Part 22 (2/2)

5 ”Collection of Voyages that contributed to the establishment of the East India Company,” vol. iii. part I. p. 36.

6 ”History of the Jews,” by Prideaux.

7 This is the inconvenience of the doctrine of Foe and Laockium.

8 Lib. II. of Laws.”

9 ”Sacrum commissum, quod neque expiari poterit, impie commissum est; quod expiari poterit publici sacerdotes expianto.”

10 See the relation written by John Duplan Carpin, sent to Tartary by Pope Innocent IV in the year 1246.

11 ”Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the establishment of the East India Company,” vol. v. p. 192.

12 ”Edifying Letters,” collect. 15.

13 ”Polit.” lib. VII. cap. xvii.

14 Suetonius, in ”Augusto,” cap. x.x.xi.

15 ”Collection of Voyages made to establish an India Company,” vol. iv. p. 127.

16 See Prideaux, ”Life of Mahomet,” p. 64.

17 Koran, book I., chapter ”of the. Cow.”

18 On renouncing the law of retaliation.

19 ”De Moribus Germanorum.”

20 ”Collection of Voyages that contributed to the establishment of the East India Company,” vol. vii. p. 303. See also ”Memoirs” of the C. de Forbin, and what he says of the people of Maca.s.sar.

21 Plato, of ”Laws,” lib. IX.

22 Tragedy of ”dipus Coloneus.”

23 Plato, of ”Laws,” lib. IX.

24A Chinese philosopher reasons thus against the doctrine of Foe: ”It is said, in a book of that sect, that the body is our dwelling-place and the soul the immortal guest which lodges there; but if the bodies of our relatives are only a lodging, it is natural to regard them with the same contempt we should feel for a structure of earth and dirt. Is not this endeavoring to tear from the heart the virtue of love to one's own parents? This leads us even to neglect the care of the body, and to refuse it the compa.s.sion and affection so necessary for its preservation; hence the disciples of Foe kill themselves by thousands.”-”Work of an ancient Chinese philosopher,” in the Collection of Du Halde, vol. iii. p. 52.

25 See Tho. Bartholin's ”Antiquities of the Danes.”

26 ”An Account of j.a.pan,” in the ”Collection of Voyages that contributed to establish an East India Company.”

27 Forbin's ”Memoirs.”

28 Mr. Hyde.

29 Xenophon ”on the Republic of Athens.”

30 Leg. 3, cod. ”de Feriis.” This law was doubtless made only for the Pagans.

31 The Catholics lie more towards the south, and the Protestants towards the north.

32 Dampier's ”Voyages,” vol. ii.

33 See Bernier's ”Travels,” vol. ii. p. 137.

34 ”Edifying Letters,” Col. 12, p. 95.

35 Bernier's ”Travels,” vol. ii. p. 187.

36 Euripides, in ”Athenaeus,” lib. II.

37 ”Life of Mahomet.”

38 As in China.

39 ”Medicina Statica,” sect. 3, aphor. 23.

40 Ibid.

41 ”Travels into Persia,” vol. ii.

42 Bernier's ”Travels,” vol. ii.

Book XXV

Of Laws in Relation to the Establishment of Religion and its External Polity 1.-Of Religious Sentiments THE pious man and the atheist always talk of religion; the one speaks of what he loves, and the other of what he fears.

2.-Of the Motives of Attachment to different Religions The different religions of the world do not give to those who profess them equal motives of attachment; this depends greatly on the manner in which they agree with the turn of thought and perceptions of mankind.

We are extremely addicted to idolatry, and yet have no great inclination for the religion of idolaters; we are not very fond of spiritual ideas, and yet are most attached to those religions which teach us to adore a spiritual being. This proceeds from the satisfaction we find in ourselves at having been so intelligent as to choose a religion which raises the deity from that baseness in which he had been placed by others. We look upon idolatry as the religion of an ignorant people, and the religion which has a spiritual being for its object as that of the most enlightened nations.

When with a doctrine that gives us the idea of a spiritual supreme being we can still join those of a sensible nature and admit them into our wors.h.i.+p, we contract a greater attachment to religion; because those motives which we have just mentioned are added to our natural inclinations for the objects of sense. Thus the Catholics, who have more of this kind of wors.h.i.+p than the Protestants, are more attached to their religion than the Protestants are to theirs, and more zealous for its propagation.

When the people of Ephesus were informed that the fathers of the council had declared they might call the Virgin Mary the Mother of G.o.d, they were transported with joy, they kissed the hands of the bishops, they embraced their knees, and the whole city resounded with acclamations.1 When an intellectual religion superadds a choice made by the deity, and a preference for those who profess it over those who do not, this greatly attaches us to religion. The Mahommedans would not be such good Mussulmans if, on the one hand, there were not idolatrous nations who make them imagine themselves the champions of the unity of G.o.d; and on the other Christians, to make them believe that they are the objects of his preference.

A religion burdened with many ceremonies2 attaches us to it more strongly than that which has a fewer number. We have an extreme propensity to things in which we are continually employed: witness the obstinate prejudices of the Mahommedans and the Jews,3 and the readiness with which barbarous and savage nations change their religion, who, as they are employed entirely in hunting or war, have but few religious ceremonies.

Men are extremely inclined to the pa.s.sions of hope and fear; a religion, therefore, that had neither a heaven nor a h.e.l.l, could hardly please them. This is proved by the ease with which foreign religions have been established in j.a.pan, and the zeal and fondness with which they were received.4 In order to raise an attachment to religion it is necessary that it should inculcate pure morals. Men who are knaves by retail are extremely honest in the gross; they love morality. And were I not treating of so grave a subject I should say that this appears remarkably evident in our theatres: we are sure of pleasing the people by sentiments avowed by morality; we are sure of shocking them by those it disapproves.

When external wors.h.i.+p is attended with great magnificence it flatters our minds and strongly attaches us to religion. The riches of temples and those of the clergy greatly affect us. Thus even the misery of the people is a motive that renders them fond of a religion which has served as a pretext to those who were the cause of their misery.

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