You will allow that the Hindou Amphytrion is more comic and more ingenious than the Grecian Amphytrion, though it could not be fo decently brought upon the stage.

You will perhaps furprise your people ftill more, when you relate the origin of the famous quarrel between Aaron, with Dathan, Korah, and Abiram, wrote by a Jew, who probably was the Louitick of his tribe. He is, perhaps, the only Jew who underflood raillery. His book is not of the fame antiquity with the first Brachmans; but certainly is ancient, and more antient than Homer. The Italian Jews had it printed at Venice, in the fifteenth century; and the famous Gaumin, Counsellor of State, enriched it with notes in Latin. Fabricius has inferted them in his Latin tranflation of the life and death of Mofes, another antient work, which is pretended to have been written in the time of Efdras. I fhall copy the paffage as it is found in the fecond book, page 165, number 297 of the Hamburgh edition.

"There was a poor widow who was the caufe of this quarrel. "This woman had nothing but a fingle ewe for her whole ftock. "She fhore her ewe, and Aaron came and faid unto her, It is written, "that the first fruits are the Lord's; and he carried off the wool. "The woman, in tears, went and complained to Korah, who re"monstrated to the priest Aaron, but bis remonftrances were of no "effect. Korah gave four pieces of filver to the poor woman, and "withdrew in anger. In a little time after, the ewe yeaned her "firft lamb: Aaron returned, and faid, My good woman, it is written "that the firstling of every beaft is the Lord's. He carried off the lamb and eat it. Korah remonstrated again, but to

"purpose as before.

as little

The widow in defpair killed her ewe, and immediately Aaron "was with her, and took the fhoulder, the leg, and the loin. "Corah was enraged, but Aaron faid that it was fo written, and "that he would eat the shoulder, the leg, and the loin. The widow.

66

was provoked, and in a paffion fwore, the Devil take my ewe; "which Aaron hearing, he returned, and faid, that whatever is. "curfed is the Lord's, and he eat the rest of the poor ewe for his, "fupper. Such is the cause of the quarrel between Aaron on the one part, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on the other."

66

This malicious piece of humour has been copied by more than one nation. There is not a fingle good fable in Fontaine that does not come from the heart of Alia: you will even find them among the Tartars. I recollect to have formerly read in Plancarpin's, Rubruquis's, and Marc Paolo's Collection of Voyages, that a Tartar Chief, when he was dying, repeated to his children the fable of the old man, who gave his ions the bundle of rods to break *.

Have we a more philofophic tale in the weft, than that which Olearius relates of Alexander? I mentioned it in one of the pamphlets which I did not fend to you, because it was not worth carriage. The scene is in the most diftant parts of Bactriana, at a time when all

* Voyages of Plancarpin, Rubruquis, Marc Paul, and Haiton, chap. xvii of Haiton, page 31,

the

the Afiatic Princes fought the waters of immortality, as the Knights errant, in our modern romances, have fought after the waters of youth. Alexander met an angel in the cavern, where the magi affured him, that the waters of immortality were to be had. The angel gave him a flint, and bidding him bring another of the fame form and weight, he fhould then drink of the water of immortality. Alexander fearched himfcif, and caufed fearch to be made every where to no purpose, After a deal of fruitless labour, he thought proper to choose a flint nearly refembling the one he had received, and added a little earth to give it the weight and form. The angel, Gabriel, perceiving the trick, faid to him, My friend, remember that thou art only earth. Defpair of drinking the waters of immortality; and do not attempt to impoje upon Gabriel*.

This apologue teaches us that there are not two things in nature to be found perfectly alike; and that the ideas of Leibnitz upon the indifcernible, were known in the heart of Tartary a long time before Leibnitz +.

For the most part of the ftories with which we have been crammed over and over again, and all the witty repartees which have been afcribed to Charles V, Henry IV, and an hundred modern Princes, they may be found in Athenæus, and our old books. It is in that fenfe only that we can say, nihil fab fole novum, (there is nothing new under the fun) &c.

On the Letters of Pope Ganganelli, which have lately made fuch a noife throughout Europe, and which appeared to us, on the first reading, to be fpurious; Mr. Voltaire makes the following reprobatory remarks in the XXVIIth Letter.

"I have been fo abufed, my dear friend, with my ingenious and gallant letters, which I never wrote, and with fo many other ftupidities which have been afcribed to me, that you will pardon me for taking the part of every Cardinal or Pope to whom fuch tricks are played.

