If I dare give my opinion of this impost, I think that the various editions are not reliable; the prices are not at all proportionate: these prices do not agree with those which are alleged by d'Aubigne, grandfather of Madame de Maintenon, in the "Confession de Sanci"; he rates virginity at six _gros_, and incest with his mother and sister at five _gros_; this account is ridiculous. I think that there was in fact a tariff established in the datary's office, for those who came to Rome to be absolved, or to bargain for dispensations; but that the enemies of Rome added much to it in order to render it more odious. What is quite certain is that these imposts were never authorized by any council; that it was an enormous abuse invented by avarice, and respected by those whose interest it was not to abolish it. The buyers and the sellers were equally satisfied: thus, barely anybody protested, until the troubles of the reformation. It must be admitted that an exact note of all these imposts would be of great service to the history of the human mind. _EXTREME_ We shall try to extract from this word _extreme_ a notion which may be useful. One disputes every day if, in war, luck or leadership produces successes. If, in disease, nature acts more than medicine for curing or killing. If, in jurisprudence, it is not very advantageous to come to terms when one is in the right, and to plead when one is in the wrong. If literature contributes to the glory of a nation or to its decadence. If one should or should not make the people superstitious. If there is anything true in metaphysics, history and moral philosophy. If taste is arbitrary, and if there is in fact good taste and bad taste, etc., etc. To decide all these questions right away, take an example of what is the most extreme in each; compare the two opposed extremes, and you will at once discover which is true. You wish to know if leadership can infallibly determine the success of the war; look at the most extreme case, the most opposed situations, in which leadership alone will infallibly triumph. The enemy's army is forced to pass through a deep mountain gorge; your general knows it: he makes a forced march, he takes possession of the heights, he holds the enemy shut in a pass; they must either die or surrender. In this extreme case, luck cannot have any part in the victory. It is therefore demonstrated that skill can determine the success of a campaign; from that alone is it proved that war is an art.