Appendices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2009
Summary
The quotation from Bayle's dictionary
‘Remarquez bien, s'il vous plaît, qu'en parlant des bonnes moeurs de quelques athées, je ne leur ai point attribué de veritables vertus. Leur sobriété, leur chastété, leur probité, leur mépris pour les richesses, leur zêle du bien public, leur inclination à rendre de bons offices à leur prochain, ne procedoient pas de l'amour de Dieu, & ne tendoient pas à l'honorer & à le glorifier. Ils en étoient eux-mêmes la source & le but; l'amour propre en était la base, le terme, toute l'analyse. Ce n'étoient que les pechez éclatants, splendida peccata, commes Saint Augustin l'a dit de toutes les belles action des Païens.’ Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, 2nd edn 1702, ‘Eclaircissement sur les athées’, p. 3137, ¶7. The English quotation is from The Dictionary Historical and Critical of Mr Peter Bayle (transl. P. Desmaizeaux et al.) 2nd edn, London 1734–38. In the translation of selections from this work edited by R. Popkin (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill 1965) the above passage is rendered as follows: ‘Please notice carefully that in speaking of the good morals of some atheists, I have not attributed any real virtues to them. Their sobriety, their chastity, their probity, their contempt for riches, their zeal for the public good, their inclination to be helpful to their neighbor were not the effect of the love of God and tended neither to honor nor to glorify him. They themselves were the source and end of all this. […]
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- Information
- Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature , pp. 148 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993