HKB
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Often appears with: zarathustra’s moral rule · reason and the intellect · pythagoras · numa pompilius · justice as a virtue · equity, mercy, and pardon
Usually: dialogue (1) · detachment (1) · skepticism (1)
“Over the principal door I read these words which are the precis of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: "When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.” Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary · precept
The narrator questions beneficent heroes in the afterlife—Numa Pompilius, Pythagoras, Zarathustra, and Socrates—who each defend justice and virtue, while Socrates explains his condemnation over priestly and sophistic hostility.
"the heroes of humanity who were the world's benefactors, and who were all united in banishing from the world, as far as they were able, violence and rapine. Question them." I ran to the first of the band; he had a crown on his head, and a little censer in his hand; I humbly asked him his name. "I am Numa Pompilius," he said to me. "I succeeded a brigand, and I had brigands to govern: I taught them virtue and the wo…