Some men can tell, but I am not one of them. All that I know is, that the Koran is ridiculous, although possessing here and there things which are passable. The Koran, however, is certainly not necessary to man--that I maintain. I perceive clearly that which is false, but know very little of that which is true. OSMIN. I thought that you would instruct me, but you teach me nothing. SELIM. Is it not something to know the men who deceive you, and the gross and dangerous errors they promulgate? OSMIN. I should have cause to complain of a physician who made me acquainted with poisonous plants, without instructing me in regard to such as are salutary. SELIM. I am no physician, nor are you a sick man; and it appears to me that I give you a very useful prescription, when I say to you: Distrust the inventions of charlatans; worship God; be an honest man; and believe that two and two make four. NEW--NOVELTIES. It seems as if the first words of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"--"_In nova fert animus_"--were the emblem of mankind. No one is touched with the admirable spectacle of the sun which rises or seems to rise every day; but everybody runs at the smallest meteor which appears for a moment in the map of vapors which surround the earth, and which we call heaven. We despise whatever is common, or which has been long known: _Vilia sunt nobis quæcumque prioribus annis_ _Vidimus, et sordet quidquid spectavimus olim._ A hawker will not burden himself with a "Virgil" or a "Horace," but with a new book, were it ever so detestable. He draws you aside and says to you: "Sir, will you have some books from Holland?" From the commencement of the world, women have complained of the infidelities done to them in favor of the first new object which presents itself, and which has often this novelty for its only merit. Several ladies--we must confess it, notwithstanding the infinite respect which we have for them--have treated men as they complain that the men have treated them; and the story of Jocondo is much more ancient than Ariosto. Perhaps this universal taste for novelty is a benefit of nature. We are told: Content yourselves with what you have; desire nothing beyond your situation; subdue the restlessness of your mind. These are very good maxims; but if we had followed them, we should still live upon acorns and sleep under the stars, and we should have had neither Corneille, Racine, Molière, Poussin, Le Brun, Lemoine, nor Pigal. NUDITY. Why do we shut up a man or a woman whom we find naked in the streets? and why is no one offended at entirely naked statues, and with certain paintings of Jesus and of Magdalen which are to be seen in some of the churches? It is very likely that human beings existed for a considerable time without clothing. In more than one island and on the continent of America, people are still found who are ignorant of clothing.