The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of NatureVolney, C.-F. (Constantin-François)
Religion
The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature
Volney, C.-F. (Constantin-François)
Ethics; History -- Philosophy; Religions; Revolutions
Idem, p. 119--"Mr. Volney, if we may judge from his numerous quotations
of ancient writers in all the learned languages, oriental as well as
occidental, must be acquainted with all; for he makes no mention of any
translation, and yet if we judge from this specimen of his knowledge of
them, he cannot have the smallest tincture of that of the Hebrew or even
of the Greek."
And, at last, after having published and posted me in your very title
page, as an unbeliever and an infidel; after having pointed me out in
your motto as one of those superficial spirits who know not how to find
out, and are unwilling to encounter, truth; you add, p. 124,
immediately after an article in which you speak of me under all these
denominations--
"The progress of infidelity, in the present age, is attended with a
circumstance which did not so frequently accompany it in any former
period, at least, in England, which is, that unbelievers in revelation
generally proceed to the disbelief of the being and providence of God
so as to become properly Atheists." So that, according to you, I am a
Chinese, a Hottentot, an unbeliever, an Atheist, an ignoramus, a man of
no sincerity; whose writings are full of nothing but gross mistakes and
misrepresentations. Now I ask you, sir, What has all this to do with the
main question? What has my book in common with my person? And how can
you hold any converse with a man of such bad connexions? In the second
place, your invitation, or rather, your summons to me, to point out
the mistakes which I think you have made with respect to my opinions,
suggest to me several observations.
First. You suppose that the public attaches a high importance to your
mistakes and to my opinions: but I cannot act upon a supposition. Am I
not an unbeliever?
Secondly. You say, p. 18, that the public will expect it from me: Where
are the powers by which you make the public speak and act? Is this also
a revelation?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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