I. There arrived in the kingdom of Cosmosia, two famous women, who were
very opposite to each other; but both with the same design, which was
that of obtaining the absolute dominion over that empire. The first was
called Solidina, the other Idearia; the first was learned, but simple;
the second ignorant, and ostentatious. The people of the country, were
ignorant like the last, and simple as the first. Hence, Solidina thought
to win them to her by kindness, and by instructing them; and Idearia,
to subdue them by craft and imposition. Idearia opened a public school,
and promised in pompous language, that in a very short time, and with
little or no trouble, she would make all those extremely learned and
wise, who chose to attend her lectures. The greatness of the promise,
joined to the imposing appearance of the new doctress, mounted in the
professional chair, together with her great volubility, and flow of
mountebank rhetoric, soon filled the school with pupils. She began her
lectures, which all consisted, in laying before her auditors in new and
unusual language, the chimeras, contained in the extensive field of the
imagination. And, oh wonderful to relate! either Idearia had somewhat of
enchantment about her, or else there was something very singular in her
method of applying her artifice and cunning; for in a few years after
opening her school, she persuaded those miserable people, they perfectly
understood all that could be learned.
II. Solidina, pursued a course diametrically opposite to that taken by
Idearia. In an humble garb, and without any parade or ostentation, she
went from house to house, and familiarizing herself with all men, taught
them in plain and easy language, true and useful documents. The most
retired cottages, and the most humble work-shops, were schools suited
to her doctrines, for she found in all of them, sensible objects, which
examined by the help, or auxiliary aid of the understanding, served the
purpose of books for teaching and explaining her lessons; and so far was
she from inspiring an indiscreet presumption in her disciples, that she
ingenuously told them, that all she taught, was a mere trifle, compared
to the infinite deal there is to be learned; and that to arrive at a
moderate knowledge of things, required infinite labour and application.
This modesty of Solidina’s, was very prejudicial to her, because at the
very time she made this declaration, Idearia, was boasting and blazoning
in her school, that in a concise mode, and with very little trouble,
she would make all her auditors universally learned; the consequence of
which was, that the pupils of Solidina one after another began to drop
off, and go over to Idearia, in hopes that in her school, they should
arrive at the summit of learning _per saltum_. What contributed much
to forward this defection, was, that Idearia also spoke of Solidina
with contempt, calling her base, vile, mechanical, and stupid; by which
means, the poor tutress became abandoned by all the people of rank, and
was obliged to retire from the city to the villages, where she applied
herself to instructing poor husbandmen, in that sort of knowledge, that
was necessary and useful, for the cultivation and improvement of their
lands.
III. Idearia by the banishment of her rival, now becoming triumphant,
entertained thoughts of establishing an absolute and despotic sway
over her disciples; and to accomplish this purpose, she published an
edict, by which every one was required not to believe in future, aught
he should see with his eyes, or touch with his hands, but only to credit
such things as she should be pleased to order him to believe; requiring
further, that he should look upon it as an indispensable obligation,
always to defend with invincible obstinacy and unremitting vociferation
her doctrines, against whoever should presume to contradict them. All
heads bowed obedient to this tyrannic decree, and people began firmly
to believe many maxims, which before they had found a difficulty in
assenting to; such for example, as that the truth can never be found out
or ascertained but by means of fiction; that there is a mode of coming
at the knowledge of things, which may be taught to a child in four
days; that mankind are all alike, which is a rule that will hold good
with respect to every other species, and if you know what one of a sort
is, you know what they all are; that insensible and inanimate things,
have their desires, their prejudices, and their affections, the same
as animate ones; that that body, which is the most brilliant, and most
heating of any, has nothing igneous in its composition; and that on the
other hand, there is another very large body, which is purely igneous,
that is neither luminous, nor heating, nor does it stand in need of any
pabulum to sustain it; that all living creatures have a large portion
of fire in their composition, without excepting even the fish, although
they are always in or under the water, nor the turtle, whose blood is
positively cold.
IV. These and many other such-like portentous particulars, did Idearia
teach to, and impose on her credulous disciples; who all received and
embraced them as infallible truths; but at length there arose in the
very school of the doctress herself, a contentious schism, or scandalous
disagreement, which was begun by one Papyratius, a man of subtil and
animated genius, but a great lover of novelties. This man introduced new
and not less astonishing dogmas than the others; such as that all the
living creatures in the world, man only excepted, have no more sensation
or feeling than stocks or stones; and that in every man, there is but a
very small portion of the body which possesses the presence of the soul;
that the extension of the world is infinite; that the motion of sublunary
bodies, is equally semper-eternal with that of the cœlestial ones; that
the imaginary space, is really and truly a body; that every thing upon
the face of the earth, is in so continual and rapid a motion, as in the
space of every twenty-four hours, to travel some thousands of leagues;
that we in all things, should give credit to our imaginations, but none
to our senses; for that the representations made by these last, are apt
grossly to deceive us; and that neither is the swan white, or the crow
black, nor is fire hot, or snow cold, &c.
V. These novelties, and others of the same sort, although they were
condemned from the beginning by the majority of Idearia’s disciples,
did not fail to attract a number of votaries, sufficient to form a
new school. The two parties inveighed against each other with great
bitterness, and one side reprobated as absurd errors, what the other
maintained as conclusive dogmas.
VI. This division, after long and obstinate disputes, in which the
arguments were so nearly poised in equilibrium, that neither side could
claim the victory, in the course of time, opened the eyes of many,
and made them doubt whether they had not lightly, or even blindly,
admitted as articles of human faith, doctrines, that were uncertain,
and exposed to be terribly contested. They observed, that the arguments
with which each side attacked the opinions of their opponents, were
beyond comparison stronger, than the reasons with which they defended
their own. From hence they inferred, that both the one and the other
were evidently doubtful, and might very probably be false. This brought
to their remembrance the poor and neglected Solidina, and made them
reflect, that she proved all she advanced, by sensible and plain
demonstrations. This remark becoming every day more general, and more
adverted to by men of the first-rate ingenuity in the schools; they took
the matter into consideration, and the result of their deliberations
was, a determination to recall Solidina from her retirement, and to
bring her back to the city; which after having done with solemn pomp,
they erected a magnificent school for her, where she has continued to
teach from that time, with a reputation that has increased daily; and her
being favoured with the countenance and protection of some illustrious
personages of high rank, has greatly contributed to advance her credit,
and particularly the encouragement she has met with from the princes,
Galindo and Anglosio, who are both great lovers, and patrons of Solidina.