contrasts are in nature. They are not more astonishing than a fine day followed by a tempest. has been supposed to be found in the history of the kings, is the utter scarcity of offensive and defensive arms among the Jews at the time of the accession of Saul, compared with the army of three hundred Of apparent Contradictions in Books. and thirty thousand men, whom he conWe must accurately distinguish inducted against the Ammonites who were books, and particularly the sacred ones, besieging Jabesh Gilead. between apparent and real contradictions. It is said in the Pentateuch, that Moses was the meekest of men, and that he ordered twenty-three thousand Hebrews to be slain who had worshipped the golden calf, and twenty-four thousand more, who had, like himself, married Midianitish women. But sagacious commentators have adduced solid proofs that Moses possessed a most amiable temper,ning-hooks. and that he only executed the vengeance of God in massacreing these forty-seven thousand Israelites, as just stated. Some daring critics have pretended to perceive a contradiction in the narrative in which it is said that Moses changed all the waters of Egypt into blood, and that the magicians of Pharaoh afterwards performed the same prodigy-the book of Exodus leaving no interval of time between the miracle of Moses and the magical operation of the enchanters. It is in fact related that then, and even after that battle, there was not a lance, not even a single sword, among the whole Hebrew people; that the Philistines prevented the Hebrews from manufacturing swords and lances; that the Hebrews were obliged to have recourse to the Philistines for sharpening and repairing their plough-shares, mattocks, axes, and pru This acknowledgment seems to prove that the Hebrews consisted only of a very small number, and that the Philistines were a powerful and victorious nation, who kept the Israelites under the yoke, and treated them as slaves; in short, that it was impossible for Saul to collect three hundred and thirty thousand fighting men, &c. The reverend Father Calmet says, it is probable" that there is a little exaggeration in what is stated about Saul and JoIt appears, at first view, impossible nathan ;" but that learned man forgets that these magicians should change to that the other commentators ascribe the blood that which was already made such; { first victories of Saul and Jonathan to one but the difficulty may be removed by of those decided miracles which God so supposing that Moses had allowed the often condescended to perform in favour waters to resume their original nature, in of his miserable people. Jonathan, with order to give Pharaoh time for reflection. his armour-bearer only, at the very beThis supposition is the more plausible, ginning, slew twenty of the enemy; and inasmuch as, if not expressly favoured the Philistines, utterly confounded, turned by the text, the latter is not contrary to their arms against each other. The author it. of the book of Kings positively declares, that it was a miracle of God:-" Accidit quasi miraculum a Deo." There is, therefore, no contradiction. The same sceptics enquire how, after all the horses were destroyed by hail, in the sixth plague, Pharaoh was able to pursue the Jewish nation with cavalry. But this contradiction is not even an apparent one, since the hail which killed all the horses that were out in the fields, could not fall on those which were in the stables. { The enemies of the Christian religion, the Celsuses, the Porphyrys, and the Julians, have exhausted the sagacity of their understandings upon this subject. The Jewish writers have availed themselves of all the advantages they derived from their One of the greatest contradictions which superior knowledge of the Hebrew Solomon and his merated by Saint Mathan, her first The wife of these two persons sucJacob, son of Ma- cessively, married language, to explain these apparent con- We read in a dangerous little book, composed with much art:-"St. Matthew and St. Luke give each a genealogy of Christ different from the other; and lest it should be thought that the differences are only slight, such as might be imputed to neglect or over-sight, the contrary may easily be shown by reading the first chapter of Matthew and the third of Luke. We shall then see that fifteen generations more are enumerated in the one than in the other; that, from David, they completely separate; that they join again at Salathiel; but that, after his son, they again separate, and do not reunite again but in Joseph. "In the same genealogy, St. Matthew again falls into a manifest contradiction, for he says that Uzziah was the father of Jotham; and in the "Paralipomena," book 1., chap. iii., v. 11, 12, we find three generations between them-Joas, Amazias, and Azarias-of whom Luke, as well as Matthew, make no mention. Farther, this genealogy has nothing to do with that of Jesus, since, according to our creed, Joseph had had no intercourse with Mary." than, the first hus- first to Heli, by son of Jacob. whom she had no Melchi, or rather Mathat, ber second husband. Heli. Legitimate son of There is another method to reconcile the two genealogies, by St. Epiphanius. According to him, Jacob Panther, descended from Solomon, is the father of Joseph and of Cleophas. Joseph has six children by his first wife; James, Joshua, Simeon, Jude, Mary, and Salome. He then espouses the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and daughter of Joachim and Anne. There are many other methods of explaining these two genealogies. See the "Dissertation" of Father Calmet, in which he endeavours to reconcile St. Matthew with St. Luke, on the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The same learned sceptics, who make it their business to compare dates, to explore books and medals, to collate ancient authors, and to seek for truth by human skill and study, and who lose in their knowledge the simplicity of their faith, reproach St. Luke with contradicting the other evangelists, and in being mistaken in what he advances on the subject of our Lord's birth. The