Natural Aversion of the Human Mind to That Which Is Good.

NATURAL AVERSION OF THE HUMAN MIND TO

THAT WHICH IS GOOD.

“SHOULD naked virtue give herself to view,

Th’ admiring world would pay the homage due,”

Says a philosophers whose erring mind

Was to man’s vice and monstrous evils blind.

Thus Joseph’s piety, in tender age,

Awakes the fury of fraternal rage;

By envy stung, his brothers all conspire

The son to banish and deceive the sire.

Such was Pythagoras, a sage far famed;

And Aristides was THE JUST surnamed;

Great Socrates, unfortunately wise,

Bravely confessed one Ruler of the skies,

On Heaven reposed; while Greeks, a sinning race,

Levell’d his honours with the vile and base.

It is well known that ARISTIDES was banished from Athens for his excellent virtues; and in particular for his justice and beneficence, which gave umbrage to his fellow citizens. In the like manner that illustrious philosopher, who preached equity in Athens, lost his life through his support of truth which leads to piety. Many people, however, may not know that PYTHAGORAS was himself a martyr in the cause of virtue. For the sake of these, the following remarks, concerning the life and death of this great philosopher, are inserted from the account given by M. Dacier. “Nothing could equal the respect shown to Pythagoras. He was regarded as the most perfect image of God among men; his dwelling was named the temple of Ceres, and when he went to the villages, it was said that he came not merely to instruct, but to bless mankind.

“Who could have thought but a man so respected, who never did any thing but good to society, would have enjoyed a tranquil old age, and a happy conclusion? But this is not always the lot of heroes and sages. The corruption and injustice of men promise, to such characters as these, more vexation than tranquillity. The last years of Pythagoras were clouded with persecution, and he met a tragical death. Observe the origin of his misfortunes. “There was at Crotona a young man named Cylon, who was so elated with his birth, riches, and the great influence of his family, that he imagined it would be conferring honour on Pythagoras to become his disciple. The philosopher, not forming his judgment of men by external circumstances, perceiving this youth to be greatly depraved, dismissed him from his school.

“Cylon, being enraged at this injury, sought revenge. He every where defamed the philosopher, and endeavoured to render him suspected among the people, by representing his meetings as clubs of disaffected and seditious persons, whose aim was to overturn the state. These calumnies easily gained ground; (for the public were always unjust and suspicious, and ever ready to proceed to extremities against the sages, whom they considered as pedagogues who controlled and chastised them;) so that Pythagoras, their benefactor, was soon regarded as a public enemy at Crotona. “One day when all his disciples were assembled with him in the house of Milo, Cylon went there with a crowd of ruffians, and a great number of his friends that were devoted to his resentment. They surrounded and set fire to the house. None escaped from the ruins save Pythagoras, Lysis, and Archippus; the latter fled to Tarentum, his own country, and Lysis to Thebes, where he became preceptor to Epaminondas.

“With respect to Pythagoras, he took the way to Locris; but the people being advertised of his intended visit to them, and dreading the wrath of Cylon, and the fate of Crotona, sent their principal magistrates to entreat him to depart from them. He went to Tarentum, from whence a new persecution shortly drove him. He went to Metapontum, but the sedition of Crotona served as a signal for a general insurrection against the Pythagoreans. The flame extended to all the cities of Greece. The schools of Pythagoras were demolished, and he himself, at the age of fourscore, murdered in a tumult at Metapontum; or, according to others, he died of hunger in the temple of the muses, where he had taken shelter. These are the most circumstantial and authentic materials I have been able to collect concerning the death of Pythagoras. “Strange event,” concludes M. Dacier, “that the man who had appeased so many wars, calmed so many seditions, and extinguished the flame of discord in so many families, should perish in a tumult raised against himself. He was pursued from city to city, and the greatest part of his disciples were involved in the same ruin. It is very remark able that the cities which had persecuted Pythagoras the most, were the first who honoured his memory, and followed his laws with the greatest exactness.”

