The ruins

Front matter

THE

C

By C. F. VOLNEY,

Preface

To the Philadelphia Edition, published in 1799;

THE plan of this publication was formed nearly twelve years ago ; and allusions to it may be seen in the Preface to Travels in Syria and Egypt, as well as at the end of the work, published in 1787- The performance was in some forwardness when the events of 1788 in France interrupted it. Persuaded that a developement of the theory of political truth could not sufficiently acquit a citizen of his debt to society, the author wished to add practice ; and that particularly at a time when a single arm was of consequence in the defence of the general cause. The same desire of public benefit which induced him to suspend his work, has since engaged him to resume it ; and though it may not possess the same merit as if it had appeared under the circumstances that gave rise to it, yet he imagines that at a time when new passions are bursting forth, passions that must communicate their activity to the religious opinion of men, it is of importance to disseminate such moral truths as are calculated to operate as a sort of curb and restraint. It is with this view he has endeavoured to give to these truths, hitherto treated as abstract, a form likely to gain them a reception. It was found impossible not to shock the violent prejudices of some readers, but the work, so far from being the fruit of a disorderly and perturbed spirit, has been dictated by a sincere lover of order and humanity.

After reading this performance it will be asked, how it was possible, in 1784, to have had an idea of what did not take place until the year 1790. The solution is simple : in the original plan the legislator was a fictitious and hypothetical being : in the present, the author has substituted an existing legislator; and the reality has only made the subject additionally interesting.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IT has long been matter of complaint among French writers, that those publications of theirs, which have been rendered into English, contain many inaccuracies and false translations. These arise from the greater part of those, who translate works from one language into another, pursuing that business as a profession, in order to obtain a living; their circumstances are necessitous, which too often compel them to hurry through their translations, without paying that attention which is always necessary to investigate the true meaning of the author; to develope an ambiguous expression — to discover and reject, the obsolete meaning of a word, would consume too much time; hence arise false translations, &c. But in this edition the translator was not under necessitous circumstances; he undertook it to oblige a friend, and had frequent opportunities of consulting the author, and several gentlemen distinguished equally for their knowledge of the French as of the English language.

INVOCATION,

HAIL, ye solitary Ruins, Ye sacred Tombs, and silent Walls ! 'Tis your auspicious aid that I invoke, 'tis to You my Soul wrapt in meditation, pours forth its prayer ! What though the profane and vulgar mind shrinks with dismay from your august and awe-inspiring aspect, to me ye unfold the sublimest eharms of contemplation and sentiment, and offer to my senses the luxury of a thousand delicious and enchanting thoughts ! How sumptuous the feast to a being, that has a taste to relish, and an understanding to consult you ! What rich and noble admonitions, what exquisite and pathetic lessons do you read to a heart, that is susceptible of exalted feelings { When oppressed humanity bent in timid silence throughout the globe beneath the galling yoke of slavery, it was you that proclaimed aloud the birthright of those truths, which tyrants tremble at while they detest ; and which, by sinking the loftiest head of the proudest potentate, with all his boasted pageantry, to the level of mortality with his meanest slave, confirmed and ratified by your unerring testimony the sacred and immortal doctrine of Equality.

Musing within the precincts of your inviting scenes of philosophic solitude, whither the insatiate love of true-born Lib>- erty had led me, I beheld her Genius ascending, not in the spurious character and habit of a bloodthirsty fury armed with daggers and instruments of murder, and followed by a frantic and intoxicated multitude, but under the placid and chaste aspect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the saered scales, in which the actions of mortals are weighed on the brink of eternity.

O ye Tombs and emblematic images of death! how superlative is your power, how irresistible your influence ! Your presence appals and chills the souls of tyrants with electric horror and remorse : the very remembrance of you haunts their minds like a ghastly spectre in the midst of their voluptuous enjoyments, and the terror 30U inspire, plants thorns in all their thoughts, and poisons their impious pleasures into pains. Leading a life of living death while exposed to the continual mementos of such grave but faithful monitors, the dastardly cowards endeavour to elope and steal awav both

A2 vi INVOCATION.

