Let an Indian philosopher, who has embarked2 at Meliapour, come to Bayonne. I shall suppose this philosopher to be a man of sense, which, you will say, is rare among the learned of India; to be divested3 of all scholastic4 prejudices — a thing that was rare everywhere not long ago — and I shall suppose him to meet with a blockhead in our part of the world — which is not quite so great a rarity.
Our blockhead, in order to make him conversant5 with our arts and sciences, presents him with a Liège almanac, composed by Matthew Lansberg, and the Lame6 Messenger (Messager boiteux) by Anthony Souci, astrologer and historian, printed every year at Basle, and sold to the number of 20,000 copies in eight days. There you behold7 the fine figure of a man, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, with certain indications most clearly demonstrating that the scales preside over the posteriors, the ram8 over the head, the fishes over the feet, etc.
Each day of the moon informs you when you must take Le Lievre’s balm of life, or Keiser’s pills; when you must be bled, have your nails cut, wean your children, plant, sow, go a journey, or put on a pair of new shoes. The Indian, when he hears these lessons, will do well to say to his guide that he will have none of his almanac.
So soon as our simpleton shall have shown the philosopher a few of our ceremonies, which every wise man disapproves9, but which are tolerated in order to amuse the populace, through pure contempt for that populace, the traveller, seeing these mummeries, followed by a tambourine10 dance, will not fail to pity and take us for madmen, who are, nevertheless, very amusing and not absolutely cruel. He will write home to the president of the Grand College of Benares that we have not common sense; but that if His Paternity will send enlightened and discreet11 persons among us, something may, with the blessing12 of God, be made of us.
It was precisely13 in this way that our first missionaries14, especially St. Francis Xavier, spoke15 of the people inhabiting the peninsula of India. They even fell into still grosser mistakes respecting the customs of the Indians, their sciences, their opinions, their manners, and their worship. The accounts which they sent to Europe were extremely curious. Every statue was a devil; every assembly a sabbath; every symbolical16 figure a talisman17; every Brahmin a sorcerer; and these are made the subject of neverending lamentations. They hope that the harvest will be abundant; and add, by a rather incongruous metaphor18, that they will labor19 effectually in the vineyard of the Lord, in a country where wine has always been unknown. Thus, or nearly thus, have every people judged, not only of distant nations, but of their neighbors.
The Chinese are said to be the most ancient almanac-makers. The finest of their emperor’s privileges is that of sending his calendar to his vassals20 and neighbors; their refusal of which would be considered as a bravado21, and war would forthwith be made upon them, as it used to be in Europe on feudal22 lords who refused their homage23.
If we have only twelve constellations24, the Chinese have twenty-eight, the names of which have not the least affinity25 with ours — a sufficient proof that they have taken nothing from the Chald?an Zodiac, that we have adopted. But though they have had a complete system of astrology for more than four thousand years, they resemble Matthew Lansberg and Anthony Souci in the fine predictions and secrets of health with which they stuff their Imperial Almanac. They divide the day into ten thousand minutes, and know, with the greatest precision, what minute is favorable or otherwise. When the Emperor Kamhi wished to employ the Jesuit missionaries in making the almanac, they are said to have excused themselves, at first, on account of the extravagant26 superstitions27 with which it must be filled. “I have much less faith than you in the superstitions,” replied the emperor; “only make me a good calendar, and leave it for my learned men to fill up the book with their foolery.”
The ingenious author of the “Plurality of Worlds” ridicules28 the Chinese, because, says he, they see a thousand stars fall at once into the sea. It is very likely that the Emperor Kamhi ridiculed29 this notion as well as Fontenelle. Some Chinese almanacmaker had, it would seem, been good-natured enough to speak of these meteors after the manner of the people, and to take them for stars. Every country has its foolish notions. All the nations of antiquity30 made the sun lie down in the sea, where for a long time we sent the stars. We have believed that the clouds touched the firmament31, that the firmament was a hard substance, and that it supported a reservoir of water. It has not long been known in our towns that the Virgin32-thread (fil de la vierge) so often found in the country, is nothing more than the thread spun33 by a spider. Let us not laugh at any people. Let us reflect that the Chinese had astrolabes and spheres before we could read, and that if they have made no great progress in astronomy, it is through that same respect for the ancients which we have had for Aristotle.
