Les Bijoux Indiscrets, or, The Indiscreet ToysDiderot, Denis
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Les Bijoux Indiscrets, or, The Indiscreet Toys
Diderot, Denis
Erotic fiction; Louis XV, King of France, 1710-1774 -- Fiction
"What do I hear in all assemblies? a confused murmur, an unheard noise
strikes my ears. All things are turn'd topsy-turvy, and the faculty
of speech, which the goodness of Brama had hitherto appropriated
to the tongue, is now by an effect of his vengeance transported to
other organs. And what organs? You know, gentlemen. O ungrateful
people, was there a necessity for a new prodigy, to rouze ye from
your lethargy; and had not your crimes witnesses enough, but their
principal instruments must raise their voice? Doubtless their measure
is filled up; since the wrath of heaven has sought new chastisements.
In vain did you envelop yourself in darkness, in vain did you choose
mute accomplices: do you not hear them at present? They have given
depositions against ye from every quarter, and revealed your baseness
to the universe. O thou who governest by thy wisdom! O Brama! just are
thy judgments. Thy law condemns theft, perjury, lying and adultery:
it proscribes the blackness of calumny, the intrigues of ambition,
the fury of hatred, and the artifices of insincerity. Thy faithful
ministers have not ceased declaring these truths to thy children, and
threatening them with the chastisements, which thou in thy just anger
reservedst for prevaricators: but in vain; the fools have delivered
themselves up to the tide of their passions, they followed the torrent,
they have despised our admonitions, they have laughed at our threats,
they have regarded our anathema's as empty noise; their vices are
accumulated, strengthen'd, multiplied; the voice of their impiety has
ascended even to thy throne, and we have not been able to prevent the
tremendous scourge, with which thou hast smote them. After having long
implored thy mercy, let us now extoll thy justice. Overwhelmed by thy
strokes, doubtless they will return to thee, and acknowledge the hand
which is laid heavy on them. But O prodigy of hardheartedness! O excess
of blindness! They have imputed the effect of thy power to the blind
mechanism of nature. They have said in their hearts, Brama is not. All
the properties of matter are not known to us, and the new proof of its
existence is but a proof of the ignorance and credulity of those, who
object it to us. On this foundation they have raised systems, invented
hypotheses, tried experiments: but from the highth of his eternal
habitation, Brama has laugh'd at their vain projects. He has confounded
audacious knowledge, and the Toys have broke, as glass, the impotent
obstacles opposed to their loquacity. Wherefore let those vainglorious
worms confess the weakness of their reason, and the vanity of their
efforts. Let them cease to deny the existence of Brama, or to prescribe
limits to his power. Brama is, he is almighty, and he does not shew
himself to us more visibly in his dreadful scourges, than in his
ineffable favours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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