The golden verses of Pythagoras

by Antoine Fabre d'Olivet; Pythagoras

Footnotes

[1] Addressé à la Classe de la Langue et de la Littérature françaises, et à celle d’Histoire et de Littérature ancienne de l’Institut impérial de France.

[2] This expression will be explained in the progress of the discourse.

[3] De Dignit. et Increment. Scient., l. ii., c. 13.

[4] Ibid., l. ii., c. 1.

[5] Ibid., l. vi., c. 1.

[6] Plat., Dial. Ion. Aristotle, who was often opposed to Plato, did not dare to be on this point. He agrees that verse alone does not constitute poetry, and that the History of Herodotus, put into verse, would never be other than history.

[7] Ibid.

[8] De Dignit. et Increment. Scient., l. ii., c. 13.

[9] Leclerc, known by the multitude of his works; l’abbé Bannier, Warburton, etc.

[10] De Dignit. et Increment. Scient., l. ii., c. 13. Court de Gébelin cites Chancellor Bacon as one of the first defenders of allegory. (Génie allég.)

[11] Pausanias, l. iii., p. 93.

[12] Acron, In Epist. Horat., i., 2. Certain authors say that Penelope had conceived this son when Mercury disguised as a goat had forced her virginity. (Lucian, Dialog. Deor., t. i., p. 176.)

[13] Héraclides, entre les petits mythologues.

[14] Geogr., l. i.

[15] Antiq. rom., l. ii.

[16] In his book entitled Περὶ τῆς τῶν θεῶν φύσεως, ch. 17.

[17] In his book entitled Περὶ θεῶν καὶ κόσμον, ch. 3. Court de Gébelin cites these works. (Génie allég.)

[18] Præp. Evang., l. iii., c. 1.

[19] Court de Gébelin, Génie allég., p. 149.

[20] Strabo positively assures it. See Bannier, Mythol., ii., p. 252.

[21] Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 14. Pausanias, l. ix., p. 302.

[22] Poetry, in Greek ποίησις, derived from the Phœnician פאה (phohe), mouth, voice, language, discourse; and from יש (ish), a superior being, a principle being, figuratively God. This last word, spread throughout Europe, is found with certain change of vowels and of aspirates, very common in the Oriental dialects; in the Etruscan Æs, Æsar, in the Gallic Æs, in the Basque As, and in the Scandinavian Ase; the Copts still say Os, the lord, and the Greeks have preserved it in Αἶσα, the immutable Being, Destiny, and in ἄζω, I adore, and ἀξιόω, I revere.

Thrace, in Greek θρᾴκη, derived from the Phœnician רקיע (rakiwha), which signifies the ethereal space, or, as one translates the Hebrew word which corresponds to it, the firmament. This word is preceded in the Dorian θρακιᾴ, by the letter θ, th, a kind of article which the Oriental grammarians range among the hémantique letters placed at the beginning of words to modify the sense, or to render it more emphatic.

Olen, in Greek ὤλεν, is derived from the Phœnician עולן (whôlon), and is applied in the greater part of the Oriental dialects to all that which is infinite, eternal, universal, whether in time or space. I ought to mention as an interesting thing and but little known by mythologists, that it is from the word אפ (ab or ap) joined to that of whôlon, that one formed ap-whôlon, Apollon; namely, the Father universal, infinite, eternal. This is why the invention of Poetry is attributed to Olen or to Apollo. It is the same mythological personage represented by the sun. According to an ancient tradition, Olen was native of Lycia, that is to say, of the light; for this is the meaning of the Greek word λύκη.

[23] Strabo has judiciously observed that in Greece all the technical words were foreign. ((Voyez) Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 14, p. 136.)

[24] The Getæ, in Greek Γέται, were, according to Ælius Spartianus, and according to the author of le Monde primitif (t. ix., p. 49), the same peoples as the Goths. Their country called Getæ, which should be pronounced Ghœtie, comes from the word Goth, which signifies God in most of the idioms of the north of Europe. The name of the Dacians is only a softening of that of the Thracians in a different dialect.

Mœsia, in Greek Μοίσια, is, in Phœnician, the interpretation of the name given to Thrace. The latter means, as we have seen, ethereal space, and the former signifies divine abode, being composed from the word א׳ש (aïsh), whose rendering I have already given, before which is found placed the letter מ (M), one of the (hémantiques), which according to the best grammarians serves to express the proper place, the means, the local manifestation of a thing.

[25] (Voyez) Court de Gébelin, Monde primitif, t. ix., p. 49.

[26] This mountain was called Kô-Kajôn, according to d’Anville. This learned geographer has clearly seen that this name was the same as that of Caucasus, a generic name given to all the sacred mountains. It is known that Caucasus was for the Persians, what Mount Merou had been for the Indians and what Mount Parnassus became afterwards for the Greeks, the central place of their cult. The Tibetans have also their sacred mountain distinct from that of the Indians, upon which still resides the God-Priest, or immortal Man, similar to that of the Getæ. (Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscript., t. xxv., p. 45.)

[27] Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 14. Conférez avec Hérodote, l. iv.; et Pausanias, l. ix., p. 302, l. x., p. 320.

[28] Dionysus, in Greek Διονύσος, comes from the word Διός, irregular genitive of Ζεύς, the living God, and of Νόος, mind or understanding. The Phœnician roots of these words are אש‎, ‎ יש‎, ‎or איש (ash, ish, or aïsh), Unique Being, and נו (nô) the motive principle, the movement. These two roots, contracted, form the word Nôos, which signifies literally the principle of being, and figuratively, the understanding.

Demeter, in Greek Δημήτερ, comes from the ancient Greek Δημ, the earth, united to the word μήτερ, mother. The Phœnician roots are דמ (dam) and מט (môt), the former expressing all that which is formed by aggregation of similar parts; and the latter, all that which varies the form and gives it generative movement.

[29] Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 15. Court de Gébelin expressly says, that the sacred mountain of Thrace was consecrated to Bacchus. (Monde prim.), t. ix., p. 49. Now, it is generally known that Parnassus of the Greeks was consecrated to Apollo.

[30] Theog., v. 500.

[31] The Greek word Θρᾴκη, Thrace, in passing into the Ionian dialect Θρῄξ, has furnished the following expressions: θρῆσκος, a devotee, θρησκεία, devotion, θρησκηύω, I adore with devotion. These words, diverted from their real sense and used ironically after the cult of Thrace had yielded to that of Delphi, were applied to ideas of superstition and even of fanaticism. The point of considering the Thracians as schismatics was even reached, and the word ἐθελοθρησκεία composed to express a heresy, a cult particular to those who practised it, and separated from orthodoxy.

[32] Œtolinos is composed, by contraction, of two words which appear to belong to one of the Thracian dialects. Œto-Kyros signifies the ruling sun, among the Scythians, according to Herodotus (l. iv., 59). Helena signified the moon, among the Dorians. It is from this last word, deprived of its article he, that the Latins have made Luna.

[33] Court de Gébelin, Monde primit., t. viii., p. 190. Pausanias, l. x. Conférez avec Æschyl. In Choephori, v. 1036; Eurip., In Orest., v. 1330; Plat., De Rep., l. iv., etc.

[34] Plut., De Music. Tzetzes, Chiliads, vii.; Hist., 108.

[35] Amphion, in Greek Ἀμφίων, comes from the Phœnician words אמ (am), a mother-nation, a metropolis, פי (phi), a mouth, a voice, and יון (Jôn), Greece. Thence the Greeks have derived Ὀμφή, a mother-voice, that is, orthodox, legal, upon which all should be regulated.

Thamyris, in Greek Θάμυρις, is composed of the Phœnician words תאמ (tham), twin, אור (aur), light, יש (ish), of the being.

[36] Plut., De Music.

[37] Diod. Sicul., l. iii., 35. Pausan., In Bœot., p. 585.

[38] Bibliotheca Græca, p. 4.

[39] Duhalde, t. iv., in-fol., p. 65. These Tartars had no idea of poetry before their conquest of China; also they imagined that it was only in China where the rules of this science had been formulated, and that the rest of the world resembled them.

[40] Kien-long, one of the descendants of Kang-hi, has made good verse in Chinese. This prince has composed an historical poem on the conquest of the Eleuth, or Oloth people, who, after having been a long time tributary to China, revolted. (Mém. concernant les Chin., t. i., p. 329.)

[41] The commencement of the Indian Kali-youg is placed 3101 or 3102 years before our era. Fréret has fixed it, in his chronological researches, at January 16, 3102, a half hour before the winter solstice, in the colure of which was then found the first star of Aries. The Brahmans say that this age of darkness and uncleanness must endure 432,000 years. Kali signifies in Sanskrit, all that which is black, shadowy, material, bad. From there, the Latin word caligo; and the French word (galimatias); the last part of this word comes from the Greek word μῦθος, a discourse, which is itself derived from the Phœnician מוט (mot or myt), which expresses all that moves, stirs up; a motion, a word, etc.

[42] Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 140. The Brahmans say that their imperial dynasties, pontifical as well as laic, or solar and lunar, became extinguished a thousand years after the beginning of the Kali-youg, about 2000 B.C. It was at this epoch that India was divided into many independent sovereignties and that a powerful reformer of the cult appeared in Magadha, who took the surname of Buddha.

[43] Herod., l. ii. This historian said that in the early times all Egypt was a morass, with the exception of the country of Thebes; that nothing was seen of the land, which one saw there at the epoch in which he was writing, beyond Lake Mœris; and that going up the river, during a seven days’ journey, all seemed a vast sea. This same writer said in the beginning of book i., and this is very remarkable, that the Phœnicians had entered from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, to establish themselves upon its shores, which they would have been unable to do if the Isthmus of Suez had existed. See what Aristotle says on this subject, Meteorolog., l. i., c. 14.

[44] Asiat. Research., t. iii., p. 321. The excerpts that Wilford has made from the Pourana, entitled Scanda, the God of War, prove that the Palis, called Philistines, on account of their same country, Palis-sthan, going out from India, established themselves upon the Persian Gulf and, under the name of Phœnicians, came afterwards along the coast of Yemen, on the borders of the Red Sea, whence they passed into the Mediterranean Sea, as Herodotus said, according to the Persian traditions. This coincidence is of great historical interest.

[45] Niebuhr, Descript. de l’Arab., p. 164. Two powerful tribes became divided in Arabia at this epoch: that of the Himyarites, who possessed the meridional part, or Yemen, and that of the Koreishites, who occupied the septentrional part, or Hejaz. The capital of the Himyarites was called Dhofar; their kings took the title of Tobba and enjoyed an hereditary power. The Koreishites possessed the sacred city of Arabia, Mecca, where was found the ancient temple still venerated today by the Mussulmans.

[46] Asiat. Research., t. iii., p. ii.

[47] Diodorus Siculus, l. ii., 12. Strabo, l. xvi. Suidas, art. Semiramis.

[48] Phot., Cod., 44. Ex. Diodor., l. xl. Syncell., p. 61. Joseph., Contr. Apion.

[49] Hérod., l. ii. Diod. Siculus, l. i., § 2.

[50] Diodor. Sicul., l. i., § 2. Delille-de-Salles, Hist. des Homm., Egypte, t. iii., p. 178.

[51] Plat., in Tim. Dial. Theopomp. apud Euseb., Præp. Evan., l. x., c. 10. Diod. Sicul., l. i., initio.

[52] Diodor. Sicul., l. i., initio.

[53] Pausan., Bœot., p. 768.

[54] This word is Egyptian and Phœnician alike. It is composed of the words אור (aur), light, and רפא (rophœ), cure, salvation.

[55] Eurydice, in Greek Εὐρυδίκη, comes from the Phœnician words ראה (rohe), vision, clearness, evidence, and דך (dich), that which demonstrates or teaches: these two words are preceded by the Greek adverb εὖ, which expresses all that is good, happy, and perfect in its kind.

[56] Plat., In Phædon. Ibid., In Panegyr. Aristot., Rhet., l. ii., c. 24. Isocr., Paneg. Cicero, De Leg., l. ii. Plutar., De Isid. Paus., In Phoc., etc.

[57] Théodoret, Therapeut.

[58] Philo, De Vitâ Mosis, l. i.

[59] Jamblic., De Vitâ Pythag., c. 2. Apul., Florid., ii. Diog. Laërt., l. viii.

[60] Voyage du jeune Anacharsis, t. i., Introd., p. 7.

[61] Meurs., De Relig. Athen., l. i., c. 9.

[62] Apollon., l. iii., p. 237.

[63] Hygin., Fabl., 143.

[64] Pausan., Arcad., p. 266, 268, etc.

[65] Strabo, l. x; Meurs., Eleus., c. 21 et seq.; Paus., Ath., c. 28; Fulgent., Myth., l. i.; Philostr., In Apollon., l. ii.; Athen., l. xi.; Procl., In Tim. Comment., l. v.

[66] Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. xiii., c. 12.

[67] The unity of God is taught in an Orphic hymn of which Justin, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyril, and Theodore have preserved fragments. (Orphei Hymn. Edente Eschenbach., p. 242.)

[68] Clem. Alex., Admon. ad Gent., p. 48; ibid., Strom., l. v., p. 607.

[69] Apoll., Arg., l. i., v. 496; Clem. Alex., Strom., l. iv., p. 475.

