A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 05

One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures, and curious fac-similes VOLUME IX E.R. DuMONT PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO _The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_ _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization."_ _VICTOR HUGO._ LIST OF PLATES--VOL. V SANS SOUCI _Frontispiece_ A LAND STORM THE TEMPTATION OF ADAM DESCARTES * * * * * A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. IN TEN VOLUMES Vol. V FANATICISM--GREGORY VII * * * * * FANATICISM. SECTION I. Fanaticism is the effect of a false conscience, which makes religion subservient to the caprices of the imagination, and the excesses of the passions. It arises, in general, from legislators entertaining too narrow views, or from their extending their regulations beyond the limits within which alone they were intended to operate. Their laws are made merely for a select society. When extended by zeal to a whole people, and transferred by ambition from one climate to another, some changes of institution should take place, some accommodation to persons, places, and circumstances. But what, in fact, has been the case?…