Volume III Part 80 (2/2)
”I like that If I deliver the race ofit, am I to be asked what I intend to put in its place?”
”It does not devour it; on the contrary, it is necessary to its existence”
”Necessary to its existence! That is a horrible blasphemy, the falsity of which will be seen in the future I love the human race; I would fain see men like myself, free and happy, and superstition and freedoether Where do you find an enslaved and yet a happy people?”
”You wish, then, to see the people sovereign?”
”God forbid! There overn the masses”
”In that case you must have superstition, for without it the masses will never obey a mere man decked with the name of monarch”
”I will have no monarch; the word expresses despotism, which I hate as I do slavery”
”What do you overnment in the hands of one man, such a man, I n ruler of a free people, of which he is the chief by an agreement which binds the a tyrant”
”Addison will tell you that such a sovereign is a sheer iree with Hobbes, of two evils choose the least A nation without superstition would be a nation of philosophers, and philosophers would never obey The people will only be happy when they are crushed and down-trodden, and bound in chains”
”This is horrible; and you are of the people yourself If you have read my works you must have seen how I shew that superstition is the enes”
”Read your works? I have read and re-read them, especially in places where I have differed fro passion is the love of humanity 'Est ubi peccas' This blinds you Love humanity, but love it as it is It is not fit to receive the blessings you would lavish on it, and which would onlyhed so heartily as at Don Quixote assailed by the galley-slaves whoenerosity had set free”
”I am sorry that you have such a bad opinion of your fellow-creatures
And by the way, tell me whether there is freedom in Venice”
”As much as can be expected under an aristocracy Our liberty is not so great as that which the English enjoy, but we are content”
”Even under The Leads?”
”My ily abused my liberty I ahts in shutting me up without the usual formalities”
”All the sahts as they had used theirs”
”Very good! But as far as I can see, no one in Venice is really free”
”That ree that the essence of freedoree to that so easily You and I see liberty from very different points of view The aristocrats, the members of the Government even, are not free at Venice; for example, they cannot travel without permission”
”True, but that is a restriction of their ownto preserve their power Would you say that a Bernese is not free, because he is subject to the sumptuary lahich he himself had made”
”Well, well, I wish the people made the laws everywhere”