[70] Thimothée, cité par Bannier, Mythol., i., p. 104.

[71] Macrobius, Somm. Scip., l. i., c. 12.

[72] Eurip., Hippol., v. 948.

[73] Plat., De Leg., l. vi.; Jambl., De Vitâ Pythag.

[74] Acad. des Insc., t. v., p. 117.

[75] Procl., In Tim., l. v., p. 330; Cicero, Somm. Scip., c. 2, 3, 4, 6.

[76] Montesquieu and Buffon have been the greatest adversaries of poetry, they were very eloquent in prose; but that does not prevent one from applying to them, as did Voltaire, the words of Montaigne: “We cannot attain it, let us avenge ourselves by slandering it.”

[77] Horat., De Arte poét.; Strab., l. x.

[78] Origen, Contr. Cels., l. i., p. 12; Dacier, Vie de Pythagore.

[79] Ἱερὸς λόγος.

[80] Θρονισμοὶ μητρῶοι.

[81] Fabric., Bibl. græc., p. 120, 129.

[82] Apollon, Argon., l. i., v. 496.

[83] Plutar., De Placit. philos., c. 13; Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. xv., c. 30; Stobeus, Eclog. phys., 54. Proclus quotes the verses of Orpheus on this subject, In Tim., l. iv., p. 283. Voyez La Biblioth. græc. de Fabricius, p. 132.

[84] Fabric., Bibliot. græc., p. 4, 22, 26, 30, etc.; Voyag. d’Anach., ch. 80.

[85] From the Greek word κύκλος: as one would say circuit, the circular envelopment of a thing.

[86] Court de Gébelin, Gén. allég., p. 119.

[87] Casaubon, In Athen., p. 301; Fabric., Bibl. græc. l. i., c. 17; Voyag. d’Anach., ch. 80; Proclus, cité par Court de Gébelin, ibid.

[88] Arist., De Poët., c. 8, 16, 25, etc.

[89] It is needless for me to observe that the birthplace of Homer has been the object of a host of discussions as much among the ancients as among the moderns. My plan here is not to put down again (en problème), nor to examine anew the things which have been a hundred times discussed and that I have sufficiently examined. I have chosen, from the midst of all the divergent opinions born of these discussions, that which has appeared to me the most probable, which agrees best with known facts, and which is connected better with the analytical thread of my ideas. I advise my readers to do the same. It is neither the birthplace of Homer nor the name of his parents that is the important matter: it is his genius that must be fathomed. Those who would, however, satisfy their curiosity regarding these subjects foreign to my researches, will find in La Bibliothèque grecque de Fabricius, and in the book by Léon Allatius entitled De Patriâ Homeri, enough material for all the systems they may wish to build. They will find there twenty-six different locations wherein they can, at their pleasure, place the cradle of the poet. The seven most famous places indicated in a Greek verse by Aulus Gellius are, Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, and Athens. The nineteen indicated by divers authors, are Pylos, Chios, Cyprus, Clazomenæ, Babylon, Cumæ, Egypt, Italy, Crete, Ithaca, Mycenæ, Phrygia, Mæonia, Lucania, Lydia, Syria, Thessaly, and finally Troy, and even Rome.

However, the tradition which I have followed, in considering Homer as born not far from Smyrna, upon the borders of the river Meles, is not only the most probable but the most generally followed; it has in its favour Pindar; the first anonymous Life of Homer; the Life of this poet by Proclus; Cicero, in his oration for Archias; Eustathius in his Prolégoménes sur l’Iliade; Aristotle, Poétique, l. iii.; Aulus Gellius, Martial, and Suidas. It is known that Smyrna, jealous of consecrating the glory that it attributed to itself, of having given birth to Homer, erected to this great genius a temple with quadrangular portico, and showed for a long time, near the source of the Meles, a grotto, where a contemporaneous tradition supposes that he had composed his first works. Voyez La Vie d’Homère, par Delille-de-Sales, p. 49, et les ouvrages qu’il cite: Voyage de Chandeler, t. i., p. 162, et Voyages pittoresques de Choiseul-Gouffier, p. 200.

[90] Hérod., l. v., 42; Thucyd., l. i., 12.

[91] Marbres de Paros, Epoq. 28; Hérod., l. i., 142, 145, 149; Plat., De Leg., l. v.; Strab., l. xiv.; Pausan., l. vii., 2; Ælian., Var. Histor., l. viii., c. 5; Sainte-Croix, De l’état des Colon, des anc. Peuples, p. 65; Bourgainville, Dissert. sur les Métrop. et les Colon., p. 18; Spanheim, Præst., num. p. 580.

[92] Bible, Chron. ii., ch. 12 (et suiv.)

[93] Ibid., Chron. ii., ch. 32 et 36.

[94] Pausanias, passim.

[95] Strab., l. xiv.; Polyb., l. v.; Aulu-Gell., l. vii., c. 3; Meurs., In Rhod., l. i., c. 18 et 21; Hist. univ. des Anglais, in-8ᵒ, t. ii., p. 493.

[96] Diod. Sicul., l. i., 2.

[97] In Phœnician מלך־אתע (Melich-ærtz), in Greek Μελικέρτης: a name given to the Divinity whom the Thracians called Hercules, the Lord of the Universe: from הרר or שרר (harr or shar), excellence, dominance, sovereignty; and כל (col.), All. Notice that the Teutonic roots are not very different from the Phœnician: Herr signifies lord, and alles, all; so that Herr-alles is, with the exception of the guttural inflection which is effaced, the same word as that of Hercules, used by the Thracians and the Etruscans. The Greeks have made a transposition of letters in Ἡρακλῆς (Heracles) so as to evade the guttural harshness without entirely losing it.

[98] Goguet, Origine des Lois et des Arts, t. i., p. 359.

[99] (Voyez) Epiphane, Hæres, xxvi., (et conférez avec) Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 328.

[100] I have followed the tradition most analogous to the development of my ideas; but I am aware that, upon this point, as upon many others, I have only to choose. The historic fact, in that which relates to the sacerdotal archives which Homer consulted in composing his poems, is everywhere the same (au fond); but the accessory details vary greatly according to the writers who relate them. For example, one reads in a small fragment attributed to Antipater of Sidon and preserved in Greece Anthology, that Homer, born at Thebes in Egypt, drew his epic subjects from the archives of the temple of Isis; from another source, Ptolemy Ephestion, cited by Photius, that the Greek poet had received from a priest of Memphis, named Thamitès, the original writings of an inspired damsel, named Phancy. Strabo, without mentioning any place in particular, said in general, speaking of the long journeys of Homer, that this poet went everywhere to consult the religious archives and the oracles preserved in the temples; and Diodorus of Sicily gives evidence sometimes that he borrowed many things from a sibyl by the name of Manto, daughter of Tiresias; and sometimes that he appropriated the verse of a pythoness of Delphi, named Daphne. All these contradictory details prove, in reality, the truth; for whether it be from Thebes, Memphis, Tyre, Delphi, or elsewhere that Homer drew the subject of his chants, matters not with the subject which occupies me: the important point, serving as proof of my assertions, is, that they have been, in fact, drawn from a sanctuary; and what has determined me to choose Tyre rather than Thebes or Memphis, is that Tyre was the first mother city of Greece.

[101] I have said in the above that the name of Helena or Selena was that of the moon in Greek. The root of this word is alike Celtic and Phœnician. One finds it in Teutonic hell, which signifies clear, luminous, and in Hebrew הלל (hêll), which contains the same sense of splendour, glory, and elevation. One still says in German heilig, holy, and selig, blessed; also selle, soul, and sellen, souls. And this is worthy of the closest attention, particularly when one reflects that, following the doctrine of the ancients, the moon helenê or selenê was regarded as the reservoir of the souls of those who descend from heaven to pass into bodies by means of generation, and, purged by the fire of life, escape from earth to ascend to heaven. See, concerning this doctrine, Plutarch (De Facie in Orb. Lun.), and confer with Beausobre (Histoire du Manich., t, ii., p. 311). The name of Paris, in Greek Πάρις, comes from the Phœnician words בר or פר (bar or phar), all generation, propagation, extension, and יש (ish), the Being-principle.

The name of Menelaus, in Greek Μενέλαος, comes from the Phœnician words מן (men), all that which determines, regulates, or defines a thing, properly, the rational faculty, the reason, the measure, in Latin mens, mensura; and אוש (aôsh), the Being-principle acting, before which is placed the prefix ל (l), to express the genitive case, in this manner, מנה־ל־אוש (meneh-l-aôsh), the rational faculty or regulator of the being in general, and man in particular: for אש‏, ‏אוש‏, ‏אש‏, ‏איש (ash, aôsh, ish, aîsh), signifies equally fire, principle, being, and man. The etymology of these three words can, as one sees, throw great light upon the fable of the Iliad. Here is another remarkable point on this subject. Homer has never used, to designate the Greeks, the name of Hellenes, that is to say, the respondents, or the lunars: it was in his time quite a new name, which the confederated Greeks had taken to resist foreign attack; it is only in the Odyssey, and when he is already old, that he employs the name Hellas to designate Greece. The name which he gives constantly to this country, is that of Achaia (Ἀχαΐα), and he opposes it to that of Troy (Τρωία): now, Achaia signifies the strong, the igneous, the spiritual; and Troy, the terrestrial, the gross. The Phœnician roots are הוי (ehôi), the exhaling force of fire, and טרו (trô) the balancing power of the earth. Refer, in this regard, to Court de Gébelin (Mond. prim., t. vi., p. 64). Pomponius Sabinus, in his Commentaires sur l’Enéïde, said that the name of the city of Troy signified a sow, and he adds that the Trojans had for an ensign a sow embroidered in gold.

As to the word Ilion, which was the sacred name of Troy, it is very easy to recognize the name of the material principle, called ὕλη (ulè) by the Greeks and ylis by the Egyptians. Iamblichus speaks of it at great length in his Book on the Mysteries (§ 7), as the principle from which all has birth: this was also the opinion of Porphyry (Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. ix., c. 9 and 11).

[102] Metrodorus of Lampsacus cited by Tatian (Adver. Gent., § 37). Plato, In Alcibiad., ii., Cronius, Porphyry, Phurnutus, Iamblichus, cited by Court de Gébelin, (Génie allég.), p. 36, 43; Plato, In Ion.; Cicero, De Natur. Deor., l. ii.; Strabo, l. i.; Origen, Contr. Cels. Among the moderns can be counted Bacon, Blackwell, Basnage, Bergier, and Court de Gébelin himself, who has given a list of eighty writers who have this opinion.

[103] Dionys. Halic., De Comp. verb., t. v., c. 16, 26; Quintil., l. x., c. 1; Longin., De Sublim., c. 13; Ælian., Var. Hist., l. viii., c. 2; Plat., Alcibiad., i.

[104] Plat., In Vitâ Lycurg.

[105] Allat., De Patr. Homer., c. 5; Meurs., In Pisist., c. 9 et 12; Plat., In Hipparc.

[106] Senec., Epist., 117.

[107] Ibidem, 88.

[108] Dionys. Halic., In Vitâ Homer.; Eustath., In Iliad, l. i.

[109] Strabo, l. xiv., p. 646.

[110] Arist., De Poët., c. 2, cit. par Barth., Voyag. d’Anach., t. vii., c. 80, p. 44.

[111] The word Epopœia is taken from the Greek ἐπο-ποιός which designates alike a poet and an epic poem. It is derived from the Phœnician words אפא (apho) an impassioned transport, a vortex, an impulse, an enthusiasm; and פאה (phohe), a mouth, a discourse. One can observe that the Latin word versus, which is applied also to a thing which turns, which is borne along, and to a poetic verse, translates exactly the Greek word ἔπος, whose root אוף (aôph) expresses a vortex. The Hebrew אופן (aôphon) signifies properly a wheel.

[112] See in the collection of Meibomius, Aristides, Quintilianus, and (Les Mém. de l’Acad. des Belles-Lettres), t. v., p. 152.

[113] Voltaire, (Dict. philos.), art. RIME.

[114] Refer to what I have already said in last footnote p. 40.

[115] Fréret said that the verses of the poet Eumelus engraven upon the arch of the Cypselidæ were thus represented. Voyez sa (Dissert. sur l’Art de l’Equitation). Il cite Pausanias, l. v., p. 419.

[116] Court de Gébelin, (Mond. primit.), t. ix., p. 222. Conférez avec Aristotle, Poët., p. 20, 21, 22.

[117] Plat., Dial. Ion.

[118] Plat., ut suprà.

[119] Ælian., Var. Hist., l. xiii., c. 14; Diog. Laërt., In Solon., l. i., § 57.

[120] Plat., In Hipparc.; Pausan, l. vii., c. 26; Cicer., De Orat., l. iii.

[121] Eustath., In Iliad., l. i., p. 145; l. ii., p. 263.

[122] Dionys. Halic., De Comp. verb., t. v., c. 16 et 24; Quintil., Instit., l. x., c. 1.

[123] Athen., l. xv., c. 8; Aristot., De Poët., c. 16; Ælian., Var. Hist., c. 15.

[124] Barthel., (Voyag. d’Anarchar.), t. vii., ch. 80, p. 46, 52.

