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stant, to the effect, that licentious religious ceremonies have no
connexion with licentious national morals.117 Another observa-
tion of his, which has been only partly used by writers on eccle-
siastical history, is pregnant with instruction. He says, that
one of the reasons why the bishops of Rome acquired an author-
ity so superior to that of the eastern patriarchs, was the greater
subtlety of the Greek mind. Nearly all the heresies proceeded
from the east; and, with the exception of Honorius I., not a sin-
gle pope adopted a system condemned by the church. This
gave to the papal power an unity and consolidation, which the
patriarchal power was unable to reach; and thus the Holy See
owes part of its authority to the early dullness of the European
fancy.118

It would be impossible to relate all the original remarks of
Voltaire, which, when he made them, were attacked as danger-
ous paradoxes, and are now valued as sober truths. He was the
first historian who recommended universal freedom of trade,
and although he expresses himself with great caution, still

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117 Constant, in his work on Roman polytheism, says, "des rites indécens peuvent être pratiqués par un peuple religieux avec une grande pureté de cœur. Mais quand l'incrédulité atteint ces peuples, ces rites sont pour lui la cause et le prétexte de la plus révoltante corruption." This passage is quoted by Mr. Milman, who calls it extremely profound and just." Milman's History of Christianity, 1840, vol. i. p. 28. And so it is extremely profound and just. But it happens that precisely the same remark was made by Voltaire, just about the time that Constant was born. Speaking of the worship of Priapus, he says (Essai sur les Mœurs, chap. cxliii., in Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xvii. p. 341), "nos idées de bienséance nous portent à croire qu'une cérémonie qui nous paraît si infame n'a été inventée que par la débauche; mais il n'est guère croyable que la dépravation des mœurs ait jamais chez aucun peuple établi des cérémonies religieuses. Il est probable, au contraire, que cette coutume fut d'abord introduite dans les temps de simplicité, et qu'on ne pensa d'abord qu'à honorer la Divinité dans le symbole de la vie qu'elle nous a donnée. Une telle cérémonie a dû inspirer la licence à la jeunesse, et paraître ridicule aux esprits sages, dans les temps plus raffinés, plus corrompus, et plus éclairés." Compare the remarks on the indecency of the Spartan customs, in Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.

118 Essai sur les Mours, chaps. xiv. and xxxi., in Euvres, vol. xv. pp. 391, 514. Neander observes, that in the Greek church there were more heresies than in the Latin church, because the Greeks thought more; but he has failed to perceive how this favoured the authority of the popes. Neander's History of the Church, vol. ii. pp. 198, 199, vol. iii. pp. 191, 492, vol. iv. p. 90, vol. vi. p. 293, vol. viii. p. 257.

119 In his account of the trade of Archangel, he says, "les Anglais obtinrent le privilége d'y commercer sans payer aucun droit; et c'est ainsi que toutes les nations devraient peut-être négocier ensemble." Hist. de Russie, part i. chap. i., in Euvres, vol. xxiii. p. 35. Remarkable words to have been written by a Frenchman, born at the end of the seventeenth century; and yet they have, so far as I am aware, escaped the attention of all the historians of political economy. Indeed, on this, as on most matters, sufficient justice has not been done to Voltaire, whose opinions were more accurate than those of Quesnay and his followers. However, Mr. M'Culloch, in noticing one of the economical errors of Voltaire, honestly admits that his "opinions on such subjects are, for the most part, very correct." M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy, p. 530. For proof of his sympathy with Turgot's efforts to establish free trade, compare Lettres inédites de Voltaire, vol. ii. pp. 367, 403, 423, with Longchamp, Mém. sur Voltaire, vol. i. pp. 376, 378.

