are excluded out of paradise: For women, says he, not
being capable to manage the affairs of state, nor to support the
fatigues of war, God has not ordered them to govern or reform the
world; but he has entrusted them with an office which is not less
honourable; even that of multiplying the human race: and such as, out
of malice or laziness, do not make it their business to bear or to
breed children, fulfil not the duty of their vocation, and rebel
against the commands of God. Here are maxims for you, prodigiously
contrary to those of your convents. What will become of your St
Catharines, your St Theresas, your St Claras, and the whole bead-roll
of your holy virgins and widows; who, if they are to be judged by
this system of virtue, will be found to have been infamous creatures,
that passed their whole lives in most abominable libertinism.

I KNOW not what your thoughts may be, concerning a doctrine so
extraordinary with respect to us; but I can truly inform you, Sir,
that the Turks are not so ignorant as we fancy them to be in matters
of politics, or philosophy, or even of gallantry. 'Tis true, that
military discipline, such as now practised in Christendom, does not
mightily suit them. A long peace has plunged them into an universal
sloth. Content with their condition, and accustomed to boundless
luxury, they are become great enemies to all manner of fatigues.
But, to make amends, the sciences flourish among them. The effendis
(that is to say, the learned) do very well deserve this name: They
have no more faith in the in inspiration of Mahomet, than in the
infallibility of the Pope. They make a frank profession of Deism
among themselves, or to those they can trust; and never speak of
their law but as of a politic institution, fit now to be observed by
wise men, however at first introduced by politicians and enthusiasts.

IF I remember right, I think I have told you, in some former letter,
that, at Belgrade, we lodged with a great and rich effendi, a man of
wit and learning, and of a very agreeable humour. We were in his
house about a month, and he did constantly eat with us, drinking wine
without any scruple. As I rallied him a little on this subject, he
answered me, smiling, that all creatures in the world were made for
the pleasure of man; and that God would not have let the vine grow,
were it a sin to taste of its juice; but that, nevertheless, the law,
which forbids the use of it to the vulgar, was very w