[125] It can be seen that I have placed in the word Stesi[`c]horus, an accent grave over the consonant c, and it will be noticed that I have used it thus with respect to many similar words. It is a habit I have contracted in writing, so as to distinguish, in this manner, the double consonant ch, in the foreign words, or in their derivatives, when it should take the guttural inflexion, in place of the hissing inflexion which we ordinarily give to it. Thus I accent the [`c] in Chio, [`c]hœur, [`c]horus, é[`c]ho, [`c]hlorose, [`c]hiragre, [`c]hronique, etc.; to indicate that these words should be pronounced Khio, khœur, khorus, ékho, khlorose, khiragre, khronique, with the aspirate sound of k, and not with that of the hissing c, as in Chypre, chaume, échope, chaire, etc. This accentuation has appeared to me necessary, especially when one is obliged to transcribe in modern characters many foreign words which, lacking usage, one knows not, at first, how to pronounce. It is, after all, a slight innovation in orthography, which I leave to the decision of the grammarians. I only say that it will be very difficult for them, without this accent, or any other sign which might be used, to know how one should pronounce with a different inflexion, A[`c]haïe and Achéen; Achille and A[`c]hilleïde; Achêron and a[`c]hérontique; Bac[`c]hus and bachique, etc.

[126] Vossius, De Inst. poët., l. iii., c. 15; Aristot., Rhet., l. ii., 23; Max. Tyr. Orat., viii., p. 86.

[127] Ælian., Var. Hist., l. xiii., c. 14, Court de Gébelin, (Mond. prim.), t. viii., p. 202.

[128] Plat., In Theæt.; ibid., De Republ., l. x.; Arist., De Poët., c. 4, etc.

[129] The name of Homeridæ, given at first to all the disciples of Homer, was afterwards usurped by certain inhabitants of Chios who called themselves his descendants (Strab., l. xiv.; Isocr., Hellen. encom.). Also I should state here that the name of Homer, Ὅμηρος, was never of Greek origin and has not signified, as has been said, blind. The initial letter O is not a negation, but an article added to the Phœnician word מרא (mœra), which signifies, properly speaking, a centre of light, and figuratively, a master, a doctor.

[130] The surname Eumolpidæ, given to the hierophants, successors of Orpheus, comes from the word Εὔμολπος, by which is designated the style of poetry of this divine man. It signifies the perfect voice. It is derived from the Phœnician words מלא (mola), perfected, and פאה (phoh), mouth, voice, discourse. The adverb ἔυ, which precedes it, expresses whatever is beautiful, holy, perfect.

[131] Fabric., Bibl. Græc., p. 36, 105, 240, 469, passim; Arist., Probl., xix., 28; Meurs., Bibl. Græc., c. i.

[132] Arist., De Poët., c. 8.

[133] Porphyre, In Vitâ Pythagor., p. 21; Clem. Alex., l. vi., p. 658; Plato, De Leg., l. iii.; Plutar., De Music., p. 1141; Poll., l. ii., c. 9.

[134] I have placed the epoch of Orpheus, which coincides with that of the arrival of the Egyptian colony conducted into Greece by Cecrops, at 1582 B.C., according to the marbles of Paros.

[135] Schol. Aristoph., In Nub., v. 295.

[136] Athen., l. ii., c. 3.

[137] Voyez (L’Hist. du Théâtre Français) de Fontenelle. Voici les titres des premières pièces représentées dans le cours du XIVᵉ siècle: (L’Assomption de la glorieuse Vierge Marie), mystère à 38 personnages; (Le Mystère de la Sainte Hostie), à 26 personn.; (Le Mystère de Monseigneur S. Pierre et S. Paul), à 100 personn.; (Les Mystères de la Conception de la Passion, de la Résurrection de Notre Seigneur J. C.); etc.

[138] See Asiatic Researches, v. iii., p. 427-431, and 465-467. Also Grammar of the Bengal Language, preface, p. v.

[139] See Interesting Historical Events, by Holwell, ch. 7.

[140] Aristot., Probl., 15, c. 19; Pausan., l. i., c. 7.

[141] See Asiatic Researches, vol. vi., p. 300-308.

[142] Rama is, in Sanskrit, the name of that which is dazzling, elevated, white, sublime, protective, beautiful, excellent. This word has exactly the same sense in the Phœnician רמ (ram). Its primitive root, which is universalized by the hémantique letter מ (m), is רא (ra), which has reference to the harmonic movement of good, of light, and of sight. The name of the adversary of Rama, Rawhan, is formed from the root רע (rawh) which expresses, on the contrary, the disordered movement of evil and of fire, and which, becoming united with the augmentative syllable ון (ôn), depicts whatever ravages and ruins; this is the signification which it has in Sanskrit.

[143] From the word רמא (rama) is formed in Phœnician the word דרמא (drama) by the adjunction of the demonstrative article ד (d’); that is to say, a thing which comes from Rama: an action well ordered, beautiful, sublime, etc. Notice that the Greek verb δραεῖν, to act, whence is drawn very inappropriately the word δρᾶμα, is always attached to the same root רא (ra) which is that of harmonic movement.

[144] Athen., l. ii., c. 3; Arist., De Poët., c. 3, 4, 5.

[145] Tragedy, in Greek τραγῳδία, comes from the words τραχίς, austere, severe, lofty, and ὠδή chant.

Comedy, in Greek κωμῳδία, is derived from the words κῶμος, joyful, lascivious, and ὠδή, chant.

It is unnecessary for me to say that the etymologists who have seen in tragedy a song of the goat, because τράγος signifies a goat in Greek, have misunderstood the simplest laws of etymology. Τράγος signifies a goat only by metaphor, because of the roughness and heights which this animal loves to climb; as caper, in Latin, holds to the same root as caput; and chèvre, in French, to the same root as chef, for a similar reason.

[146] Diog. Laërt., l. i., § 59.

[147] Plutar. In Solon.

[148] Arist., De Mor., l. iii., c. 2; Ælian., Var. Hist., l. v., c. 19; Clem. Alex., Strom., l. ii., c. 14.

[149] Plato, De Legib.,l. iii.

[150] Athen., l. viii., c. 8.

[151] Plutar., De Music.

[152] Horat., De Art. poët, v. 279; Vitrav., In Prefac., l. vii., p. 124.

[153] Æschylus, In Prometh., Act I., Sc. 1, et Act. V., Sc. ult.

[154] Æschylus, In Eumenid., Act V., Sc. 3.

[155] Aristoph. In Plut., v. 423; Pausan.,l. i., c. 28; Vitâ Æschyl. apud., Stanley, p. 702.

[156] Dionys. Chrys., Orat., l. ii.

[157] Aristoph., In Ran.; Philostr., In Vitâ Apollon, l. vi., c. ii.

[158] Plutar., In Cimon.; Athen., l. viii., c. 8.

[159] Philostr., In Vitâ Apoll., l. vi., c. ii.

[160] Schol., In Vitâ Sophocl.; Suidas, In Σοφοκλ.; Plutar., De Profect. Vitæ.

[161] Aristot., De Poët., c. 25.

[162] Aristoph., In Ran., v. 874 et 1075.

[163] Philostr., Vitâ Apoll., l. ii., c. 2; l. ii., c. 16; l. vi., c. 11; Vitâ Æschyl. apud, Robort., p. 11.

[164] Aristoph., In Ran.; Aristot., De Poët., c. 25.

[165] Plato, De Legib., l. ii. et iii.

[166] Hérodot., l. vi., 21; Corsin., Fast. attic., t. iii., p. 172; Aristot., De Poët., c. 9.

[167] Aristot., De Poët., c. 9.

[168] Susarion appeared 580 B.C., and Thespis some years after. The latter produced his tragedy of Alcestis in 536 B.C.; and the condemnation of Socrates occurred in 399 B.C. So that only 181 years elapsed between the initial presentation of comedy and the death of this philosopher.

[169] Aristot., De Poët., c. 3.

[170] Aristoph, In Pac., v. 740; Schol., ibid.; Epicharm., In Nupt. Heb. apud Athen., l. iii., p. 85.

[171] Plat., In Argum.; Aristoph. p. xi.; Schol., De Comœd.; ibid., p. xii.

[172] Thence arises the epithet of Eumolpique that I give to the verses which form the subject of this work.

[173] The proof that Rome was scarcely known in Greece, at the epoch of Alexander, is that the historian Theopompus, accused by all critics of too much prolixity, has said only a single word concerning this city, to announce that she had been taken by the Gauls (Pliny, l. iii., c. 5). Bayle observes with much sagacity, that however little Rome had been known at that time, she would not have failed to furnish the subject of a long digression for this historian, who would have delighted much in it. (Dict. crit., art. Theopompus, rem. E.)

[174] Diogen. Laërt., l. i., § 116. Pliny, l. v., c. 29. Suidas, In Φερεκύδης.

[175] Degerando, (Hist. des Systêm. de Phil.), t. i., p. 128, à la note.

[176] Dionys. Halic., De Thucid. Judic.

[177] The real founder of the Atomic system such as has been adopted by Lucretius (De Rerum Natura, l. i.), was Moschus, Phœnician philosopher whose works threw light upon those of Leucippus (Posidonius cité par Strabon, l. xvi., Sext. Empiric., Adv. mathem., p. 367). This system well understood, does not differ from that of the monads, of which Leibnitz was the inventor.

[178] Fréret, (Mytholog. ou Religion des Grecs).

[179] Voltaire, who has adopted this error, has founded it upon the signification of the word Epos, which he has connected with that of Discourse (Dictionn. philos. au mot Epopée). But he is mistaken. The Greek word ἔπος is translated accurately by versus. Thence the verb επεῖν, to follow in the tracks, to turn, to go, in the same sense.

[180] The Greeks looked upon the Latin authors and artists as paupers enriched by their spoils; also they learned their language only when forced to do so. The most celebrated writers by whom Rome was glorified, were rarely cited by them. Longinus, who took an example of the sublime in Moses, did not seek a single one either in Horace or in Vergil; he did not even mention their names. It was the same with other critics. Plutarch spoke of Cicero as a statesman; he quoted many of his clever sayings, but he refrained from comparing him with Demosthenes as an orator. He excuses himself on account of having so little knowledge of the Latin tongue, he who had lived so long in Rome! Emperor Julian, who has written only in Greek, cites only Greek authors and not one Latin.

[181] (Apologie des hommes accusés de magie) l’ouvrage de Naudé, intitulé: (Apologie des hommes accusés de magie). Le nombre de ces hommes est très-considérable.

[182] Allard, (Bibl. du Dauphiné), à la fin.

[183] Duplessis-Mornai, (Mystère d’iniquité), p. 279.

[184] This Ballad tongue, or rather Romance, was a mixture of corrupt Latin, Teutonic, and ancient Gallic. It was called thus, in order to distinguish it from the pure Latin and French. The principal dialects of the Romance tongue were the langue d’oc, spoken in the south of France, and the longue d’oïl, spoken in the north. It is from the langue d’oïl that the French descend. The langue d’oc, prevailing with the troubadours who cultivated it, disappeared with them in the fourteenth century and was lost in numberless obscure provincial dialects. Voyez (Le Troubadour), poésies occitaniques, à la Dissert., vol. i.

[185] Fontenelle, (Hist. du Théâtre Français).

[186] Voyez Sainte-Palaye, (Mém. sur l’ancienne Cheval.); Millot, (Hist. des Troubad.) Disc. prélim., on ce que j’ai dit moi-même dans le (Troubadour), comme ci-dessus.

[187] It is necessary to observe that vau or val, bau or bal, according to the dialect, signifies equally a dance, a ball, and a folly, a fool. The Phœnician, root רע (whal) expresses all that is elevated, exalted. The French words (bal), vol, fol, are here derived.

[188] The sonnets are of Oscan origin. The word son signifies a song in the ancient langue d’oc. The word sonnet is applied to a little song, pleasing and of an affected form.

The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The word gala signifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. Thus Madrid-gala arises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion.

The sylves, called sirves or sirventes by the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latin sylva which, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited ex-tempore (l. x., c. 3).

[189] Voyez Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. i., p. 112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini, Della Volgar Poësia.

[190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science. ((Biblioth. des Phil. Chim.)., t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai (sur Paris).)

[191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name of sirventes, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the sirvente. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.

[192] Pasquier, (Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq.), l. vii., ch. 12. Henri-Etienne, (Précellence du Lang. Franç.), p. 12. D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. i., § 2. Delisle-de-Salles, (Hist. de la Trag.), t. i., p. 154, à la note.

[193] D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. V., § 1.

[194] Ibidem.

[195] William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i.

[196] Ibid., vol. i., p. 425.

[197] William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i., p. 430.

[198] Wilkin’s Notes on the Hitopadesa, p. 249. Halled’s Grammar, in the preface. The same, Code of the Gentoo-Laws. Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 423.

[199] Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 346. Also in same work, vol. 1, page 430.

[200] W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitled Sakuntala or The Fatal Ring, of which the French translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez Treuttel et Würtz.

[201] See Asiat. Research., vol. iii., p. 42, 47, 86, 185, etc.

[202] Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 279, 357 et 360.

[203] Institut. of Hindus-Laws. W. Jones, Works, t. iii., p. 51. Asiat. Research., vol. ii., p. 368.

[204] (Hist. génér. de la Chine), t. i., p. 19. (Mém. concern. les Chinois), t. i., p. 9, 104, 160. Chou-King. Ch. Yu-Kong, etc., Duhalde, t. i., p. 266. (Mém. concern.), etc., t. xiii., p. 190.

