A journey to the world under-groundHolberg, Ludvig
Science
A journey to the world under-ground
Holberg, Ludvig
Utopias -- Early works to 1800; Voyages, Imaginary -- Early works to 1800
To this he reply’d in this Manner: “My good Friend, says
he, you are greatly deceiv’d, if you imagine that God, the Fountain
of Truth, can be pleas’d with dissembled Worship. In other Nations,
where all are oblig’d by publick Authority to one certain Rule of
Faith, what a Door is open’d for Ignorance and Hypocrisy! Few, or none,
have the Will or the Courage to discover their true Sentiments, and
so they profess one Thing, and believe another. This makes the Study
of Divinity a cold, lifeless Thing, and begets a Negligence in the
Discovery of Truth. This also makes profane Learning more cultivated:
For the Priests themselves, lest they should be branded with the Title
of Hereticks, relinquish the Pursuit of sacred Things, and divert
their Studies to other Subjects, where their Minds may range without
Danger, and where their Liberty is not fetter’d. The Vulgar will still
condemn all who depart from the reigning Doctrines. But Hypocrites and
Dissemblers must be hateful to God, to whom a sincere, tho’ erroneous
Belief, must be infinitely less displeasing than an orthodox, but
pretended Faith.” Hearing this, I kept Silence, unable to dispute the
Point any longer with so wise a People.
I had now been almost two Months out upon my Travels, when at last I
arriv’d at _Tumbac_, a Territory contiguous to the _Potuan_ Dominions.
I thought myself now at home, my wearisome Journey being almost
finish’d. The Inhabitants of this Region are chiefly Wild Olives,
extremely devout, and extremely censorious. In the first Inn I enter’d,
I waited two Hours for my Breakfast, knocking and calling for it almost
all that Time in vain. The Reason of this Delay, was the unseasonable
Devotion of my Host, who would not, for the World, put his Hand to the
least Thing, till he had finish’d his Morning Prayers.
_Tandem intrans magno porrexit murmure panem
Pallidus, & caulem misero mihi ponit alentem
Lanteram._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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