Frederick to Voltaire - 1766 September 13
At Sans Souci, 13 September, 1766.
E/
1 You have no need to recommend
2 philosophers to me; they will all be well received, provided
3 they be moderate and peaceable. I cannot give them
4 what I have not: I do not have the gift of miracles
5 nor can I bring back to life the woods of Cleves Park, which the
6 French have cut down and burnt; but, on the other hand, they will find there
7 a refuge and safety. I remember having read in
8 the burnt book that you mention to me that it was printed
9 at Berne; the Bernese have therefore exercised a legitimate jurisdiction
10 over this work. They have burned councils,
11 controversies, fanatics and the writings of popes; which,
12 as a heretic, I very much applaud \ x /. To roast
12 men is beyond a joke, to throw paper into
14 the fire is mere peevishness. By way of reprisal you ought
15 have an auto-da-fé at Ferney and condemn to
16 the flames all the works of theology and
17 controversy in your neighborhood, and gather
18 around the blaze theologians of every sect
19 to regale them with this pleasing spectacle. For
20 my part, as I am of lukewarm faith, I tolerate everyone
21 on condition that I myself be tolerated and need not concern myself
22 with other people’s faith. Your missionaries
\ x / in line 12, refers the reader to the marginalia in the left margin:
“ce ne sont que / des niaiseries / en comparison / de ce qui vient / d’arriver a / amiens”
“These are / the merest stupidities / in comparison / to what has / just happened in / Amiens.”
[Page break]
23 will open the eyes of a few young people who will
24 may their works or frequent their company; but how many fools
25 are there, in the world, who do not think! How many people are there
26 who indulge in pleasure and who are wearied by the act of reasoning! How
27 many ambitious men remain absorbed in their plans! In all this vast
28 number how few are there who care to learn
29 and to become enlightened! The thick fog which blinded
30 humanity from the 10th to the 13th century is dispersed; yet
31 most eyes are short-sighted. others some have
32 their eyelids stuck closed. In France you have
33 the Convulsionists, in Holland they have the Pharisees[1], here
34 we have the Pietists. As long as
35 the world will last these species will exist, just as sterile oaks are found
36 in forests, and hornets among bees. Believe me,
37 if some philosophers founded a government,
38 within half a century the people would create
39 new superstitions and would turn its
40 faith to some object striking to the senses;
41 or it would create little idols, or it would revere the
42 tombs of its founders, or it would invoke the
43 sun, or some similar absurdity would prevail
44 over the pure and simple worship of the Supreme Being.
The
[Page break]
45 Superstition is a weakness of the human mind
46 in which it is inherent; it
47 always has been, it always will be. The objects
48 of adoration may change like your French fashions;
49 but what does it matter to me whether people prostrate themselves
50 before a piece of unleavened bread, before the ox
51 Apis, before the Ark of the Convenant, or before a
52 statue? The choice is not worth the trouble;
53 superstition is the same, and \ reason / gains nothing.
54 But to be in good health at seventy, to have
55 independence of mind, to be still the ornament of Parnassus at
56 this age, as in early youth, these
57 are not matters of indifference. I
58 wish that you may long enjoy all of this and may
59 you be as happy as human nature permits
60 On which, I pray God to take you
61 into his holy protection . /.
F:
[1] Note 2 in EE: This was the term (from the colloquial fijner) applied to the pharisees; see e. g. Roelof Mums, La Hollande et les Hollandais au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècles, vus par les Français (Paris 1925), pp. 222–223. (Theodore D. N. Besterman, 1973)/
