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secret was simple, than if it had been given him as a miracle. 'Well," said he, "do as you think proper." "Leave me alone for that," said Zadig; you will gain more in this proof than you think for." The same day he made public, in the king's name, that all candidates for the post of receiver-in-chief of the moneys of his gracious majesty Nabussan, son of Nussanab, must present themselves in habits of light silk, on the first day of the month of the crocodile, in the king's antechamber. They came, accordingly, to the number of sixty-four. Musicians had been placed in a neighboring saloon. All was prepared for the ball; but the door of this saloon was closed; and it was necessary in order to enter it, to pass through a small gallery which was somewhat dark. An usher went to meet and introduce each candidate in succession by this passage, in which each was left alone for some minutes. The king, aware of the plan, had spread out all his treasures in this gallery. When all were assembled in the saloon, the king ordered the dance to begin. Never had any dancers performed more heavily or with less grace; all held their heads down, their backs bent, their hands glued to their sides. "What rascals!" murmured Zadig. One alone made his steps with agility, his head up, his look assured, his body straight, his arms extended, his thighs firm. "Ah! the honest man, the excellent man!" cried Zadig. The king embraced this upright dancer, declaring him treasurer, and all the others were punished and taxed, with the utmost justice—for every one, in the time spent in the gallery, had filled his pockets till he could hardly walk. The king was distressed for human nature that among these sixty-four dancers there should be sixty-three thieves. The dark gallery was named the Corridor of Temptation. In Persia these sixty-three lords would have been impaled; in other countries a chamber of justice would have consumed in costs three times the money stolen, replacing nothing in the king's coffers; in yet another kingdom they would have been honorably acquitted, and the light dancer disgraced; in Serendib they were only sentenced to add to the public treasure, for Nabussan was very indulgent.

Many and entertaining are the adventures by which the at length happy Zadig is elevated to the side of his beloved Astarte on the throne of Babylon.

IX. THE PHILOSOPHES-AND ROUSSEAU.

The characteristic feature of the literary history of the great middle part of the eighteenth century in France was the influence of the "philosophes." We have already seen who some of the philosophes were. Diderot and the contributors to the the "Encyclopædia" constituted the main body of the group. Montesquieu and Voltaire were its precursors. But the prevailing spirit of the whole period, no matter what literary form be examined, was essentially the same. The old order of things was criticised and attacked in every part, especially in religion and politics. But what was most criticised and attacked were the constitution and dogma of the church. Voltaire, the most active, versatile, and effective combatant of the age, had no quarrel with the political institutions of his time. There were certain reforms in these that he wished to see effected, but he desired nothing further. Nor was the church as a social institution the special object of his attack. It was rather its extraordinary political privileges, which he considered unjust; its traditional theology, which he considered irrational; its excessive and all-pervading ecclesiasticism, which he considered absurd. Montesquieu, too, had no thought of political or ecclesiastical reforms being brought about other than by methods which to-day would be described as constitutional. But it is, of course, nevertheless

true that the opinions of these men, as to matters of faith and religion, were opposed to the orthodoxy of the day. And not only they, but almost every writer of note in France during the period we are now contemplating, was, in respect of theology, at most only a deist. The church, once so all-powerful, and her creed, once so universally accepted, were left with scarcely a defender. Atheism, however, does not seem to have been much accepted. Even Voltaire was not an atheist. But a profession of simple deism as opposed to Christian theism and the teachings of the Bible was general, not only out of the church, but in it. For the most part those in the church who did not accept the church's teachings kept a discreet silence. "I may have my fist full of opinions and yet care only to open my little finger." This is the way one prominent churchman expressed his caution, and the caution was general.

It was, however, in the writings of the philosophes proper, rather than in those of Voltaire and Montesquieu, that the anti-spiritual, anti-religious spirit of the age was most plainly shown. The encyclopædists frankly ignored the existence of any divine power other than what may be discerned in the forces of nature. The "System of Nature," a work supposed to have been written by BARON HOLBACH, the friend of Diderot and a chief supporter of the encyclopædist movement, represented God as the mere creation of superstitious men. "Man a Machine," "Man a Plant," were the titles of somewhat similar productions written by LA METTRIE, another member of the group. It is noteworthy that Voltaire opposed and condemned all these works, and even undertook the duty of seriously refuting the first of them. HELVÉTIUS, a third member of the group, wrote works in which he founded morals wholly on self-interest. It is noteworthy that the works

of Helvétius were also assailed, not only by Voltaire and his party, not only by the church and its party (indeed, they were burned by the common hangman), but also even by Diderot himself. The greatest philosophical thinker of the age, however, was Condillac. CONDILLAC (1715-80), though at one time he was a member of the encyclopedist group, did not maintain his association with it. But his philosophy, although it was not materialistic, was scarcely more in consonance with the spiritualistic ideas of the orthodox school than materialism was. With him all ideas were but tions. The human ego was but a bundle of sensations. When sensation ended, all ended.

sensa

When so critical and examinant were the writings of all the leading spirits of the age it is not to be wondered at if among the more humble and less instructed people of the time a feeling of uncertainty and disquietude as to all the graver matters of life and conduct also sprang up. As a matter of fact, it did spring up, and the common people broke away from their theologic moorings and drifted into unbelief and dissastisfaction with existing institutions quite as hopelessly as did their better-instructed fellows. In their case, however, unbelief and dissatisfaction were intensified by the terrible injustice which they suffered at the hands of both church and state.

Contemporary with the "philosophes," and for a time. a member of the encyclopedist group, although he shortly severed himself from it, was a writer who was destined to have more influence upon the rank and file of the people— that great body that we have described as blindly drifting into unbelief and dissatisfaction for want of guidance and efficient leadership-that any other writer of his day, perhaps than all other writers of his day put together. This writer was Jean Jacques Rousseau.

ROUSSEAU (1712-78) is one of whom in many respects it is hard to treat seriously. So ill disciplined and ill governed in his own character and conduct, he nevertheless was instrumental in chang

ing materially the direction and quality of all child training and childeducation, not only in his own country but throughout the world, not only for the time being but for all time; so unattractive in his own personality, he nevertheless won as his disciples the most attractive personalities in France; so illogical and absurd in his own mental processes, he nevertheless set going in others ideas of government, of social organization, of public and individual rights and

responsibilities, which

ROBESPIERRE.

soon became the accepted tenets of the great majority of his countrymen.

a sort

But what we are chiefly concerned with here is the remarkable influence that Rousseau exerted as of counteracting force against the influence of the encyclopedists. The encyclopedists were positivist, prac tical, and materialistic. Rousseau was dreamy, sentimental, and an effective, if not a very orthodox or logical,