"things to the necessity, that either the Jews must "enslave the whole world, or that they, in their turn, must be crushed and destroyed. IT WAS COM

MANDED THEM to hold all other People in abhorrence, and to think themselves polluted if they had eat in the same dish which belonged to a man of "another religion. BY THE VERY LAW ITSELF, they at length found themselves the natural enemies "of THE WHOLE RACE OF MANKIND *.”

I believe it will not be easy to find, even in the dirtiest sink of Freethinking, so much faischood, absurdity, and malice, heaped together in so few words. He says, There was an inevitable necessity, arising from the very genius of the Law itself, either that this people should enslave the whole world, or that they, in their turn, should be crushed and destroyed.

It might be thought unreasonable to expect that a Poet should read his Bible: but one might be allowed to suppose that he had heard at least of its general contents. If he ever had, could he, unmasked, and in the face of the sun, have said, "That the MOSAIC

LAW directed or encouraged the Jewish people to attempt extensive conquests?" That very LAW, which not only assigned a peculiar and narrow district for the abode of its followers; but, by a number of Institutions, actually confined them within those limits: Such as the stated division of the land to each Tribe; the prohibition of the use of horses; the distinction of

-Vous etes frappés de cette haine & de ce mepris que toutes les nations ont toujours eu pour la Nation Juive. C'est la suite inevitable de LEUR LEGISLATION; il falloit, ou que ce Peuple subjuguât tout, ou qu'il fut ecrasé. Il lui fut ordonné d'avoir, les nations en horreur, & de se croire souillés s'ils avaient mangé dans un plat, qui eût appartenu à un homme d'un autre Loi-ils se trouvèrent PAR LEUR LOI MEME enfin Ennemis naturels du GENRE HUMAIN.

Add. à l'Hist. Generale, p. 174.

meats

meats into clean and unclean; the yearly visit of each individual to Jerusalem, with many others. The Poet, who appears throughout his whole history to be a much better Mussulman than a Christian, was surely, when he said this, in some pious meditation on the ALCORAN; which indeed, by the inevitable consequence of its Legislation, must either set the Saracens upon enslaving all mankind, or all mankind on extirpating so pernicious a crew of miscreants.

But the Jews, he tells us, were COMMANDED to hold all other people in abhorrence. If he had said, to hold their IDOLATRIES in abhorrence, he had said true; but that was saying nothing. To tell the world that the Jews were commanded to hold the PERSONS

Idolaters in abhorrence, was done like a Poet.

But when he goes on to say, that The Jews found, BY THE VERY CONSTITUTION OF THE LAW ITSELF, that they were the NATURAL ENEMIES of all mankind, this was not like a Poct, being indeed a transgression of the PROBABLE; for by the constitution of the Law itself, every Jew that could read, found all mankind to be his BRETHREN. For Moses, to prevent any such estrangement, which some other parts of his Institution, if abused, might occasion, was careful to acquaint the chosen Family with the origin of the human race, and of their descent from one man and woman; and, in order to impress this salutary truth more strongly on their minds, he draws out an exact genealogy from Adam, not only of the direct line which was to inhabit the land of Judea, but of all the collateral branches by which the whole earth was peopled.

So that were our Poet to turn Lawgiver, (which he might as well do, as GENERAL HISTORIAN) and sit down to contrive a method by which brotherly love and affection might be best established amongst the

sons of men, one might defy him, with all his poetical or historical invention, to hit upon any more efficacious than that which Moses has here employed. St. Paul, when he would enlarge the affections of the Athenians (to whom all other nations, as well as the Jews, were become BARBARIANS) to that extent which Christian benevolence requires, employed no other topic than this, that GOD HAD MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS OF MEN: and from thence inferred, that they all stand in the relation of BRETHREN to one another.

