A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY VOLUME III By VOLTAIRE EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE A CONTEMPORARY VERSION With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY BY THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY FORTY-THREE VOLUMES One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures, and curious facsimiles VOLUME VII E.R. DuMONT PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO _The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_ _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization."_ _VICTOR HUGO._ LIST OF PLATES--VOL. III VOLTAIRE'S RECEPTION OF MADAME D'ÉPINAY AT LES DÉLICES _Frontispiece_ THE DEATH OF COLIGNY CATHERINE II. OF RUSSIA THE ALMONER AND THE ANABAPTIST [Illustration: Voltaire receives Mme. d'Épinay at Les Délices.] * * * * * VOLTAIRE A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY IN TEN VOLUMES VOL. III CANNIBALS--COUNCILS * * * * * CANNIBALS. SECTION I. We have spoken of love. It is hard to pass from people _kissing_ to people _eating_ one another. It is, however, but too true that there have been cannibals. We have found them in America; they are, perhaps, still to be found; and the Cyclops were not the only individuals in antiquity who sometimes fed on human flesh. Juvenal relates that among the Egyptians--that wise people, so renowned for their laws--those pious worshippers of crocodiles and onions--the Tentyrites ate one of their enemies who had fallen into their hands. He does not tell this tale on hearsay; the crime was committed almost before his eyes; he was then in Egypt, and not far from Tentyra. On this occasion he quotes the Gascons and the Saguntines, who formerly fed on the flesh of their countrymen. In 1725 four savages were brought from the Mississippi to Fontainebleau, with whom I had the honor of conversing. There was among them a lady of the country, whom I asked if she had eaten men; she answered, with great simplicity that she had. I appeared somewhat scandalized; on which she excused herself by saying that it was better to eat one's dead enemy than to leave him to be devoured by wild beasts, and that the conquerors deserved to have the preference. We kill our neighbors in battles, or skirmishes; and, for the meanest consideration, provide meals for the crows and the worms. There is the horror; there is the crime. What matters it, when a man is dead, whether he is eaten by a soldier, or by a dog and a crow?