of Luther and Calvin discovered, in all their writings, against the jesuits, it should elevate them in his opinion, as the hatred evidently proceeded, from its being felt by the lutherans and calvinists, that the jesuits were in their time, the most powerful champions of the catholic faith.

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Great, however, is the force of truth!-When antichristian and anticatholic feelings have not guided their judgments, the atheist, the deist, and the protestant, has equally done justice to the jesuits. Ardent for their expulsion from every other kingdom, Frederick of Prussia, prudently preserved them in his own, and heartily laughed at the vagaries of the philosophers, who solicited their banishment. "I "cannot," says lord Bacon, "contemplate the ap'plication and the talent of these preceptors, in "cultivating the intellects, and forming the manners "of youth, without bringing to my mind, the expression of Agesilaus to Pharnabazus;— Being "such as you are, is it possible that you should not "belong to us.'--I am persuaded," said Leibniz, the most universal scholar, and one of the most profound mathematicians and metaphysicians of his age, "that the jesuits are often calumniated, and "that opinions, which have never come into their "minds, have often been imputed to them." The count de Merode, having informed Leibniz that he had purchased the Acta Sanctorum of the Flemish Jesuits, now filling eighty volumes folio, and still unfinished, Leibniz pronounced a panegyric on the work, and declared that, "if the jesuits had pub

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"lished no other, that work alone entitled them to "existence, and to be sought for and esteemed by "the whole world."-We have already cited one passage from la Lande, the celebrated but infidel astronomer. In another, after mentioning several ridiculous charges which had been made against himself, he speaks of the jesuits, as follows; "Among "other crimes imputed to me, it is asserted, that, in my travels, I served the mass of a jesuit. All this is "too idle to answer; but I must freely own to you, "that the name of jesuit interests my heart, my "mind, and my gratitude; and revives my regret "for the blindness of the persons in power, in 1762. "No! the human species has lost for ever, and "it never will regain, that precious and wonderful "re-union of 20,000 men, unceasingly and disin"terestedly occupied in instructing, preaching, "missions, reconciliations, attending the dying, "and other exertions of the tenderest and dearest "functions of humanity. Retirement, frugality, "renunciation of pleasure, made this society a sur"prising assemblage of science and virtue. I have "been a near observer of them, they were a people "of heroes, in the cause of religion and humanity,

religion furnished them with means which philo"sophy does not supply. In my fourteenth year, "I admired them: I asked to be admitted among "them I regret that I did not persist in my voca❝tion; innocence and the love of study inspired me with it."

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LXXV. 6.

Their Catholic Adversaries.

SUCH were the antichristian and anticatholic adversaries of the jesuits: some adversaries, however, and these as terrible as any, they had, within the catholic pale. But this leads to a variety of subjects. All the accusations which these urged against them, may be found in the "Histoire générale des Jésuites "of la Coudrette," the " Provincial Letters," "the "Rapports of Montclar, and la Châlotais,' "the "Morale Pratique des Jésuites," and the "Ex"traits des Assertions dangéreuses et pernicieuses en "tout genre, que les soi-disant jesuites ont, dans tous "les tems, et persévérament, soutenues, enseignés, "et publiées dans leur livres, avec approbation des "superieurs et généraux." On each of these works, we shall trouble our readers with a single observation. Those, who wish to see fuller answers to the charges brought against the jesuits, should peruse the "Apologie de l'Institut des Jésuites."

1. With respect to la Coudrette ;-that he was a party man cannot be denied. Like those of all party writers, his works should, therefore, be read with some distrust; and nothing resting on his single assertion, should be admitted, without some hesitation.

2. With respect to the Provincial Letters ;-few have read or meditated upon them, with more attention than the writer of these lines; but he has also read and meditated upon the answer to them of

father Daniel, in his " Dialogues de Cleandre et "d'Eudoxe;" and, previously to his perusing either, he placed himself in that perfect state of doubt and impartiality, which Descartes requires from a disciple, who enters on his meditations. The result was, that father Daniel appeared to him so often victorious in the combat, as to leave little that could be justly charged on the individual members, and nothing that could be charged on the body of the society. If any of his readers have proceeded in the same manner, and arrived at a different conclusion, far be it from the writer of these lines to question his sincerity: but he claims an equal allowance of sincerity for himself, and for all,-(they are both respectable and numerous),-who agree with him in opinion, that the author of the Provincial Letters is as often inaccurate and unfair, as he is witty or eloquent.

"The whole of these letters" says M. de Voltaire," is built upon a false foundation, as the ex"travagant notions of a few Spanish and Flemish jesuits, are artfully ascribed in them to the whole

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body." This, to every one, who peruses father Daniel's answers, must appear evident. A better answer to them, however, is supplied by the sermons of father Bourdaloue. To the whole of his doctrine every jesuit subscribes; from the whole of the doctrine, imputed to them by Pascal, every jesuit dissents-which should be thought the doctrine of the order?

We must add the testimony of Fénélon.-" As "to the Provincial Letters of Pascal,"-thus the

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archbishop writes to the duke de Beauvilliers, "think the duke of Burgundy should read them: "in fact, sooner or later, he will read them. His curiosity, his taste for entertaining books, and the great reputation of the Letters, will not suffer "him to remain long in ignorance of them. But "I wish all possible precautions should be taken, "that he should know what measure of truth they "contain, and not be seduced by the appearance of "truth, which they wear. Part of the memorial, "which I send you, furnishes an antidote against "the two first letters of Pascal. It is more than "sufficient to shew the hidden poison of the Letters, "and to prove that, in her censures of jansenism, "the church does not combat a phantom."

3. With respect to the Morale Pratique, the Rapports, and the Extraits des Assertions:-May the writer be permitted to observe, that no one should form any conclusion from these, if he has not read the Réponse aux Assertions*. In this work, the jesuits charge the author of the Assertions, with 758 falsifications and alterations of the texts cited by him. They produce from the text, every passage pronounced by them to be falsified or altered, and confront it with the corresponding passage in the work of their adversary. Now, both in courts of law and out of them, it is a received axiom, that a person who denies a charge, is to be reputed innocent of it, until it is proved on him by proper evidence. Surely, therefore, none, who have not examined a large proportion, at least, of these pasPublished in 1763, in 3 large 4to. volumes.