It is consoling to know that the Roman people, populus late rex, were, in this particular, far behind Matthew Lansberg, and the Lame Messenger, and the astrologers of China, until the period when Julius C?sar reformed the Roman year, which we have received from him and still call by his name — the Julian Calendar, although we have no calends, and he was obliged to reform it himself.
The primitive34 Romans had, at first, a year of ten months, making three hundred and four days; this was neither solar nor lunar, nor anything except barbarous. The Roman year was afterwards composed of three hundred and fifty-five days — another mistake, which was corrected so imperfectly that, in C?sar’s time, the summer festivals were held in winter. The Roman generals always triumphed, but never knew on what day they triumphed.
C?sar reformed everything; he seemed to rule both heaven and earth. I know not through what complaisance35 for the Roman customs it was that he began the year at a time when it does not begin — that is, eight days after the winter solstice. All the nations composing the Roman Empire submitted to this innovation; even the Egyptians, who had until then given the law in all that related to almanacs, received it; but none of these different nations altered anything in the distribution of their feasts. The Jews, like the rest, celebrated36 their new moons; their phase or pascha, the fourteenth day of the moon of March, called the red-haired moon, which day often fell in April; their Pentecost, fifty days after the pascha; the feast of horns or trumpets37, the first day of July; that of tabernacles on the fifteenth of the same month, and that of the great sabbath, seven days afterwards.
The first Christians38 followed the computations of the empire, and reckoned by calends, nones, and ides, like their masters; they likewise received the Bissextile, which we have still, although it was found necessary to correct it in the fifteenth century, and it must some day be corrected again; but they conformed to the Jewish methods in the celebration of their great feasts. They fixed39 their Easter for the fourteenth day of the red moon, until the Council of Nice determined40 that it should be the Sunday following. Those who celebrated it on the fourteenth were declared heretics; and both were mistaken in their calculation.
The feasts of the Blessed Virgin were, as far as possible, substituted for the new moons. The author of the “Roman Calendar” (Le Calendrier Romain) says the reason of this is drawn41 from the verse of the Canticle, pulchra ut luna, “fair as the moon”; but, by the same rule, these feasts should be held on a Sunday, for in the same verse we find electa ut sol, “chosen like the sun.” The Christians also kept the feast of Pentecost; it was fixed, like that of the Jews, precisely fifty days after Easter. The same author asserts that saint-days took the place of the feasts of tabernacles. He adds that St. John’s day was fixed for the 24th of June, only because the days then begin to shorten, and St. John had said, when speaking of Jesus Christ, “He must grow, and I must become less”— Oportet illum crescere, me autem minui. There is something very singular in the ancient ceremony of lighting42 a great fire on St. John’s day, in the hottest period of the year. It has been said to be a very old custom, originally designed to commemorate43 the ancient burning of the world, which awaited a second conflagration44. The same writer assures us that the feast of the Assumption is kept on the 15th of August because the sun is then in the sign of the Virgin. He also certifies45 that St. Mathias’ day is in the month of February, because he was, as it were, intercalated among the twelve apostles, as a day is added to February every leap-year. There would, perhaps, be something in these astronomical46 imaginings to make our Indian philosopher smile; nevertheless, the author of them was mathematical master to the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV., and moreover, an engineer and a very worthy47 officer.
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1
astronomers
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| n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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divested
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| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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conversant
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| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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disapproves
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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tambourine
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| n.铃鼓，手鼓 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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symbolical
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| a.象征性的 | |
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talisman
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| n.避邪物，护身符 | |
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metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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ridicules
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| n.嘲笑( ridicule的名词复数 )；奚落；嘲弄；戏弄v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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complaisance
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| n.彬彬有礼，殷勤，柔顺 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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41
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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42
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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43
commemorate
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| vt.纪念，庆祝 | |
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44
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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45
certifies
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| （尤指书面）证明( certify的第三人称单数 )； 发证书给…； 证明（某人）患有精神病； 颁发（或授予）专业合格证书 | |
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46
astronomical
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| adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的 | |
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47
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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