the mere announcement of the idea in a popular history, forms an epoch in the progress of the French mind. He is the originator of that important distinction between the increase of population and the increase of food, to which political economy has been greatly indebted ;120 a principle adopted several years later by Townsend, and then used by Malthus as the basis of his celebrated work,121 He has, moreover, the merit of being the first who dispelled the childish admiration with which the Middle Ages had been hitherto regarded, and which they owed to those dull and learned writers, who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were the principal investigators of the early history of Europe. These industrious compilers had collected extensive materials, which Voltaire turned to good account, and by their aid overthrew the conclusions at which the authors had themselves arrived. In his works, the Middle Ages are, for the first time, represented as what they really were,-a period of ignorance, ferocity, and licentiousness; a period when injuries were unredressed, crime unpunished, and superstition unrebuked. It may be said, with some show of justice, that Voltaire, in the picture he drew, fell into the opposite extreme, and did not suf ficiently recognize the merit of those truly great men, who, at long intervals, stood here and there, like solitary beacons, whose light only made the surrounding darkness more visible. Still, after every allowance for that exaggeration which a reaction of opinions always causes, it is certain that his view of the Middle Ages is not only far more accurate than that of any preceding writer, but conveys a much juster idea of the time than can be found in those subsequent compilations which we owe to the industry of modern antiquaries; a simple and plodding race, who admire the past because they are ignorant of the present, and

120 The idea of the different ratios by which population and food increase, was originally thrown out by Voltaire; and was picked up and expanded into many a goodly volume by our English political economists in the present century." Laing's Notes, second series, p. 42.

121 It is often said that Malthus was indebted to Townsend's writings for his views on population; but this obligation has been too strongly stated, as, indeed, is always the case when charges of plagiarism are brought against great works. Still, Townsend is to be considered as the precursor of Malthus; and if the reader is interested in tracing the paternity of ideas, he will find some interesting economical remarks in Townsend's Journey through Spain, vol. i. pp. 379, 383, vol. ii. pp. 85, 337, 387-393; which must be compared with MCulloch's Literature of Political Economy, pp. 259, 281-3. Voltaire having preceded these authors, has, of course, fallen into errors which they avoided; but nothing can be better than the way in which he opposes the ignorant belief of his own time, that every thing should be done to increase population. "Le point principal n'est pas d'avoir du superflu en hommes, mais de rendre ce que nous en avons le moins malheureux qu'il est possible," is the summing-up of his able remarks, in Dict. Philos., article Population, sect. 2, in Œuvres, vol. xli. p. 466. Godwin, in his notice of the history of these opinions, is evidently ignorant of what was done by Voltaire. Sinclair's Corresp. vol. i. p. 396.

who, spending their lives amid the dust of forgotten manuscripts, think themselves able, with the resources of their little learning, to speculate on the affairs of men, to trace the history of different periods, and even to assign to each the praise it ought to receive.

With such writers as these, Voltaire was always at war; and no one has done so much to lessen the influence they once exercised over even the highest branches of knowledge. There was also another class of dictators, whose authority this great man was equally successful in reducing, namely, the old class of classical scholars and commentators, who, from the middle of the fourteenth till early in the eighteenth century, were the chief dispensers of fame, and were respected as being by far the most distinguished men Europe had ever produced. The first great assaults made upon them were late in the seventeenth century, when two controversies sprung up, of which I shall hereafter give an account,-one in France, and one in England,—by both of which their power was considerably damaged. But their two most formidable opponents were, undoubtedly, Locke and Voltaire. The immense services rendered by Locke in lessening the reputation of the old classical school, will be examined in another part of this work; at present we are only concerned with the steps taken by Voltaire.

The authority wielded by the great classical scholars, rested not only on their abilities, which are undeniable, but also on the supposed dignity of their pursuits. It was generally believed that ancient history possessed some inherent superiority over modern history; and this being taken for granted, the inference naturally followed, that the cultivators of the one were more praiseworthy than the cultivators of the other; and that a Frenchman, for instance, who should write the history of some Greek republic, displayed a nobler turn of mind than if he had written the history of his own country. This singular prejudice had for centuries been a traditional notion; which men accepted, because they had received it from their fathers, and which it would have been almost an impiety to dispute. The result was, that the few really able writers on history devoted themselves chiefly to that of the ancients; or, if they published an account of modern times, they handled their theme, not according to modern ideas, but according to ideas gathered from their more favourite pursuit. This confusion of the standard of one age with the standard of another, caused a double evil. Historians, by adopting this plan, injured the originality of their own minds; and, what was far worse, they set a bad example to the literature of their country. For, every great nation has a mode of expression, and of thought, peculiar to itself, and with which its sympathies

