and witty nation, pieces taken from the golden Legend: will it, on that account, be said that this nation permits its objects of religion to be insulted? It need not be feared we shall become Pagans for having heard the opera of Proserpine at Paris, or for having seen the nuptials of Psyche, painted by Raphael, in the pope's palace at Rome. Fable forms the taste, but renders no person idola trous. The beautiful fables of antiquity have also this great advantage over history: they are lessons of virtue, while almost all history narrates the success of vice. Jupiter, in the fable, descends upon earth to punish Tantalus and Lycaon; but in history our Tantaluses and Lycaons are the gods of the earth. Baucis and Philemon had their cabin changed into a temple; our Baucises and Philemons are obliged to sell, for the collector of the taxes, those kettles which, in Ovid, the gods changed into vases of gold. To look at events only, history seems to Tous les arts sont amis, ainsi qu'ils sont divins: FACTION. On the Meaning of the Word. The word 'faction' come from the Latin facere; it is employed to signify the state of a soldier at his post, on duty (enfaction) squadrons or troops of combatants in the circus; green, blue, red, and white factions. The acceptation in which the term is generally used is that of a seditious party in the state. The term party in itself implies nothing that is odious, that of faction is always odious. I know how much history can instruct us, and how necessary it is to know it; but it requires much ingenuity to be able to draw from it any rules for individual conduct. Those who only know politics through books, will be often reminded of those lines of Corneille, which observe, that examples will seldom suffice for our guidance, as it often happens that one person perishes by the very expedienting which has proved the salvation of ano ther. Les exemples recens suffiraient pour m'instruire A great man, and even a man possessonly mediocrity of talent, may easily have a party at court, in the army, in the city, or in literature. A man may have a party in consequence of his merit, in consequence of the zeal and number of his friends, without being the head of a party. Henry VIII., the tyrant of his parlia- Marshal Catinat, although little rement, his ministers and his wives, ofgarded at court, had a large party in consciences and purses, lived and died the army without making any effort to peaceably. Charles I. perished on the obtain it. Scaffold. Margaret of Anjou in vain waged war in person a dozen times with the English, the subjects of her husband, while William III. drove James II. from England without a battle. In our days we have seen the royal family of Persia murdered, and strangers upon the throne. A head of a party is always a head of a faction such were Cardinal Retz, Henry Duke of Guise, and various others. A seditious party, while it is yet weak, and has no influence in the government, is only a faction. Caesar's faction speedily became a dominant party, which swallowed up the republic. When the Emperor Charles VI. disputed the throne of Spain with Philip V. he had a party in that kingdom, and, at length, he had no more than a faction in it. Yet we may always be allowed to talk of the "party" of Charles VI. It is different with respect to private persons. Descartes for a long time had a party in France; it would be incorrect to say he had a faction. Thus we perceive that words in many cases synonymous cease to be so in others. FACULTY. ALL the powers of matter and mind are faculties; and, what is still worse, faculties of which we know nothing, perfectly occult qualities; to begin with motion, of which no one has dicovered the origin. mines the alternate influx of the ner fluid into the fibres which move the vitat organs in order to produce the alternate contradiction of those organs." This amounts precisely to the answer of the young physician Thomas,-"Quia est in eo virtus alterniva quæ facit alternare." And Thomas Diafoirus has at least the merit of being shortest. The faculty of moving the foot when we wish to do so, of recalling to mind past events, or of exercising our five senses; in short, any and all of our faculties will admit of no further or better explanation than that of Diafoirus. But consider thought! say those who understand the whole secret. Thought, which distinguishes man from all animals besides! Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius alte. {foirus is more triumphant than ever. All Quia est in eo virtus pensativa quæ facit pensare." No one will ever develope the mysterious process by which he thinks. When the president of the faculty ofject, that of thought or mind, that Diamedicine, in the "Malade Imaginaire," asks Thomas Diafoirus,-Quare opium facit dormire?" Why does opium cause sleep? Thomas very pertinently replies, "Quia est in eo virtus dormitiva quæ facit sopiere." Because it possesses a dormitive power producing sleep. The greatest philosophers cannot speak more to the purpose. The case we are considering, then, might be extended to everything in nature. I know not whether there may not be The honest chevalier Jaucour acknow-found in this profound and unfathomable ledges, under the article SLEEP, that it is impossible to go beyond conjecture with respect to the cause of it, Another Thomas, and in much higher reverence than his bachelor namesake in the comedy, has, in fact, made no other reply to all the questions which are started throughout his immense volumes. gulph of mystery, an evidence of the existence of a supreme being. There is a secret in the originating or conservatory principles of all beings, from a pebble on the sea shore to Saturn's Ring and the Milky Way. But how can