[205] The She-King, which contains the most ancient poetry of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. ((Mém. concer. les Chinois), t. i., p. 51, et t. ii., p. 80.) Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four thousand years. (Ibid., t. viii., p. 133-185.).

[206] Le P. Parennin says that the language of the Manchus has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases. (Duhalde, in-fol., t. iv., p. 65.)

[207] (Ci-dessus), p. 31.

[208] (Voyez) la traduction française des Rech. asiatiq., t. ii., p. 49, notes a et b.

[209] Voyez ce que dit de Zend, Anquetil Duperron, et l’exemple qu’il donne de cette ancienne langue. Zend-Avesta, t. i.

[210] D’Herbelot, Bibl. orient., p. 54. Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 51.

[211] Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. i.

[212] Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 51.

[213] L’abbé Massieu, Histor. de la Poésie franç., p. 82.

[214] In Arabic ديوان (diwan). ן‎א‎ו‎י‎ד

[215] D’Herbelot, Bibl. orient., au mot Divan. Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 13.

[216] It must be remarked that the word Diw, which is also Persian, was alike applied in Persia to the Divine Intelligence, before Zoroaster had changed the signification of it by the establishment of a new doctrine, which, replacing the Diws by the Iseds, deprived them of the dominion of Heaven, and represented them as demons of the earth. See Anquetil Duperron, Vendidad-Sadè, p. 133, Boun-Dehesh., p. 355. It is thus that Christianity has changed the sense of the Greek word Δαίμων (Demon), and rendered it synonymous with the devil; whereas it signified in its principle, divine spirit and genius.

[217] Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 13.

[218] Voyez Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. iii., p. 527 et suiv. Voyez aussi un ouvrage allemand de Wahl, sur l’état de la Perse: Pragmatische-Geografische und Statische Schilderung … etc. Leipzig, 1795, t. i., p. 198 à 204.

[219] Voyez plusieurs de leurs chansons rapportées par Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. ii., p. 398.

[220] Laborde, ibid., t. i., p. 425.

[221] I will give, later on, a strophe from Voluspa, a Scandinavian ode of eumolpique style, very beautiful, and of which I will, perhaps, one day make an entire translation.

[222] It was said long ago that a great number of rhymed verses were found in the Bible, and Voltaire even has cited a ridiculous example in his Dictionnaire philosophique (art. Rime): but it seems to me that before concerning oneself so much as one still does, whether the Hebraic text of the Sepher is in prose or in verse, whether or not one finds there rhymed verses after the manner of the Arabs, or measured after the manner of the Greeks, it would be well to observe whether one understands this text. The language of Moses has been lost entirely for more than two thousand four hundred years, and unless it be restored with an aptitude, force, and constancy which is nowadays unusual, I doubt whether it will be known exactly what the legislator of the Hebrews has said regarding the principles of the Universe, the origin of the earth, and the birth and vicissitudes of the beings who people it. These subjects are, however, worth the pains if one would reflect upon them; I cannot prevent myself from thinking that it would be more fitting to be occupied with the meaning of the words, than their arrangements by long and short syllables, by regular or alternate rhymes, which is of no importance whatever.

[223] Vossius, De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi; cité par J. J. Rousseau, Dictionnaire de Musique, art. Rythme.

[224] Nearly all of the Italian words terminate with one of four vowels, a, e, i, o, without accent: it is very rare that the vowels are accentuated, as the vowel ù. When this occurs as in cità, perchè, dì, farò, etc., then, only, is the final masculine. Now here is what one of their best rhythmic poets, named Tolomèo, gives as an hexameter verse:

Questa, per affeto, tenerissima lettera mando

A te …

To make this line exact, one feels that the word mando, which terminates it, should be composed of two longs, that is to say, that it should be written mandò, which could not be without altering the sense entirely. Marchetti has translated into blank verse the Latin poem of Lucretius. I will quote the opening lines. Here is evident the softness to which I take exception and which prevents them from being really eumolpique, according to the sense that I have attached to this word.

Alma figlia di Giove, inclita madre

Del gran germe d’Enea, Venere bella,

Degli uomini piacere e degli Dei:

Tu, che sotto il volubili e lucenti

Segni del cielo, il mar profundo, e tutta

D’animai d’ogni specie orni la terra:

... etc.

[225] One must not believe that the mute e with which many English words terminate represents the French feminine final, expressed by the same vowel. This mute e is in reality mute in English; ordinarily it is only used to give a more open sound to the vowel which precedes it, as in tale, scene, bone, pure, fire. Besides it is never taken into account, either in the measure or in the prosody of the lines. Thus these two lines of Dryden rhyme exactly:

“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oars

Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…”

Æneid, b. i., v. 50.

It is the same in these of Addison:

“Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue,

Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…”

St. Cecilia’s Day, i., 10.

or these from Goldsmith:

“How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green,

Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”

The Deserted Village, i., 7.

[226] There remains to us of this poetry the very precious fragments contained in the Edda and in Voluspa. The Edda, whose name signifies great-grandmother, is a collection, fairly ample, of Scandinavian traditions. Voluspa is a sort of Sibylline book, or cosmogonic oracle, as its name indicates. I am convinced that if the poets of the north, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans, had oftener drawn their subjects from these indigenous sources, they would have succeeded better than by going to Greece to seek them upon the summits of Parnassus. The mythology of Odin, descended from the Rhipæan mountains, suits them better than that of the Greeks, whose tongue furthermore is not conformable here. When one makes the moon and the wife (der Mond, das Weib) of masculine and neuter gender; when one makes the sun, the air, time, love (die Sonne, die Luft, die Zeit, die Liebe) of feminine gender, one ought wisely to renounce the allegories of Parnassus. It was on account of the sex given to the sun and the moon that the schism arose, of which I have spoken, in explaining the origin of the temple of Delphi.

The Scandinavian allegories, however, that I consider a débris of Thracian allegories, furnishing subjects of a very different character from those of the Greeks and Latins, might have varied the poetry of Europe and prevented the Arabesque fiction from holding there so much ascendancy. The Scandinavian verses, being without rhyme, hold moreover, to eumolpœia. The following is a strophe from Voluspa:

“Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été;

Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore;

Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel:

Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.”

“In the beginning, when naught was, there

Was neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves,

Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.

There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…”

Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas;

vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir,

iœr[=x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn;

Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki, …

Voyez Mallet, Monuments celtiques, p. 135; et pour le texte, le poëme même de la Voluspa, in Edda islandorum, Mallet paraît avoir suivi un texte erroné.

As to the Gallic poetry of the Scotch bards, that Macpherson has made known to us under the name of Ossian, much is needed that they may have a sufficient degree of authenticity for them to be cited as models, and placed parallel with those of Homer, as has been done without reflection. These poems, although resting for the greater part upon a true basis, are very far from being veritable as to form. The Scotch bards, like the Oscan troubadours, must be restored and often entirely remade, if they are to be read. Macpherson, in composing his Ossian, has followed certain ancient traditions, has put together certain scattered fragments; but has taken great liberties with all the rest. He was, besides, a man endowed with creative genius and he might have been able to attain to epopœia if he had been better informed. His lack of knowledge has left a void in his work which demonstrates its falsity. There is no mythology, no allegory, no cult in Ossian. There are some historic or romanesque facts joined to long descriptions; it is a style more emphatic than figurative, more bizarre than original. Macpherson, in neglecting all kinds of mythological and religious ideas, in even mocking here and there the stone of power of the Scandinavians, has shown that he was ignorant of two important things: the one, that the allegorical or religious genius constitutes the essence of poetry; the other, that Scotland was at a very ancient period the hearth of this same genius whose interpreters were the druids, bards, and scalds. He should have known that, far from being without religion, the Caledonians possessed in the heart of their mountains, the Gallic Parnassus, the sacred mountain of the Occidental isles; and that when the antique cult began to decline in Gaul, it was in Albion, reckoned among the holy isles by even the Indians, that the druids went to study. Voyez Les Commentaires de César, iv., 20; L’Introduction de l’histoire de Danemark, par Mallet; L’Histoire des Celtes, par Pelloutier; et enfin les Recherches asiatiques (Asiat. Research.), t. vi., p. 490 et 502.

In order to seize the occasion of applying eumolpique lines to a greater number of subjects, I am going to quote a sort of exposition of Ossian, the only one I believe, which is found in his poems; because Macpherson, for more originality, neglected nearly always to announce the subject of his songs. I will not give the text, because the English translation whence I obtained it does not give it. It concerns the battle of Lora. After a kind of exordium addressed to the son of the stranger, dweller of the silent cavern, Ossian said to him:

Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille?

Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora.

Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulte

Des armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers,

Sont couverts par un long silence;

Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps:

Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudre

Roule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus;

Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillante

Des coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.

Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs?

Hear the battle of Lora.

The sound of its steel is long since past.

So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.

The sun returns with his silent beams,

The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.

This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.

[227] The tragedy of the Cid, given by Pierre Corneille in 1626, upon which were based the grandeur and dominant character of the Théâtre Français, as well as the renown of the author, is taken from a Spanish ballad very celebrated in Spain. The Cid, who is the hero of it, lived towards the close of the eleventh century. He was a type of the paladins and knights errant of the romanesque traditions. He enjoyed a wide reputation and attained a high degree of fortune. Voyez Monte-Mayor, Diana, l. ii.; et Voltaire, Essai sur les Mœurs, t. iii., stéréotype, p. 86.

In the course of the sixteenth century, the Spanish held a marked superiority over the other peoples: their tongue was spoken at Paris, Vienna, Milan, Turin. Their customs, their manners of thought and of writing, subjugated the minds of the Italians, and from Charles V. to the commencement of the reign of Philip III., Spain enjoyed an importance that the other peoples never had. Voyez Robertson, Introduction à l’Histoire de Charles-Quint.

It would be necessary to overstep considerably the ordinary limits of a footnote, if I should explain how it happens that Spain has lost this supremacy acquired by her, and why her tongue, the only one capable of rivalling and perhaps effacing the French, has yielded to it in all ways, and by which it was eclipsed. This explanation would demand for itself alone a very lengthy work. Among the writers who have sought for the cause of the decadence of the Spanish monarchy, some have believed to discover it in the increase of its wealth, others, in the too great extent of its colonies, and the greater part, in the spirit of its government and its superstitious cult. They have all thought that the tribunal of the Inquisition alone was capable of arresting the impulse of genius and of stifling the development of learning. In this they have taken effects for causes, and consequences for principles. They have not seen that the spirit of the government and the cult is always not the motive, but the result of the national spirit, and that the wealth and the colonies, indifferent in themselves, are only instruments that this spirit employs for good or evil, according to its character. I can only indicate the first cause which has prevented Spain from reaching the culminating point which France is very near to attaining. This cause is pride. Whilst Europe, enveloped in darkness, was, so to speak, in the fermentation of ignorance, Spain, conquered by the Arabs, received a germ of science which, developing with rapidity, produced a precocious fruit, brilliant, but like hot-house fruit lacking internal force and generative vigour. This premature production having raised Spain abruptly above the other European nations, inspired in her that pride, that excessive amour propre, which, making her treat with contempt all that did not belong to her, hindered her from making any change in her usual customs, carried her with complacency in her mistakes, and when other peoples came to bring forth fruits in their season, corrupted hers and stamped her with a stationary movement, which becoming necessarily retrogressive, must ruin her, and did ruin her.

[228] In comparing the first lines of Homer with those of Klopstock, it is seen that the Greek contains 29 letters, 18 of which are vowels; and the German 48 letters, 31 of which are consonants. It is difficult with such disparity in the elements to make the harmony the same.

[229] GOLDEN VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS (1)

PREPARATION

Render to the Immortal Gods the consecrated cult;

Guard then thy faith (2): Revere the memory

Of the Illustrious Heroes, of Spirits demi-Gods (3).

[230] PURIFICATION

Be a good son, just brother, spouse tender and good father (4)

Choose for thy friend, the friend of virtue;

Yield to his gentle counsels, profit by his life,

And for a trifling grievance never leave him (5);

If thou canst at least: for a most rigid law

Binds Power to Necessity (6).

Still it is given thee to fight and overcome

Thy foolish passions: learn thou to subdue them (7).

Be sober, diligent, and chaste; avoid all wrath.

In public or in secret ne’er permit thou

Any evil; and above all else respect thyself (8).

Speak not nor act before thou hast reflected.

Be just (9). Remember that a power invincible

Ordains to die (10); that riches and the honours

Easily acquired, are easy thus to lose (11).

As to the evils which Destiny involves,

Judge them what they are: endure them all and strive,

As much as thou art able, to modify the traits:

The Gods, to the most cruel, have not exposed the Sage (12).

Even as Truth, does Error have its lovers:

With prudence the Philosopher approves or blames;

If Error triumph, he departs and waits (13).

Listen and in thine heart engrave my words;

Keep closed thine eye and ear ’gainst prejudice;

Of others the example fear; think always for thyself (14):

Consult, deliberate, and freely choose (15).

Let fools act aimlessly and without cause.

Thou shouldst, in the present, contemplate the future (16).

That which thou dost not know, pretend not that thou dost.

Instruct thyself: for time and patience favour all (17).

