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that this good prince assassinated his son, his wife, and his nephew, the young Licinius, the hope of the empire, who was not yet twelve years old.

Under Constantine, Arius's party was constantly victorious. The opposite party have unblushingly written, that one day St. Macarius, one of the most ardent followers of Athanasius, knowing that Arius was on the way to the cathedral of Constantinople, followed by several of his brethren, prayed so ardently to God to confound this heresiarch, that God could not resist the prayer: and immediately all Arius's bowels passed through his fundament-which is impossible. But at length Arius died.

reigned in Italy, Illyria, and Africa, as guardian of the young Valentinian, proscribed the great Council of Nice; and soon after, the Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians, who spread themselves over so many provinces, finding Arianism established in them, embraced it in order to govern the conquered nations by the religion of those nations.

But the Nicean faith having been received by the Gauls, their conqueror Clovis followed that communion for the very same reason that the other Barbarians had professed the faith of Arius.

In Italy, the great Theodoric kept peace between the two parties; and, at last, the Nicean formula prevailed in the

Constantine followed him a year after-East and in the West. wards; and, it is said, he died of leprosy. Julian, in his Cæsars, says that baptism, which this emperor received a few hours before his death, cured no one of this distemper.

As his children reigned after him, the flattery of the Roman people, who had long been slaves, was carried to such an excess, that those of the old religion made him a god, and those of the new made him a saint. His feast was long kept, together with that of his mother.

Arianism re-appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century, favoured by the religious disputes which then divided Europe; and it re-appeared, armed with new strength and a still greater incredulity. Forty gentlemen of Vicenza formed an academy, in which such tenets only were established as appeared necessary to make men Christians. Jesus was acknowledged as the Word, as Saviour, and as judge; but his divinity, his consubstantiality, and even the Trinity, were denied.

After his death, the troubles occasioned by the single word consubstantial, agitated Of these dogmatisers, the principal the empire with renewed violence. Con- were Lælius, Socinus, Ochin, Pazuta, stantius, son and successor to Constantine, and Gentilis, who were joined by Serimitated all his father's cruelties, and like vetus. The unfortunate dispute of the him held councils; which councils ana- latter with Calvin is well known; they thematized one another. Athanasius went carried on for some time an interchange over all Europe and Asia, to support his of abuse by letter, Servetus was so imparty; but the Eusebians overwhelmed prudent as to pass through Geneva, on him. Banishment, imprisonment, tumult, his way to Germany. Calvin was cowardly murder, and assassination, signalized the enough to have him arrested, and barbarclose of the reign of Constantius. Julian, ous enough to have him condemned to be the Church's mortal enemy, did his ut-roasted by a slow fire-the same punishmost to restore peace to the Church, but ment which Calvin himself had narrowly was unsuccessful. Jovian, and after him { escaped in France. Nearly all the theoValentinian, gave entire liberty of con-logians of that time were by turns perscience; but the two parties accepted it secuting and persecuted, executioners and only as the liberty to exercise their hatred victims. and their fury.

Theodosius declared for the Council of Nice: but the Empress Justina, who

The same Calvin solicited the death of Gentilis at Geneva. He found five advocates to subscribe that Gentilis deserved

to perish in the flames. Such horrors were worthy of that abominable age. Gentilis was put in prison, and was on the point of being burnt like Servetus: but he was better advised than the Spaniard; he retracted, bestowed the most ridiculous praises on Calvin, and was saved. But he had afterwards the ill-fortune, through not having made terms with a bailiff of the canton of Berne, to be arrested as an Arian. There were witnesses, who deposed that he had said that the words, trinity, essence, hypostasis, were not to be found in the Scriptures; and, on this deposition, the judges, who were as ignorant of the meaning of hypostasis as himself, condemned him, without at all arguing the question, to lose his head.

