A monk writes that Clovis, being in great danger at the battle of
Tolbiac, made a vow to become a Christian if he escaped; but is it
natural that he should address a strange god on such an occasion? Would
not the religion in which he was born have acted the most powerfully?
Where is the Christian who, in a battle against the Turks, would not
rather address himself to the holy Virgin Mary, than to Mahomet? He
adds, that a pigeon brought the vial in his beak to anoint Clovis, and
that an angel brought the oriflamme to conduct him: the prejudiced
believed all the stories of this kind. Those who are acquainted with
human nature well know, that the usurper Clovis, and the usurper Rollo,
or Rol, became Christians to govern the Christians more securely; as the
Turkish usurpers became Mussulmans to govern the Mussulmans more
securely.
_Religious Prejudices._
If your nurse has told you, that Ceres presides over corn, or that
Vishnu and Xaca became men several times, or that Sammonocodom cut down
a forest, or that Odin expects you in his hall near Jutland, or that
Mahomet, or some other, made a journey to heaven; finally, if your
preceptor afterwards thrusts into your brain what your nurse has
engraven on it, you will possess it for life. If your judgment would
rise above these prejudices, your neighbors, and above all, the ladies,
exclaim "impiety!" and frighten you; your dervish, fearing to see his
revenue diminished, accuses you before the cadi; and this cadi, if he
can, causes you to be impaled, because he would command fools, and he
believes that fools obey better than others; which state of things will
last until your neighbors and the dervish and cadi begin to comprehend
that folly is good for nothing, and that persecution is abominable.
PRESBYTERIAN.
The Anglican religion is predominant only in England and Ireland;
Presbyterianism is the established religion of Scotland. This
Presbyterianism is nothing more than pure Calvinism, such as once
existed in France, and still exists at Geneva.