Those who neither embrace the Gospel, nor sound philosophy, will doubtless say, that the most active virtue has nothing to fear in these days. Does human nature differ at Paris and Toulouse from what it was at Crotona and Tarentum? Let us hear the decision of the two Rousseaus. “Socrates among us,” says Rousseau the philosopher, who had such exalted ideas of man, “must not only drink the cup of poison, but he must also drink a bitter cup of insulting raillery and contempt, a thousand times worse than death itself.” Rousseau the poet is of the same mind, in his Epistle to Count De Luc.

Si sur la terre aucun ne rous croit digne

D’etre hai, c’est un fort mauvais signe, &c.

Are you regarded in this envious age

Of hate unworthy? ‘Tis a bad presage!

But you, ‘tis said, pursue fair virtue’s ways,

And clear of vice in these degenerate days;

Object of scorn, if yet from talents free,

Strange! what, not safe in mediocrity?

In all your conduct purest morals show,

Your merit let observing mortals know,

Procuring praise, and not provoke one foe.

This maxim treasure in your thoughtful mind,

Acquire just praise, and war with all mankind.

M. de Voltaire, who had no relish for the severe truths of the Gospel, could not forbear publishing similar thoughts in his Epistle on Calumny. Que le mensonge un instant vous outrage, &c.

Should slander cast a hellish flood on you,

All burn with rage to prove that slander true:

Should truth beyond the clouds exalt her voice,

To vindicate thy fame, mankind are ice.

Horace had nearly the same views, if we consult the following lines. (Epis.

1. lib. 2.)

Post ingentia fata Deorum in templa recepti,

Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella

Componunt, agros adsignant, oppida condunt, &c.

Rome’s founder, Leda’s twins, the god of wine,

By human virtues raised to power Divine,

While they with pious cares improved mankind,

To various states their proper bounds assign’d,

Commanded war’s destroying rage to cease,

And bless’d their cities with the arts of peace;

Complain’d their virtues and their toils could raise But slight returns of gratitude and praise.

Who crush’d the hydra, when to life renew’d,

And monsters dire with fated toil subdued,

Found that the monster envy never dies,

Till low in equal death her conqueror lies.

Virtue, while living, suffers causeless hate,

But dead, we to the realms Divine translate.

The language of these poets illustrates the words of Jesus Christ; “Wo to you when all men speak well of you. Ye shall be hated of all nations for my sake.” Those who think Jesus Christ was deceived when he thus expressed himself, will doubtless conclude this canto of no advantage; but those who rise above mediocrity in virtue, and luke - warmness in piety, will perhaps be of another mind.

We need only view the persecutions which Pythagoras suffered, to be convinced how much philosophers deceive themselves in saying Christianity is a false religion, owing to its being the innocent cause of persecutions. It is granted that pure Christianity, like sound philosophy, has always been persecuted by wicked Pagans, sophistical reasoners, and carnal Christians; but instead of concluding that this religion is bad, we ought to infer that it is the most perfect and holy in the world, seeing it leads men to the most sublime virtue. And though it be hated and persecuted by all worldly minded persons, not even excepting those who have been dedicated to Jesus Christ in baptism, and consequently ought to tolerate the Gospel; yet it meets the cordial approbation of all honest men. True Christianity is so excellent, that no wicked person can love it, and the more depraved men are, the more they persecute it. And from this source spring those numerous and bloody persecutions with which nominal Christians are reproached. If it be demanded why wicked Christians are not only persecutors, but the fiercest persecutors, we answer, They persecute because they are wicked, and they are the most cruel persecutors because they are the greatest hypocrites, and consequently the worst of men. “I will not cease to declare,” says Rousseau, “that persecutors who profess a religion of charity, and torment unbelievers, as though they wished to damn them in the present life, and so become the devil’s harbingers, are not believers, but villains.” What numbers of persons have been entangled with, or confirmed in their incredulity by this difficulty, the solution of which we here present.