and that, in consequence of this, such offenders are put to death, is this a sacrifice offered unto the Lord?

VI. Whether it is a dispute of words that the Jews sacrificed men to the Divinity or not.

Lastly: we read the following extraordinary reasoning in your Melanges. "Learned men have canvassed this question, whether the Jews really sacrificed men to God, as so many other nations did. This is a verbal dispute. Those whom this nation devoted were not slaughtered on an altar with religious rites, but, notwithstanding, they were really offered up."

If "learned men have canvassed this question," it is a proof that they have sometimes canvassed very ridiculous ones. They must have known how much the Jewish law condemned these practices of idolaters, and this was sufficient to persuade them that the law never prescribed these sacrifices.

"It is a dispute about words." If it is so, and you look upon it as such, why do you return to it so often? Why do you repeat it over and over to us in so many different ways? A dispute about words ought not to engage so much of your attention.

But again, how do you prove that this is a verbal dispute? "Those whom this nation devoted," you say, "were not slaughtered on an altar with religious rites." True, Sir, but you do not say all? add to this that they never were offered up to the divinity, and consequently that these were not real sacrifices. Otherwise we must suppose, that every enemy, every rebellious citizen killed in a city taken by storm, is sacrificed to God. What a number of sacrifices then must have been offered up on the single night of St. Bartholomew!

But you say, "notwithstanding they were really offered up," that is, they were killed, still you play upon words.

We conclude by repeating, Sir, that in the 29th verse of the 27th chap. of Leviticus, no sacrifices are meant, but dreadful punishment, notorious vengeance. Those who were devoted by public authority were put to death, but they were not offered up. In languages there is a proper name for every thing; he who calls that an offering and a sacrifice, which others call penalty of death and military execution, is guilty of an evident abuse of words, and of an arbitrary confusion of ideas.

No one disputes but human sacrifices were common among the Canaanites, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Romans, &c. History informs us of this; innumerable testimonies of weight confirm it. There were ceremonies and appointed times for these barbarous acts; government and religion equally tolerated them; inhuman priests slaughtered these unhappy victims; their blood flowed upon the altars, and the people offered them up unto their gods as the fittest oblation for meriting their favour and averting their vengeance. Such instances should have been pointed out in the history of our fathers; then you would have been believed; but an illinterpreted text and a childish equivocation are not sufficient authorities for charging them with so detestable a crime, which they went to punish in the people of Canaan, a worship which their law clearly forbids, and of which you scarcely find one example in all their annals, and that too condemned by those who acknowledge it, and which has not been followed by any one of the nation.

Yes, Sir, so far from thinking that our law prescribes or approves those barbarous usages, any one who is the least acquainted with our history and laws, will confess that the

abolition of these horrid rites is owing to our religion, and to the others which sprang from it. And you, a learned writer and impartial philosopher, come and accuse our fathers of this practice! Truly you must be very sure of your readers, since you are not afraid least the manifest falsehood of these charges should give them a bad opinion of your knowledge or your ability.

We are, &c.

LETTER

FROM

JOSEPH BEN JONATHAN TO DAVID WINKER,

CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING

SHORT COMMENTARY.

DEAR DAVID,-I received the new extracts of our friend "Aaron's" work which you sent me. I have translated them, and published them under the form of a commentary as well as the former.

This form seems to have generally pleased; and indeed it has some advantages. Besides its causing variety, it presents the difficulties to the reader in a more distinct manner, and expressed in the very words of the author. The answers follow, and if they are satisfactory, they are more easily apprehended in this way.

Besides, as I told you before, commentaries are coming again into fashion, with this difference however, that the commentators of this age are very far from being enamoured with their text. If "Aaron" does not love his, no one will have reason to be surprised; it is the fashion of the times. If any one should complain of this, he can shelter himself under great authorities, you understand me, and what is still better, under good reasons.

Adieu; present our worthy friend my best wishes for his prosperity, and believe me sincerely and tenderly,

Yours, &c.

A SHORT COMMENTARY

EXTRACTED FROM A GREATER,

FOR THE USE OF MR. VOLTAIRE, AND OF THOSE WHO READ HIS WORKS.

EXTRACT I.

OF ABRAHAM, WHETHER HE EVER EXISTED.

WHO HE WAS.

LIKE all great men, Sir, you are born to rule the age you live in, and to reform all its prejudices. The title of commentator was become the lowest in literature.* You have deigned to take it up; it is now ennobled, people on every side flock to assume it after you. Happy the man that can sustain it with like talents and success!

By your comments on the great Corneille, on the excellent author of the Treatise on Crimes and Punishments, &c. you have done honour to their works, and stamped an additional value on them. Might we expect by commenting on your's, to have the happiness of contributing to their perfection? This desire at least, we may say, animates us, and after the defence of our sacred writings, it is our principal object.

And therefore we shall not spend time in extolling the beauties that shine forth in every part of your writings. Un

* This was Pope's opinion. "From an author," he says, "I became a translator; from a translator, a commentator. I shall soon be nothing at all."-EDIT.