author of the "Analysis of the Christian Religion," thus rashly expresses himself on the subject, (p. 23): In order to reply to this objection, "St. Luke says that Cyrenius was the arged from the time of Origen, and re- governor of Syria, when Augustus ordered newed from age to age, we must read the numbering of all the people of the Julius Africanus. See the two genealo-empire. We will show how many degies reconciled in the following table, as we find it in the repository of ecclesiastical writers : cided falsehoods are contained in these few words. First-Tacitus and Suetonius, the most precise of historians, say not a single word of the pretended num bering of the whole empire, which cer- Judea; that Augustus left Herod comtainly would have been a very singular pletely his own master for the tribute event, since there never had been one which that Idumean paid to the empire. under any emperor at least, no author But, in an emergency, it is not impossimentions such a case: secondly-Cyre-ble to make some arrangement with a tributary prince, and send him an intendant to establish in concert with him the nius did not arrive in Syria till ten years after the time fixed by St. Luke; it was then governed by Quintilius Varus, as Tertullian relates, and as is confirmed by medals." We contend that, in fact, there never was a numbering of the whole Roman empire, but only a census of Roman citizens, according to usage; although it is possible that the copyists may have written "numbering" for " census." With regard to Cyrenius, whom the copyists have made Cirinus, it is certain that he was not governor of Syria at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, the governor being Quintilius Varus; but it is very probable that Quintilius might send into Judea this same Cyrenius, who ten years after succeeded him in the government of Syria. We cannot dissemble, however, that this explanation still leaves some difficulties. new tax. We will not here say, like so many others, that copyists have committed many errors, and that in the version we possess there are to be found more than ten thousand-we had rather say, with the doctors of the church and the most enlightened persons, that the gospels were given us only to teach us to live holily, and not to criticise learnedly. These pretended contradictions produced a dreadful impression on the much lamented John Meslier, rector of Etrepigni and But in Champagne. This truly virtuous and charitable, but at the same time melancholy man, being possessed of scarcely any other books than the Bible and some of the fathers, read them with a studionsness of attention that became fatal to him. Although bound by the duties of his office to inculcate docility upon his flock, he was not sufficiently docile himself. He saw apparent con In the first place, the census made under Augustus does not correspond in time with the birth of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Jews were not comprisedtradictions, and shut his eyes to the means in that census. Joseph and his wife suggested for reconciling them. Heimawere not Roman citizens. Mary, there-gined that he perceived the most frightful fore, it is said, being under no necessity, contradictions between Jesus being born was not likely to go from Nazareth, which a Jew and afterwards recognised as God is at the extremity of Judea, within a few in regard to that God known from the miles of Mount Tabor, in the midst of the first as the son of Joseph the carpenter desert, to lie in at Bethlem, which is and the brother of James, yet descended eighty miles from Nazareth. from an empyreum which does not exist, But it might easily happen that Ciri- to destroy sin upon earth that is still nus, or Cyrenius, having been sent to covered with crimes; in regard to that Jerusalem by Quintilius Varus to impose God, the son of a common artizan and a a poll-tax, Joseph and Mary were sum-descendant of David on the side of his moned by the magistrate of Bethlem to father, who was not in fact his father — go and pay the tax in the town of Beth-between the creator of all worlds, and the lem, the place of their birth. In this there is nothing contradictory. The critics may endeavour to weaken this solution by representing that it was Herod only who imposed taxes; that the Romans at that time levied nothing on descendant of the adulterous Bathsheba, the prurient Ruth, the incestuous Tha mar, the prostitute of Jericho, the wife of Abraham, so suspiciously attractive to a king of Egypt, and again at the age of ninety years to a king of Gerar. Meslier expatiates with an impiety ab- sition; he had not seen the method of solutely monstrous on these pretended reconciling them; he feels agitated and contradictions, as they struck him, for provoked to see that St. Matthew makes which, however, he might easily have the father and mother of the child travel found an explanation, had he possessed into Egypt, after having received the hoonly a small portion of docility. At mage of the three eastern magi or kings, length, his gloom so grew upon him in and while old King Herod, under the his solitude, that he actually became apprehension of being dethroned by an horror-struck at that holy religion which infant just born at Bethlem, causes the it was his duty both to preach and love; { slaughter of all the infants in the country, and, listening only to his seduced and in order to prevent such a revolution. wandering reason, he abjured Christianity He is astonished that neither St. Luke, by a will written in his own hand, of nor St. Mark, nor St. John, make any which he left three copies behind him at { mention of this massacre. He is conhis death, which took place in 1732. The founded at observing that St. Luke makes copy of this will has been often printed, {Joseph, and the blessed Virgin Mary, and and exhibits, in truth, a most cruel stum- Jesus our Saviour, remain at Bethlem, bling-block. A clergyman who, at the after which they withdraw to Nazareth. point of death, asks pardon of God and He should have seen that the Holy Fahis parishioners for having taught