there be a secret which no one knows? It would seem that some being must exist who can develope all. It is said, under the article FACULTY, in the grand Encylopædia, "that the vi- Some learned men, with a view to ental faculty once established in the intel- lighten our ignorance, tell us that we igent principle by which we are ani- must form systems; that we shall at last mated, it may be easily conceived that find the secret out. But we have so long the faculty, stimulated by the expressions sought without obtaining any explanation, which the vital sensorium transmits to that disgust against farther search has very part of the common sensorium, deter-naturally succeeded. That, say they, is metamorphoses; but he will nevertheless say to his bonze, "I have faith; it is your will and pleasure that Vishnoo has undergone five hundred incarnations, which is worth to you an income of five the mere indolence of philosophy: no; it is the rational repose of men who have exerted themselves and run an active race in vain. And after all, it must be admitted, that indolent philosophy is far preferable to turbulent divinity and me-hundred rupees: very well; you will taphysical delusion. FAITH. SECTION I. inveigh against me, and denounce me, and ruin my trade if I have not faith; but I have faith, and here are ten rupees over and above for you." The Indian may swear to the bonze that he believes, without taking a false oath; for, after all, there is no demonstration that Vishnoo has not actually made five hundred visits to India. WHAT is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, But if the bonze requires him to bebut of reason. I have no merit in think-lieve what is contradictory or impossible, ing that this eternal and infinite being, whom I consider as virtue, as goodness itself, is desirous that I should be good and virtuous. Faith consists in believing, not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding. The Asiatics can only by faith believe the journey of Mahomet to the seven planets, and the incarnations of the god Fo, of Vishnoo, Xaca, Brama, and Sommonocodom, &c. They subunit their understandings; they tremble to examine: wishing to avoid being either impaled or burnt, they say, "I believe." as that two and two make five, or that the same body may be in a thousand different places, or that to be and not to be are precisely one and the same thing; in that case, if the Indian says he has faith, he lies; and if he swears that he believes, he commits perjury. He says, therefore, to the bonze, "My reverend father, I cannot declare that I believe in these absurdities, even though they should be worth to you an income of ten thousand rupees instead of five hundred." My sou," the bonze answers, "give me twenty rupees, and God will give you grace to believe all that you now do not believe." We do not here intend the slightest allusion to the Catholic faith. Not only do we revere it, but we possess it. We "But how can you expect or desire," speak of the false lying faith of other na-rejoins the Indian, “ that God should do tions of the world, of that faith which is that by me which he cannot do even by not faith, and which consists only in himself? It is impossible that God words. should either perform or believe contradictions. I am very willing to say, in order to give you satisfaction, that I be There is a faith for things that are merely astonishing and prodigious, and a faith for things contradictory and im-lieve what is obscure, but I cannot say possible. that I believe what is impossible. It is Vishnoo became incarnate five hundred the will of God that we should be virtutimes; this is extremely astonishing, but ous, and not that we should be absurd. it is not, however, physically impossible; I have already given you ten rupees; for if Vishnoo possessed a soul, he may here are twenty more; believe in thirty have transferred that soul into five hun-rupees; be an honest man if you can, dred different bodies, with a view to his and do not trouble me any more." own felicity. The Indian, indeed, has not a very lively faith; he is not intimately and decidedly persuaded of these The It is not thus with Christians. faith which they have for things whicn they do not understand is founded upon once; and he who says, I believe these mysteries, will see, beyond the possibility of a doubt, if he reflects for a moment on what passes in his mind, that these words mean no more than, I respect these mysteries; I submit myself to those who announce them. For they agree with me, that my reason, or their own reason, believe them not; but it is clear that if my reason is not persuaded, I am not persuaded. I and my reason cannot possibly be two different beings. It is an absolute contradiction that I should receive that as true which my understanding rejects as false. Faith, therefore, is nothing but submissive or deferential incredulity. that which they do understand; they have grounds of credibility. Jesus Christ performed miracles in Galilee; we ought, therefore, to believe all that he said. In order to know what he said, we must consult the church. The church has declared the books which announce Jesus Christ to us to be authentic. We ought, therefore, to believe those books. Those books inform us, that he who will not listen to the church shall be considered as a tax-gatherer or a Pagan; we ought therefore to listen to the church, that we may not be disgraced and hated like the farmers-general. We ought to submit our reason to it, not with infantile and blind credulity, but with a docile faith, such as reason itself would au- But why should this submission be thorise. Such is christian faith, particu- exercised when my understanding inlarly the Roman faith, which