ner for fo doing. But when he is inform'd that this popular opinion is false and flanderous, it is then his duty to declare it, and to thank, in a public manner, thofe who have undeceived him.

This is exactly my cafe. Mr. Richey has proved to me the innocence of his fellow citizens, and the Biblotheque Raifonnée, has alfo very folidly refuted the accufation levelled against the city of Hamburgh. The author of the letter against me, is only to blame for faying that I pofitively afferted that the city of Hamburgh was guilty; but he ought to have made a distinction between the opinion of one part of the north, which I gave as a vague, random report, and the affirmation with which he charges me. Had I indeed declared, That the city of Hamburgh purchased the ruin of the city of Altena, I then would have afked pardon, in the most humble manner for making fuch an affertion, being perfuaded that there is no fhame on thefe occafions, except to perfift in a fau't when it is proved to be fuch. But I dec'are the truth, in relating that fuch a report was fpread; and I alfo declare the truth, in affiring the world, that upon enquiring ftrictly into this report, I find it entirely groundless. I am alo to declare, that Altena was infected with contagious ditempers at the time of the fre. The Ham1 2

burghers I am affured had no hofpitals, no place where they might shelter, from the reft of the people, the old men and women who died in their fight. They therefore cannot in any manner be accused for refusing them admittance. We are always to prefer the prefervation of our own city to the fafety of ftrangers. I fhall take the utmost care to have this incident corrected in the new edition of the history of Charles the twelfth, now printing at AmSterdam; and the whole fhall be fet down a greeably to the moft fcrupulous truth; which I always profeffed and will prefer to all things.

I alfo heard, that in fome weekly papers, certain letters of the poet Rousseau, (as injurious as ill written) have been inferted relating to the tragedy of Zayre. This author of feveral plays, all of which were hiffed off the ftage, cenfures a dramatic piece to which the world gave a pretty indulgent reception; and this man who has writ fo many impious things, reproaches me publickly with having fhewn but little reverence for religion, in a tragedy exhibited with the approbation of the most virtuous magiftrates, read by Cardinal Fleury, and played in fome religious houfes. The public will do me the honour to believe, that I fhall not lofe my time in answering the invectives of the poet Rouleau.

LET

LETTER XXV.

ΟΝ

PASCHAL'S THOUGHTS

CONCERNING

RELIGION,

I

&c.

HERE fend you the remarks which I made long fince on Mr. Pafchal s Thoughts. I beg you not to compare me, on this occafion, to Hezekiah, who would have had all Solomon's works burnt. I revere Mr. Pafchal's genius and eloquence, but the more I revere them, the more firmly I am perfuaded, that he himself would have corrected many of thole thoughts, which were thrown by him up on paper, in the defign of examining them afterwards; and I admire his genius at the fame time that I combat his notions.

IT appears to me that Mr. Pafchal's defign, in general, was to exhibit mankind in an odious light. He exerts the utmost ef

forts of his pen, in order to make us all appear wicked and wretched. He writes against the human fpecies in much the fame frain as he wrote against the Jefuits. He afcribes, to the effence of our nature, things that are peculiar to fome men only; and freaks injuriously, but, at the fame time, eloquently, of mankind. I fhall be fo bold as to take up the pen, in defence of my fellow creatures, in oppofition to this fublime mifanthropift. I dare affirm that we are neither fo wretched, nor fo wicked, as he declares us to be. 'Tis likewife my firm opinion, that had he executed, in the book he intended to write, the plan laid down by him in his Thoughts, it would have been found a work full of eloquent falfe reafonings, and untruths, deduced in a wonderful manner. I even think that the great number of books which have been written, of late years, to prove the truth of the Chrif tian religion, fo far from edifying the reader, will be found fo many ftumbling blocks. Do these authors pretend to know more of this matter than Chrift and his Apoftles? This is like furrounding an oak with reeds, to keep it from falling; but furely the latter may be rooted up without prejudicing the oak in any manner.

I HAVE made a difcretionary choice of Jome of Pafchal's thoughts, and annexed the feveral anfwers to them.

'Tis your

bufinefs to judge how I may have acquit ted myself on this occafion*.

I.

The greatness and mifery of man are so vifible, that true religion must neceffarily have taught us, that there are, inherently, in him, Some mighty principle of greatness; and, at the fame time, fom mighty principle of mifery; for true religion cannot but be perfectly acquainted with our nature, by which I mean, that it must know the utmost extent of its greatness and mifery, and the reafon of both to true religion we also must address our felves, in order to account for the astonishing contrarieties which are found on that occafion

I.

THIS way of reafoning feems falfe and dangerous; for the fable of Prometheus and Pandora ;the Androgyni of Plato, and the tenets of the people of Siam, &c. would

* Such readers of the prefent remarks as have never read Mr. Pafchal's Thoughts concerning Religion, &c. will be much better enabled to form a judgment, with regard to the juftnefs of Mr. de Voltaire's Reflections, after they have perufed the entire feries of thefe Thoughts, a beautiful tranflation of which has been given by the learned Dr. Kennet, with this › title, Thoughts on Religion and other curious Subjects, written originally in French by Monfieur Pafchal. London, printed for J. Pemberton, 1731. 8vo. REM.