Neglect not thy health (18): dispense with moderation,

Food to the body and to the mind repose (19).

Too much attention or too little shun; for envy

Thus, to either excess is alike attached (20).

Luxury and avarice have similar results.

One must choose in all things a mean just and good (21).

[231]
PERFECTION

Let not sleep e’er close thy tired eyes

Without thou ask thyself: What have I omitted and what done? (22).

Abstain thou if ’tis evil; persevere if good (23).

Meditate upon my counsels; love them; follow them;

To the divine virtues will they know how to lead thee (24).

I swear it by the one who in our hearts engraved

The sacred Tetrad, symbol immense and pure,

Source of Nature and model of the Gods (25).

But before all, thy soul to its faithful duty,

Invoke these Gods with fervour, they whose aid,

Thy work begun, alone can terminate (26).

Instructed by them, naught shall then deceive thee:

Of diverse beings thou shalt sound the essence;

And thou shalt know the principle and end of All (27).

If Heaven wills it, thou shalt know that Nature,

Alike in everything, is the same in every place (28):

So that, as to thy true rights enlightened,

Thine heart shall no more feed on vain desires (29).

Thou shalt see that the evils which devour men

Are of their choice the fruit (30); that these unfortunates

Seek afar the goodness whose source within they bear (31).

For few know happiness: playthings of the passions,

Hither, thither tossed by adverse waves,

Upon a shoreless sea, they blinded roll,

Unable to resist or to the tempest yield (32).

God! Thou couldst save them by opening their eyes (33).

But no: ’tis for the humans of a race divine

To discern Error and to see the Truth (34).

Nature serves them (35). Thou who fathomed it,

O wise and happy man, rest in its haven.

But observe my laws, abstaining from the things

Which thy soul must fear, distinguishing them well;

Letting intelligence o’er thy body reign (36);

So that, ascending into radiant Ether,

Midst the Immortals, thou shalt be thyself a God.

[232] Hiérocl., Comment. in Aur. Carmin. Proem.

[233] Fabric., Bibl. græc., p. 460; Dacier, Remarq. sur les Comm. d’Hiéroclès.

[234] Jamblic., De Vitâ Pythag., c. 30 et 33; Plutarch, De Gen. Socrat.

[235] Plutarch, De Repug. stoïc.; Diog. Laërt., l. viii., § 39; Polyb., l. ii.; Justin., l. xx., c. 4; Vossius, De Phil. sect., c. 6.

[236] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 71.

[237] Voyez Dacier, Rem. sur le Comment. d’Hiérocl.

[238] Plut., De Gen. Socr.; Ælian., Var. Hist., l. ii., c. 7.

[239] Bacon, Novum Organum, Aph., 65 et 71.

[240] Asiat. Res., t. iii., p. 371 à 374.

[241] Mém. concern. les Chin., t. ii., p. 26.

[242] Eulma Esclam. Note du Boun-Dehesh, p. 344.

[243] Porphyr., De Antr. Nymph., p. 126.

[244] Αὐτὸν δ’ οὐχ ὁράω περὶ γὰρ νέφος ἐστήρικται. Voyez Dacier, dans ses Remarques sur les Comment. d’Hiérocl.

[245] Vitâ Pythagor.; Phot., Cod., 259; Macrob., Somn. Scip., l. i., c. 6, l. ii., c. 12; August., De Civit. Dei, l. ii., c. 9 et 11; Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. iii., c. 9; Lactant., De Fals. Relig., l. i., c. 6 et 7; Plot., Ennead., iii., l. ii.

[246] Plutar., De Isid. et Osirid., p. 377.

[247] The priests of the Burmans, called Rahans, but whose generic name is that of Sramana, whence came to them that of Sramaneras, which the ancients gave them, carry the spirit of tolerance as far as possible. They visit with the same devotion pagodas, mosques, and churches; never does one see them being persecuted, nor persecuting others in the cause of religion. The Brahmans, Mussulmans, and Christians occupy important posts among them without their being scandalized. They regard all men as brothers. (Asiat. Research., t. vi., pp. 274-279). The Brahmans are of the same mind. One reads these wonderful words in the Bhaghavad Gita: “A great diversity of cults, similar as to substance but varying in forms, are manifested by the will of the Supreme Being. Some follow one cult, others attach themselves to another: all of these worshippers are purified from their offences by their particular cult.… God is the gift of charity, God is the offering, God is the fire upon the altar; it is God even, who makes the sacrifice, and God will be obtained by him who makes God the sole object of his labours.” (Lect. iv.)

[248] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 1.

[249] The Greek word κόσμος expresses a thing put in order, arranged according to a fixed and regular principle. Its primitive root is in the Phœnician אוש (aôsh) a principle Being, the fire. The Latin word mundus renders the Greek sense very imperfectly. It signifies exactly, that which is made neat and clean by means of water. Its nearest root is unda, and its remotest root is found in the Phœnician אוד (aôd), an emanation, a vapour, a source. One can see, according to this etymology, that the Greeks drew the idea of order and beauty from fire, and the Latins from water.

[250] Diogen. Laërt., l. viii., § 25; Plutar., De Decret. philos., ii., c. 6; Sext. Empir., Adv. Math., x., § 249; Stob., Eccl. phys., p. 468.

[251] Plutar., In Numa.

[252] Jambl., Vitâ Pythag., c. 28, 32 et 35.

[253] Εν, δύο. The symbol of Fo-Hi, so celebrated among the Chinese, is the same and is expressed by a whole line —​ 1, and a broken line - - 2. I shall make myself better understood upon this subject, in speaking as I intend to do upon music and upon what the ancients understood by the language of Numbers.

[254] Vitâ Pythag.; Phot., Bibl. Codex, 259.

[255] Vie de Pythag. par Dacier.

[256] Hiérocl., Aurea Carmin., v. 1.

[257] Ci-devant, p. 81.

[258] Timée de Locres, ch. 3; Edit. de Batteux, § 8; Diod. Sicul., l. ii., p. 83; Herod., l. ii., c. 4; Hyde, De vet. Pers. Relig., c. 19; Plato, In Tim., In Phæd., In Legib., etc.

[259] Bailly, Hist. de l’Astr. anc., l. iii., § 10.

[260] Pythagoras, at an early age, was taken to Tyre by Mnesarchus, his father, in order to study there the doctrine of the Phœnicians; later he visited Egypt, Arabia, and Babylon, in which last city he remained twelve years. It was while there that he had frequent conferences concerning the principle of things with a very learned magian whom Porphyry names Zabratos; Plutarch, Zaratas; and Theodoret, Zaradas. (Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag.) Plutarch is inclined to believe that this magian is the same as Zardusht, or Zoroaster, and the chronology is not here entirely contrary. (Plutar., De Procreat. anim.; Hyde, De Relig. vet. Pers., c. 24, o. 309 et c. 31, p. 379.)

[261] Asiat. Research., t. vi., p. 174.

[262] Holwell’s, Histor. Interest. Events, ch.iv., § 5.

[263] Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. i., p. 164.

[264] Macrob., Somn. Scip., l. i., c. 11.

[265] Böhme, Les Six Points, ch. 2.

[266] The word קבל signifies, in Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldean, that which is anterior, that which one receives from the ancients by tradition.

[267] Aurea Carm., v. 48.

[268] Synes, Hymn., iii., v. 174; Hymn., iv., v. 68.

[269] Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. i., p. 572.

[270] The word Eon, in Greek Αἰών, is derived from the Egyptian or Phœnician אי (aï), a principle of will, a central point of development, and יון (ion), the generative faculty. This last word has signified, in a restricted sense, a dove, and has been the symbol of Venus. It is the famous Yoni of the Indians and even the Yn of the Chinese: that is to say, the plastic nature of the Universe. From there, the name of Ionia, given to Greece.

[271] Herm. Trismég., c. 11.

[272] Plutar. cité par le père Petau. Notes in Synes, p. 42.

[273] Clem. Alex., Eclog. Theod., § 30.

[274] Hist. du Manich., t. i., p. 572.

[275] Gods, Heroes, and Demons signify in the Greek words Θεός, Ἥρωες, Δαίμων, whence they are derived, the Principle-Beings attained to perfection; the ruling Principle-Beings; Terrestrial Existences. The word Θεός is formed from the word אוש (aôs), a Principle-Being, preceded by the hemantique letter ת (θ, th), which is the sign of perfection. The word Ἥρωες is composed of the same word אוש (aôs), preceded by the word הרר (herr), expressing all that rules. The word Δαίμων comes from the ancient word Δῆμ, land, united with the word ὤν, existence.

[276] Κάθαρσις καὶ τελειότης.

[277] Lil. Greg. Gyral., Pythag. Symb. Interpret., p. 92.

[278] Apud Phot. Cod., 249.

[279] Dict. Crit., art. Pythagoras, rem. Q.

[280] Not long since, a man rather well organized mentally, but very slightly enlightened by the true science, brought out a book entitled Ruverabhoni, in which, heaping up all the ancient and modern sophisms pronounced against the social organization founded upon the establishment of the family, he aspired to change the instinct of nature, in this respect, and to found true happiness upon the débris of all the ties of blood, of all the affections of the soul, and of all the duties of consanguinity.

[281] As I give the same meaning as did Moses and not that of the Septuagint copied by the Vulgate, I transcribe here the original text, so that those who understand Hebrew may see that I have not deviated from it.

כבד את־אביך ואת־אמך למען יאר כון ימיך על האדמה אשר־יהוה אלהיך נתן לך

Exodus, ch. 20, v. 12.

[282] This country of Adam, in Hebrew האדמה (ha-adamah), adaméenne. This word, which has been vulgarly translated by the Earth, signifies it only by metaphor. Its proper sense, which is very difficult to grasp, depends always on that which is attached to the name of Adam, whence it is derived. Jhôah, in Hebrew יהוה , pronounced very improperly Jehovah, on account of a defective punctuation of the Masoretes, is the proper name of God. This name was formed by Moses in a manner as ingenious as sublime, by means of the contraction of the three tenses of the verb הוה (hôeh), to be. It signifies exactly will be-being-been; that which is, was, and shall be. One renders it well enough by Eternal. It is Eternity, or the Time-without-Limit of Zoroaster. This name is quite generally followed, as it is here, with the words אלהיך (Ælohî-cha), thy Gods, in order to express that the Unity contained in Jhôah, comprehends the infinity of the gods, and takes the place of it with the people of Israel.

[283] Mémoires concern. les Chinois, t. iv., p. 7.

[284] Mém. concern. les Chinois, ibid.

[285] Nemesis, in Greek Νέμεσις, is derived from the Phœnician words נאמ (nam or næm), expressing every judgment, every order, every decree announced by word of mouth; and אשיש (æshish), all that serves for principle, as foundation. This last word has root אש (as, os, or æs).

[286] Hiao-King, ou Livre de la Piété filiale.

[287] Kong-Tzée, dans le Hiao-King qui contient sa doctrine.

[288] Hiérocl., Comment. Aurea. carmin., v. 5.

[289] Hiéroclès, ibid., v. 7.

[290] Porphyr., in Vitâ Pythag., p. 37.

[291] Dacier, Vie de Pythag.

[292] Diog. Laërt., l. v., § 21.

[293] Hiérocl., Aurea. carm., v. 8.

[294] Evang. de S. Math., ch. 22.

[295] Zend-Avesta, 30ᵉ hâ, p. 164; ibid., 34ᵉ hâ, p. 174; ibid., 72ᵉ hâ, p. 258.

[296] Vie de Confucius, p. 139.

[297] Herm. Trismeg., In Pœmand.

[298] Senac., De Sen., vi., 2.

[299] Aul. Gell., l. vi., c. 2.

[300] Plutar., De repugn. Stoïc. de Fato.

[301] Chalcidius, in Tim., not. 295, p. 387.

[302] Hist. du Manich., t. ii., l. v., ch. 6, p. 250.

[303] Dict. crit., Manicheens, rem. D.

[304] Cicéron, Tuscul., l. i.; Clem. Alex., Strom., l. v., p. 501.

[305] Justin., Cohort ad Gent., p. 6; Cyrill., Contr. Julien; Fabric., Bibl. græc., t. i., p. 472.

[306] Plutar., De Procr. anim.

[307] Plat., Epist., 2 et 7, t. iii., p. 312, 313, 341, etc.

[308] Voyez l’excellent ouvrage de Beausobre à ce sujet, L’Histoire du Manichéisme.

[309] When Zoroaster spoke of this Cause, he gave it the name of Time without Limit, following the translation of Anquetil Duperron. This Cause does not still appear absolute in the doctrine of this theosophist; because in a passage of the Zend-Avesta, where in contemplation of the Supreme Being, producer of Ormuzd, he calls this Being, the Being absorbed in excellence, and says that Fire, acting from the beginning, is the principle of union between this Being and Ormuzd (36ᵉ hâ du Vendidad Sadé, p. 180, 19ᵉ fargard, p. 415). One finds in another book, called Sharistha, that when this Supreme Being organized the matter of the Universe, he projected his Will in the form of a resplendent light (Apud Hyde, c. 22, p. 298).

[310] In Tim., not. 295.

[311] Voyez Photius, Cod., 251. Plotin, Porphyre, Jamblique, Proclus et Symplicius ont été du même sentiment qu’ Hiéroclès, ainsi que le dit le savant Fabricius, "Bibl. græc., t. i., p. 472.