are intimately connected. To introduce any foreign model, however admirable it may be, is to violate this connexion, and to impair the value of literature by limiting the scope of its action. By such a course, the taste may possibly be refined, but the vigour will certainly be weakened. Indeed, the refinement of the taste may well be doubted, when we see what has taken place in our country, where our great scholars have corrupted the English language by a jargon so uncouth, that a plain man can hardly discern the real lack of ideas which their barbarous and mottled dialect strives to hide.122 At all events, it is certain, that every people worthy of being called a nation, possess in their own language ample resources for expressing the highest ideas they are able to form; and although, in matters of science, it may be convenient to coin such words as are more easily understood in foreign countries, it is a grave offence to depart on other subjects from the vernacular speech; and it is a still graver one, to introduce notions and standards for action, suited perhaps to former times, but which the march of society has left far behind, and with which we have no real sympathy, though they may excite that sickly and artificial interest, which the classical prejudices of early education still contrive to create.

It was against these evils that Voltaire entered the field. The wit and the ridicule with which he attacked the dreaming scholars of his own time, can only be appreciated by those who have studied his works. Not, as some have supposed, that he used these weapons as a substitute for argument, still less that he fell into the error of making ridicule a test for truth. No one could reason more closely than Voltaire, when reasoning suited his purpose. But he had to deal with men impervious to argument; men whose inordinate reverence for antiquity had only left them two ideas, namely, that every thing old is right, and that every thing new is wrong. To argue against these opinions would be idle indeed; the only other resource was, to make them ridiculous, and weaken their influence, by holding up their

122 With the single exception of Porson, not one of the great English scholars has shown an appreciation of the beauties of his native language; and many of them, such as Parr (in all his works) and Bentley (in his mad edition of Milton), have done every thing in their power to corrupt it. And there can be little doubt, that the principal reason why well-educated women write and converse in a purer style than well-educated men, is because they have not formed their taste according to those ancient classical standards, which, admirable as they are in themselves, should never be introduced into a state of society unfitted for them. To this may be added, that Cobbett, the most racy and idiomatic of all our writers, and Erskine, by far the greatest of our forensic orators, knew little or nothing of any ancient language; and the same observation applies to Shakespeare. On the supposed connection between the improvement of taste and the study of classical models, there are some remarks worth attending to in Rey's Théorie et Pratique de la Science Sociale, vol. i. pp. 98-101.

authors to contempt. This was one of the tasks Voltaire set himself to perform; and he did it well.123 He, therefore, used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of folly. And with such effect was the punishment administered, that not only did the pedants and theologians of his own time wince under the lash, but even their successors feel their ears tingle when they read his biting words; and they revenge themselves by reviling the memory of that great writer, whose works are as a thorn in their side, and whose very name they hold in undisguised abhorrence.

These two classes have, indeed, reasons enough for the hatred with which they still regard the greatest Frenchman of the eighteenth century. For, Voltaire did more than any other man to sap the foundation of ecclesiastical power, and to destroy the supremacy of classical studies. This is not the place for discussing the theological opinions which he attacked but of the state of classical opinions an idea may be formed, by considering some of those circumstances which were recorded by the ancients respecting their history, and which, until the appearance of Voltaire, were implicitly believed by modern scholars, and through them by the people at large.

It was believed that, in ancient times, Mars ravished a virgin, and that the offspring of the intrigue were no other than Romulus and Remus, both of whom it was intended to put to death; but they were fortunately saved by the attentions of a she-wolf and a woodpecker; the wolf giving them suck, and the woodpecker protecting them from insects. It was, moreover, believed that Romulus and Remus, when grown up to man's estate, determined to build a city, and that, being joined by the descendants of the Trojan warriors, they succeeded in erecting Rome. It was believed that both brothers came to an untimely end; Remus being murdered, and Romulus being taken up to heaven by his father, who descended for that purpose in the midst of a tempest. The great scholars then proceeded to relate the succession of several other kings; the most remarkable of whom was Numa, whose only communications with his wife were carried on in a sacred grove. Another of the sovereigns of Rome was Tullus Hostilius, who, having offended the clergy, perished from the effects of their anger; his death being caused by lightning, and

123 We can best judge from the Jesuitical rage with which he was persecuted, how admirably he had delineated the weaknesses and presumption of the interpreters of the ancients, who shone in the schools and academies, and had acquired great reputation by their various and copiously exhibited learning." Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 120. At p. 270, M. Schlosser says, "And it was only a man of Voltaire's wit and talents, who could throw the light of an entirely new criticism upon the darkness of those grubbing and collecting pedants."

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