It is a long time fince I was provoked with that political teftament which was fraudulently produced in the name of Cardinal Richelieu. Can we give attention to the political advice of a Prime Minister who does not fpeak to the King; either of the Queen, whose fituation was fo doubtful; nor of his brother, who had fo often confpired him; nor of his fon, the Dauphin, whofe education was of fuch importance; nor of his enemies, against whom he had fuch meafures to take; nor of the proteftants of the kingdom, against whom the fame King had carried on fo fevere a war; nor of his armies; nor of his negotiations; nor of his Generals; nor of his Ambafladors? It would be madnefs and folly to believe that this rhapfody was written by a Minister of State.

The most ill-conceived frauds are difcoverable in every page; however, the name of Cardinal Richelieu impofed for a time; and even fome of the beaux-efprits, like oracles, praifed the horrid errors with

Olearius, page 169.

This Hiftory has been introduced into a little book, entituled, ChiRele, Indian, and Tartar letters.

which

which the book fwarms: and thus every error is propagated from one end of the world to the other, unless fome worthy foul has courage enough to stop its career.

Since that time we have had the teftaments of the Duke of Lorraign, Colbert, Louvois, Alberoni, Marechal Bellifle, and Mandrin. Among fo many heroes I dare not rank myself; but you know that Counsellor Marchand has made my testament, in which he has had the difcretion not even to include a legacy for himfelt!

You have feen the letters of Ninon de l'Enclos, the Queen of Sweden, Madame Pompadour, Mademoiselle de Tron to her lover, the Reverend Father de la Chaize, confeffor to Louis XIV: and now come the Letters of Pope Ganganilli. They are in French, though he never wrote in that language. Ganganelli must have received in cognito the gift of languages in the courfe of his life. These letters are entirely in the French tafte. The turn of the expreffions, the thoughts, the words, the style is entirely French. They are printed in France; the editor is a Frenchman, born near Tours, who has affumed a name beginning with an J. and has already published a number of French works under feigned names.

If this editor had tranflated genuine letters of Pope Clement XIV into French, he would have depofited the originals in fome public library. We have a right to fay to him what was formerly faid to the Abbé Nodot, "Shew us your manufcript of Petronius, which was found at Belgrade, or confent that nobody fhall believe you. It is as falfe that you have the genuine fatire of Petronius in your hands, as it is false that that ancient satire was the work of a Conful, and a picture of Nero's conduct. Defift from attempting to deceive the learned, you will only deceive the vulgar."

When the comedy of the Scotchwoman was published in the name of Guillaume Vadé, and of Jerome Carré, the public immediately faw the joke, and did not require legal proofs. But when they expofe the name of a Pope whofe afhes are not yet cold, there should be no room left for fufpicion; the letters with Ganganelli's fubfcription fhould be produced in the facred college, and depofited in the library of the Vatican, with the atteftations of all who know his writing; otherwife it will be faid all over Europe, that a inan has dared to take the name of a Pope to fell a book. Reus eft quia filium dei fe fecit.

As for my part, if I were to fee thefe letters fupported by atteftations, I would no more believe them to be the letters of Ganganelli, than I fhould believe the letters of Pilate to Tiberius were really written by Pilate.

And why am I fo incredulous about these letters? It is becaufe I have read them; because I fee the counterfeit in every page. I was fufficiently intimate with the Venetian Algarotti to know that he never had the leaft correspondence with the Friar Ganganelli, nor with the Counsellor Ganganelli, nor with the Cardinal Ganganelli, nor with the Pope Ganganelli. The little advice given in a friendly manner to Algarotti and me, were never given by that good Monk, who became a good Pope.

It

5

It is impoffible that Ganganelli could have written to Mr. Stuart, s Scotchman; my dear Sir, I am fincerely attached to the English nation. I have an exceffive love for your great poets.

What would you fay of an Italian who declares to a Scotchman, that he has an exceffive love for English verfe, and yet does not understand one word of English?

The Editor goes ftill farther, and makes his learned Ganganelli fay, I fometimes make nocturnal vifits to Newton, and at a time when all nature fleeps, I wake to read and admire him. No one like him ever united fimplicity with feience. His character and genius were fuperior to pride.

You fee how the Editor puts himfelf in the place of his Pope, and what ftrange praife he beftows upon Newton. He pretends to have read him, and speaks of him as of a learned Benedictine, well verfed in history, and who is, notwithstanding, very modeft. A very pretty panegyric on the greatest mathematician that has ever been: a man who has diffected the light.