[312] Iliad, L. ult., v. 663.

[313] Cicér., de Natur. Deor., l. i., c. 15.

[314] Cicér., de Fato, c. 17.

[315] Axiômes de Pythagore conservés par Stobée, Serm. 6.

[316] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 10 et 11.

[317] Strab., 1. xvi., p. 512; Sext. Empir., Adv. Mathem., p. 367.

[318] Atom, in Greek ἄτομος, is formed from the word τόμος, a part, to which is joined the a privative.

[319] Huet, Cens. Phil. Cartesian., c. 8, p. 213. If one carefully examines the systems of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton, one will see that, after all, they are reduced either to atoms, or to inherent forces which move them.

[320] Cicér., de Fato, c. 17.

[321] August., Epist., 56.

[322] August., Epist., 56.

[323] Cicér., de Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 19; Quæst. Acad., l. ii., c. 13; de Fato, c. 9.

[324] Diog. Laërt., l. x., §123; Cicér., de Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 30.

[325] Senec., Epist., 88; Sext. Empir., Adv. Math., l. vii., c. 2; Arist., Métaphys., l. iii., c. 4.

[326] Arist., Physic., l. vi., c. 9; voyez Bayle, Dict. crit., art. Zenon, rem. F.

[327] Cicér., de Natur. Deor., l. i., c. 15.

[328] Semel jussit, semper paret, Seneca has said. “The laws which God has prescribed for Himself,” he adds, “He will never revoke, because they have been dictated by His own perfections; and that the same plan, the same design having pleased Him once, pleases Him eternally” (Senec., nat.).

[329] Cicer., De Fato, cap. 17.

[330] Cicer., ibid., c. 9.

[331] Aul. Gell., l. vi., c. 2.

[332] Cicer., De Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 9; Plutar., De repug. Stoïc.; Diogenian. Apud.; Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. vi., c. 8.

[333] Herodot., Euterp., § 171; Julian Firm., De Error, prof., p. 45.

[334] Meurs., Græc. Feriat., l. i.; Plutar., In Alcibiad.; Porphyr., De Abst., l. ii., § 36; Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. i., c. 1; Schol. Apoll., l. i., v. 917; Pausan., Corinth, p. 73.

[335] Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag., p. 10.

[336] The doctrine of Krishna is found especially recorded in the Bhaghavad Gita, one of the Pouranas most esteemed by the Brahmans; in the Zend-Avesta and in the Boun-Dehesh, that of Zoroaster. The Chinese have the Tchun-Tsieou of Kong-Tse, historic monument raised to the glory of Providence; in the Pœmander and Æsculapius, the ideas of Thoth. The book of Synesius upon Providence contains the dogmas of the Mysteries. Finally one can consult in the course of the Edda, the sublime discourse of Odin, entitled Havamâl. The basis of all these works is the same.

[337] This, as I observed in my Second Examination, should be understood only by the vulgar. The savant and the initiate easily restored to Unity this infinity of gods, and understood or sought the origin of evil, without the knowledge of which, divine Unity is inexplicable.

[338] Talès, cité par Platon, De Republ., l. x.; Aristot., Metaph., l. iii.; Cicer., Acad. Quæst., iv., c. 37.

[339] Anaximandre, cité par Aristot., Phys., l. i.; Sext. Empir., Pyrr., iii.

[340] Anaximène, cité par Arist., Metaph., l. i., c. 3; Plutar., De Placit. Phil., i., 3.

[341] Héraclite, cité par Platon, Theætet.; Arist., Metaph., l. i., c. 6; Sext. Empir., Adv. Math., l. vii.

[342] De Gérando, Hist. des Syst. de Phil., t. iii., p. 283; Arist., Metaph., l. i., c. 6; Diog. Laërt., l. ix., c. 19.

[343] Cicer., De Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 9.

[344] Boët., De Consol., l. i., prosa 4.

[345] Plutar., Adv. Stoïc., p. 1075.

[346] Cicer., De Fato, c. 10; Lucret., l. ii., v. 216, 251, 284.

[347] Cicer., De Fato, c. 9 et 17; Diogenian., Apud.; Euseb., Præp. Evan., l. vi., c. 8.

[348] Cicer., De Natur. Deor., l. iii., c. 38 et 39.

[349] Aul. Gell., l. vi., c. 1.

[350] Plutar., Adv. Stoïc.

[351] The name given to the sect of the Pharisees signifies, in general, that which is enlightened, illumined, glorified, illustrious. It is derived from the root אור (aor), the light, governed by the article פה (phe), which expresses the emphasis; thence פאר (phær), an aureola, a tiara, and פרתמים (pharethmim), men illustrious, sublime. The name given to the sect of the Sadducees is derived from the word שד (shad) which, expressing all diffusion, all propagation, is applied to productive nature in general, and in particular to a mammal, its symbol among the Egyptians; it signifies properly the Physicists, or the Naturalists.

[352] The original name of the Book of Moses is ספר (sepher); the name of the Bible, that we attribute to it, is derived from the Greek Βίβλος, adopted by the so-called translators of the Septuagint.

[353] Joseph., Antiq., l. xii., c. 22; l. xiii., c. 9 et 23; l. xvii., c. 3; Budd, Introd. ad Phil. Hebr.; Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, t. i.

[354] This is founded upon a great number of passages, of which it will suffice to cite the following. One finds in Amos, ch. iii., v. 6: “Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?” And in Ezekiel, ch. xxi., v. 3: “And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked … against all flesh, from the south even to the north.… That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword.”

[355] Mohammed said of himself, that he possessed no heavenly treasures, that he was ignorant of the mysteries, that he could say nothing of the essence of the soul (Koran, ch. 6 and 17); and as he admitted the literal text of the Sepher, he could not do otherwise than announce predestination. “God,” he said, “holds in his hands the keys of the future. He alone knows it.… The nations know not how to retard or to hasten the moment of their downfall” (Koran, ch. 6 and 23).

[356] Vitâ Pythag.; Photius, Bibl. Cod., 259.

[357] Kircher, Œdip., t. i., p. 411; Edda Island Fabl.; Macrob., Saturn., l. i., c. 20.

[358] Plotin, Ennead., iii., 1. 2; Euseb., Prœp. Evan., l. iii., c. 9; Macrob., Somn. Schip., l. ii., c. 12; Marc. Aurell., l. iv., c. 34.

[359] Pan, in Greek πᾶν, signifies the All, and Phanes is derived from the Phœnician word אנש (ânesh), man, preceded by the emphatic article פ (ph). It must be observed that these two names spring from the same root אן (ân), which, figuratively, expresses the sphere of activity, and literally, the limitation of the being, its body, its capacity. Hence אני (âni), me, and אניו (aniha), a vessel.

[360] Mém. concern. les Chinois, t. ii., p. 174 et suiv.; Edda Island; Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 784; Bœhme, De la triple Vie de l’Homme, c. ix., § 35 et suiv.

[361] Παντὶ ἐν Κόσμῳ λάμπει τριὰς· ἧς Μονὰς ἄρχει. — Zoroast. Oracul.

[362] Hiérocl., Aurea Carmin.,, v. 14.

[363] Hermès, In Pœmander.

[364] Evang. St. Math., ch. 18.

[365] Vendidad Sadé, p. 89.

[366] 34ᵉ hâ, p. 174.

[367] 3ᵉ fargard., p. 284.

[368] Jeshts Sadès, p. 151.

[369] Hafiz, cité par les auteurs Des Recherches asiatiques, t. iv., p. 167.

[370] L’Arya, cité comme ci-dessus:

“L’homme de bien, paisable au moment qu’il expire,

Tourne sur ses bourreaux un œil religieux,

Et bénit jusqu’au bras qui cause son martyre:

Tel l’arbre de Sandal que frappe un furieux,

Couvre de ses parfums le fer qui le dechire.”

[371] Edda Island; Hâvamâl.

[372] Diogen. Laërt., In Prœm., p. 5.

[373] Pœmander et Asclepius.

[374] This is the vast collection of Brahmanic morals. One finds there many of the lines repeated word for word in the Sepher of Moses.

[375] In them, antiquity goes back three thousand years before our era. There is mention of an eclipse of the sun, verified for the year 2155 B.C.

[376] Senec., De Sen., l. vi., c. 2.

[377] Hiérocl., Aur. carmin., v. 18.

[378] Jamblic., De Vitâ Pythag.; Porphyr., ibid., et de Abstin.; Vitâ Pythag. apud; Phot., Cod., 259; Diog. Laërt., In Pythag., l. viii.; Hierocl., Comment. in Aur. Carm.; ibid., De Provident.; Philost., In Vitâ Apollon; Plutar., De Placit. philos.; ibid., De Procreat. anim.; Apul.., In Florid.; Macrob., In Saturn., et "Somn. Scip.; Fabric., Bibl. græc. in Pythag.; Clem. Alex., Strom., passim., etc.

[379] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 14; Phot., Cod., 242 et 214.

[380] Diog. Laërt., In Pythag.; ibid., In Emped.

[381] Hiérocl., Pont. apud Diog. Laërt., l. viii., § 4.

[382] Maximus Tyrius has made a dissertation upon the origin of Evil, in which he asserts that the prophetic oracles, having been consulted on this subject, responded by these two lines from Homer:

“We accuse the gods of our evils, while we ourselves

By our own errors, are responsible for them.”

[383] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 18.

[384] Plutar., De Repugn. Stoïc.

[385] In Gorgi. et Phileb.

[386] Hiérocl., Aur. Carmin., v., 18.

[387] Hiérocl., Aur. Carmin., v. 18, 49 et 62.

[388] In Phédon; In Hipp., ii.; In Theæt.; De Rep., l. iv., etc.

[389] Hyde, De Relig. Vet. Pers., p. 298.

[390] Evan. S. Math., ch. xvii., v. 19.

[391] Vie de Kong-Tzée (Confucius), p. 324.

[392] Meng-Tzée, cité par Duhalde, t. ii., p. 334.

[393] Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita, lect. ii.

[394] XL Questions sur l’Ame (Viertzig Fragen von der Sellen Orstand, Essentz, Wesen, Natur und Eigenschafft, etc. Amsterdam, 1682). Quest. 1.

[395] Ibid.

[396] IX Textes, text. 1 et 2.

[397] XL Questions, quest. 6.

[398] Plato, In Theag.

[399] Clem. Alex., Strom., l. iv., p. 506; Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 28.

[400] This is the signification of the Greek word φιλόσοφος.

[401] Dans le Tchong-Yong, ou le Principe central, immuable, appelé Le Livre de la grande Science.

[402] Evan. S. Math., ch. vii., v. 6.

[403] Bhagavad-Gita, lect. 8 et 13.

[404] Evang. S. Luc., ch. xiv., v. 26.

[405] 50ᵉ hâ Zend-Avesta, p. 217; 45ᵉ hâ, ibid., p. 197.

[406] Nombres, ch. xxxi.; Deutéronome, ch. iii., xx., etc.

[407] Exode, ch. xxxiv., v. 6.

[408] Koran, i., ch. 4, 22, 23, 24, 25, 50, etc.

[409] Voyez la fin du dernier Examen.

[410] S. Math., ch. v., v. 44.

[411] Ibid., ch. xii., v. 20, etc.

[412] Ibid., ch. x., v. 34.

[413] S. Luc, ch. xii., v. 52, 53.

[414] S. Math., ch. xii., v. 30.

[415] Bacon, Novum Organum.

[416] Novum Organ., Aphor., 38 et seq.

[417] Voyez La Vie de Kong-Tzée et le Ta-Hio, cité dans les Mém. concern. les Chinois, t. i., p. 432.

[418] Mém. concern. les Chin., t. iv., p. 286.

[419] Novum Organum in Præf. et Aph., 1.

[420] Ibid., Aph., 11.

[421] Ibid., Aph., 13.

[422] Ibid., Aph., 14 et 15.

[423] Ibid., Aph., 38 et seq.

[424] Novum Organum in Præf. et Aph., 73.

[425] Ibid., Aph., 63.

[426] Ibid., Aph., 65.

[427] Aurea Carm., v. 25.

[428] Aurea Carm., v. 27.

[429] Hermes, In Asclepio; Porphyr., De Antr. Nymph., p. 106; Origen, Contr. Cels., 1. vi., p. 298; Hyd., De Vet. Pers. Relig., p. 16; Jamblic., De Myster-Egypt., c. 37.

[430] Hist. des Voyag., t. lii., p. 72; Divd., 1. iv., c. 79; Plutar., In Vitâ Num.

[431] Boulanger, Antiq. dévoil., l. iii., ch. 5, § 3.

[432] Mém. de l’Acad. des Insc., t. i., p. 67; Tit.-Liv., Decad., I, l. ix.; Aul. Gell., l. vi., c. 9.

[433] Duhald., t. ii., p. 578; t. iii., p. 336, 342; Const. d’Orville, t. i., p. 3.

[434] Philostr., In Vitâ Apoll., l. iii., c. 13.

[435] Dans mon 21ᵉ Examen, où j’ai cité particulièrement Diogène Laërce, l. viii., § 4.

[436] Syncell., p. 35.

[437] Senec., Quæst. Nat., l. iii., c. 30; Synes., De Provid., l. ii., sub fin.

