[861] Leo I., bishop of Rome, called the Great, died 461; St. Jerome (331-420) was one of the fathers of the Latin Church. For Basil and Augustine (see page [446], note 837, and page [447], note 841.)
[862] Spécieux in the original, with the Latin meaning.
[863] This is perhaps a hit at Malebrancheʼs Nouvelle Métaphysique.
[864] At the time our author wrote it was the custom to allow masked people to enter a ball-room.
[865] In “A New Historical Relation of Siam,” by M. de la Loubère (see page 155, note 2), we find: “The priests are the Talapoins.... They have umbrellas in the form of a screen which they carry in their hand.... In Siamese they call them ‘Talapat,’ and it is probable that from hence comes the name of ‘Talapir’ or ‘Talapoin,’ which is in use among foreigners only.” The embassy from the King of Siam to Louis XIV. took place in the year 1686. See page [338], note 624.
[866] In 1685, when this paragraph was first published, La Bruyère was forty years old.
[867] St. Augustin (see page [447], note 841) and Descartes (see page [150], § 56) had already made use of the above argument.
[868] Our author adds in a note: “An objection to the system of freethinkers.” An allusion to the system of Spinosa, which Fénelon also attempted to refute in his Traité de lʼexistence de Dieu.
[869] “This is what freethinkers bring forward,” says La Bruyère in a note. He means probably the disciples of Gassendi, and followers of the systems of Epicurus and Lucretius.
[870] This is Descartesʼ doctrine.