable ownership" shall be declared an enemy of humanity, treated as a "raging maniac" and shut up in a dungeon for life. It is sufficient to have studied the operations of large armies and of great campaigns. -- With different gadgets and opposite tactics, the various attacks have all had the same results, all the institutions have been undermined from below. The governing ideology has withdrawn all authority from custom, from religion, from the State. Not only is it assumed that tradition in itself is false, but again that it is harmful through its works, that it builds up injustice on error, and that by rendering man blind it leads him to oppress. Henceforth it is outlawed. Let this "loathsome thing" with its supporters be crushed out. It is the great evil of the human species, and, when suppressed, only goodness will remain.

"The time will then come[42] when the sun will shine only on free men recognizing no other master than Reason; when tyrants and slaves, and priests with their senseless or hypocritical instruments will exist only in history and on the stage; when attention will no longer be bestowed on them except to pity their victims and their dupes, keeping oneself vigilant and useful through horror of their excesses, and able to recognize and extinguish by the force of Reason the first germs of superstition and of tyranny, should they ever venture to reappear."The millennium is dawning and it is once more Reason, which should set it up. In this way we shall owe everything to its salutary authority, the foundation of the new order of things as well as the destruction of the old one.

_______________________________________________________________NOTES :

[1] "Discours de la Methode."

[2]This is evident with Descartes in the second step he takes. (The theory of pure spirit, the idea of God, the proof of his existence, the veracity of our intelligence demonstrated the veracity of God, etc.)[3] See Pascal, "Pensées" (on the origin of property and rank). The "Provinciales" (on homicide and the right to kill). -- Nicole, "Deuxième traité de la charité, et de l'amour-propre" (on the natural man and the object of society). Bossuet, "Politique tirée de l'Ecriture sainte." La Bruyère, "Des Esprits forts."[4] Cf. Sir. John Lubbock, "Origine de la Civilisation." --Gerand-Teulon, "Les Origines de la famille."[5] The principle of caste in India; we see this in the contrast between the Aryans and the aborigines, the Soudras and the Pariahs.

[6] In accordance with this principle the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands passed a law forbidding the sale of liquor to the natives and allowing it to Europeans. (De Varigny, "Quatorze ans aux iles Sandwich.")[7] Cf. Le Play, "De l'Organization de la famille," (the history of a domain in the Pyrenees.)[8] See, especially, in Brahmin literature the great metaphysical poems and the Puranas.

[9] Montaigne (1533-92) apparently also had 'sympathetic imagination' when he wrote: "I am most tenderly symphathetic towards the afflictions of others," ("On Cruelty"). (SR.)[10] Voltaire, "Dic. Phil." the article on Punishments.

[11] "Resumé des cahiers," by Prud'homme, preface, 1789.

[12] Voltaire, Dialogues, Entretiens entre A. B. C.

[13] Voltaire, "Dict.Phil.," the article on Religion. "If there is a hamlet to be governed it must have a religion."[14] "Le rêve de d'Alembert," by Diderot, passim.

[15] "If a misanthrope (a hater of mankind) had proposed to himself to injure humanity what could he have invented better than faith in an incomprehensible being, about which men never could come to any agreement, and to which they would attach more importance than to their own existence?" Diderot, "Entretien d'un philosophe avec la Maréchale de ....." (And that is just what our Marxist sociologist, psychologists etc have done in inventing a human being bereft of those emotions which in other animals force them to give in to their maternal, paternal and leadership instincts thereby ****** them happy in the process.. SR.)[16] Cf. "Catéchisme Universel," by Saint-Lambert, and the "Loi naturelle ou Catéchisme du citoyen fran?ais," by Volney.

[17] "Supplément au voyage de Bougainville."[18] Cf. "Mémoires de Mm. D'Epinay," a conversation with Duclos and Saint-Lambert at the house of Mlle. Quinault. - Rousseau's "Confessions," part I, book V. These are the same principles taught by M. de la Tavel to Mme. De Warens.

[19] "Suite du rêve de d'Alembert." "Entretien entre Mlls. de Lespinasse et Bordeu." - "Mémoires de Diderot," a letter to Mlle.

Volant, III. 66.