[[657]] 1 Pet. v. 8.
[[658]] Ephes. vi. 12.
[[659]] They are cited in the letter of the Marquis Maffei.
[[660]] The author, as we may see, is not a Cartesian, since he assigns reflection even to animals. But if they reflect, they choose; whence it consequently follows that they are free.
[[661]] Luke xiii. 14.
CHAPTER LXIII.
DISSERTATION BY AN ANONYMOUS WRITER.
Answer to a Letter on the subject of the Apparition of St. Maur.
"You have been before me, sir, respecting the spirit of St. Maur, which causes so much conversation at Paris; for I had resolved to send you a short detail of that event, in order that you might impart to me your reflections on a matter so delicate and so interesting to all Paris. But since you have read an account of it, I cannot understand why you have hesitated a moment to decide what you ought to think of it. What you do me the honor to tell me, that you have suspended your judgment of the case until I have informed you of mine, does me too much honor for me to be persuaded of it; and I think there is more probability in believing that it is a trick you are playing me, to see how I shall extricate myself from such slippery ground. Nevertheless, I cannot resist the entreaties, or rather the orders, with which your letter is filled; and I prefer to expose myself to the pleasantry of the free thinkers, or the reproaches of the credulous, than the anger of those with which I am threatened by yourself.