HKB
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Often appears with: truth and dispute · translation and the transmission of texts · superstition · metaphysics · language, naming, and meaning · indian texts · french royal library · ezourveidam · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · cultural copying
Usually: reflection (1) · crisis of belief (1) · irony (1) · skepticism (1)
Voltaire ridicules the purported Indian text “Ezourveidam,” describing it as an ancient Brahmin commentary in the French king’s library, and turns to skepticism about whether Jews copied Indians or vice versa.
know if literature does good to a nation; compare the two extremes, Cicero and an uncouth ignoramus. See if it is Pliny or Attila who caused the fall of Rome. One asks if one should encourage superstition in the people; see above all what is most extreme in this disastrous matter, St. Bartholomew, the massacres in Ireland, the crusades; the question is soon answered. Is there any truth in metaphysics? Seize first o…