Faustus Socinus, nephew to Lælius Socinus, and his companions, were more fortunate in Germany; they penetrated into Silesia and Poland, founded churches there, wrote, preached, and were successful: but at length, their religion being divested of almost every mystery, and a philosophical and peaceful rather than a militant sect, they were abandoned; and the jesuits, who had more influence, persecuted and dispersed them.

The remains of this sect in Poland, Germany, and Holland, keep quiet and concealed; but. in England, the sect has re-appeared with greater strength and eclât. The great Newton and Locke embraced it. Samuel Clarke, the celebrated rector of St. James's, and author of an excellent book on the existence of God, openly declared himself an Arian, and his disciples are very numerous. Не would never attend his parish church on the day when the Athanasian Creed was recited. In the course of this work will be seen, the subtleties which all these obstinate persons, who were not so much Christians as philosophers, opposed to the purity of the Catholic faith."

covered by Newton, and the metaphysical wisdom of Locke. Disputes on consubstantiality appear very dull to philosophers. The same thing happened to Newton in England as to Corneille in France, whose Pertharite, Théodore, and Récueil de Vers, were forgotten, while Cinna was alone thought of. Newton was looked upon as God's interpreter, in the calculation of fluxions, the laws of gravitation, and the nature of light. On his death, his pall was borne by the peers and the chancellor of the realm, and his remains were laid near the tombs of the kings-than whom he is more revered. Servetus, who is said to have discovered the circulation of the blood, was roasted by a slow fire, in a little town of the Allobroges, ruled by a theologian of Picardy.

ARISTEAS

SHALL men for ever be deceived in the most indifferent as well as the most serious things? A pretended Aristeas would make us believe that he had the Old Testament translated into Greek for the use of Ptolemy Philadelphus-just as the Duke de Montausier had commentaries written on the best Latin authors for the use of the Dauphin, who made no use of them.

According to this Aristeas, Ptolemy, burning with desire to be acquainted with the Jewish books, and to know those laws which the meanest Jew in Alexandria could have translated for fifty crowns, determined to send a solemn embassy to the high-priest of the Jews of Jerusalem; to deliver a hundred and twenty thousand Jewish slaves, whom his father Ptolemy Soter had made prisoners in Judea; and, in order to assist them in performing the journey agreeably, to give them about forty crowns each of our money-amounting in the whole to fourteen millions, four hundred thousand of our livres, or about 576,000/.

Although among the theologians of London there was a large flock of Arians, Ptolemy did not content himself with the public mind there has been more occu- this unheard of liberality: he sent to the pied by the great mathematical truths dis-temple a large table of massive gold, en ·

riched all over with precious stones, and had engraved upon it a chart of the Meander, a river of Phrygia, the course of which river was marked with rubies and emeralds. It is obvious how charming such a chart of the Meander must have been to the Jews. This table was loaded with two immense golden vases, still more richly worked. He also gave thirty other golden and an infinite number of silver Never was a book so dearly paid

of thirty talents of silver-that is, of the weight of about sixty thousand crowns, with ten purple robes, and a hundred pieces of the finest linen.

Nearly all this fine story is faithfully repeated by the historian Josephus, who never exaggerates anything. St. Justin improves upon Josephus; he says that Ptolemy applied to King Herod, and not to the high-priest Eleazar. He makes Ptolemy send two ambassadors to Herod for; the whole Vatican library might be—which adds much to the marvellousness had for a less amount. of the tale; for we know that Herod was not born until long after the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

vases.

Eleazar, the pretended high-priest of Jerusalem, sent ambassadors in his turn, who presented only a letter written upon fine vellum in characters of gold. It was an act worthy of the Jews, to give a bit { of parchment for about thirty millions of livres.

Ptolemy was so much delighted with Eleazar's style, that he shed tears of joy.

The ambassador dined with the king and the chief priests of Egypt. When grace was to be said, the Egyptians yielded the honour to the Jews.

