ared to show
them."*

* The inhabitants of Vienna, for example, who harnessed
themselves like cattle and drew the chariot of Leopold.

Then the legislator, turning to the people--"People!" said he, "remember
what you have just heard; they are two indelible truths. Yes, you
yourselves cause the evils of which you complain; yourselves encourage
the tyrants, by a base adulation of their power, by an imprudent
admiration of their false beneficence, by servility in obedience,
by licentiousness in liberty, and by a credulous reception of every
imposition. On whom shall you wreak vengeance for the faults committed
by your own ignorance and cupidity?"

And the people, struck with confusion, remained in mournful silence.

CHAPTER XXIV.

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF CONTRADICTIONS.

The legislator then resumed his discourse: "O nations!" said he, "we
have heard the discussion of your opinions. The different sentiments
which divide you have given rise to many reflections, and furnished
several questions which we shall propose to you to solve.

"First, considering the diversity and opposition of the creeds to which
you are attached, we ask on what motives you found your persuasion? Is
it from a deliberate choice that you follow the standard of one prophet
rather than another? Before adopting this doctrine, rather than that,
did you first compare? did you carefully examine them? Or have you
received them only from the chance of birth, from the empire of
education and habit? Are you not born Christians on the borders of the
Tiber, Mussulmans on those of the Euphrates, Idolaters on the Indus,
just as you are born fair in cold climates, and sable under the
scorching sun of Africa? And if your opinions are the effect of your
fortuitous position on the earth, of consanguinity, of imitation, how is
it that such a hazard should be a ground of conviction, an argument of
truth?

"Secondly, when we reflect on the mutual proscriptions and arbitrary
intolerance of your pretensions, we are frightened at the consequences
that flow from your own principles. Nations! who reciprocally devote
each other to the bolts of heavenly wrath, suppose that the universal
Being, whom you revere, should this moment descend from heaven on this
multitude; and, clothed with all his power, should sit on this throne
to judge you; suppose that he should say to you: Mortals! it is your own
justice that I am going to exercise upon you. Yes, of al