and not magi-cake; and exclaim "the king drinks," not "the magi drink." Moreover, as they brought with them much gold, incense, and myrth, they must necessarily have been persons of great wealth and consequence. The magi of that day were by no means very rich. It was not then as in the times of the false Smerdis. Tertullian is the first who asserted that these three travellers were kings. St. Ambrose, and St. Cæsar of Arles, suppose them to be kings; and the following passages of the lxxi. psalm are quoted in proof of it:-"The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall offer him gifts. The kings of Arabia and of Saba shall bring him presents." Some have called these three kings Magalat, Galgalat, and Saraim; others, Athos, Satos, and Paratoras. The Catholics knew them under the names of Gaspard, Melchior, and Bal-} thazar. Bishop Osorius relates that it was a king of Cranganor, in the kingdom of Calicut, who undertook this journey with two magi, and that this king on his return to his own country built a chapel to the Holy Virgin. of the three magi had been predicted by Zerdusht, whom we call Zoroaster. Suarez has investigated what became of the gold which the three kings or magi presented; he maintains that the amount must have been very large, and that three kings could never make a small or moderate present. He says that the whole sum was afterwards given to Judas, who, acting as steward, turned out a rogue, and stole the whole amount. All these puerilities can do no harm to the Feast of the Epiphany, which was first instituted by the Greek church, as the term implies, and was afterwards celebrated by the Latin church. EQUALITY. NOTHING can be clearer than that men, enjoying the faculties of their common nature, are in a state of equality; they are equal when they perform their animal functions, and exercise their understandings. The King of China, the Great Mogul, or the Turkish Pacha, cannot say to the lowest of his species, "I forbid you to digest your food, to discharge your fæces, or to think." All animals of every species are on an equality with one another; and animals have by nature, beyond ourselves, the advantages of independence. If a bull, while paying his attentions to a heifer, is driven away by the horns of another bull stronger than It has been enquired how much gold they gave Joseph and Mary. Many commentators declare that they made them the richest presents; they build on the authority of the Gospel of the Infancy, which states that Joseph and Mary were robbed in Egypt by Titus and Duma-himself, he goes to seek a new mistress chus ; 66 'but," say they, "these men in another meadow, and lives in freedom. would never have robbed them, if they A cock, after being defeated, finds conhad not had a great deal of money.' solation in another hen-roost. It is not These two robbers were afterwards so with us. A petty vizir banishes a hanged; one was the good thief and the bostangi to Lemnos;, the vizir Azem other the bad one. But the gospel of banishes the petty vizir to Tenedos; the Nicodemus gives them other names; it pacha banishes the vizir Azem to Rhodes, calls them Dimas and Gestas. the janissaries imprison the pacha, and elect another, who will banish the worthy Mussulmen just when and where he pleases, while they will feel inexpressibly obliged to him for so gentle a display of his authority. The same Gospel of the Infancy says that they were magi and not kings who came to Bethlem; that they had in reality been guided by a star, but that the star having ceased to appear while they were in the stable, an angel made its appearance in the form of a star to act in its stead. This gospel asserts that the visit If the earth were, in fact, what it might be supposed it should be-if men found upon it everywhere an easy and certain subsistence, and a climate congenial to: Itis impossible in our melancholy world their nature, it would be evidently im- to prevent men, living in society, from possible for one man to subjugate an- being divided into two classes, one of the other. Let the globe be covered with rich who command, the other of the poor wholesome fruits; let the air on which who obey; and these two are subdivided we depend for life convey to us no di-iuto various others, which have also their seases and premature death; let man re- respective shades of difference. quire no other lodging than the deer or roe-buck; in that case the Gengis-Khans and Tamerlanes will have no other attendants than their own children, who will be very worthy persons, and assist them affectionately in their old age. In that state of nature enjoyed by all undomesticated quadrupeds, and by birds and reptiles, man would be just as happy as they are. Domination would be a mere chimera-an absurdity which no one would think of; for why should servants be sought for when no service is required? If it should enter the mind of any individual of a tyranical disposition and nervous arm to subjugate his less powerful neighbour, his success would be impossible; the oppressed would be on the Danube before the oppressor had completed his preparations on the Wolga. You come and say, after the lots are drawn, I am a man as well as you; I have two hands and two feet; as much pride as yourself or more; a mind as irregular, inconsequent, and contradictory as your own. I am a citizen of St. Marino, or Ragusa, or Vaugirard; give me my portion of land. In our known hemisphere are about fifty thousand millions of acres of cultivable land, good and bad. The number of our two-footed featherless race, within these bounds, is a thousand millions; that is just fifty acres for each do me justice; give me my fifty acres. The reply is, go and take them among the Caffres, the Hottentots, and the Samoieds; arrange the matter amicably with them; here all the shares are filled up. If you wish to have food, clothing, lodging, and warmth among us, work for us All men, then, would necessarily have as your father did-serve us or amuse been equal had they been without wants; us, and you shall be paid; if not, you it is the misery attached to our species will be obliged to turn beggar, which which places one man