Fetching
One moment.
1Enfin , l’on rauroit que par une de ces faveurs <qui ont été accordées à l’homme dans sa pénible carrière pour lui servir de guide , les impressions întesse&uelles fausses sont afliijetties à des loix semblables à celles de l’ordre physique & matériel ; & qu’ainsi que les corps , apres avoir montré une apparence gracieuse & reguliere , finissent par devenir hideux & difformes , de même dans la classe intesse&uelle , les Tableaux impurs les plus séduisants , ne tardent pas à se décomposer , & à déceler leur illégitimité. C’est tout ce que je puis dire sur ce point. Résumons en peu de mots toutes les vérités qui viennent d’être exposées. Elles nous apprennent que par une fuite de l’amour que la Sagesse a pour l’homme , elle dut , lors même qu’il détourna pour la première fois les yeux de sa lumière , lui en conserver des rayons proportionnés à la foiblesse de sa vue , & qu’à quelque degré que son crime l’eût fait defeendre , il ne pouvoit tomber que dans les mains de son Dieu. Et même n’étant pas gêné , comme nous , par les idées fausses & les voiles ténébreux que sa *9# T A !LB A V
2malheureuse postérité ne celle Rajouter a sa dégradation originelle , quelque criminel qu’il fût } il étoit encore bien plus près que nous de ce Dieu qui l’avoit formé ; il pouvoit mieux appercevoir la source pure dont il venoit de se séparer ; il" ne languissoit pas centime nous dans le néant , & l’insensibilité des maux dont nous sommes dévorés. Enfin , autant il est vrai que nous n’avons que des regrets sur l’état de notre première existence , autant le premier homme coupable eut-il à la fois & des regrets & des remords. A mesure que la postérité de l’homme s’est multipliée ^ & que les temps se sont écoulés , la grandeur & la bonté de la Sagesse supréme ont dû se manifester de plus en plus , en plaçant près de lui des Images vivantes d’elle-mème , ou des Agents assïez virtuels pour le porter à en recouvrer la ressemblance. Ces Agents ont dû l’initier aux a&es qu’ils exerçoient eux-mémes, puisque ces a&es n’étoient institués que pour lui ; que pour l’aider à séparer de lui - même ce qui contrarie sa vraie nature, & à se rapprocher de ce qui manque à la perfection & à la vie de son Etre ; que pour lui rendre enfin la vue de ces Vertus qu’il devoit contempler dans leur unité lors de son état glorieux } & le mettre à portée de les exprimer N A T vr R s zi '191 ensuite dans leur pureté , & de remplir à la fois par-là, sa deftinarion &: le Décret que le premier des Principes prononça sur lui, lorsqu’il lui donna l’existence.
3C’est là où nous reconnoîtrons les bases & les voies qui sont présentées à la volonté de l’homme pour accomplir son œuvre. Car de même que ces bases seroient inutiles , si la volonté de l’homme ne les mettoit à profit , de même la volonté de l’homme , quoiqu’étant le principal mobile de son œuvre , demeureroic sans efficacité , si elle n’avoit des bases sur lesquelles elle pût exercer son action. C’efî ce qui a fait dire à quelques Anciens que les Prières sacrées nous avoient été données par les Dieux. Mais il y a un genre de prières destiné à nous faire obtenir ces dons précieux , ce sont les prières de la douleur. , & celles-ci ne peuvent nous venir du centre supérieur & suprême , attendu qu’on n’y souffre point. ,, La Sagesse infinie a pris foin cependant de prévenir notre foiblesse , & notre négligence à latisfaire le befo’n que nous avons de prier , & quelques-uns pensent qu’elle a placé sur la terre un animal qui ne chante à des heures marquées & fréquentes , que pour avertir les hommes de vacquer à cette salutaire occupation ”, *9* Tableau Tel est le Tableau des loix & des vérités que nous avons écablies solidement , en les appuyant sur les rapports & !a nature des Etres. Cherchons à en confirmer l’évidence par l’universalité des signes & des traces visibles qu’elles nous offrent parmi tous les Peuples de la Terre. I O,
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.
1In short, one would know that by one of those favours which have been granted to man in his painful career to serve him as guide, the false intellectual impressions are subjected to laws like those of the physical & material order; & that, just as bodies, after having shown a gracious & regular appearance, end by becoming hideous & deformed, so likewise in the intellectual class the most seducing impure Pictures are not slow to decompose themselves & to disclose their illegitimacy. That is all I can say upon this point. Let us sum up in a few words all the truths which have just been set forth. They teach us that as a consequence of the love which Wisdom has for man, she had to, even when he turned for the first time his eyes from her light, preserve for him rays of it proportioned to the weakness of his sight, & that to whatever degree his crime had made him descend, he could fall only into the hands of his God. And even, not being hindered, as we are, by the false ideas & the shadowy veils which his *9# T A !LB A V
2unhappy posterity ceases not to add to his original degradation, however criminal he was }, he was still far nearer than we to that God who had formed him; he could better perceive the pure source from which he had just separated himself; he did not languish as we do in the nothingness & the insensibility of the ills by which we are devoured. In short, as much as it is true that we have only regrets upon the state of our first existence, so much did the first guilty man have at once both regrets & remorse. In proportion as the posterity of man has multiplied, & as the times have run out, the greatness & the goodness of supreme Wisdom have had to manifest themselves more & more, in placing near him living Images of herself, or Agents virtual enough to bring him to recover the resemblance of them. These Agents had to initiate him into the acts they exercised themselves, since those acts were instituted only for him; only to help him separate from himself what thwarts his true nature, & to draw near to what is lacking to the perfection & to the life of his Being; only to restore him in short the sight of those Virtues which he was to contemplate in their unity in his glorious state }, & to put him in a position to express them N A T vr R s zi '191 thereafter in their purity, & to fulfil at once thereby his destination & the Decree which the first of Principles pronounced upon him when he gave him existence.
3It is there that we shall recognise the bases & the ways which are presented to the will of man to accomplish his work. For just as those bases would be useless if the will of man did not turn them to profit, so likewise the will of man, though being the principal spring of his work, would remain without efficacy if it had not bases upon which it might exercise its action. It is this that has made some of the Ancients say that the sacred Prayers had been given us by the Gods. But there is a kind of prayer destined to make us obtain those precious gifts; they are the prayers of pain, & these cannot come to us from the superior & supreme centre, seeing that there one does not suffer at all. ,, Infinite Wisdom has taken care nevertheless to forestall our weakness, & our negligence in satisfying the need we have to pray, & some think that she has placed upon the earth an animal which sings at hours marked & frequent only to warn men to attend to that salutary occupation." *9* Tableau Such is the Picture of the laws & the truths which we have established solidly, resting them upon the relations & the nature of Beings. Let us seek to confirm their evidence by the universality of the signs & of the visible traces which they offer us among all the Peoples of the Earth.
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.