Fetching
One moment.
1Ils auraient reconnu que ce Principe premier t dont l’homme étoit chargé de manifester limage sur la Terre , lui fournissoit encore ici - bas les moyens d’accomplir sa destination ; que celui de tous , le plus sensible étoit de lui montrer , dans la propre postérité , le type de ce qu'il aurait été , s’il eût conservé les droits de son origine ; qu’ainsi ce Principe premier avoit pu & dû choisir parmi cette postérité criminelle , quelqu’Etre moins coupable & plus rapproché de lui , le rendre dépositaire des vertus que sa Justice permettoit d’accorder à Ja Terre , pour la ramener à ion centre ; donner à cet Etre , par une faite de la convention primitive , la promesse que s’il en faisoit un usage légitime , non-seulement il les conserveroit pour lui & pour sa postérité , mais encore qu’il les augmenterait sans fin & jusqu’à l’immensité des nombres ; que si , au contraire , lui & ses descendans venoient à les mépriser , tous ces droits leur feraient retirés , & qu’alors au lieu d’éclairer les Nations , & de les ramener à leur Naturel. leur centre , ils deviendroient l’objet de sa Justice & l’opprobre de la Terre.
2Les Observateurs auroient vu enfin , que c’étoit répéter dans un tableau sensible & temporel , cette convention première sur laquelle l’émanation de l’homme étoit fondée , & par laquelle il dévoie jouir de tous les avantages inhérens à la splendeur de sa source, s’il y demeuroit attaché, comme il devoit attendre tous les maux & tous les avilifîe— mens , s’il s’en séparoit. Mais , quoique la supréme Sagesse ait pu & dû faire temporellement le choix dont nous parlons ; quoiqu’elle ait élu un Etre juste pour lui confier le tréfor de ses bienfaits , puisque nul impie ne peut y participer j si dans la fuite la postérité de ce Juste vient à s’écarter de sa loi , qu'elle devienne par conséquent un réceptacle d’ignominie , & l’objet du mépris de tous les Peuples , dira-t-on pour cela que le choix de cette Sagesse ait été indigne d’elle ? Et le premier choix qu’elle auroit fait , en auroit-il été moins pur , quoiqu’il fut devenu l’impurêté même ? Il faudroit donc dire que l’homme , émané de la Sagesse suprême , fut sans gloire & corrompu dans son origine , parce qu’aujourd’hui nous le voyons ramper dans le crime & l’opprobre. Avouons donc que ce Peuple , malgré qu’il ait E peu fécondé la main qui l’avoit choisi , n’étoit pat 5>6' Tableau
3pas moins , lors de son éleélion , le flambeau vivant qui devoit briller dans nos ténèbres , & nous retracer des tableaux temporels dont l’homme invisible est le modèle. Enfin , reconnoissons qu’il devoit être la preuve parlante du principe qui a été exposé sur la nécessité de la communication des vertus subdivisées de la Sagesse suprême parmi les hommes. On ne peut nier même que dans la difperflon absolue à laquelle il est: livré , il ne présente encore des indices de cette vérité. Ce Peuple, choisi par la Sagesse pour être son ligne sur la Terre , représentoit l’état glorieux de l’homme dans la pureté de son origine , & les fubîimes fonctions qui l’appelloient à manifester cette Sagesse dans l’Univers ; ce Peuple représentoit même l’ordre & l’harmonie de cette Unité suprême que tous les Etres devroient contempler sans celle , afin de se conformer à la régularité de leur modèle ; en un mot, il étoit comme le fanal des Nations & le flambeau qui devoit successivement les éclairer. Lorsque le Peuple hébreu est tombé dans de coupables divisions , lorsque ses crimes l’ont entraîné dans l’oubli de ses titres , dans un culte faux & impie , & dans la rigoureuse dispersion qui en devoit être la fuite , sa nature première n’a point changé ; I Nature i:
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1They would have recognised that that first Principle, whose image man was charged to manifest upon the Earth, furnished him still here below the means of accomplishing his destination; that of all, the most sensible was to show him, in his own posterity, the type of what he would have been had he preserved the rights of his origin; that thus that first Principle was able & bound to choose among that criminal posterity some Being less guilty & brought nearer to it, to make him depositary of the virtues its Justice permitted to be accorded to the Earth, to bring it back to its centre; to give to that Being, by a consequence of the primitive convention, the promise that if he made a legitimate use of them, not only would he preserve them for himself & for his posterity, but further that he would augment them without end & even to the immensity of numbers; that if, on the contrary, he & his descendants came to despise them, all those rights would be withdrawn from them, & that then instead of enlightening the Nations, & of bringing them back to their Naturel. their centre, they would become the object of its Justice & the opprobrium of the Earth.
2The Observers would have seen finally that it was to repeat in a sensible & temporal picture that first convention upon which the emanation of man was founded, & by which he was to enjoy all the advantages inherent in the splendour of his source if he remained attached to it, as he was to expect all the evils & all the debasements if he separated himself from it. But although the supreme Wisdom was able & bound to make temporally the choice whereof we speak; although it elected a just Being to confide to him the treasure of its benefits, since no impious man can participate in it; if in the sequel the posterity of that Just Man comes to depart from his law, so that it becomes consequently a receptacle of ignominy, & the object of the contempt of all Peoples, shall one say for that reason that the choice of that Wisdom was unworthy of it? And the first choice it had made, would it have been the less pure for it, although it had become impurity itself? It would then be necessary to say that man, emanated from the supreme Wisdom, was without glory & corrupt in his origin, because to-day we see him crawl in crime & opprobrium. Let us avow then that that People, although it seconded so little the hand which had chosen it, was not 5>6' Tableau
3the less, at the time of its election, the living torch which was to shine in our darkness, & to retrace for us temporal pictures whereof invisible man is the model. Finally, let us recognise that it was to be the speaking proof of the principle which has been set forth upon the necessity of the communication of the subdivided virtues of the supreme Wisdom among men. One cannot even deny that in the absolute dispersion whereto it is delivered, it still presents indications of that truth. That People, chosen by Wisdom to be its sign upon the Earth, represented the glorious state of man in the purity of his origin, & the sublime functions which called him to manifest that Wisdom in the Universe; that People represented even the order & the harmony of that supreme Unity which all Beings ought to contemplate without cease, in order to conform themselves to the regularity of their model; in a word, it was as the beacon of the Nations & the torch which was successively to enlighten them. When the Hebrew People fell into guilty divisions, when its crimes drew it into the forgetfulness of its titles, into a false & impious worship, & into the rigorous dispersion which was to be the consequence of it, its first nature has not changed; I Nature i:
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
PROVENANCE OF THE COPY SCANNED. The volume carries the bookplate of Sidney Edward Bouverie-Pusey, printed above the title page and here trimmed out of the reading text along with the scanner debris around it. It is recorded rather than discarded: it says whose copy of the 1782 Tableau naturel this archive is reading from, which is a fact about the artefact even though it is not a fact about the book.