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Updated: June 8, 2025
"To speak against them in general, may be thought too severe, and that which the present Age cannot so well brook, and would not perhaps be so just and reasonable; because it is very possible they might be so fram'd and govern'd by such Rules, as not only to be innocently diverting, but instructing and useful, to put some Vices and Follies out of Countenance, which cannot perhaps be so decently reprov'd, nor so effectually expos'd and corrected any other way.
"Formerly, during the period term'd classic," says Sainte-Beuve, "when literature was govern'd by recognized rules, he was considered the best poet who had composed the most perfect work, the most beautiful poem, the most intelligible, the most agreeable to read, the most complete in every respect, the Aeneid, the Gerusalemme, a fine tragedy. To-day, something else is wanted.
It is as undeniable as the difference between Men's being in, and out of their Wits, that Reason ought to be to Rational Creatures the Guide of their Belief: That is to say, That their Assent to any thing, ought to be govern'd by that proof of its Truth, whereof Reason is the Judge; be it either Argument, or Authority, for in both Cases Reason must determine our Assent according to the validity of the Ground it finds it Built on: By Reason being here understood that Faculty in us which discovers, by the intervention of intermediate Ideas, what Connection Those in the Proposition have one with another: Whether certain; probable; or none at all; according whereunto, we ought to regulate our Assent.
Yet 'tis probable that they have some Law, or Custom, by which they are govern'd; for while we lay here we saw a young Man buried alive in the Earth; and 'twas for Theft, as far as we could understand from them.
It was present Death for the Library-keeper to refuse the meanest Chinese Subject to come in and read them; for 'tis their Maxim, That all People ought to know the Laws by which they are to be govern'd; and as above all People, we find no Fools in this Country, so the Emperors, though they seem to be Arbitrary, enjoy the greatest Authority in the World, by always observing, with the greatest Exactness, the Pacta Conventa of their Government: From these Principles it is impossible we should ever hear, either of the Tyranny of Princes, or Rebellion of Subjects, in all their Histories.
In Constantinople I think they have no such thing as Printing allow'd on any Account whatsoever; all their Publick Acts relating to the Church and State are recorded in Writing by expert Amanuensis's, so very strict are the Divan and great Council of the Sultan in prohibiting the Publication of all manner of Writings: They are very sensible had Persons a common Liberty of stating their own Cases, they might Influence the Publick so far, that the Yoke of Tyranny must sink if not be rendred insupportable; and this is regarded in all Kingdoms and Countries upon Earth Govern'd by a Despotick Power.
That the ecclesiastical State was govern'd with the same Policy as were secular Principalities and Kingdoms; that what was beneficial, not what was meritorious and virtuous, would be alone regarded. That there were no more Hopes for a Man of Piety and Learning in the Patrimony of St.
Whereas for several Centuries past, they have been labouring to erect an Arbitrary Power; and the two last have taken large Steps towards this execrable End. Zeoteirizul, the First of the Two, was Son to the greatest King that ever govern'd the Kofirans. Being scarcely eight Years old when the Crown devolv'd to him by his Father's Death, his Mother seiz'd the Reins of Government.
He told Pickle that another rising in Scotland would not do untill a war broke out in the North, in that case he expected great things from Sweden would be done for him, by giving him Men, Arms and Ammunition: when Pickle talk'd to him of the King of Prussia, he said he expected nothing thence, as the King of Prussia is govern'd by his interest or resentment only That he had sent Mr.
But these have always been but a small Number: Custom, and blind Opinion, have ever govern'd the World; and the light of Reason has neither appear'd to Men to be, nor in Fact been any where sufficient to direct the generality of Mankind to Truth; as some imagine it capable of doing; who because of that clear Evidence which Reason gives to those verities that Revelation has already taught them, think that they owe, or might have ow'd to this light of Reason what they are not indebted to it for; and what it is a Thousand to One odds they would not have receiv'd from it, had they been Born where there was no other than Natural Light.
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