But it may be asked, What are we then to think of that ODIUM HUMANI GENERIS, with which the ancient Pagans charged the Jews? I have shewn, in the first volume of this work, that there was not the least shadow from fact to support this calumny; and that it was merely an imaginary consequence, which they drew from the others declared hate and abhorrence of the Idols of Paganism, and firm adherence to the sole worship of the one true God. But besides this original, the Principles and Doctrine, there was another, the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaic Religion; either of them sufficient alone to perpetuate this wretched calumny amongst ignorant and prejudiced men. That the Doctrine was worthy of its original, the enemies of Revelation confess; That the establishment of the Ceremonies, as they were necessary to support the Doctrine, were of no less importance, I shall now shew our Poet.

To separate one people from all others, in order to preserve the doctrine of the Unity, was a just

purpose.

No separation could be made but by a ceremonial Law. No ceremonial Law could be established for this purpose, but what must make the Gentiles be esteemed unclean by the separated People,

The

The consequence of an estimated uncleanness, must be the avoiding it with horror: which, when observed by their enemies, would be maliciously represented to arise from this imaginary odium humani generis. What idea then must we needs entertain, I will not say of the Religion, but of the common honesty of a modern Writer, who, without the least knowledge of the Jewish Nation or their Policy, can repeat an old exploded calumny with the assurance of one who had discovered a newly acknowledged truth? But the Pagans were decent when compared to this rude Libertine. They never had the insolence to say, that this pretended hate of all mankind was COMMANDED BY THE LAW ITSELF. They had more sense as well as modesty. They reverenced the great Jewish Lawgiver, who, they saw, by his account of the origin of the human race, had laid the strongest foundation amongst his people, of brotherly love to all men. A foundation, which not one of the most celebrated Lawgivers of Antiquity had either the wit to inforce, or the sagacity to dis

cover.

Well, but if the Jews were indeed that DETESTABLE People which the Poet Voltaire represents them to be, they were properly fitted however with a Law, which, he assures us, was full as DETESTABLE. What pity is it that he did not know just so much of his Bible, however, as might serve to give some small countenance at least to his impieties! We might then have had the Prophet to support the Poet, where, speaking in the name of God, he says,--I gave them Statutes that were not good, and Judgments whereby they should not live*. But to leave this to his maturer projects; and go on with him, in his pious design of eradicating

Ezekiel.-See Book IV. § 6.

this devoted People; for he assures us, we see, that unless they be rooted out, their DETESTABLE POLICY will set them upon enslaving all mankind.

He hath shewn the PEOPLE to be detestable, and their Law to be detestable; and well has he provided for the reception of both, a most detestable COUNTRY. You may, if you please, suppose all this done in vindication of the good providence of the God of Israel; for a People so bad, certainly deserved neither a better Government nor Habitation. No, he had a nobler end than this; it was to give the lie to the Legate of the God of Israel, who promised to them in his Master's name, A land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. Having gotten Moses at this advantage, by the assistance of Servetus and his followers (for he always speaks from good authority) he draws this delightful picture of the HOLY LAND-" All of it "which is situated towards the south, consists of DE66 SERTS OF SALT SANDS on the side of the Mediterranean and Egypt; and of HORRID MOUNTAINS "all the way to Esiongaber, towards the Red-Sea. "These sands, and these rocks, at present possessed by a few straggling Arabian Robbers, were the an"cient patrimony of the Jews *.*

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Now admitting this account to be truc: 1. In the first place, we may inform our Poct, that, from the face of a country lying desert, there is no safe judgment to be made of the degree of its fertility when well cultivated; especially of such a one as is here described, consisting of rugged mountains and sandy plains, which,

*Tout ce qui est situé vers le midi consiste en deserts de sables salés du côté de la Mediterranée & de l'Egypte, & en montagnes, affreuses jusqu'à Esiongaber vers la Mer Rouge. Ces sables & ces rochers, habités aujourd-hui par quelques Arabes Voleurs, sont l'ancienne patrie des Juifs. Add. à l'Hist. Generale, p. 83. without