In the first place it is to be observed, that though the strict truth of those early instances of voluntary flagellations, which are to be found in the Abbé’s text, might perhaps be controverted, yet, as the reader will see, such instances are related by early and contemporary Writers, as common facts, at which they do not express any surprise. In the second place, since the opposers of the opinion of the antiquity of self-flagellations admit, that cruel voluntary penances, such as wearing iron cuirasses inwardly armed with points, being continually loaded with enormous weights, dwelling in the bottom of dwells, or on the tops of columns, were practised by the first Christians, it is difficult to understand why they make such objections against flagellations in particular, which they agree to have been employed, from the earliest times, by Ecclesiastical Superiors, as common methods of correcting offences of a religious kind, and which were likewise used for pious purposes, before the establishment of Christianity. Nay, beating and lashing one’s self, are means of self-mortification, which, more readily than any other, occur to the minds either of superstitious, or hypocritical persons. Practices of this kind presently gratify the sudden fits of fanaticism of the one, and serve extremely well the purposes of the other, in that they catch the minds of the vulgar, by the display of an apparatus of cruel instruments and a show of great severity, at the same time that they are in reality much less difficult to be borne than the penances above alluded to, and want what constituted the most intolerable hardship of these latter, diuturnity and uninterruption. Besides, those who make self-flagellation part of their religious exercises, always have it in their power to take, like Sancho, their own time for performing them, as well as to choose what station they please for that purpose. In Summer, they may settle themselves in a cool place; in Winter, near a good fire; and have constantly by them some excellent liquor, to refresh themselves with, during the different pauses they think proper to make. They may moreover use just what degree of severity they choose. They even may, like Sancho, who only lashed the trees around him, or like the Hermit mentioned by La Fontaine, content themselves with flagellating the walls of their apartment: nay, they may perform no flagellation at all, and yet make afterwards what boast they please. Having duly weighed all the above important considerations, as well as the facts quoted by the Abbé, the truth of which he does not take the trouble to deny, I have ventured to dissent from his inconsistent assertions, and have made the abovementioned change in his doctrine.