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Article CHARACTERS OF CHILLINGWORTH AND BAYLE. ← Page 3 of 3 Article SCENE IN THE ALPS. Page 1 of 1
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Characters Of Chillingworth And Bayle.
writing for himself , for the booksellers , and for posterity ; and if a severe critic would reduce him to a single folio , that relic , like the books of the Sybil , would become still more valuable . A calm and lofty spectator of the reli gious tempest , the philosopher of Rotterdam condemned , with equal firmness , the persecution of Lewis the Fourteenth , and the republican maxims of the Calvinists ; their vain propheciesand the intolerant bi
, gotry which sometimes vexed his solitary retreat . In reviewing the controversies of the times , he turned against each other the arguments of the disputants ; successively wielding the arms of the catholics and protestants , he proves that neither the way of authority , nor the way of examination , can afford the multitude any test of reli gious truth ; and dextrousl y concludes that custom and education must be
the sole grounds of popular belief . The ancient paradox of Plutarch , that atheism is less pernicious than superstition , acquires a tenfold vigour , when it is adorned with the colours of his wit , and pointed with the acuteness of his logic . His critical dictionary is a vast repository of facts and opinions ; and he balances the false reli gions in his sceptical scales , till the opposite quantities if the
( I may use language of algebra ) annihilate each other . The wonderful power which he so % oldly exercised , of assembling doubts and objections , had tempted him jocosely to assume the title of the n & Xr . yifna zm , the cloud compelling Jove ; and in a conversation with the ingenious Abbe ( afterward " Cardinal ) de Polignac , he freely disclosed his universal Pyrrhonism " I am most truly ( said Bayle ) a protestant : for I protest indiffer" ently against all systems and all sects " . - ¦
Scene In The Alps.
SCENE IN THE ALPS .
Perhaps the circumference of the whole terraqueous globe does not present a scene more sublime and magnificent , than what is exhibited to us in the following extract from Mrs . PioMrt ' ¦ Observations in a Journey through France , ® c . » TN these prospects , colouring is carried to its utmost point of iL perfection , particularly at the time I found it , variegated with golden touches of autumnal tintsimmense cascades time burst
; mean - ing from naked mountains on the one side ; cultivated fields rich with vineyards , on the other , and tufted with elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where they would be treated with much more respect . Little towns sticking in the clefts where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber ; light clouds often sailing under the feet of the hi hperched inhabitants
g- , while the sound of a deep and rapid , though narrow , river , dashing with violence among the insolently impending rocks at the bottom " , and bells in thickly scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the steep sides of every hill—fill one ' s mind with such mutable such various ideas , as . no other place can ever possibly afford . " '
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Characters Of Chillingworth And Bayle.
writing for himself , for the booksellers , and for posterity ; and if a severe critic would reduce him to a single folio , that relic , like the books of the Sybil , would become still more valuable . A calm and lofty spectator of the reli gious tempest , the philosopher of Rotterdam condemned , with equal firmness , the persecution of Lewis the Fourteenth , and the republican maxims of the Calvinists ; their vain propheciesand the intolerant bi
, gotry which sometimes vexed his solitary retreat . In reviewing the controversies of the times , he turned against each other the arguments of the disputants ; successively wielding the arms of the catholics and protestants , he proves that neither the way of authority , nor the way of examination , can afford the multitude any test of reli gious truth ; and dextrousl y concludes that custom and education must be
the sole grounds of popular belief . The ancient paradox of Plutarch , that atheism is less pernicious than superstition , acquires a tenfold vigour , when it is adorned with the colours of his wit , and pointed with the acuteness of his logic . His critical dictionary is a vast repository of facts and opinions ; and he balances the false reli gions in his sceptical scales , till the opposite quantities if the
( I may use language of algebra ) annihilate each other . The wonderful power which he so % oldly exercised , of assembling doubts and objections , had tempted him jocosely to assume the title of the n & Xr . yifna zm , the cloud compelling Jove ; and in a conversation with the ingenious Abbe ( afterward " Cardinal ) de Polignac , he freely disclosed his universal Pyrrhonism " I am most truly ( said Bayle ) a protestant : for I protest indiffer" ently against all systems and all sects " . - ¦
Scene In The Alps.
SCENE IN THE ALPS .
Perhaps the circumference of the whole terraqueous globe does not present a scene more sublime and magnificent , than what is exhibited to us in the following extract from Mrs . PioMrt ' ¦ Observations in a Journey through France , ® c . » TN these prospects , colouring is carried to its utmost point of iL perfection , particularly at the time I found it , variegated with golden touches of autumnal tintsimmense cascades time burst
; mean - ing from naked mountains on the one side ; cultivated fields rich with vineyards , on the other , and tufted with elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where they would be treated with much more respect . Little towns sticking in the clefts where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber ; light clouds often sailing under the feet of the hi hperched inhabitants
g- , while the sound of a deep and rapid , though narrow , river , dashing with violence among the insolently impending rocks at the bottom " , and bells in thickly scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the steep sides of every hill—fill one ' s mind with such mutable such various ideas , as . no other place can ever possibly afford . " '