in subjection to would be highly degrading to your subanother: inequality is not the real griev-lime nature, and certainly preclude that ance, but dependence. It is of little consequence for one man to be called his Highness and another his Holiness; but it is hard for me to be the servant of another. A numerous family has cultivated a good soil; two small neighbouring families live on lands unproductive and barren. It will therefore be necessary for the two poor families to serve the rich one, or to destroy it. This is easily accomplished. One of the two indigent families goes and offers its services to the rich one in exchange for bread; the other makes an attack upon it and is conquered. The serving family is the origin of domestics and labourers; the one conquered, is the origin of slaves. actual equality with kings, or even village curates, to which you so nobly pretend. All the poor are not unhappy. The greater number are born in that state, and constant labour prevents them from too sensibly feeling their situation; but when they do strongly feel it, then follow wars such as those of the popular party against the senate at Rome; and those of the peasantry in Germany, England, and France. All these wars ended soon or late in the subjection of the people, because the great have money, and money in a state commands everything: I say in a state, for the case is different between nation and nation. That nation which makes the best use of iron will always subjugate another that has more gold but less courage. Every man is born with an eager inclination for power, wealth, and pleasure, and also with a great taste for indolence. Every man, consequently, would wish to possess the fortunes and the wives or daughters of others, to be their master, to retain them in subjection to his caprices, and to do nothing, or at least nothing but what is perfectly agreeable. You clearly perceive that, with such amiable dispositions, it is as impossible for men to be equal, as for two preachers or divinity professors not to be jealous of each other. The human race, constituted as it is, cannot subsist unless there be an infinite number of useful individuals possessed of no property at all; for most certainly, a man in easy circumstances will not leave his own land to come and cultivate yours; and if you want a pair of shoes, you will not get a lawyer to make them for you. Equality, then, is at the same time the most natural and the most chimerical thing possible. session of Rome, and I then become a cardinal and my master a cook, I will take him into my service." This language is perfectly reasonable and just; but, while waiting for the Grand Turk to get possession of Rome, the cook is bound to do his duty, or all human society is subverted. With respect to a man who is neither a cardinal's cook, nor invested with any office whatever in the state-with respect to an individual who has no connections, and is disgusted at being everywhere received with an air of protection or contempt, who sees very clearly that many men of quality and title have not more knowledge, wit, or virtue than himself, and is wearied by being occasionally in their antichambers-what ought such a man to do? He ought to stay away. ESSENIANS. THE more superstitious and barbarous any nation is, the more obstinately bent on war, notwithstanding its defeats; the more divided into factions, floating beAs men carry everything to excess if tween royal and priestly claims; and the they have it in their power to do so, this more intoxicated it may be by fanaticism; inequality has been pushed too far; it the more certainly will be found among ¿ has been maintained in many countries, that nation a number of citizens associated that no citizen has a right to quit that in together in order to live in peace. which he was born. The meaning of such It happens, during a season of pestia law must evidently be :-"This coun-lence, that a small canton forbids all comtry is so wretched and ill-governed, we munication with large cities. It preserves prohibit every man from quitting it, un-itself from the prevailing contagion, but der an apprehension that otherwise all remains a prey to other maladies. would leave it." Do better: excite in? all your subjects a desire to stay with you, and in foreigners a desire to come and settle among you. Every man has a right to entertain a private opinion of his own equality to other men; but it follows not that a cardinal's cook should take it upon him to order his master to prepare his dinner. The cook, however, may say :-" I am a man as well as my master; I was born like him in tears, and shall like him die in anguish, attended by the same common ceremonies. We both perform the same animal functions. If the Turks get pos Of this description of persons were the Gymnosophists in India, and certain sects of philosophers among the Greeks. Such also were the Pythagoreans in Italy and Greece, and the Therapeutæ in Egypt. Such at the present day are those primitive people, called Quakers and Dunkers, in Pennsylvania; and very nearly such were the first Christians who lived together remote from cities. Not one of these societies were acquainted with the dreadful custom of binding themselves by oath to the mode of life which they adopted, of involving themselves into perpetual chains, of de priving themselves, on a principle of re- where existed societies of men who have ligion, of the grand right and first prin- endeavoured to find a refuge from disciple of human nature, which is liberty; { turbances and factions, from the insolence in short, of entering into what we call and rapacity of oppressors. All, without vows. St. Basil was the first who con-exception, entertained a perfect horror of ceived the idea of those vows, of this oath war, considering it precisely in the same of slavery. He introduced a new plague light in which we contemplate highway into the world, and converted into a poi-robbery and murder. son, that which had been invented as a remedy. Such, nearly, were the men of letters who united in France, and founded the Academy. They quietly withdrew from the factious and cruel scenes which desolated