268 Notes of a Miscellaneous Reader. [Sepr. 
Spain: Note in the Margin of “ Remarques de I’ Essai sur les Meéurs.” 
‘In 1490, Spain had scarcely any existence as an integral and inde- 
pendent state ; in 1550 it was probably the most powerful monarchy in 
the’ world; in 1650 it had begun sensibly to decline ; in 1750 it had 
completely sunken from any place of importance among European 
nations ; in 1809 it no longer existed, except under the government of a 
private Corsican gentleman ; and now (1825) it has been conquered and 
reconquered three times since the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
Tue Jews. Note in the margin of the same book, on the following 
passage. 
«On peut parler beaucoup de ce peuple en théologie, mais il 
mérite peu de place dans histoire. En effet, quelle attention peut 
s’'attirer par elle-méme une nation faible et barbare, qui ne posséda 
jamais un pays comparable 4 un de nos provinces; qui ne fut célébre 
ni par le commerce, ni par les arts; qui fit presque toujours séditieuse 
et esclave, jusqu’a ce qu’enfin les Romains la dispersérent?” 
Here Voltaire’s prejudices cloud and impede the free exercise of his 
reasoning faculties. Because, perhaps, too much importance has been 
given to the Jews, considered only in their temporal and historical re- 
lations, Voltaire would take from them that which they really deserve. 
It is true that this people (still considering them only as indicated 
above) possessed but a very limited territory; but, at the least, it is 
extraordinary that, though for upwards of 1700 years they have been 
wandering over the face of the earth, they should still remain a nation. 
It is, at the least, extraordinary that a people of such antiquity should 
have been able to form, and, what is as much, to preserve, a code such as 
that of Moses. It is still more extraordinary that this people (if M. 
de Voltaire will insist upon denying the divinity of Christ) smvented a 
moral code, the most pure and beautiful that ever has been given to 
the world. It is the abuse of Christianity, not Christianity itself, 
which has produced the evils which Voltaire attributes to its agency. 
It is not‘in the Gospel that the precepts which caused the massacre of 
St, Bartholomew are to be found. No: bad men have used the re- 
ligion of peace as a cloak for their own violent passions—the religion of 
charity and love, for a pretext for hatred and thirst of blood. Voltaire’s 
-heart was eminently a kind one; his horror of bloodshed most singular- 
ly sensitive. He has’ allowed the abuses, committed under its name, 
to blacken Christianity in his eyes: and hence I have long been per- 
suaded that his hatred of the Christian religion sprang from the very 
abundance of the truest Christian feeling within his heart. 
NoTeE TO THE OPENING LINES OF THE HENRIADE.*—It has often struck 
me that the peculiarities attending the position of Henri Quatre, as a 
Béarnais, have been very inadequately dwelt upon in the many writings 
concerning him. Those peculiarities had, through bis education, the 
strongest influence upon the actions and fortunes of his after-life, the 
details of which have been set forth so amply. ) ) 
In these days especially, when romance and tradition of every kind 
are so much and so eagerly sought after among us, it is, somewhat 
* “ Je chante ce héros qui régna sur la France, ISUST TE TU LGU PS 
Et par droit de conquéte, et par droit de naissance,” &e) 15 
