world there might have been priests, from time immemorial, who guarded
the deposit of all the original ideas which served to support the
opinion of the existence of a God, and the sentiment of the immortality
of the soul; and that, from time to time, every new discovery,
calculated to increase the confidence due to these most necessary
truths, was inscribed in a religious testament, called the book of
happiness and hope; how highly should we value it, and how eagerly
desire to be acquainted with it; and with what respect should we
approach the ancient temple, in which those superb archives were
deposited. But, on the contrary, could we imagine another retreat, where
subtle arguments and artificial discourses were collected, by which some
endeavour to destroy or shake those holy opinions which unite the
universe to an intelligent thought, to a sublime wisdom; and the fate of
men to infinite goodness, who amongst us would wish to enter into that
dark abode? who would wish to explore that fatal register? Let us learn
to know our nature better, and through the delirium of our blind
passions discover its wants: it is a God we feel the want of, a God,
such as religion presents; a God, powerful and good, the first source of
happiness, and who only can secure it to the human race: let us open all
our faculties to that splendid light, that our hearts and minds may
welcome it, and find pleasure in widely diffusing it. Let us be
penetrated in our youth, by the only idea ever necessary to our peace:
let us strengthen it when in our full vigour, that it may support us in
the decline of life. Ravishing beauties of the universe, what would ye
be to us without this thought? Majestic power of the human mind,
astonishing wonders of the thinking faculty, what could it represent if
we separated it from its noble origin? Souls affectionate and
impassioned, what would become of you without hope? Pardon, O Master of
the world, if not sufficiently sensible of my own weakness, and
abandoning myself only to the emotions of my heart, I have undertaken to
speak to men of Thy existence, Thy grandeur, and Thy goodness! Pardon me
if, lately agitated by the tumultuous waves of passion, I dare to raise
my thoughts to the realms of eternal peace, where Thou more particularly
exhibits Thy glory and sovereign power. Ah! I know more than ever that
we must love Thee, we must serve Thee. The powerful of the earth exalt
and depress their favourites capriciously; there is no relying on them;
after profiting by the talents devoted to them, they forsake the victim,
or crush him like a reed. There is in the universe but one immutable
justice, but one perfect goodness and consolatory thought: yet we go
continually towards other coasts, where we call for happiness, but it is
not to be found: there are phantoms accustomed to deceive men, who
answer when they call: we run towards them, and pursue them, and we
leave far behind religious opinions, which only can lead us back to
nature, and elevate us to its author. The blind passions of the world,
and the devouring desires of fame and fortune, only serve to harden us;
every thing is selfish and hostile in them. Ambitious men, who only wish
for a vain name, a childish triumph, acknowledge your features in this
sketch; a single object engrosses you, a single end fixes your views:
the heavens may be obscured; the earth covered with darkness; and the
future annihilated before you; and you are satisfied if a weak taper
still permits you to discern the homage of those who surround you; but
how is it possible to expect thus to pass a whole life? how be able to
retain that homage which appears so necessary to your dream of
happiness? how can you make stationary what so many concur to demand? We
have a more rational certainty of happiness, when a sentiment of piety,
enlightened in its principle and action, softens all our passions, and
bends them, in some measure, to the laws of our destiny. Piety, such as
I form an idea of, may be properly represented as a vigilant friend,
tender and rational. It lets us see the various blessings of life; but
it recals us to the idea of gratitude, in order to augment our
happiness, by referring it to the most generous of all benefactors: it
allows us to exercise our faculties and talents; but recals us to the
idea of morality and virtue, in order to assure our steps, and shield us
from regret: it allows us to run the race of glory or ambition; but
recals us to the idea of inconstancy and instability, to preserve us
from a fatal intoxication: it is always with us, not to disturb our
felicity, not to impose useless privations, but to blend itself with our
thoughts, and to unite to all our projects those mild and peaceable
ideas which attend wisdom and moderation: in short, in the day of
adversity, when our strength is broken, in which we have placed our
confidence, piety comes to succour and console us; it shows us the
nothingness of vanity and worldly illusions; it calms the remorse of our
souls, by reminding us of a particular providence; it softens our
regrets, by presenting more worthy hopes than any earthly object can
afford, in order to engage our interest and fix our attention.