is "the vincibly recoils? The reason, we well faith" par excellence. The Lutheran,know, is, that my understanding has been Calvinistic, or Anglican faith, is a wicked faith. SECTION II. persuaded that the mysteries of my faith are laid down by God himsel. All, then, that I can do, as a reasonable being, is to be silent and adore. This is what diDivine faith, about which so much has vines call external faith; and this faith been written, is evidently nothing more neither is, nor can be, anything more than incredulity brought under subjec-than respect for things incomprehensible, tion; for we certainly have no other fa- in consequence of the reliance I place on culty than the understanding by which those who teach them. we can believe; and the objects of faith are not those of the understanding. We can believe only what appears to be true; and nothing can appear true but in one { of the three following ways:-by intuition or feeling, as I exist, I see the sun; or by an accumulation of probability amounting to certainty, as there is a city called Constantinople; or by positive demonstration, as triangles of the same base and height are equal. If God himself were to say to me, "Thought is of an olive colour;" "the square of a certain number is bitter;" 1 should certainly understand nothing at all from these words. I could not adopt them either as true or false. But I will repeat them, if he commands me to do it; and I will make others repeat them at the risk of my life. This is faith it is nothing more than obedience. In order to obtain a foundation then Faith, therefore, being nothing at all for this obedience, it is merely necessary of this description, can no more be a be- to examine the books which require it. lief, a persuasion, than it can be yellow Our understanding, therefore, should inor red. It can be nothing but the anni-vestigate the books of the Old and New hilation of reason, a silence of adoration at the contemplation of things absolutely { incomprehensible. Thus, speaking philosophically, no person believes the Trinity; no person believes that the same body can be in a thousand places at Testament, just as it would Plutarch or Livy; and if it finds in them incontestible and decisive evidences,-evidences obvious to all minds, and such as would be admitted by men of all nations,that God himself is their author, then it is our incumbent duty to subject our un- { know that I can be saved only by faith, derstanding to the yoke of faith. us. SECTION III. We have long hesitated whether or not to publish the following article, " Faith," which we met with in an old book. Our respect for the chair of St. Peter restrained But some pious men having satisfred us that Alexander VI. and St. Peter had nothing in common, we have at last determined to publish this curious little production, and do it without the slightest scruple. employed the stiletto and night-shade as as I can certainly never be so by works." "Ah, holy father!" says Pica, " you need neither works nor faith; they are well enough for such poor profane creatures as we are; but you, who are absolutely a vice-god-you may believe and do just whatever you please. You have the keys of heaven; and St. Peter will certainly never shut the door in your face. But with respect to myself, who am nothing but a poor prince, I freely confess that I should have found some very powerful protection necessary, if I Prince Pica de Mirandola once methad lain with my own daughter, or had Pope Alexander VI. at the house of the courtezan Emilia, while Lucretia, the holy father's daughter, was confined in child-birth, and the people of Rome were discussing whether the child of which she was delivered belonged to the pope, to his son the Duke de Valentinois, or to Lucretia's husband, Alphonso of Arragon, who was considered by many as impotent. The conversation immediately became animated and gay. Cardinal Bembo relates a portion of it. "My little Pica," says the pope, "whom do you think the father of my grandson?" "I think your son-in-law," replied Pica. "What! how can you possibly believe such nonsense?" "I believe it by faith." "But surely you know that an impotent man cannot be a father." "Faith," replied Pica, "consists in believing things because they are impossible; and, besides, the honour of your house demands that Lucretia's son should not be reputed the offspring of incest. You require me to believe more incomprehensible mysteries. Am I not bound to believe that a serpent spoke; that from that time all mankind were damned; that the ass of Balaam also spoke with great eloqnence; and that the walls of Jericho fell down at the sound of trumpets?" Pica thus proceeded with a long train of all the prodigious things in which he believed. Alexander absolutely fell back upon his sofa with laughing. "I believe all that as well as you," says he, "for I well 66 Pica de Mirandola at this crossed himself in great agitation. "My God !" says he, "I beg your holiness's pardon; but you are not a Christian." I am not," says the pope, 66 upon my faith." "I suspected so," said Pica de Mirandola. FALSITY. FALSITY, properly speaking, is the contrary to truth; not intentional lying. It is said that there were a hundred thousand men destroyed by the great earthquake at Lisbon; this is not a lieit is a falsity. Falsity is much more common than error; falsity falls more on facts, and error on opinions. It is an error to believe that the sun turns round the earth; but it is a falsity to advance that Louis XIV. dictated the will of Charles II. The falsity of a deed is a much greater crime than a simple lie; it is a legal imposture-a fraud committed with the pen. A man has a false mind when he always takes things in a wrong sense, when, not |