[438] Plato, In Tim.; Ovid, Metam., l. xv., fab. v.; Senec., Epist., 35; Macrob., In Somn. Scip., l. ii., c. 2; Hist. des Voyages, t. xii., p. 529; Dupuis, Orig. des Cultes, l. v., in 12, p. 474; Bailly, Hist. de l’Astr. Anc., l. ix., § 15.

[439] Ciceron, De Divin., l. ii., c. 97.

[440] Cicer., De Natur. Deor., l. ii., c. 20; ibid., De Divin., l. ii., c. 97.

[441] Plato, In Tim.

[442] Souryâ-Siddhanta.

[443] Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 378.

[444] Biot., Astr. Phys., ch. xiv., p. 291.

[445] Vitâ Pythag.; Phot., Bibl. Cod., 259; Plato, In Tim.; Macrob., In Somn. Scip.; Virg., Æneid, l. vi., v. 724; Sevius, Comm., ibid.; Cicer., De Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 5, 11, 14, et 15; Diog. Laërt., In Zon.; Batteux, Causes premières, t. ii., p. 116; Beausob., Hist. du Manich., t. ii., l. vi., c. 6, § 14.

[446] Stanley, De Phil. Chald., p. 1123.

[447] Kircher, Ædip., t. i., p. 172, et t. ii., p. 200.

[448] Maimon., More Nevoch., i., part., c. 70.

[449] Salmas, Ann. Climat., Præf., p. 32.

[450] Homer, Odyss., K. v. 494; Diodor. Sic., l. v., c. 6; Plin., l. vii., c. 56; Plutar., De Oracul. Defect., p. 434.

[451] Horat., Sat., v., l. ii., v. 59.

[452] Hierocl., In Aurea Carm., v. 31.

[453] Alcibiad., i. et ii.; Lachès, etc.

[454] In Alcibiad., i.

[455] Voyez Burette, Mém. de l’Acad. des Belles-Lett., t. v.; Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. i., introd., p. 20.

Our painters have hardly treated Greek painting better; and perhaps if the Pythian Apollo and the Chaste Venus had not again astonished Europe, but had disappeared as did the masterpieces of Polygnotus and of Zeuxis, the modern sculptors would have said that the ancients failed as much in pattern as in colouring.

[456] Wood, Essai sur le Génie orig. d’Homère, p. 220.

[457] Bryant, cité par Desalles, Hist. d’Homère, p. 18.

[458] Wolf et Klotz, cités par le même. Ibid., p. 36 et 117.

[459] Paw, Recherches sur les Grecs, t. ii., p. 355.

[460] C’est un certain Grégoire, cité par Leo Allazi, dans son Livre de Patriâ Homeri.

Voltaire, Dict. philos., art. Epopée.

[461] The name of Pagan is an injurious and ignoble term derived from the Latin Paganus, which signifies a rustic, a peasant. When Christianity had entirely triumphed over Greek and Roman polytheism, and when by the order of the Emperor Theodosius, the last temple dedicated to the gods of the nations had been destroyed in the cities, it was found that the people in the country still persisted a considerable time in the ancient cult, which caused them and all their imitators to be called derisively Pagans. This appellation, which could suit the Greeks and Romans in the fifth century who refused to submit to the dominating religion in the Empire, is false and ridiculous when one extends it to other times, and to other peoples. It cannot be said without at once offending chronology and common sense, that the Romans or Greeks of the time of Cæsar, of Alexander, or of Pericles; the Persians, Arabs, Egyptians, Indians, the Chinese, ancient or modern, were Pagans; that is to say, peasants disobedient to the laws of Theodosius. These are polytheists, monotheists, mythologists, whatever one wishes, idolaters perhaps, but not Pagans.

[462] Novum Organ., aph. 48.

[463] De Dign. et Increm. Science, l. iii., c. 4.

[464] Ut supra.

[465] Bacon, de la Vie et de la Mort; Sueton., in Tiber., § 66.

[466] Diogen. Laërt., in Pythag.

[467] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 33.

[468] Bacon assures, following the ancients, that the envious eye is dangerous and that it has been observed that after great triumphs, illustrious personages having been the object of an envious eye have found themselves ill-disposed for some days following (Sylva Sylvarum, § 944).

[469] Aul. Gell., l. iv., c. 11.

[470] Athen., l. vii., c. 16; Jambl., Vitâ Pythag., c. 30.

[471] Jambl., ibid., c. 24.

[472] Diog. Laërt., l. viii., § 9; Clem. Alex., Pæd., l. ii., p. 170.

[473] Jambl., ibid., c. 21; Porphyre, "Vitâ Pythag., p. 37; Athen., l. x., p. 418; Aul. Gell., l. iv., c. 11.

[474] Diog. Laërt., l. viii., § 19.

[475] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 32.

[476] Proverbes du Brahme Barthrovhari.

[477] Chou-King, ch. Yu-Mo.

[478] On trouve ce passages dans le Tchong-Yong, ou Livre du Juste-Milieu; ouvrage très célèbre parmi les Chinois.

[479]

A la persévérance il n’est rien qui résiste:

Quelques soient ses desseins, si le Sage y persiste,

Nul obstacle si grand dont il ne vienne à bout:

La constance et le temps sont les maîtres de tout.

[480] Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag., p. 27.

[481] Institutes of Manu, ch. 1, v. 5.

[482] Xénophon, Mém., l. iv., p. 796; Plat., in Alcib., i.; ibid., in Charm.; Pausan., l. x.; Plin., l. vii., c. 32.

[483] In Alcibiad., i.

[484] Cicér., Acad. Quæst., l. ii., c. 24; Sext. Empir., Hypotyp., l. i., c. 4 et 12.

[485] Diog. Laërt., l. iv., § 10; Cicer., Acad. Quæst., l. ii., c. 18.

[486] Desland, Hist. Critiq. de la Philosoph., t. ii., p. 258.

[487] Euseb., Præp. Evan., l. xiv., c. 4.

[488] The Greek word is derived from the verb καλύπτειν, to cover with a veil.

[489] Bayle, Dict. crit., art. Arcésilas.

[490] Sextus Empiricus, who was not a man to advance anything thoughtlessly, alleges that Arcesilaus was only a skeptic in semblance and that the doubts which he proposed to his listeners had no other aim than that of seeing if they had enough genius to understand the dogmas of Plato. When he found a disciple who evinced the necessary force of mind, he initiated him into the true doctrine of the Academy (Pyrrh. hypotyp., l. i., c. 33).

[491] Sext. Empir., Pyrrh. hypotyp., l. i., c. 4, 12, 15; l. ii., c. 4, etc.

[492] οἵη περ φύλλων γενεή, τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν. Iliad, l. vi., v. 146.

[493] The Brahmans call the illusion which results from this veil maya. According to them, there is only the Supreme Being who really and absolutely exists; all the rest is maya, that is to say, phenomenal, even the trinity formed by Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra.

[494] De Gérando, Hist. comp. des Systèmes de philos., t. iii., p. 360.

[495] De Gérando, Hist. comp. des Systèmes de philos., t. iii., p. 361.

[496] Zeno having been thrown by a storm into the port of Piræus at Athens, all his life regarded this accident as a blessing from Providence, which had enabled him to devote himself to philosophy and to obey the voice of an oracle which had ordered him to assume “the colour of the dead”; that is, to devote himself to the study of the ancients and to sustain their doctrine.

[497] Plutarch, in Catone majore.

[498] Plutarch, ibid.; Cicér., de Rep., l. ii.; Apud Nonium voce Calumnia. Lactant., l. v., c. 14.

[499] C’était à quoi se bornaient les sceptiques anciens. Voyez Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. hypotyp., l. i., c. 15, et l. ii., c. 4, 12, etc., cité par De Gérando, Hist. Comp. des Syst., t. iii., p. 395.

[500] Kritik der Reinen Vernunft (Critique de la Raison pure), s. 6.

[501] Du mot grec κριτικός, celui qui est apt à juger.

[502] L’Histoire comparée des Systèmes de Philos., par De Gérando, et des Mélanges de Phil., par Ancillon de Berlin. These two writers, whatever one may say, have analysed very well the logical part of Kantism, and have penetrated, especially the former, into the rational part, as far as it was possible, for men who write upon the system of a philosopher without adopting the principles and making themselves his followers.

[503] Krit. der Reinen Vernunft; çà et là, en plusieurs endroits.

[504] This is taken from the Vedanta, a metaphysical treatise attributed to Vyasa and commented upon by Sankarâchârya.

[505] Justin, Cohort. ad Gent., p. 6; Cyrill., Contr. Julian.

[506] Plutar., de Procr. anim.; Chalcid., in Tim., n. 293.

[507] Plato, in Tim.; ibid., in Theet.; ibid., de Rep., l. iv. Conférez avec Proclus, Comment. in Tim., l. i.; Marc-Aurel., l. iv., l. ix., et l. x.; et Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 175, etc.

[508] The idea of making the quaternary spring from the unity, and the decade from the quaternary is expressed literally in the following lines of Pythagoras, preserved by Proclus:

… Πρόεισιν ὁ θεῖος ἀριθμὸς

Μονάδος ἐκ κευθμῶνος ἀκηράτου, ἔς τ’ ἂν ἵκηται

Τετράδ’ ἑπὶ ζαθέην, ἣ δὴ τέκε μητέρα πάντων,

Πανδοχέα, πρέσβειραν, ὅρον περὶ πᾶσι τιθεῖσαν,

Ἄτροπον, ἀκαμάτην, δεκάδα κλείουσί μιν ἁγνήν·

The Monad, of Number is the sacred source;

From it Number emanates and holds the virtues

With which shines the Tetrad, Universal Mother,

Which produces all things and conceals in its depths

The immortal Decade, honoured in all places.

[509] The nearest root of this word is find, whence is derived finden, to find; its remote root is hand, the seat of touch, whence comes finger, that which feels; its primitive root is אד or יד (âd or id), the hand in Phœnician. This last root, becoming nasal at the final and aspirate at the initial, has produced hand; fang, a capture, and find, a discovery. The syllable emp, which precedes the root find, expresses the movement which lifts up from below; lich designates that which disqualifies by identity, and keit, that which substantiates.

[510] The root of this word is stand, a fixed thing, a state; its remote root is stat, that which is permanent. Its primitive root is שדד (shdad), firmness, force, constancy. The initial syllable ver expresses the movement which carries far away, which transports from the place where one is, to that where one is not.

[511] The nearest root of this word, as well as its remote root, has disappeared from the modern German, where one finds only its derivatives. Its primitive root is in the Latin word opt, whence comes opto, I choose: and optime, best. This root is attached to the Phœnician עיף (whôph), anything which is raised above another thing. It becomes nasal in the German word and has changed the ph to ft. From it is derived the Saxon, English, Belgian, and Danish word up, which expresses the movement of everything which tends above. Also from it, the German word luft, air, and the English word aloft, that which is elevated. The preposition ver has taken the final n, placing it before unft, as it carries it constantly in its analogue fern, that which is distant. Likewise one says fernglass, a telescope with which one sees at a distance.

[512] De Gérando, Hist. des Systèmes de Philos., t. ii., p. 193.

[513] Krit. der Rein. Vernunft, s. 24.

[514] In the Oriental languages רו (rou) indicates the visual ray, and רד (rad), all movement which is determined upon a straight line. This root, accompanied by a guttural inflection, is called recht, in German, and right in English and Saxon. The Latins made of it rectum, that which is straight. In French rature and rateau. The Teutons, taking right in a figurative sense, have drawn from this same root, rath, a council, and richter, a judge.

[515] In Tim., cité par Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 174.

[516] The word intelligence, in Latin intelligentia, is formed of two words, inter eligere or elicere, to choose, to attract to self interiorly, and by sympathy. The etymology of the word expresses exactly the use of the faculty.

[517] Kritik der Reinen Vernunft, s. 662, 731; De Gérando, Hist. des Systèm., t. ii., p. 230.

[518] Krit. der Reinen Vernunft, s. 306, 518, 527, etc.

[519] Ibid., s. 135, 137. 399. etc.

[520] Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (Critique de la Raison pratique), s. 5, 22, 219, 233, etc.

[521] Characteristics, London, 1737.

[522] A System of Moral Philosophy, t. i., ch. 4.

[523] Enquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principle of Common Sense.

[524] An Appeal to Common Sense, etc., Edinburgh, 1765.

[525] Pensées, § 21.

[526] In Greek τὸ ἡγεμονικόν, that which dominates and rules, that which is intelligible.

[527] In Greek τὸ φυσικόν, that which pertains to generative nature, that which is physical, and sentient.

[528] In Greek τὸ λογικόν, that which pertains to reasonable nature, that which is logical, the thing which proves that another thing is. Voyez Platon, in Tim., et conférez avec Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 174.

[529] Plutar., de Facie in Orb. lun., p. 943.

[530] The first kind of virtue is called ἀνθρωπίνη, human, and the second ἡρωικὴ καὶ δία, heroic and divine. Attention should be given to these epithets which are related to the three principal faculties of man. Aristot., ad Nicom., l. vii., c. 1; Plato, in Theæt.; Gallien, in Cognit et Curat. morb. anim., l. i., c. 3, et 6; Theod. Marcil, in Aur. Carmin.

[531] In Somn. Scip., c. 8.

[532] Aristot., de Cælo et Mundo, l. i.; Philo, de Mund. opific..

