The Three Impostors 14

The Three Impostors 14

6.

 

That we may not go crooked as he has done, and that we may form the

soundest conception possible of the soul of all animals, without

excepting man, who is of the same nature, and who only exercises

different functions from the difference in his organization, it is

important to attend to the following remarks.

 

It is certain that there exists in the universe a very subtle fluid,

a substance extremely attenuated, whose source is the sun, and which

pervades all other bodies, less or more, according to their nature

and their consistence. Such is the soul of the world, which governs

and vivifies it, and of which some portion is distributed to all the

creatures in the universe. [60]

 

This soul is the purest fire. It burns not of itself, but by different

movements, which it communicates to the particles of other bodies

into which it enters, it burns and makest its warmth be felt. Our

visible fire contains more of this matter than air; air, more than

water; and earth, considerably less than any of them. Plants have

more of it than minerals, and animals more than either. In fine,

this fire pervading the body renders it capable of thought, and is

that properly termed the soul, although it sometimes receives the

appellation of animal spirits, which permeate the whole body. It is

certain therefore that this soul being of the same nature as that

of animals, is annihilated at the death of man, as it is at that of

the other creatures. It follows that whatever poets and divines have

told us of a future state, is only the chimerical offspring of their

own brain, begotten and nourished by them for purposes which is by

no means difficult to fathom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI

 

ON THE SPIRITS CALLED DEMONS

 

 

§ 1.

 

We have explained in another place how the notion of spirits came to

be introduced among men, and proved that they were merely phantoms

which existed only in their disordered imagination.

 

The first instructors of mankind were not very explicit in their

"lessons to the million" as to the nature of these phantoms, but they

could not help saying what they thought of them. One class, reflecting

that these shadows melted into thin air and had no consistence,

described them as immaterial or incorporeal, having shapes without

matter, but coloured and defined. At the same time however, they denied

that they were corporeal existences, or that they were coloured or

figured; adding that they could clothe themselves with air as with

a garment, when they wished to become visible to the eye of men. A

second class assert that they were animated bodies, but that they were

composed of air, or some still more subtle matter, which they could

thicken at their pleasure, when they chose to make their appearance.

 

 

 

§ 2.

 

If the two sorts of philosophers were opposed to each other in their

opinion as to those shadows, they agreed as to their name, viz.,

Demons; in which respect they were as those who, when dreaming, believe

that they see the souls of people departed, and that it is their own

soul which they behold when they look into a mirror--or, in short,

those who can believe that the reflections of the stars which they see

in the water are the souls of the stars themselves. Out of this truly

ridiculous belief they wandered into an era no less absurd; believing

that these phantoms possessed unlimited power--an idea sufficiently

devoid of reason, but current among the ignorant, who suppose that

these beings, whom they know not, can exert a fearful influence.

 

 

 

§ 3.

 

This most absurd creed was invented and promulgated by legislators,

in order to support their own authority. They established this

belief in spirits under the name of religion, hoping that the dread

of these invisible powers which the people would entertain, might

keep them to their duty. To give the more weight to their dogma, they

classified those spirits or demons as good and bad; the one species

being intended to stimulate men to the observance of their laws,

and the other to act as a check and prevent their breaking them.

 

To ascertain what these demons really were, it is only necessary to

read the works of the Greek poets and historians, and above all, the

Theogany of Hesiod, where he dwells at great length on the origin of

the gods.

 

 

 

§ 4.

 

The Greeks invented them. From that people they passed by means of

their colonies into Asia, Egypt, and Italy. In this way the Jews,

who were dispersed in Alexandria and elsewhere became acquainted with

them. They made the same happy use of them as other nations did--with

this difference, that, unlike the Greeks, they did not call them

demons, or regard them as good and bad spirits indifferently. They

considered them all as bad with one single exception, to whom they gave

the name of the Spirit, or God; and they termed those men prophets who

said that they were inspired by the good Spirit. Farther, they viewed

as the operations of this divine Spirit whatever they considered as

a great blessing; and on the other hand, they looked upon whatever

they thought to be a great evil, as proceeding from some cacodemon

or evil spirit.

 

 

 

§ 5.

 

This distinction between good and evil led them to the use of

the appellation demoniacs, which they applied to lunatics, madmen,

furious persons, and epileptics, as also to those who made use of "the

unknown tongues." A man deformed and somewhat deranged, was said to be

possessed of an unclean spirit; and a dumb man by a dumb spirit. These

words, spirit and demon, became so familiar to them that they used

them on every occasion. It follows that the Jews believed with the

Greeks, that these phantoms were neither chimerical nor visionary,

but real and substantial agents.

 

 

 

§ 6.

 

Hence it is that the Bible is filled with tales of spirits, and demons,

and demoniacs; but in no place of that book is it said how and when

they were created--an omission scarcely pardonable on the part of

Moses, who undertakes to give an account of the creation both of the

heavens and of the earth. Christ who speaks very frequently of angels

and spirits, good and bad, does not inform us whether they are material

or immaterial. This makes it evident that both of them were ignorant

of the fact that the Greeks had instructed their ancestors in this

strange belief. Were the case otherwise, Jesus Christ would be no less

culpable for his silence on the subject, than he is for his refusal

to grant to the majority of the human race, that grace, that faith,

and that piety, which he assures them it is in his power to bestow.

 

But to return to the subject of Spirits. It is certain these words

Demons, Satan, Devil, are only proper names intended to apply to any

obnoxious individual of our own species; and that, at no period did

any but the most ignorant believe in their existence, either amongst

the Greeks who invented, or the Jews who adopted the terms. After

the latter became infected with such notions, they applied these

words which signify enemy, accuser, and destroyer, at one time to

invisible Powers, and at another, to those which are visible. Thus,

they declared of the Gentiles, that their dwelling was in the kingdom

of Satan; there being none other than themselves (by their own account

of the matter) who dwelt in the kingdom of God.

 

 

 

§ 7.

 

Jesus Christ being a Jew, and consequently imbued with these opinions,

we need not be surprised when we meet in the gospels and the writing

of his disciples the words Devil, Satan, and Hell, as if they were

anything real or substantive. We have showed before that there can be

nothing more chimerical; but although what was said might suffice to

satisfy rational men, we are not the less necessitated to add a few

words, in an attempt to convince the bigotted.

 

All Christians agree that God is the source of everything; that

he created all things--that he sustains them, and that without his

support they would drop into annihilation.--From these principles,

it is certain that he created that being whom they call the Devil, or

Satan. Whether he were created good or evil is nothing to the argument;

he is incontestibly the work of the great Head, and if he continue

to exist, all wicked as they represent him to be, it must only be at

the good pleasure of God. Now, how is it possible to conceive that God

would preserve one of his creatures, who not only hates him mortally,

and blasphemes him without end, but who sets himself to seduce the

friends of the Almighty for the sole purpose of mortifying him. How

is it possible, I repeat, that God can permit this Devil to exist,

who turns aside from his worship the favored and the elect, and who would dethrone him were it in his power?