FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>  
hy or unworthy? what is to be done with their pure spirit? What is one to think of a child with two heads? without deformity apart from this? Some say that it has two souls because it is provided with two pineal glands, with two _corpus callosum_, with two _sensorium commune_. Others reply that one cannot have two souls when one has only one chest and one navel.[22] In fine, so many questions have been asked about this poor human soul, that if it were necessary to answer them all, this examination of its own person would cause it the most intolerable boredom. There would happen to it what happened to Cardinal de Polignac at a conclave. His steward, tired of never being able to make him settle his accounts, made the journey from Rome, and came to the little window of his cell burdened with an immense bundle of papers. He read for nearly two hours. At last, seeing that no reply was forthcoming, he put his head forward. The cardinal had departed nearly two hours before. Our souls will depart before their stewards have acquainted them with the facts: but let us be exact before God, whatever sort of ignoramuses we are, we and our stewards. FOOTNOTES: [21] Voltaire himself. [22] The Chevalier d'Angos, learned astronomer, has carefully observed a two-headed lizard for several days; and he has assured himself that the lizard had two independent wills, each of which had an almost equal power over the body. When the lizard was given a piece of bread, in such a way that it could see it with only one head, this head wanted to go after the bread, and the other wanted the body to remain at rest. _STATES_, _GOVERNMENTS_ The ins and outs of all governments have been closely examined recently. Tell me then, you who have travelled, in what state, under what sort of government you would choose to be born. I imagine that a great land-owning lord in France would not be vexed to be born in Germany; he would be sovereign instead of subject. A peer of France would be very glad to have the privileges of the English peerage; he would be legislator. The lawyer and the financier would be better off in France than elsewhere. But what country would a wise, free man, a man with a moderate fortune, and without prejudices, choose? A member of the government of Pondicherry, a learned man enough, returned to Europe by land with a Brahmin better educated than the ordinary Brahmin. "What do you think of the government of the G
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>  



Top keywords:

France

 
government
 
lizard
 

Brahmin

 
wanted
 
choose
 
stewards
 

learned

 

carefully

 

STATES


GOVERNMENTS
 
remain
 

observed

 
Chevalier
 
independent
 

headed

 
assured
 

astronomer

 

country

 

financier


English

 

privileges

 

peerage

 

legislator

 

lawyer

 

moderate

 

fortune

 
educated
 
ordinary
 

Europe


returned

 

prejudices

 
member
 

Pondicherry

 

travelled

 

recently

 

governments

 

closely

 

examined

 
sovereign

Germany

 

subject

 

imagine

 

Voltaire

 
owning
 

cardinal

 

questions

 

answer

 

boredom

 

intolerable