A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 03

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Voltaire. A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 03

CANNIBALS

CASTING (IN METAL)

CATO

CELTS

CEREMONIES – TITLES – PRECEDENCE

CERTAIN – CERTAINTY

CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS

CHAIN OR GENERATION OF EVENTS

CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN THE GLOBE

CHARACTER

CHARITY

CHARLES IX

CHINA

CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTMAS

CHRONOLOGY

CHURCH

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

CHURCH PROPERTY

CICERO

CIRCUMCISION

CLERK – CLERGY

CLIMATE

COHERENCE – COHESION – ADHESION

COMMERCE

COMMON SENSE

CONFESSION

CONFISCATION

CONSCIENCE

CONSEQUENCE

CONSTANTINE

CONTRADICTIONS

CONTRAST

CONVULSIONARIES

CORN

COUNCILS

Отрывок из книги

There is not an ancient fable, not an old absurdity which some simpleton will not revive, and that in a magisterial tone, if it be but authorized by some classical or theological writer.

Lycophron (if I remember rightly) relates that a horde of robbers who had been justly condemned in Ethiopia by King Actisanes to lose their ears and noses, fled to the cataracts of the Nile and from thence penetrated into the Sandy Desert, where they at length built the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

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It might, indeed, astonish us, and does, I think, merit a serious examination, that almost all the ancient Roman heroes killed themselves when they had lost a battle in the civil wars. But I do not find, neither in the time of the League, nor in that of the Frond, nor in the troubles of Italy, nor in those of England, that any chief thought proper to die by his own hand. These chiefs, it is true, were Christians, and there is a great difference between the principles of a Christian warrior and those of a Pagan hero. But why were these men whom Christianity restrained when they would have put themselves to death, restrained by nothing when they chose to poison, assassinate, and bring their conquered enemies to the scaffold? Does not the Christian religion forbid these murders much more than self-murder, of which the New Testament makes no mention?

The apostles of suicide tell us that it is quite allowable to quit one's house when one is tired of it. Agreed, but most men would prefer sleeping in a mean house to lying in the open air.

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