BAYLE. 



361 



Bayle which it inculcates, and for the strength of argument 

 - v ' and clearness of ^lustration with which almost all its 

 positions on that important subject are accompanied. 

 He who, after a carefui and candid perusal of it, 

 would justify persecution in popish princes in any 

 case, or non-toleration in protestants, unless it be 

 identified with the safety of the state, we must pro- 

 nounce to be neither an enlightened Christian, nor a 

 wise citizen. 



About this time Mr Bayle received letters from 

 various quarters ; from the French Academy, from the 

 Royal Society of London, and from the Society of 

 Dublin, approving highly of his Journal, and express- 

 in g, in polite terms, their admiration of the genius 

 which it indicated, and their sense of its utility to the 

 cause of literature. But while this work advanced 

 his reputation, it also involved him in some disagree- 

 able disputes. Some thing which he had published 

 in it, was particularly offensive to that strange, clever, 

 and eccentric woman, Christina Queen of Sweden. 

 She made one of her servants communicate to him the 

 ground of her complaint. This he answered by a 

 note in his Journal, which would have satisfied any 

 reasonable mind. But finding that the queen's dis- 

 pleasure was not to be removed so easily, he made a 

 lull recantation of his error both in the Journal, and 

 in a letter which he was advised to address to Chris- 

 tina herself. The strain of this letter is adulatory 

 and slavish. It is a great deal more than mere respect 

 to the queen's elevated rank, or than mere complai- 

 sance to her headstrong humour. It is a practical 

 - libition of that belief which was then entertained 

 by the reformed, as well as by the catholics, in the ab- 

 solute and divine right of princes ; and forms a strik- 

 ing and lamentable contrast to that noble indepen- 

 dence of language which we should expect to find in 

 all the writings of a protestant philosopher. The great 

 object of Mr Bayle, however, was gained. The queen 

 was satisfied. She sent him a gracious and friendly 

 answer, and shewed him other marks of her favour. 

 Mr Bayle having been seized with a fever at the com- 

 mencement of the year 1687, in consequence of the 

 labour and fatigue which the publication of his Jour- 

 nal obliged him to undergo, he was under the neces- 

 sity of giving over that work. A continuation of it 

 was undertaken at his request by Mr Beauval, under 

 the title of Histoire des Ouvrages des Scavans. But 

 at the same time it was regularly published under the 

 old title for about two years longer by the original 

 printer of it, with the assistance of a Mr Larroque, 

 a Mr Barin, and other literary characters. 



Mr Juried being a man of intolerant temper, was 

 displeased with the Commentaire Philosophique, and 

 undertook to write an answer to it, in which he at 

 first suspected it to be the production of a cabal of 

 French refugees, but afterwards distinctly laid it to 

 the charge of Mr Bayle, who had been very anxious 

 to make the public believe that he was not the author. 

 Having, by proper care of himself, "recovered from his 

 illness, Mr Bayle published a continuation of his Phi- 

 losophical Commentary by way of supplement ; and 

 took occasion to notice Jurieu's work, in such a man- 

 ner as to make him contradict himself, and to expos e 

 him to ridicule and contempt. In 1690 there appear- 

 ed a book, entitled, Avis Important aux llefugics sur 



VOL. III. PART II. 



leur prochain retouren France. From what Maizeaux 

 has stated, we have sufficient reason for concluding, 

 that Mr Bayle was the author of this work. But as 

 it contains a severe censure on the refugees for pre- 

 tended calumnies and attachment to republicanism, 

 and is quite inconsistent with the strain of his other 

 writings, we are at a loss to know the motives whick 

 he had tor such a publication. Notwithstanding all 

 that his biographer has said to account for this part 

 of his conduct, we cannot but consider it as represent- 

 ing him in a very suspicious and unfavourable light. 

 Indeed, the attempt to justify an action so hypocriti- 

 cal and base, is far more absurd than an implicit be- 

 lief in the denial of Bayle himself, and the testimony 

 of his eulogist, Mr Beauval. In the year following, 

 one Goudet, a merchant in Geneva, composed a pro- 

 ject for a general peace, which Mr Bayle perused in 

 manuscript, and which was afterwards published with 

 his concurrence. Jurieu, who had accused him of 

 being the author of the Advice to the Refugees, con- 

 necting it in this view with the project for a general 

 peace, thought proper to regard them as decisive 

 proofs of an existing conspiracy in favour of the court 

 of France j and, openly charging Mr Bayle as one of 

 the leaders in it, pronounced him to be an impious 

 and prophane person, without honour or religion, a 

 traitor, a deceitful man, an enemy to the state ; a per- 

 son to be detested, and deserving of corporal punish- 

 ment. To prevent the injury which such a serious 

 attack, if unresisted, must have done to his reputation 

 and his interests, Mr Bayle went to the magistrates 

 of Rotterdam, asserted his innocence in the strongest 

 terms, and demanded that he should not suffer in their 

 estimation till the case was fairly tried. And not sa- 

 tisfied with this appeal to the civil authority, he deem- 

 ed it expedient to vindicate his character before the 

 world by a public refutation of Jurieu's ridiculous 

 and malevolent libels. This he did in a work entitled, 

 La Cabale Chimerique, &c. In this work he kept 

 no terms with Jurieu. He proved him to be igno- 

 rant, stupid, arrogant, and wicked ; and held him up 

 as a man to be laughed at for his folly, and detested 

 for his malevolence. The burgomasters of Rotter- 

 dam, to whom Jurieu applied for protection, advised 

 a mutual reconciliation, and forbade the combatants 

 to publish any thing against one another, without 

 first submitting it to the inspection of Mr Bayer, pen- 

 sionary of the city. This order, however, was vio- 

 lated by Jurieu, and a long controversy ensued, in 

 which he reaped nothing but disgrace, and which at 

 length was terminated by a dignified silence on the 

 part of Mr Bayle. 



In 1693, Mr Bayle was deprived of his professor- 

 ship and of the salary annexed to it, and even pro- 

 hibited from teaching privately. This harsh treat- 

 ment he himself ascribed to the machinations of 

 Jurieu, and to the offence which, through his means, 

 the magistrates had taken at the Letter on Comets. 

 But it would appear that he was mistaken as to the 

 cause of his deposition. The true cause is to be 

 found in the unwarrantable fears, the rash policy, and 

 tyrannical conduct of King William. That prince 

 had heard of the " Project for a General Peace ;" 

 and, as the publication of such treatises at Amster- 

 dam had formerly been instrumental in bringing about 

 2z 



Bay!?; 