themily might at first go into Egypt, and doctrines of Christianity! a charitable some time afterwards to Nazareth, which clergyman, who holds Christianity in was their country. execration because many who profess it If St. Matthew alone makes mention are depraved; who is shocked at the of the three magi, and of the star which pomp and pride of Rome, and exasper-guided them to Bethlem from the remote ated by the difficulties of the sacred vo- climes of the east, and of the massacre of lume; a clergymar. who speaks of Christi- the children; if the other evangelists take anity like Porphyry, Jamblicus, Epicte- {no notice of these events, they do not tus, Marcus Aurelius, and Julian! And contradict St. Matthew: silence is not this just as he is to make his appear- contradiction. ance before God! How fatal a case for If the three first evangelists, St. Mathim, and for all who may be led astray thew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, make Jesus by his example! Christ to have lived but three months In a similar manner, the unfortunate from his baptism in Galilee till his crupreacher Anthony, misled by the appa-cifixion at Jerusalem; and if St. Joha rent contradictions which he imagined he saw between the new and the old law-{ between the cultivated olive and the wild olive, wretchedly abandoned the Christian religion for the Jewish; and, more courageous than John Meslier, preferred death to recantation. It is evident from the will of John Meslier, that the apparent contradictions of the gospels were the principal cause of unsettling the mind of that unfortunate pastor, who was, in other respects, a man of the strictest virtue, and whom it is impossible to think of without compassion. Meslier is deeply impressed by the two genealogies, which seem in direct oppo extends that time to three years and three months, it is easy to approximate St. John to the other evangelists, as he does not expressly state that Jesus Christ preached in Galilee for three years and three months, but only leaves it to be inferred from his narrative. Should a man renounce his religion upon simple infer{ences, upon points of controversy, upon difficulties in chronology? It is impossible, says Meslier, to harmonise St. Mark and St. Luke; since the first says that Jesus, when he left the wilderness, went to Capernaum, and the second that he went to Nazareth. St. John says that Andrew was the first who became a follower of Jesus Christ; {no interest, no beauty, and not even written the three other evangelists say that it was in French. Simon Peter. It is the author himself who is contraHe pretends, also, that they contradict dictory. It is he who has the misfortune each other with respect to the day when to differ entirely from himself. The critic Jesus celebrated the Passover, the hour would contradict himself, if he equally and place of his execution, the time of applauded what is excellent and detesthis appearance and resurrection. He is able. He will admire in Homer the deconvinced that books which contradictscription of the girdle of Venus; the parteach other cannot be inspired by the holy spirit; but it is not an article of faith to believe that the holy spirit inspired every syllable; it did not guide the hand of the copyists; it permitted the operation { of secondary causes; it was sufficient that it condescended to reveal the principal mysteries, and that in the course of time it instituted a church for explaining them. All those contradictions with which the gospels have been so often and so bitterly reproached, are explained by sagacious commentators; far from being injurious, they mutually clear up each other-they present reciprocal helps in the concordances and harmony of the four gospels. And if there are many difficulties which we cannot solve, mysteries which we cannot comprehend, adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies which shock the weakness of the human understanding, and contradictions which it is impossible to reconcile, it is in order to exercise our faith and to humiliate our reason. Contradictions in Judgments upon of Literature or Art. Works {ing of Hector and Andromache; the interview between Achilles and Priam. But will he equally applaud those passages which describe the gods as abusing, and fighting with each other; the uniformity in battles which decide nothing; the brutal ferocity of the heroes, and the avarice by which they are almost all actuated; in short, a poem which terminates with a truce of eleven days, unquestionably exciting an expectation of the continuation of the war and the taking of Troy, which however are not related? A good critic will frequently pass from approbation to censure, however excellent the work may be which he is perusing. CONTRAST. CONTRAST, Opposition of figures, situations, fortune, manners, &c. A modest shepherdess forms a beautiful contrast in a painting with a haughty princess. The part of the impostor and that of Aristes constitute an admirable contrast in the Tartuffe. The little may contrast with the great, I have sometimes heard it said of a in painting, but cannot be said to be congood judge on these subjects, and of ex-trary to it. Oppositions of colours conquisite taste. that man decides according trast; but there are also colours contrary to mere caprice. He yesterday described to each other; that is, which produce an Poussin as an admirable painter; to-day ill effect because they shock the eye when he represents him as an ordinary one. brought very near it. The fact is, that Poussin has merited both praise and censure. There is no contradiction in being enraptured by the delicious scenes of the Horatii and Curiatii, of the Cid, of Augustus and of Cinna, and afterwards in seeing, with disgust and indignation, fifteen tragedies in succession, containing "Contradictory," is a term to be used only in logic. It is contradictory for any thing to be and not be; to be in many places at once; to be of a certain number or size, and not to be so. An opinion, a discourse, or a decree, we may call contradictory. The different fortunes of Charles XII |