With these ambassadors came seventytwo interpreters, six from each of the twelve tribes, who had all learned Greek { perfectly at Jerusalem. It is really a pity that of these twelve tribes ten were entirely lost, and had disappeared from the face of the earth so many ages before; but Eleazar the high-priest, found them again, on purpose to send translators to Ptolemy.

The seventy-two interpreters were shut up in the island of Pharos; each of them completed his translation in seventy-two days, and all the translations were found to be word for word alike. This is called the Septuagint or translation of the Seventy, though it should have been called the translation of the Seventy-two.

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It is needless to point out the profusion of anachronisms in these and all such romances, or the swarm of contradictions and enormous blunders into which the Jewish author falls in every sentence: yet this fable was regarded for ages as an incontestable truth; and, the better to exercise the credulity of the human mind, every writer who repeated it added or retrenched in his own way-so that, to believe it all, it was necessary to believe it in a hundred different ways. Some smile at these absurdities which whole nations have swallowed, while others sigh over the imposture. The infinite diversity of these falsehoods multiplies the followers of Democritus and Heraclitus.

ARISTOTLE.

Ir is not to be believed that Alexander's preceptor, chosen by Philip, was wrong-headed and pedantic. Philip was assuredly a judge, being himself wellinformed, and the rival of Demosthenes in eloquence.

Aristotle's Logic.

Aristotle's logic- his art of reasoning, is so much the more to be esteemed, as he had to deal with the Greeks, who were continually holding captious arguments; from which fault his master Plato was even less exempt than others.

As soon as the king had received these books, he worshipped them-he was so good a Jew. Each interpreter received three talents of gold; and there were sent to the high-sacrificer, in return for his parcnment, ten couches of silver, a crown of gold, censers and cups of gold, a vasetality of the soul:

Take, for example, the article by which, in the Phædon, Plato proves the immor

The master retorted the argument, saying-If you lose, you must pay; if you gain, you must also pay; for our bargain is, that you shall pay me after the first cause that you have gained.

"Do you not say that death is the opposite of life? Yes. And that they spring from one another? Yes. What then is it that springs from the living? The dead. And what from the dead? The living. It is, then, from the dead It is evident that all this turns on an that all living things arise. Consequently, ambiguity. Aristotle teaches how to resouls exist after death in the infernal re-move it, by putting the necessary terms gions."

Sure and unerring rules were wanted to unravel this extraordinary nonsense, which through Plato's reputation, fascinated the minds of men.

It was necessary to show that Plato gave a loose meaning to all his words. Death does not spring from life; but the living man ceases to live.

The living springs not from the dead, but from a living man who subsequently dies.

Consequently, the conclusion that all living things spring from dead ones, is ridiculous. From this conclusion you draw another, which is no way included in the premises-that souls are in the infernal regions after death.

It should first have been proved that dead bodies are in the infernal regions, and that the souls accompany them.

There is not a correct word in your argument. You should have said-That which thinks has no parts; that which has no parts is indestructible: therefore, the thinking faculty in us, having no parts, is indestructible.

in the argument

A sum is not due until the day appointed for its payment :

The day appointed is that when a cause shall have been gained ::

:

No cause has yet been gained: Therefore the day appointed has not yet arrived :

Therefore the disciple does not yet owe anything.

So

But not yet does not mean never. that the disciple instituted a ridiculous action.

The master, too, had no right to demand anything, since the day appointed had not arrived. He must wait until the disciple had pleaded some other cause.

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Suppose a conquering people were to
stipulate that they would restore to the
conquered only one half of their ships;
then to have them sawed in two, and hav
ing thus given back the exact half, were
to pretend that they had fulfilled the
treaty. It is evident that this would be a
very criminal equivocation.

Aristotle did, then, render a great service to mankind, by preventing all ambiOr-the body dies because it is divisi-guity; for this it is which causes all misble; the soul is indivisible; therefore it understandings in philosophy, in theology, does not die. Then you would at least and in public affairs. have been understood.

