The writer of the pamphlet, not satisfied with omitting whatever might tend to defeat his object, industriously rakes out the most atrocious imputations from the avowed enemies of the Jesuits, and classes their authorities with genuine history, taking them for granted, never examining the hands through which they passed, happy in having one and only one great name on his side, that of the celebrated and very extraordinary genius, Pascal. When the Provincial Letters were alluded to, as attacking a supposed lax system of morals, did not truth require that they should be stated to have been the satirical effusions of a writer, who had espoused the cause of the Jansenists, the violent opposers of the Jesuits; and that the ridicule which they contained had been declared by another great wit, who was no enemy to ridicule, nor friend to religion (Voltaire), to be completely misapplied. A lover of truth, when {14} balancing opinions as proofs, would not have failed to quote from him the following passage: "It is true, indeed, that the whole book (_the Provincial Letters_) was built upon a false foundation; for the extravagant notions of a few Spanish and Flemish Jesuits were _artfully_ ascribed _to the whole society_. Many absurdities might likewise have been discovered among the Dominican and Franciscan casuists, but this _would not have answered the purpose_, for the whole raillery was to be levelled only at the Jesuits. These letters were intended to prove, that the Jesuits had formed a design to corrupt mankind; a design which no sect of society ever had, or can have."