the country in the reign of Louis XIII. Such also were the men who There were in Syria societies precisely similar to those of the Essenians. This we learn from the Jew Philo, in his treatise on the Freedom of the Good. Syria was always superstitious and fac-founded the Royal Society at London, tious, and always under the yoke of tyrants. The successors of Alexander made it a theatre of horrors. It is by no means extraordinary, that among such numbers of oppressed and persecuted beings, some, more humane and judicious than the rest, should withdraw from all intercourse with great cities, in order to live in common, in honest poverty, far from the blasting eyes of tyranny. while the barbarous idiots called Puritans and Episcopalians were cutting one another's throats about the interpretation of a few passages from three or four old and unintelligible books. Some learned men have been of opinion that Jesus Christ, who condescended to make his appearance for some time in the sinall district of Capernaum, in Nazareth, and some other small towns of Palestine, During the civil wars of the latter was one of those Essenians, who fled from Ptolemies, similar asylums were formed the tumult of affairs, and cultivated virtue in Egypt; and when that country was in peace. But the name "Essenian," subjugated by the Roman arms, the The-never even once occurs in the four gosrapeuta established themselves in a se- pels, in the apocrypha, or in the acts, or questered spot, in the neighbourhood of the epistles of the apostles. the lake Moris. Although, however, the name is not to It appears highly probable that there be found, a resemblance is, in various were Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish The-points, observable-confraternity, comrapeuta. Philo, after eulogising Anaxa-munity of property, strictness of moral goras, Democritus, and other philosophers, conduct, manual labour, detachment from who embraced their way of life, thus ex-wealth and honors; and, above all, depresses himself:testation of war. So great is this detest"Similar societies are found in many ation, that Jesus Christ commands his countries; Greece and other regions en-disciples when struck upon one cheek to joy institutions of this consoling character. offer the other also, and when robbed of They are common in Egypt in every dis- a cloak to deliver up the coat likewise. trict, and particularly in that of Alexan- Upon this principle the Christians condria. The most worthy and moral of the ducted themselves, during the two first population have withdrawn beyond Lake centuries, without altars, temples, or maMoeris to a secluded but convenient spot, gistracies-all employed in their respecforming a gentle declivity. The air is tive trades or occupations, all leading very salubrious, and the villages in the secluded and quiet lives. neighbourhood sufficiently numerous," &c. Their early writings attest that they were not permitted to carry arms. in Thus we perceive that there have everythis they perfectly resembled our Penn sylvanians, Anabaptists, and Memnonists Mahomet, persecuted by the people of Mecca, defends himself like a brave man. He compels his vanquished persecutors to humble themselves at his feet, and become his disciples. He establishes his religion by proselytism and the sword. Jesus, appearing between the times of Moses and Mahomet, in a corner of Galilee, preaches forgiveness of injuries, patience, mildness, and forbearance, dies himself under the infliction of capital punishment, and is desirous of the same Upon this foundation was the numerous and respectable society of Pennsylvanians established, as were also the minor sects which have imitated them. When I denominate them respectable, it is by no means in consequence of their aversion to the splendour of the Catholic church. I lament, undoubtedly, as I ought to do, their errors. It is their virtue, their modesty, and their spirit of peace, that I respect. I ask candidly, whether St. Bartholomew, St. Andrew, St. Matthew, and St. Barnabas, would have been received among the cuirassiers of the emperor, or among the royal guards of Charles XII.? Would St. Peter himself, though he cut off Malchus's ear, have made a good officer? Perhaps St. Paul, accustomed at first to carnage, and having had the misfortune to be a bloody persecutor, is the only one who could have been made a warrior. The impetuosity of his temperament, and the fire of his imagination, would have made him a formidable commander. But, notwithstanding these qualities, he made no effort to revenge himself on Gamaliel by arms. He did not act like the Judases, the Theudases, and the Barchochebases, who levied troops: he followed the precepts of Jesus Christ; he suffered; and, according to an account we have of his death, he was beheaded. Was not the great philosopher Bayle right, then, when he remarked, that a Christian of the earliest times of our religion would be a very bad soldier, or that a soldier would be a very bad Christian? This dilemma appears to be unanswer- To compose an army of Christians, able; and in this point, in my opinion, therefore, in the early period of Christiaconsists the great difference between an-nity, was a contradiction in terms. cient Christianity and ancient Judaism. The law of the first Jews expressly says, "As soon as you enter any country with a view to possess it, destroy everything by fire and sword; slay, without mercy, aged men, women, and children at the breast; kill even all the animals; sack everything and burn everything. It is your God who commands you so to do." This injunction is not given in a single instance, but on twenty different occasions, and is always followed. It is certain that Christians were not enlisted among the troops of the empire till the spirit by which they were animated was changed. In the two first centuries they entertained a horror for temples, altars, tapers, incense, and lustral water." Porphyry compares them to the foxes who said "the grapes are sour." "lf," said he, "you could have had beautiful temples burnished with gold, and large revenues for a clergy, you would then have been passionately fond of temples." |