e were the arts by
which these odious maxims were infused; and they were all sweetened by
previous lessons of libertinism and dissoluteness, which soiled the
imagination by the most obscene productions, and corrupted the heart by the
most abominable maxims. They were multiplied under the titles of poems,
histories, dissertations, romances; they imposed upon the simple by
affected doubts of the most established truths; by impudent assertions,
that religion is now abandoned to the weak, the ignorant, the vulgar. The
interest of vice soon inveigled their disciples to re-echo the cry, that
lessons, drawn from belief and fear of the Supreme Being, are no more than
the accents of fanaticism, superstition, and bigotry[91]. {239} Jesuits
were the avowed heralds of these _degrading_ lessons, they were not
philosophers. "No," says D'Alembert, one of the fathers of the new system,
"the Jesuits have been teaching {240} philosophy two hundred years, and
they have never yet had a philosopher in their body."

In the meaning of these writers, the charge must be fully admitted. Never
did Jesuits harbour within their walls the maxims or the doctrines of
modern sophisters. They acknowledged no philosophy, that appeared to
infringe revelation or morals; but not on that account did they forego a
modest claim to the title of philosophers. Those among them, who best
deserved it, were actively employed in detecting, exposing, and refuting
the fallacies of the modern Voltairian school; and, without affecting the
peculiarity of the name, they were satisfied with being philosophers in the
ancient acceptation of the term; that is, while they inculcated respect for
divine revelation, and for established authority, they never ceased, during
two hundred years, to furnish a succession of professors, who unfolded the
principles of natural and of moral knowledge. And what branch of human
{241} science was banished from their schools? Their public lessons might
be called _elementary_ by deep proficients; but they were accommodated to
the capacity of the bulk of their youthful auditors; their object was to
awaken in them the love of science, to lay the foundation on which the
edifice of deep knowledge was afterwards to rise. It is allowed, that the
most distinguished scholars in every branch, in past times, generally had
been trained in the Jesuits' schools; and can it be said, with truth, that
none of the masters, who had taught them, ever rose to eminence