I am not led to these reflections by a temporary melancholy; I should be
afraid of it, if I had not always had the same thoughts, and if the
various circumstances of a life, often perturbed, had not led me to
think of the necessity of attaching myself to some principle independent
of men and events. Almost entirely alone at this instant, and thrown
into solitude by an unforeseen accident, I experience, it is true[10],
more than ever, the want of those rational ideas, the representations of
all that is great, and I approach with renewed interest the truths which
I always loved; grand and sublime truths, which I have recommended to
men at the moment when I see them more than ever inclined to neglect
them. How mistaken are they in their calculations, they trust to-day in
the strength of their minds, to-morrow they will find their weakness;
they imagine, that in turning their views from the termination of life
they remove the fatal boundary; but already the hand trembles on the
dial to give the signal of their last moment. What a dire sacrifice we
should make, if we gave up those consoling truths which still present to
us a future, when all the bustle of life is over! We should again demand
them, search for them with the most diligent anxiety, if ever the traces
of them were unfortunately effaced.
All these ideas, some may say, are vague, and do not agree with the
humour of the age; but at a certain distance from the field of ambition
and vanity, is there any thing to every one of us more vague than the
passions of others? Are men employed about our interest? do they dream
of our happiness? No, they are like ourselves; they seek for precedency;
now and then indeed they pronounce the name of public good; but it is
only a watch word which they have stolen, to be able to run over our
ranks without danger. Where shall we find then a real tie? Where shall
we find a universal rendezvous, if not in those unalterable ideas which
are so consonant to our nature, which should equally interest us all,
being suited to all without distinction; and which are ready to welcome
us when we see the folly of earthly pursuits? They may not, indeed,
gratify the childish wishes of the moment; but they relieve our anxiety
about to-morrow, they are allied to objects of meditation which belong
to our whole life, and above all, they unite us to that spirit which
constitutes our true grandeur, to that sublime spirit, a few of whose
relations only are yet discovered by us, and the full extent of whose
power and goodness can be but faintly guessed at by finite beings.
FINIS.
_I was engrossed by the last Cares which the Publication of this
Book occasioned, when M. de_ CALONNE’S _Second Memorial made its
Appearance. I have read it; and I here publicly engage to answer
this new Attack, and fully to support the Credit which is justly
due to the Account I presented to the King in 1781._
NECKER.
-----
Footnote 1:
Thesis proposed by the French Academy, with a prize, for the best
Catechism of Morals, the instructions of which were to be founded on
the principles of natural right only.
Footnote 2:
I should have enlarged this chapter, if I did not intend to make some
general reflections on intolerance in another part of this work.
Footnote 3:
These various reflections are very necessary in the place where I
live; since, for a short time, labourers have been permitted to work,
at Paris, of a Sunday. We see this publicly done at the new bridge,
which is building over the Seine, as if a work of mere convenience was
in such haste, that the laws should be dispensed with to accelerate
its execution. The labourers, some will say, are glad to gain a day
every week. Undoubtedly, because they see only the present instant,
they have reason to think so; but it is the duty of government to
consider, in a more comprehensive point of view, the interest of the
people, of that part of society, which is so blind, or so limited in
its calculation; and the church should examine also, if the sudden
alteration of a practice so ancient, may not give rise to an idea,
that the spirit of religion is grown feeble. For the nations where
this spirit is best preserved, have the greatest respect for the
Sabbath.
Footnote 4:
This mass is commonly called a low mass.
Footnote 5:
Some say, in order to weaken this argument, that we may attribute to
the indivisible unit all the qualities of matter, that a round body is
really divisible, but that roundness and impenetrability are not. Such
an objection is evidently not just. Roundness and impenetrability are
only qualities, and these qualities, when merely abstract, are
necessarily invariable: thus, it is as impossible to divide it, as it
is to multiply and increase it; but my soul, my thoughts, the
consciousness that I have of my own existence, forms a particular and
personal being; and if it were of the same nature as matter, ought to
be equally divisible.
Footnote 6:
I shall present some reflections on this truth in another Chapter.
Footnote 7:
Dr. Herschel.
Footnote 8:
It may be said, that the fifty thousand new stars perceived by Dr.
Herschel, being the result of observation directed to the milky-way,
we are not to expect to discover as great a number in other parts of
the heavens of a like extent; but independent of these stars which Dr.
H. clearly distinguished, he imagined that there were twice as many
more of which he had only an instantaneous glance. See the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1774. Dr. H. has
probably, since that time, made new discoveries; but they have not
reached me: I find, in the Transactions of the Royal Society, of which
he is a member, that he considers the new telescope as being still _in
its infancy_; these are his own words.
Footnote 9:
I think I perceive the traces of these philosophical ideas in the
censure Jesus passed upon one of his disciples, who called him _good
master_. _Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one._
Footnote 10:
For I had begun this chapter during my exile.
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