d that he {12} would conclude,
that the labour of the author resolved itself into a new attempt against
tolerating the catholic religion; while in favour of toleration he would
find, in addition to the suggestions of his reason, his memory supplied
with innumerable, irrefragable arguments, which for years past have
resounded throughout the empire, in the houses of parliament as well as in
the remotest villages, enforced by princes of the realm with all the energy
of learning and of eloquence, as well as by individuals of every class of
men, in speeches, and in writings, in books, pamphlets, and the columns of
such newspapers as are open to liberal discussion[3].

{13}

The writer of the pamphlet, not satisfied with omitting whatever might tend
to defeat his object, industriously rakes out the most atrocious
imputations from the avowed enemies of the Jesuits, and classes their
authorities with genuine history, taking them for granted, never examining
the hands through which they passed, happy in having one and only one great
name on his side, that of the celebrated and very extraordinary genius,
Pascal. When the Provincial Letters were alluded to, as attacking a
supposed lax system of morals, did not truth require that they should be
stated to have been the satirical effusions of a writer, who had espoused
the cause of the Jansenists, the violent opposers of the Jesuits; and that
the ridicule which they contained had been declared by another great wit,
who was no enemy to ridicule, nor friend to religion (Voltaire), to be
completely misapplied. A lover of truth, when {14} balancing opinions as
proofs, would not have failed to quote from him the following passage: "It
is true, indeed, that the whole book (_the Provincial Letters_) was built
upon a false foundation; for the extravagant notions of a few Spanish and
Flemish Jesuits were _artfully_ ascribed _to the whole society_. Many
absurdities might likewise have been discovered among the Dominican and
Franciscan casuists, but this _would not have answered the purpose_, for
the whole raillery was to be levelled only at the Jesuits. These letters
were intended to prove, that the Jesuits had formed a design to corrupt
mankind; a design which no sect of society ever had, or can have."

With such enemies as the Jansenists, will it be thought extraordinary, that
a thousand fabrications of those days blackening the Jesuits may be
referred to? With such enemies as in later time