[533] Pausan., in Corinth., p. 72; Tzetz., in Schol.

[534] Suidas, in Εποπ; Harpocr., ibid.

[535] Clem. Alex., l. v., p. 582.

[536] Psellus, Ad Oracul. Zoroastr.

[537] Meurs. Eleus. 12; Dion. Chrysost., Orat. xii.

[538] Sophocl. apud Plutar., De Audiend. Poet. Schol.; Aristoph., De Pace.

[539] Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag., p. 5.

[540] γνῶσις, savant.

[541] Epiph., l. i.; Plucquet, Dictionn. des Hérésies, t. ii., p. 72.

[542] Diod. Sicul., l. i.; Herodot., l. ii.

[543] Aristot., Polit., l. ii.; Strab., l. viii.

[544] Voyez Daniel, et conférez avec Court de Gébelin, Monde primitif, t. viii., p. 9.

[545] Zend-Avesta, 14ᵉ hâ, p. 127.

[546] Pomp. Mela, iii., c. 2; César, l. vi., c. 14; Pelloutier, Hist. des Celtes, l. iv., ch. 1, § 27 et 30.

[547] The first Shastra is entitled Djatimala. I am ignorant of the title of the other, that I cite from Henry Lord: Discovery of the Banian Religion, in Church, Collect., vol. vi.

[548] Asiat. Research., tom. vi., p. 254.

[549] Mémoir. concern. les Chin., t. ii., p. 174 et suiv.

[550] Vie de Kong-Tzée, p. 237 et suiv.

[551] Voyez le 12ᵉ Examen.

[552] Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag.

[553] Plato, ut suprà.

[554] Synes., De Provident., c. 5.

[555] Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 33.

[556] Tatian, Orat. contr. Græc., p. 152.

[557] Plato, In Gorgia; ibid., In Phæd.; ibid., De Rep., l. vii.; August., De Civit. Dei, l. iii., c. 1, et l. x., c. 29.

[558] Diogen. Laërt., l. x., § 123; Cicero, De Nat. Deor., l. i., c. 30.

[559] Cicer., ibid., c. 8 et seq.

[560] Cicer., ut suprà.

[561] Diogen. Laërt., l. x., § 123.

[562] Dict. critiq., art. Epicure, rem. T.

[563] Mém. concern. les Chin., t. i., p. 102 et 138.

[564] "Asiat. Research., vol. vi., p. 215. Voyez les Pouranas intitulés, Bhagavad-Vedam et Bhagavad-Gita, et conférez avec les Recherches asiatiq., t. v., p. 350 et suiv., et avec l’ouvrage de Holwell (Interest. Hist. Events), ch. 4, § 5, etc.

[565] Cicer., cité par S. August., Contr. Pelag., l. iv.; Pindar, Olymp., ii., v. 122.

[566] Meurs., Eleus. 11; Dion. Chrysost., Orat. 12.

[567] Boun-Dehesh, p. 347.

[568] Vendidad-Sadé, 30ᵉ hâ.

[569] Homil. Clement., xix., § 4, p. 744.

[570] Ibid., cité par Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. i., p. 38.

[571] It is necessary before all, to restore the language of Moses, lost, as I have said, for more than twenty-four centuries; it must be restored with the aid of Greek and Latin which chain it to the illusory versions; it is necessary to go back to its original source and find its true roots: this enormous work that I have undertaken, I have accomplished.

[572] Fortun. apud August., Disput., ii.; August., Contr. Faust., l. xxi., c. ult.

[573] Origène, cité par Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., v., ch. 6.

[574] Beausobre, ibid., t. ii., p. 346.

[575] Hiérocl., Aur. Carmin. v. 49 et 50.

[576] Plat., In II. Alcibiad.

“Accordez-moi, grands Dieux, ce qui m’est nécessaire,

Soit que je pense ou non à vous le demander;

Et si de mes désirs l’objet m’était contraire,

Daignez, grands Dieux, daignez ne pas me l’accorder.”

[577] Vendidad-Sadê, 68ᵉ hâ, p. 242.

[578] Zend-Avesta, Jeshts-Sadés, p. 113.

[579] Hermès, In Asclep., c. 9.

[580] Origen., Contr. Cels., l. i., p. 19.

[581] Synes., De Insomn., p. 134 et seq.; Niceph. Greg., Schol. in Synes., p. 360 et seq.

[582] Voyez Naudé, Apolog. des grands Hommes accusés de Magie.

[583] Corn. Cels., De Re Medic., l. i., Præf.

[584] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 48 et 49, et ibid., v. 46.

[585] Plat., In Georgiâ, In Phæd.; Ibid., De Rep., l. vii.; August., De Civit. Dei, l. iii., c. 1 et l. x., c. 29.

[586] Acad. des Inscript., t. xxxi., p. 319.

[587] Procl., In Tim., l. v., p. 330; Cicer., Somn. Scip., c. 2, 3, 4, et 6; Hiérocl., In Aur. Carm., v. 70.

[588] Veda, cité par W. Jones, Asiat. Resear., t. iv., p. 173.

[589] Premier Pourâna, intitulé Matsya.

[590] Boushznda-Ramayan.

[591] Institut. of Menou, ch. 1, v. 1.

[592] Shanda-Pourâna.

[593] Ekhamesha.

[594] Aurore naissante (Morgens röte im Aufgang: durch Jacob Böhmen zu Amsterdam, 1682), ch. 14, § 41.

[595] Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra.

[596] Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.

[597] In the Tao-te-King of Lao-Tse, a work which has held a high reputation among the numerous followers of this theosophist, one finds that the absolute, universal Being which he declares can neither be named, nor defined, is triple. “The first,” he said, “has engendered the second; the two have produced the third; and the three have made all things. That which the mind perceives and the eye cannot see is named Y, the absolute Unity, the central point; that which the heart understands and the ear cannot hear is named Hi, the universal Existence; that which the soul feels and the hand cannot touch is named Ouei, the individual Existence. Seek not to penetrate the depths of this Trinity; its incomprehensibility comes from its Unity.” “This Unity,” adds Lao-Tse, in another passage, “is named Tao, the Truth; Tao is Life; Tao is to itself both rule and model. It is so lofty that it cannot be attained; so profound that it cannot be fathomed; so great that it contains the Universe; when one looks on high one sees no beginning; when one follows it in its productions, one finds in it no end.”

[598] One of the principal dogmas of Fo-Hi is the existence of one God in three persons, whose image is man. All his doctrine is limited to leading, by meditation and repression of the passions, the human ternary to its perfection. This ternary is composed, according to him, of Ki, Tsing, and Chen, that is to say, of the material, animistic, and spiritual principle. It is necessary that, being joined together, this ternary should make but One. Then its duration will have no limit and its faculties will be indestructible. Voyez Duhalde, t. iii., in fol., p. 50.

[599] This is noticeable particularly in Bayle.

[600] Herod., In Clio, § 131; Strab., l. xv.; Boehm., Mores Gentium.

[601] Pelloutier, Hist. des Celtes, t. v., c. 3.

[602] Tacit., De Morib. Germ., c. 9; Lactant., Præm., p. 5.

[603] August., De Civit. Dei, l. ii., c. 31; Clem. Alex., l. i., p. 304; Strom.

[604] Plutar., In Vitâ Numa; ibid., In Mar.; Pelloutier, Hist. des Celt., l. iv., c. i.; Lucan., Phars., l. iii., v. 412; Clem. Alex., Cohort. ad Gent., p. 57.

[605] Euseb., Prœp. Evang., l. xiii., c. 12;

Henric. Steph., Poes. philosop., p. 78.

[606] Porphyr., Sent., no. 10, p. 221; Stanl., In Pythag., p. 775.

[607] Stanley, De Phil. chald., p. 1123; Beausob., Hist. du Manich., t. ii., l. ix., c. 1, § 10.

[608] Τρισμέγιστος, thrice greatest.

[609] It is said that this famous table of Emerald was found in the valley of Hebron, in a sepulchre where it was between the hands of the cadaver of Thoth himself. Krigsmann, who assures us that this table must have read in Phœnician and not in Greek, quotes it a little differently from what one reads in the ordinary versions. Voyez Tabula Smaragdina, citée par Fabric., Bibl. Græc., p. 68.

[610] Hermès, In Asclep., c. 9; Jambl., De Myst. Egypt., c. 30; Maimon., Mor. Nevoch., part ii., c. 10; Origen, Contr. Cels., l. i.; Beausob., Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 49.

[611] Homère, cité par Maxime de Tyr.; Pline, l. ii., c. 7; Bible, psalm. 73 et 93; Job, c. 23; Habacuc, c. 1; Malach., c. 3; Balzac, Socrate chrétien, p. 237.

[612] Plucquet, Dict. des Hérés., art. Prédestinatiens.

[613] Noris., Hist. pelag., l. ii., c. 15.

[614] Origen, Comment. in Psalm., p. 38 et 39.

[615] S. Léon., Epist. Decret., ii.; Niceph., l. xvii., c. 27.

[616] Conc. Rom., Gelas., t. iii.

[617] Dict. des Hérés., art. Pélagiens.

[618] Plucquet, comme ci-dessus, t. ii., p. 454.

[619] Pelag., apud S. August., De Nat. et Grat., l. iii., c. 9.

[620] Pelag., apud August., De Grat. Christ., c. 4.

[621] Comment. in Aur. Carm., v. 62.

[622] S. August., De Grat. Christ., cité par Plucquet, "Dict. des Hérés., art. Pélagiens.

[623] Calvin, Institut., l. ii., c. 1 et 2.

[624] Ibid., t. ii.

[625] Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, l. i., p. 73.

[626] Origen., Contr. Cels., l. iv., p. 207.

[627] Plato, In Alcibiad., ii.

[628] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 56.

[629] Hiérol., In Præm.

[630] Ibid.

[631] Ut suprà, v. 10 et 11.

[632] Ut suprà, v. 22 et 24.

[633] Ut suprà, v. 54 et 55.

[634] Burnet, Archæolog., l. i., c. 14.

[635] De la Triple Vie de l’Homme, ch. vi., § 53.

[636] Ibid., ch. v., § 56.

[637] Procl., In Tim., l. v., p. 330; Plethon, Schol. ad. Oracl. magic. Zoroast.

[638] March., Chron. Can., p. 258; Beausob., Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 495; Huet. Origenian, l. ii., q. 6.

[639] Aur. Carm., v. 62-77.

[640] Lactant., De Irâ Dei, c. 13, p. 548.

[641] Dict. crit., art. Manichéens, rem. D.

[642] Dict. crit. art. Marcionites, rem. E et G.

[643] Ibid., art. Pauliciens, rem. E.

[644] Bayle, Dict. crit., art. Pauliciens, rem. E.

[645] De Irâ Dei, c. 13, p. 548.

[646] Basilius, t. i., In Homil. quod Deus non sit auctor mali, p. 369; Bayle. Dict. crit., art. Marcionites, rem. E et G.

[647] Traité de Morale.

[648] Réponse à deux object. de M. Bayle, par Delaplacette, in-12, 1707.

[649] Essai de Théodicée, part iii., No. 405 et suiv.

[650] Essai de Théodicée, part. iii., No. 405 et suiv.

[651] Ci-dessus, 25ᵉ Examen.

[652] Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences, ann., 1765, p. 439.

[653] Cité par De Gérando, Hist. des Systèmes, t. ii., p. 100.

[654] Hist. des Animaux, in-4, p. 37.

[655] System des transcendental Idalimus, p. 441; Zeitschrift für die speculative Physick.

[656] Buffon, Théorie de la Terre; Linné, De Telluris habitab. Increment; Burnet, Archæolog., etc.

[657] Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. nat., art. Quadrupède.

[658] Ovid., Metamorph., l. xv.

[659] Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. nat., art. Quadrupède.

[660] Nouv. Dict. d’Hist nat., art. Animal.

[661] Nouv. Dict., art. Nature.

[662] Lettre à Hermann.

[663] Charles Bonnet, Contempl. de la Nat., p. 16; Lecat., Traité du Mouvement musculaire, p. 54, art. iii.; Robinet, De la Nature, t. iv., p. 17, etc.

[664] Nouv. Dict., art. Quadrupède.

[665] Nouv. Dict., art. Animal.

[666] Cicer., De Finib., l. v., c. 5; Aul. Gell., l. xx., c. 5; Clem. Alex., Strom., l. v.; Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 68; Lil. Gregor. Gyrald., Pythag. Symbol. Interpret.; Dacier, Vie de Pythag.; Barthelemi, Voyage du Jeune Anarch., t. vi., ch. 75, etc.

[667] Jambl., Vitâ Pythag., c. 29, 34, et 35.

[668] Porphyr. apud Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. iii., c. 7; ibid., De Abstinent., l. iv., p. 308; Jambl., De Myst. Egypt., c. 37.

[669] Clem. Alex., Stromat., l. v., p. 556.

[670] Hérod., l. ii., § 36; Clem. Alex., ut suprà; Dacier, Vie de Pythag.

[671] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 70.

[672] Procl., In Tim., l. v., p. 330.

[673] Apud Plutar., De Audiend. Pœtis.

[674] Pind., Olymp., iii.; Apud, Plutar., Consol. ad Apoll.

[675] Plat., In Phædon.

[676] Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 68.