operly prepared and accepted; the acceptor must be
condemned to pay it in every country. There is therefore a useful
jurisprudence, although in a thousand cases judgments are arbitrary, to
the misfortune of the human race, because the laws are badly made.

Do you desire to know if literature does good to a nation; compare the
two extremes, Cicero and an uncouth ignoramus. See if it is Pliny or
Attila who caused the fall of Rome.

One asks if one should encourage superstition in the people; see above
all what is most extreme in this disastrous matter, St. Bartholomew, the
massacres in Ireland, the crusades; the question is soon answered.

Is there any truth in metaphysics? Seize first of all the points that
are most astonishing and the most true; something exists for all
eternity. An eternal Being exists by Himself; this Being cannot be
either wicked or inconsequent. One must surrender to these truths;
almost all the rest is given over to dispute, and the justest mind
unravels the truth while the others are seeking in the shadows.

It is with all things as with colours; the weakest eyes distinguish
black from white; the better, more practised eyes, discern shades that
resemble each other.

_EZOURVEIDAM_

What is this "Ezourveidam" which is in the King of France's library? It
is an ancient commentary which an ancient Brahmin composed once upon a
time, before the epoch of Alexander, on the ancient "Veidam," which was
itself much less ancient than the book of the "Shasta."

Let us respect, I tell you, all these ancient Indians. They invented the
game of chess, and the Greeks went among them to learn geometry.

This "Ezourveidam" was lastly translated by a Brahmin, correspondent of
the unfortunate French India Company. It was brought to me on Mount
Krapack, where I have long been observing the snows; and I sent it to
the great Library of Paris, where it is better placed than in my home.

Those who wish to consult it will see that after many revolutions
produced by the Eternal, it pleased the Eternal to form a man who was
called _Adimo_, and a woman whose name corresponds to that of life.

Is this Indian anecdote taken from the Jewish books? have the Jews
copied it from the Indians? or can one say that both wrote it
originally, and that fine minds meet?

The Jews were not permitted to think that their writers had drawn
anything from the Brahmins, for they had never heard tell of them. We
are not permitted