Fetching
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1cette loi : c’est enfin la faculté de rester fîdeles à la lumière qui nous est sans cesse présentée. Cette liberté principe se manifeste dans l’homme , meme lorsqu’il s’est rendu esclave des influences étrangères à sa loi. Alors on le voit encore , avant de se déterminer, comparer entr’elles les diverses impulsons qui le dominent , opposer ses habitudes & ses passions les unes aux autres, & choilîr enfin celle qui a le plus d’attraits pour lui. Considérée comme effet , la liberté se dirige uniquement d’après la loi donnée à notre nature intellectuelle ; alors elle suppose l’indépendance y * l’exemption entière de toute action , force ou influence contraire à cette loi ; exemption que peu d’hommes ont connue. Sous ce point de vue, où l’homme n’admet aucun autre motif que sa loi 9 toutes ses déterminations , tous ses ades sont l’effet de cette loi qui le guide , & c’est alors seulement qu’il est vraiment libre , n’étant jamais détourné par aucune impulsion étrangère de ce qui convient à son Etre. Quant à l’Etre principe , à cette force pensante universelle , supérieure à l’homme , de laquelle nous ne pouvons surmonter ni éviter l’action , & dont l’existence est démontrée par l’état passif où nous sommes envers elle , relativement à nos pensées ; ce premier Principe a ausîi une liberté qui différé essentiellement de celle des auï6 Tableau
2très Êtres ; car étant lui-méme sa propre loî , il ne peut jamais s’en écarter , & sa liberté n’est exposee à aucune entrave ou impulsion étrangère. Ainfiiln’apas cette faculté funeste , par laquelle l’homme peut agir contre le but même de son existence. Ce qui démontre la supériorité infinie de ce Principe universel , & Créateur de toute loi. Ce Principe suprême , source de toutes les Puissances , soit de celles qui vivifient la pensée dans l’homme , soit de celles qui engendrent les œuvres visibles de la nature matérielle ; cet Etre nécessaire à tous les autres Etres , germe de toutes les a&ions , de qui émanent continuellement toutes les existences ; ce terme final , vers lequel elles tendent , comme par un effort irrésistible y parce que toutes recherchent la Vie ; cet Etre , dis-je , est celui que les hommes appellent généralement Dieu. Quelles que foient les idées étroites que la grossiere ignorance s’en est formée chez les différens Peuples , tous les hommes qui voudront descendre en eux-mêmes , & fonder le sentiment indeftru&ible qu’ils ont de ce Principe, reconnoîtront qu’il est le Bien par essence , & que tout bien provient de lui ; que le mal n’est que ce qui lui est opposé ; qu’ainsi il ne peut pas vouloir le Naturel. . 17
3le mal , & qu’au contraire il procure sans cesse à ses productions, par l’excellence de sa nature, toute l'étendue de bonheur dont elles sont fufcep'ibles , relativement à leurs différentes cladés , quoique les moyens qu’il emploie foient encore cachés à nos regards. Je ne tenterai pas de rendre plus sensible la nature de cet Etre , ni de pénétrer dans le Sanctuaire des Facultés divines ; il faudroit , pour y parvenir , conncitre quelqu’un des nombres qui les condiment: or comment seront - il possible à l’homme de soumettre la Divinité à ses calculs & de fixer son NOMBRE principal ? Pour connoître un nombre principal , il est nécessaire d’avoir au moins une de ses aliquotes : & quand, pour représenter l’immensité des Puissances divines , nous remplirions un livre , tout l’Univers, de lignes numériques , nous n’en aurions pas encore la première aliquote , puisque nous pourrions toujours y ajouter de nouveaux nombres , c’cft-à-dire , que nous trouverions toujours dans cet Etre , de nouvelles Vertus. D 'ailleurs il faut dire ici de Dieu , ce que nous aurions pu dire de l’Etre invidble de l’homme. Avant de songer à découvrir ses rapports & ses loix, nous avons dû nous convaincre de son exisfence, parce que, être , ou avoir tout en foi, félon sa classe , ce n’ed qu’une seule fk B 18 Tableau
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.
1that law: it is in short the faculty of remaining faithful to the light which is unceasingly held out to us. This liberty as principle manifests itself in man, even when he has made himself the slave of influences foreign to his law. Then one still sees him, before determining himself, compare among themselves the various impulsions which dominate him, oppose his habits & his passions one to another, & choose at last that which has the most attraction for him. Considered as effect, liberty directs itself solely according to the law given to our intellectual nature; then it supposes independence, * the entire exemption from all action, force or influence contrary to that law; an exemption which few men have known. Under this point of view, where man admits no other motive than his law 9 all his determinations, all his acts are the effect of that law which guides him, & it is then only that he is truly free, being never turned aside by any foreign impulsion from what befits his Being. As to the Being as principle, to that universal thinking force, superior to man, whose action we can neither overcome nor avoid, & whose existence is demonstrated by the passive state in which we stand toward it, in respect of our thoughts; this first Principle has also a liberty which differs essentially from that of the other 6 Tableau
2Beings; for being itself its own law, it can never depart from it, & its liberty is exposed to no hindrance or foreign impulsion. Thus it has not that fatal faculty by which man can act against the very end of his existence. Which demonstrates the infinite superiority of this universal Principle, & Creator of all law. This supreme Principle, source of all Powers, whether of those which vivify thought in man, or of those which engender the visible works of material nature; this Being necessary to all other Beings, germ of all actions, from whom continually emanate all existences; that final term toward which they tend, as by an irresistible effort, because all seek Life; this Being, I say, is that which men generally call God. Whatever be the narrow ideas which gross ignorance has formed of him among the different Peoples, all men who will descend into themselves, & sound the indestructible feeling they have of this Principle, will recognise that he is Good by essence, & that all good proceeds from him; that evil is only that which is opposed to him; that thus he cannot will the Natural. . 17
3evil, & that on the contrary he procures unceasingly for his productions, by the excellence of his nature, all the extent of happiness of which they are susceptible, relatively to their different classes, though the means he employs are still hidden from our sight. I shall not attempt to render more sensible the nature of this Being, nor to penetrate into the Sanctuary of the divine Faculties; it would be necessary, to attain to that, to know some one of the numbers which constitute them: now how will it be possible for man to submit the Divinity to his calculations & to fix its principal NUMBER? To know a principal number, it is necessary to have at least one of its aliquots: & though, to represent the immensity of the divine Powers, we should fill a book, the whole Universe, with lines of figures, we should not yet have the first aliquot of it, since we might always add new numbers to it, that is to say, that we should always find in that Being new Virtues. Besides, we must say here of God what we might have said of the invisible Being of man. Before thinking to discover his relations & his laws, we have had to convince ourselves of his existence, because to be, or to have all in oneself, according to one's class, is but one & the same B 18 Tableau
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.