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Then, in a remarkable passage, we are told of the direful result entailed by this punishment upon his land: "Sa tierre ert a ce jour nommee Lorgres, ch'est verites prouvee, Lorgres est uns nons de dolour Nommes en larmes et en plours, Bien doit iestre en dolour nommes Car on n'i seme pois ne bles Ne enfes d'omme n'i nasqui Ne puchielle n'i ot mari, Ne arbres fueille n'i porta Ne nus pres n'i raverdia, Ne nus oysiaus n'i ot naon Ne se n'i ot beste faon, Tant que li rois fu mehaignies Et qu'il fu fors de ses pechies, Car Jesu-Crist fourment pesa Qu'a la mescreant habita."

Little would be gained here by serious criticism of a view of this kind from a positive point. How little, the reader will understand from De Maistre's own explanations of his principles of Proof and Evidence. 'They have called to witness against Moses, he says, 'history, chronology, astronomy, geology, etc. The objections have disappeared before true science; but those were profoundly wise who despised them before any inquiry, or who only examined them in order to discover a refutation, but without ever doubting that there was one. Even a mathematical objection ought to be despised, for though it may be a demonstrated truth, still you will never be able to demonstrate that it contradicts a truth that has been demonstrated before. His final formula he boldly announced in these words: 'Que toutes les fois qu'une proposition sera prouvée par le genre de preuve qui lui appartient, l'objection quelconque, MÊME INSOLUBLE, ne doit plus être écoutée. Suppose, for example, that by a consensus of testimony it were perfectly proved that Archimedes set fire to the fleet of Marcellus by a burning-glass; then all the objections of geometry disappear. Prove if you can, and if you choose, that by certain laws a glass, in order to be capable of setting fire to the Roman fleet, must have been as big as the whole city of Syracuse, and ask me what answer I have to make to that. 'J'ai