the three imposters 8

the three imposters 8

decided as to what ought to be approved of, and what, rejected;

according as they found it agreeable or opposed to the law of Moses.

 

Such is the malice and the folly of mankind. They spend their lives

in quibbles, and persist in reverencing a book which has scarcely

more arrangement than the Alcoran of Mahomet--a book which from its

obscurity nobody understands, and which has only served to foment

divisions. The Jew and Christians love far better to consult this

legerdemain book, than to listen to that which God, that is to say

Nature (inasmuch as it is the origin of all things) has written on

their hearts. All other laws are merely human figments--palpable

illusions set abroad, not by demons or evil spirits, which are the

creations of the fancy, but by the policy of princes, and the craft of

priests. The former have striven in this way to add weight to their

authority; and the latter have been contented to enrich themselves

by the sale of an infinitude of chimerical notions, which they vend

at a dear rate to their ignorant followers.

 

No other code of laws which has followed that of Moses, except the

Christian, has been based upon that Bible the original of which

could never be discovered, which relates to things supernatural and

impossible, and which speaks of rewards and punishments for actions

good or bad, but wisely postpones them till an after life, lest the

imposture should be detected; for no one has ever returned from the

grave. Thus the people, kept always fluctuating between hope and

fear, are held in bondage by the belief that God has created mankind

for no other purpose than that of rendering them eternally happy or

everlastingly miserable. This is the origin of the vast number of

religions which prevail in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAP. III.

 

ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD RELIGION; HOW, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE,

SO MANY RELIGIONS HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED INTO THE WORLD.

 

 

§ 1.

 

Before the term Religion was introduced into the world, mankind

followed the law of Nature, that is, they lived conformably to

Reason. Instinct was the only bond by which men were united; and this

bond, simple as it is, was so strong that divisions were rare. But

after terror led them to suspect that there were Gods and invisible

Powers, they built altars to the imaginary beings, and shaking off

the yoke of reason and of Nature, they bended themselves by foolish

ceremonies, and by a superstitious worship of the idle phantoms which

themselves had imagined.

 

Such was the origin of the word Religion, which has made so much

noise in the world. After having admitted the existence of these

invisible Agencies, men worshipped them to depreciate their anger,

and moreover they believed that nature was under the control of these

Powers. Afterwards they came to regard themselves as inert matter,

or as slaves who could only act under the commands of these imaginary

beings. This false idea having obtained possession of their minds,

they began to exhibit more contempt for nature, and more respect

for those whom they called their Gods. Hence sprung that ignorance

in which so many nations were immersed--an ignorance from which,

however profound, the true philosophers might have freed them,

if they had not been always thwarted by those who led the blind,

and throve by their own impostures.

 

Now, although there were little appearance of success in our

undertaking, we must not forsake the cause of truth. A generous

mind will speak of things as they really are, out of regard to those

who exhibit symptoms of this malady. The truth, whatever its nature

may be, can never be injurious; whereas error, although at the time

apparently innocent and even useful, must finally terminate in the

most disastrous results.

 

 

 

§ 2.

 

Terror having thus created the Gods, men wished to ascertain their

nature, and conceiving that they must be of the same substance as

the Soul, which they thought was like the appearances in a mirror,

or the phantoms of sleep, they believed that their Gods were real

substances, but so thin and subtle that to distinguish them from Bodies

they named them Spirits; although Bodies and Spirits are in truth one

and the same thing, for it is impossible to imagine an incorporeal

Spirit. Every spirit has its proper shape, which is inclosed in some

body; that is, it has its limits, and consequently it is a body,

however subtle its nature. [33]

 

 

 

§ 3.

 

The ignorant, that is the majority of mankind, having thus determined

the nature and substance of their Gods, endeavoured next to discover

the means by which these invisible agents acted; and unable to arrive

at this because of their ignorance, they had recourse to their own

conjectures, judging blindly of the future from the past. How is

it possible to draw rational conclusions from any thing which has

formerly happened in a certain way, as to what will happen hereafter,

seeing that all the circumstances and all the causes which necessarily

influence events and human actions, are so exceedingly different. They

persisted however in contemplating the past, and they augured well

or ill as to the future, according as any former similar undertaking

had been successful or otherwise. On this principle, because Phormis

had defeated the Lacedemonians at the battle of Naupactus, the

Athenians, after his death appointed another commander of the same

name. Hannibal having been conquered by Scipio Africanus, the Romans,

on account of his success, sent to the same province, Scipio Cæsar,

who was unsuccessful both against the Greeks [34] and the native

forces. Thus have many nations, after two or three experiments,

only attributed their bad or good fortune to places, to objects,

and to names. Others employed certain words which they denominated

spells, which they considered efficacious enough to make trees speak,

to create a man or a God from a morsel of bread, and in short to

metamorphose whatever appeared before their eyes. [35]

 

 

 

§ 4.

 

The empire of these invisible powers being now established, men at

first did homage to them as their sovereigns, by marks of submission

and respect; by gifts, prayers, &c. I say, at first, for nature

does not enjoin bloody sacrifices for this purpose; these were only

instituted for the subsistence of priests, and others set apart for

the services of these imaginary Gods.

 

 

 

§ 5.

 

These originators of Religion, viz. Hope and Fear, aided by the

different opinions and passions of men, have given rise to a vast

number of phantastical creeds, which have been the cause of so much

mischief and of so many revolutions among the nations.

 

The honor and the revenues attached to the priesthood, or to the

ministers of the Gods, have encouraged the ambition and avarice of

cunning men who knew how to profit by the stupidity of the vulgar,

whom they have got so much entangled in their snares that they have led

them insensibly into the habit of loving a lie and hating the truth.

 

 

 

§ 6.

 

A system of falsehood being established, ambitious men, intoxicated

with the pleasure of being elevated above their fellow mortals,

attempted to add to their reputation by feigning that they were

the friends of those invisible Beings whom the common people so much

feared. The better to succeed in this every one represented them after

his fashion, and they all took the liberty of multiplying them to an

extent almost incredible.

 

 

 

§ 7.

 

The rude unformed matter of the world was called the God Chaos. In

the same way they deified the Heavens, the Earth, the Sea, Fire, the

Winds and Planets. The same honor was conferred on men and women;

birds, reptiles, the crocodile, the calf, the dog, the lamb, the

serpent and the swine, in fact, all sorts of plants and animals were

worshipped. Every river, every fountain, bore the name of some deity;

every house had its lares and penates, and every man his genius--all

was filled above and below the earth with Gods, Spirits, Shadows, and

Demons. Neither was it enough to feign divinities in every imaginable

place. They outrage in the same way, Time, the Day, the Night, Victory,

Strife, Honor, Virtue, Health, and Sickness. They invented these

Divinities that they might represent them as ready to take vengeance

on those who would not be brought up in temples and at altars. Lastly,

they took to worshipping their own Genii; some invoked theirs under

the name of the Muses, while others, under that of Fortune, worshipped

their own ignorance. Some sanctioned their licentiousness under the

name of Cupid, their wrath under that of the Furies, their natural

parts under the name of Priapus; in one word there was nothing to

which they did not give the name of a God or a Demon.