In that fame letter he takes Berkley, Bishop of Cloyne, for one of those who have written against the Chriftian religion, and ranks him with Spinofa and Bayle. He does not know that Berkley was one of the most able writers who has defended the Chriftian religion. He does not know that Spinofa has never once mentioned it, and that Bayle has not written any work exprefsly on fo respectable a fubject.

The Editor, in a letter to an Abbé Lami, makes his pretended Ganganelli fay, that according to Danté the juul is the greatest miracle in the world. A Pope or a Francifcan Friar may cite Danté with all his might, to fhew himself a man of letters; but there is not a single verse in that frange Poet Danté, which fays what is here afcribed to him.

In another letter to a Venetian lady, Ganganelli amuses himself in refuting Locke; that is to fay, Mr. Editor. much fuperior to Locke, does himfelf the pleasure of cenfuring him under the name of a Pope.

In a letter to Cardinal Quirini, the Editor expreffes himself in the following manner: Your Eminency, who loves the French, bas certainly looked with a forgiving eye upon their prettiness, though it might have offended the fuperior tafte of the ancient manners. There is no evil

but may be found collectively in all ages; there are sparks and flames, lillies and blue-bottles, rains and dews, ftars and meteors, rivers and rivulets, which is a perfect picture of nature; and to judge of the world and of times, you must unite the different views, and make but one piece of the whole.

Do you in good faith believe that the Pope wrote this farrago in French against the French?

Is it not pleafant in the hundred and eleventh letter of Ganganelli, newly become Cardinal, he fays, We are not Cardinals to impose upon the world by baughtiness, but to be the pillars of the Holy See. Our - rank, our habits, our functions, all remind us, that, even to the effufion of our blood, we ought to employ all our power for the affiftance of r ligion, according to the will of God and the exigencies of the Church.

When

When I fee Cardinal de Tournon fing to the extremities of the world to eaufe the truth to be preached there in its purity, I find myself inflamed with the noble example, and am difpofid to undertake every thing in the fame caufe.

Would not you imagine from this paffage, that a Cardinal de Tournon had forfaken the pleatures of Rome in the year 17c6, to go and preach to the Emperor of China, and to fuffer martyrdom ? But the real fact is, a Savoyard Prieft of the name of Maillard, who was educated at Rome in the college of the Propaganda, was fent by Pope Clement XI, to China in the year 1706, to give an account to the congregation of the Propaganda, of a difpute between the Jacobins and the Jefuits about the meaning of two words in the Chinese language. Maillard took the name of Tournon, and very foon was appointed Apoftolical Vicar in China. He was no fooner Apoftle Vicar, than he took it into his head that he understood the Chinese language better than the Emperor Camhy. He fent word to Pope Clement XI. that the Emperor and the Jefuits were Heretics. The Emperor was fatisfied with fending him to prifon, but it is faid that the Jefuits had him poifoned: but before the poifon had operated, it is faid that he had the credit to procure a cap from the Pope. The Chinefe fcarcely knew what was meant by the cap, but Maillard died when the cap arrived and this is the faithful hiftory of that conceit. The Editor fuppofes Ganganelli was fo ignorant as to know nothing.

Lastly, he who borrows the name of Pope Ganganelli, pushes his zeal fo far as to make him fay in his fifty-eighth letter to a Magiftrate of the Republic of St. Marino, I will not fend you the book you want to fee; it is an ill-formed production, badly tranflated from French, and abounds with herefies against morality and found doctrine. It speaks, nevertheless, of humanity; for now-a-days that is the plau fible phrafe which is fubftituted in the room of charity, because hu manity is but a Pagan virtue, and charity is a Chriftian one." modern philofophy would have nothing to do with what relates to Christianity."

The

You will attentively obferve, that if our Pope dreads the word humanity, his moft Chriftian Majefty boldly makes ufe of it in his edict of the 12th of April, 1776, in which he offers medicines to be diftributed, gratis, to all the fick in his kingdom. The edict begins thus; His Majefty's will is henceforth for the fake of humanity, &c.

Mr. Editor may be inhuman as much as he pleases upon paper, but he will pleafe to allow that our Kings and Minifters may be humane. It is plain that he is ftrangely mistaken, but it is the cafe with all thefe gentlemen who publifh their productions in refpectable names. It is the rock upon which all the Teftament-makers have fplit; it is by this chiefly that Boifguilbert is known, who dared to print his Royal Tenth under the name of the Marechal de Vauban. Such were the authors of the Memoirs of Vordac, Montbrun, de Pontis, and many more.

I believe the pretended Ganganelli is unmasked. He made himself Pope, but 'tis I that have depofed him. If he will excommunicate me for it, he is very welcome.

VOL. V.

P

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