The Arcades Project - Operi

judging solely by the lights of a rather small number of men who first deliver an
opinion. They pass on, and this opinion survives them. The new hooks arriving on
the scene leave no time for reading any others; and soon these others are judged
only according to a vague reputation." Joseph de Maistre, Les Soirees de Saint­
Petersbonrg, ed. Hattier (Paris), p. 44 (sixth dialogue). [J64a,4]
'"'"The whole earth continually steeped in hlood. is nothing but an immense altar on
which every living thing must be sacrificed without end, without restraint without
respite, until the consummation of the world, the extinction of evil, the death of
death." De Mai.,tre Soirees, ed. Hattier, p. 61 (seventh dialogue: "La Guerre").346
[J64a,S]
The characters in Les Soirees de Saint-Pitersbourg: the Knight has felt the influence
of Voltaire, and the Senator is a mystic, while the Count expounds the doctrine of
the author himself. [J64a,6]
'"'But do you realize, gentlemen, the source of this flood of insolent doctrines which
unceremoniously judge God and call him to account for his orders? They come to
us from that great phalanx we call savants and whom we have not
been ahle in tIris age to keep in their place, which is a secondary one. At other
times, there were very few sa'vants, and a very small minority of this very small
minority were ungodly; today one sees nothing but savants. It is a profession, a
crowd, a nation, and among them the already unfortunate exception has become
the rule. On every side they have usurped a limitless influence; yet if there is one
thing eertain in this world, it is, to my mind, that it is not for seienee to guide men.
Nothing necessary for this is entrusted to science. One would have to he out of
one's mind to believe that God has charged the academies with teaching us what he
is and what we owe to him. It rests with the prelates, the nobles, the great officers
of state to be the repositories and guardians of the saving truths, to teach nations
what is had and what good, what true and what false, in the moral and spiritual
order. Others have no right to reason on this kind of matter. They have the natura]
sciences to amuse them. What are they complaining ahon!'?" De Maistre, Les
Soirees de Saint-Petersbourg, ed. HattieI' (Paris), p. 72 (eighth dialogne).:H7
[J6S,1]
On judicial procedures: "'"Under the rule of Muslim law, authority punishes, even
with death, the man it thinks deserves it, at the very moment and place it seizes
him; this brusque enforcement of the law, which has not lacked blind. admirers, is
nevertheless one of the many proofs of the brutalization and divine censure of
these peoples. Among us, things are quite different. The culprit must be arrested;
he must be charged; he must defend himself'; he must above all settle his conscience
and his worldly affairs; practical arrangements for his punishment must be made.
Finally, to take everything into account, a certain time must he left to take him to
the appointed place of punishment. The scaffold is an altar; it cannot therefore he
either set up in a certain place or moved, except by authority. These delays,