manner make his case appear to the judges,
deceived as they are by appearances! How ludicrous is reason, blown with a
breath in every direction!
I should have to enumerate almost every action of men who scarce waver save
under her assaults. For reason has been obliged to yield, and the wisest
reason takes as her own principles those which the imagination of man has
everywhere rashly introduced. He who would follow reason only would be
deemed foolish by the generality of men. We must judge by the opinion of the
majority of mankind. Because it has pleased them, we must work all day for
pleasures seen to be imaginary; and, after sleep has refreshed our tired
reason, we must forthwith start up and rush after phantoms, and suffer the
impressions of this mistress of the world. This is one of the sources of
error, but it is not the only one.
Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the ermine in
which they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in which they
administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such august apparel were
necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the
doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they
would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an
appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true
art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of
these sciences would
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