It is the same with all the captious reasonings of the Greeks. A master taught rhetoric to his disciple, on condition that he should pay him the first cause that he gained.

The disciple intended never to pay him. He commenced an action against his master, saying-I will never pay you any thing; for, if I lose my cause, I was not to pay you until I had gained it; and if I gain it, my demand is, that I may not

pay you.

The pretext for the unfortunate war of 1756 was an equivocation respecting Acadia.

It is true that natural good sense, combined with the habit of reasoning, may dispense with Aristotle's rules. A man who has a good ear and voice may sing well without musical rules; but it is better to know them.

His Physics.

They are but little understood; but it is more than probable that Aristotle un

derstood himself, and was understood in
his own time. We are strangers to the
language of the Greeks; we do not attach
to the same words the same ideas.
For instance, when he says, in his
seventh chapter, that the principles of
bodies are matter, privation, and form, he
seems to talk egregious nonsense; but
such is not the case. Matter, with him,
is the first principle of everything-the
subject of everything-indifferent to every
thing. Form is essential to its becoming
any certain thing. Privation is that which
distinguishes any being from all those
things which are not in it. Matter may,
indifferently, become a rose or an apple;
but, when it is an apple or a rose, it is
deprived of all that would make it silver
or lead. Perhaps this truth was not worth
the trouble of repeating; but we have no-
thing here but what is quite intelligible,
and nothing at all impertinent.

because here Aristotle made use of his eyes. Alexander furnished him with all the rare animals of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This was one fruit of his conquests. That hero spent in this way immense sums, which at this day would terrify all the guardians of the royal treasury, and which should immortalise Alexander's glory, of which we have already spoken.

At the present day, a hero, when he has the misfortune to make war, can scarcely give any encouragement to the sciences; he must borrow money of a Jew, and consult other Jews, in order to make the substance of his subjects flow into his coffer of the Danaïdes, whence it escapes through a thousand openings. Alexander sent to Aristotle elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, lions, crocodiles, gazelles, eagles, ostriches, &c.; and we, when by chance a rare animal is brought to our fairs, go and admire it for sixpence, and it dies before we know anything about it.

Of the Eternal World.

The "act of that which is in power," also appears a ridiculous phrase, though it is no more so than the one just noticed. Matter may become whatever you will- Aristotle expressly maintains, in his fire, earth, water, vapour, metal, mineral, book on heaven, chap. xi., that the world animal, tree, flower. This is all that is is eternal: this was the opinion of all anmeant by the expression, act in power. tiquity, excepting the Epicureans. He So that there was nothing ridiculous to admitted a God-a first mover; and dethe Greeks, in saying that motion was an fined him to be "one, eternal, immove act of power, since matter may be moved; {able, indivisible, without qualities." and it is very likely that Aristotle under- He must, therefore, have regarded the stood thereby that motion was not essen-world as emanating from God, as the ligh: tial to matter. emanates from the sun and is co-existent with it.

Aristotle's physics must necessarily have been very bad in detail. This was common to all philosophers, until the time when the Galileos, the Torricellis, the Guerickes, the Drebels, and the Academy del Cimento, began to make experiments. Natural philosophy is a mine which cannot be explored without instruments which were unknown to the ancients.They remained on the brink of the abyss, and reasoned upon without seeing its con

tents.

Aristotle's Treatise on Animals.

His researches relative to animals were, on the contrary, the best book of antiquity,

About the celestial spheres, he was as ignorant as all the rest of the philosophers Copernicus was not yet come.

His Metaphysics.

God being the first mover, he gives motion to the soul. But what is God, and what is the soul, according to him? The soul is an entelechia. It is, says he, a principle and an act-a nourishing, feeling, and reasoning power. This can only mean that we have the faculties of nourishing ourselves, of feeling, and of reasoning. The Greeks no more knew what an ente lechia was than the South Sea islanders;

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