1 697-] FATHER LE COMTE. 259 



of Meaux has given us of the Doctrine and Practice of his 

 Eeligion.^ These Idolaters, whom I cannot forbear to call by 

 that Name, notwithstanding they pretend to make the best 

 use of their natural Light,"' confest they pay also some 

 Adoration to the wicked Spirits, not thro' Love, or any other 

 Eespect they have for them, but for the same reason that 

 you stroke a surly Dog, that he may not bite you, or that a 

 Man of mean Condition cringes to a great Lord, and that 

 Lord phiys the same part over again at Court. 



'Tis certainly true, that both iu China and elsewhere 

 among the Idolaters, those Persons who have been capable 

 of any Reflection, have always believ'd that there was only 

 one Ahnighty Sovereign Power, the truly supream and 

 absolute Authority not being liable to Division. But the 

 People in general have not these Ideas. 



When these Subaltern Deities have obstinately persisted 

 to refuse those things that were reasonably demanded 

 of them, they have been chastis'd after an exemplary 

 manner. Sometimes their Temples have been ras'd, and 

 their Priests driven away from their Idols. Father Le 

 Comtek displays this so well, that I cannot help making 

 use of his very Words. 



the Expoxition^ writes Father de Baupet (Bishop of Alais) in 1814, has 

 been perhaps the most useful of Bossuet's works, both in the good effect 

 which it has produced and by the general attention which it caused. 



1 "I will appeal to all unbyass'd persons, when once Posterity shall 

 read the History of the Persecution of France, as represented by 

 Maimbourg, Varillaft, the Bishop of Meaux, and others of the same 

 stamp, I say, when they shall read the same in these Authors, whether 

 they would not be apt to imagin that these poor Wretches were used 

 with all imaginable moderation, if it were not manifest by unquestion- 

 able Authority, that these unfortunate Creatures suffer'd all the 

 Cruelties that could be invented by their implacable Enemies." (Max 

 Misson's Voyage to Italy ^ Letter xxv.) 



2 In orig : "malgre les subterfuges de ceux d'entre eux qui font le 

 meilleur usage de leur lumiere naturelle." 



3 Nouveaux Memoires sur I'etat present de La Chine , par le P. Loiiis 

 Le Comte, de la Compagnie de Jesus, Mathematicien du Roy. Tome 



s 2 



