A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY
VOLUME III
By
VOLTAIRE
EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION
THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE
A CONTEMPORARY VERSION
With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized
New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an
Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh
A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY
BY
THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY
FORTY-THREE VOLUMES
One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions
of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,
and curious fac-similes
VOLUME VII
E.R. DuMONT
PARIS—LONDON—NEW YORK—CHICAGO
1901
The WORKS of VOLTAIRE
"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundredyears apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say itwith a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED.Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed thesweetness of the present civilization."
VICTOR HUGO.
VOLTAIRE'S RECEPTION OF MADAME D'ÉPINAY AT LES DÉLICES—Frontispiece.
THE DEATH OF COLIGNY
CATHERINE II. OF RUSSIA
THE ALMONER AND THE ANABAPTIST
VOLTAIRE
A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY
IN TEN VOLUMES
VOL. III
CANNIBALS—COUNCILS
CANNIBALS.
SECTION I.
We have spoken of love. It is hard to pass from people kissing topeople eating one another. It is, however, but too true that therehave been cannibals. We have found them in America; they are, perhaps,still to be found; and the Cyclops were not the only individuals inantiquity who sometimes fed on human flesh. Juvenal relates that amongthe Egyptians—that wise people, so renowned for their laws—those piousworshippers of crocodiles and onions—the Tentyrites ate one of theirenemies who had fallen into their hands. He does not tell this tale onhearsay; the crime was committed almost before his eyes; he was then inEgypt, and not far from Tentyra. On this occasion he quotes the Gasconsand the Saguntines, who formerly fed on the flesh of their countrymen.
In 1725 four savages were brought from the Mississippi to Fontainebleau,with whom I had the honor of conversing. There was among them a lady ofthe country, whom I asked if she had eaten men; she answered, with greatsimplicity that she had. I appeared somewhat scandalized; on which sheexcused herself by saying that it was better to eat one's dead enemythan to leave him to be devoured by wild beasts, and that the conquerorsdeserved to have the preference. We kill our neighbors in battles, orskirmishes; and, for the meane