OF MIRACLES
BY VOLTAIRE
Let us never lose sight of the nature of man:
it loves nothing but what is extraordinary, and
this is so true, that as soon as the beautiful
and sublime become familiar, they are no longer
beautiful and sublime. We require uncommon
things of every kind; and, in this pursuit, we
break down the fences of possibility. Ancient
history resembles the history of the cabbage,
which was larger than a house, and of the pot,
bigger than a church, in which it was to be
boiled.
What idea have we affixed to the word miracle,
which at first signified something admirable?
We have said, that what nature cannot produce
is contrary to all its laws. So the Englishman,
who promised the people of London to get whole
into a bottle, promised a miracle. And legend-makers
would not formerly have been wanting to affirm
the accomplishment of this prodigy, if it had
produced anything to the convent.
We believe, without difficulty, the real
miracles operated in our holy religion, and
amongst the Jews, whose religion paved the
way for ours. We speak in this place only of
other nations, and we reason only according
to the rules of good sense, ever subordinate
to revelation.
Whoever is wanting in the light of faith,
cannot consider a miracle as anything else
than a contradiction to the eternal laws of
nature. It does not appear possible to him
that God should disturb his own work: he knows
that everything in nature is concatenated
by indissoluble chains. He knows that God
being immutable, his laws are the same, and
that no one wheel of the whole machine can
be stopped without nature's self being
disordered.
If Jupiter while visiting Alcmena makes a
night of twenty-four hours, when it should
consist of only twelve, the earth must
necessarily be stopped in its course, and
remain motionless twelve whole hours. But
as the usual phenomena appeared the succeeding
night, the moon and the other planets must
consequently have been stopped in their
course. This would have been a very great
revolution in the celestial orbs, in favor
of a woman of Thebes in Boeotia.
A dead man comes to life after being breathless
for some days. All the imperceptible particles
of his body, which were exhaled in the air, and
which had been carried away by the wind, must
have returned exactly to their former station,
and the worms, birds, or other animals,
which were nourished with the substance of
this corpse, must each of them restore what
he had taken from it. The worms, fattened
with the entrails of this man, must have
been eaten by swallows, these swallows by
magpies, these magpies by falcons, and these
falcons by vultures. Each one must restore
precisely what belonged to the deceased,
without which it could not be the same
person. And all this is nothing, unless
the soul returns to its former mansion.
If the Eternal Being, who has foreseen all
things, arranged all things, who governs all
things by immutable laws, acts contrary to
his own design by subverting those laws,
this can be supposed to take place only for
the benefit of all nature. But it appears
contradictory to suppose a single case,
wherein the creator and master of all things
could change the order of the universe for
the benefit of the world; for he either
foresaw the supposed necessity there would
be before the change, or else he did not
see it. If he did foresee, the necessary
regulations were made in the beginning;
if he did not foresee, he is no longer God.
It is averred that to please a nation, a
city, or a family, the Supreme Being made
Pelops, Hippolites, Heres, and some other
famous personages rise from the dead; but
it does not seem probable that the common
master of the universe should forget the
care of that universe, in favor of this
Hippolites, or this Pelops.
The more incredible miracles are (according
to our weak intellects) the more readily
they have met with belief. Every people had
so many prodigies, that they became very
common things; nor did they think it prudent
to deny those of their neighbors. The Greeks
said to the Egyptians and Asiatic nations,
"The gods spoke to you sometimes, they speak
to us every day; if they have fought twenty
times for you, they have put themselves forty
times at the head of our armies. If you have
metamorphoses, we have a hundred times more
than you. If your animals speak, ours have
made very elegant orations." There are no
people, even down to the Romans, among whom
beasts have not had the power of speech, to
foretell future events. Titus Livius relates
that an ox cried out in the public market-place
when full of people, "Rome take care of
thyself." Pliny in his eighth book says, that
a dog spoke, when Tarquin was driven from the
throne. If Suetonius is to be credited, a crow
cries out in the Capitol, when Domitian was
going to be assassinated, Estai panta Kalos,
very well done, all is well. In the same
manner one of Achilles's horses, named Xante,
foretold to his master that he should fall
before Troy. Before Achilles's horse,
Phrixus's ram had spoken, as well as the
cows upon Mount Olympus. So that instead of
refuting fables, they were improved upon.
This was like the council whose client had
a bond forged upon him; he did not amuse
himself with pleadings; he immediately
produced a forged receipt.
It is true we do not meet with many resurrections
amongst the Romans; they confined themselves
chiefly to miraculous cures. The Greeks, more
attached to the metempsychosis, had many
resurrections. They had this secret from the
people of the East, from whom all sciences
and superstitions are derived.
Of all the miraculous cures, the best attested,
and most authentic, are those of the blind man,
whom the emperor Vespasian restored to sight,
and the paralytic who by this monarch's aid
recovered the use of his limbs. It is in
Alexandria that this double miracle operates,
before innumerable spectators, before Romans,
Greeks, and Egyptians. It is upon his tribunal,
that Vespasian operates these prodigies. He
does not endeavor to gain esteem by imposture,
which is unnecessary to a monarch who is firmly
seated on his throne: but the two patients
prostrated themselves at his feet, and conjure
him to cure them; he blushes at their entreaties,
ridicules them, saying that such cures are
not in the power of mortals. They insist upon
it: Serapis has appeared to them; Serapis has
told them they shall be cured by Vespasian.
He at length lets himself be prevailed upon;
he touches them without being flattered with
success. The Divinity, favoring his modesty
and virtue, communicates to Vespasian his
power; that instant the blind man sees, and
the lame one walks. Alexandria, Egypt, all
the empire, applaud Vespasian, favored by
Heaven. The miracle is preserved in the archives
of the empire, and in all the contemporary
histories. This miracle has nevertheless in
course of time been disbelieved by every one,
because no one is interested in supporting
its credit.
If we believe I know not what sort of a writer
of our barbarous ages, named Helgaut, King Robert,
son to Hugh Capet, also cured a blind man.
This miraculous gift was probably given to
Robert, to requite the charity wherewith he
burnt his wife's confessor, and the canons
of Orleans, who were accused of not believing
the infallibilty and absolute power of the
pope, and consequently of being Manicheans;
or if this was not the recompense of this
good action, it was to indemnify him, for
the excommunication which he suffered, for
his attention to the queen, his wife.
Philosophers have made miracles in the same
manner as emperors and kings. We are acquainted
with those of Apollonius Tyannus. He was a
Pythagorian philosopher, temperate, chaste,
and just, who is not reproached by history
with any equivocal action, nor any of those
weaknesses with which Socrates is stigmatized.
He traveled amongst the Magi and the Brahmans;
and was the more honored everywhere, on account
of his modesty, always giving wise counsel,
and seldom disputing. The constant prayer,
which he preferred to the gods, was admirable:
"Immortal gods, grant unto us what you think
is needful, and which we are not unworthy of."
He was no enthusiast; but his disciples were
enthusiasts; they attributed miracles to him,
which were collected by Philostrates. The
Tyarnaens placed him amongst the demi-gods,
and the Roman emperors approved of his
apotheosis. But in time, the apotheosis of
Apollonius met the same fate as that which
was decreed to the Roman emperors. The chapel
of Apollonius was equally deserted as that
which had been erected by the Athenians to
Socrates.
The kings of England from the time of St. Edward,
to the time of William III. daily performed
a great miracle, which was to cure the evil,
which physicians could not remove. But William III.
would perform no miracles, and his successors
have followed his example in abstaining from
them. If England should ever undergo any great
revolution whereby that nation will be sunk
again in ignorance, the English will then have
miracles performed every day.
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