2S6 



Life and Writings of Father BescM, 



[April 



1 he Sage of lucid intellect tenderhj cmhi-acing the youth said ; " /4s 

 ike stars surround the moon, may not benevolence, knowledge, off c- 

 iion, constancy, forbearance, liberality and other unillusive virtues 

 adorn devotion though it he j^factised in a country abounding in every 

 species of wealth." 



To those who remember the scope of the controversy between the 

 Jansenists and the Jesuits, though this, like other phantasies of the 

 same kind, is fast fading from human cognizance, the following quota- 

 tion will not be iinpleasing : it is curious, also, as a specimen of the 

 dexterity with which the author seizes every handle offered him, if it 

 seem likely to become a useful instrument in the prosecution of his 

 labours, and of the sophistical, but characteristic, ingenuity, with which 

 he endeavours to reconcile doctrines in reality incompatible. The 

 terms ^SsDoSp the destiny of the head, and ^^soOiuQp^^ the writ' 

 ing of the head, used in this extract belong properly to mythology^ 

 which feigns, that, previously to birth, the destiny of every individual 

 is written by Brahma in the head of the embryo; this writing, it is 

 supposed, is seen in the indented line which marks the sutures of the 

 skull. — See the 27th canto {t^iru'Siljuu.edLh) of the Tembavani . 

 the controversy here detailed between Sivasiven, who supports the 

 character of a Hindu guru, and Joseph, commences with the doctrine 

 of the metempsychosis, from which it naturally deviates to the subject 

 of destiny and the origin of good and evil. 



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