from you and themselves, and to drown their reflections amid the pride and pomp of their palaces established at a remoter distance from you*. — Yes, ye Tombs ! 'tis you, who punish the powerful oppressor ; 'tis you, who wrest from the hands of the merciless extortioner his ill gotten pelf, and avenge the wrongs of the distressed, who have become the victims of his rapacity. 'Tis you, who humble the proud heart of the wealthy favourite of fortune by a restless brood of upstart cares and anxieties, and take ample reprisals for all the painful privations of the sons of poverty. 'Tis you, who afford a consolatory asylum to the aching bosom of the unfortunate, where affliction, with all the lingering catalogue of sighs and tears that sorrow is heir to, shall close its account. In a word, 'tis you, who give to the mind that just equipoise, that uniform degree of energy and sensibility, in which the whole wisdom and philosophy of life consist. Conscious that all human posessions are held only by an uncertain and precarious tenure and must be yielded up to you at the last, the man of reflection, rich within himself, leaves to the groveling and luxurious worldling the delusive pleasures of short-lived grandeur and useles superfluity : he makes equity the moral circumference of his actions, the horrizon that bounds his every wish and every thought : yet, not forgetful of the duty he owes to society, and unwilling that the portion of life that is allotted him should become a blank, he calculates the industrious moments of his existence by their utility, and enjoys with gratitude and moderation those blessings, which the bounty of nature has bestowed upon him. 'Tis thus ye give a salutary check to the impetuosity and greedy excursions of inordinate desire : "tis thus ye calm the feverish tumult of sensual enjoyments : >tis thus the soul finds in you a repose from the hurricane and storm of the jarring passions: and 'tis thus ye exalt it above all sordid and paltry interests at once the torment and delight of vulgar minds, while the understanding, perched on the lofty summit of your towering heights, looks around through the wide expanse of ages and of nations, and by wedding its attention to none but great and noble affections, frames to Itself the most sublime and solid ideas of glory and virtue.

* It was on account of the steeple of the church of St. Dennis, where the Kings of France were interred, being- so visible an object from the palace of St. Germain, that Louis the Fourteenth could not endure to reside at this seat, though it was most admirably situated.. This very circumstance induced him to build in the forests the palace of Versailles, which was eventually the ruin of his hereditary empii e-

INVOCATION. vii

But alas ! when this fleeting dream of human existence shall be terminated, to what purpose will all this bustle of life, these impassioned agitations and emotions of the heart have conduced, if they leave behind them no traces of utility?

Once more will I revisit you ye venerable ruins ! to receive your instructive lessons, and embellish my mind with your hoary truths ! Once more will I resume my place among you to enjoy the sequestered privacy of your engaging and peaceful solitude : where, far secluded from the afflictive spectacle of the warring passions, I will love my own species in the affectionate feelings of recollection, and, while I am studying to advance the universal happiness of my fellow-creatures, I will build my own on the pleasing belief that I have accelerated theirs.

CHAP. XXII. Origin and genealogy of religious ideas, 189

SECT. I.

Origin of the idea of God : Worship of the elements and physical powers

of nature, 197

SECT. II.

Second System : Worship of the stars,

or Sabeism, 201

SECT. III.

Third System : Worship of symbols, or

idolatry, 205

SECT. IV.

Fourth system : Worship of two principles, or Dualism, .... f 218 SECT. V.

Mystical or moral worship, or the system of a future state, . . . . . 223 xl CONTENTS.

SECT. VI. Page

Sixth System : The animated world, or worship of the universe under different emblems, 228

SECT. VII.

Seventh System : Worship of the soul of the World, that is, of the element of fire, the vital principle of

the universe, 232

SECT. VIII.

Eighth System : The world a machine : worship of the Demi-ourgos, Maker, or supreme Artificer, . . . 234 SECT. IX.

Religion of Moses, or worship of the

soul of the world (You-piter,) . . 239 SECT. X.

Religion of Zoroaster, 240

SECT. XI.

Budsoism, or the religion of the Sama-

neans, 240

SECT. XII.

Brachmanism, or the Indian system, . 241

SECT. XIII.

Christianity, or the allegorical worship of the Sun under the cabalistical names of Cris-en or Christ, and Yes-us or Jesus, ...... 242

CHAP. XXIV. Solution of the problem of contradictions, .......... 264

THE

OR,

^Meditations on tVve Involutions oi' Empires,

Chap. I. The Tour

IN the eleventh year of the reign of Abd-ul Harnid, son of Ahmed, emperor of the Turks ; when the Nogaian Tartars were driven from the Crimea, and a Mussulman prince, of the blood of Gengis Khan, became the vassal and the guard of a woman, a Christian, and a queen*; 1 journeyed in the empire of the Ottomans, and traversed the provinces which formerly were kingdoms of Egypt and of Syria.

Directing the whole of my attention to what concerns the happiness of mankind in a state of society, I entered into cities, and studied the manners of their inhabitants; I gained admission into palaces, and observed the conduct of those who governed ; I wandered over the country, and examined the condition of the peasantry : and perceiving every where

* That is to say, in the year 1784. The reader is requested not to lose sight of this epoch. See the notes at the end of the volume.

B

14 THE TOUR.

nothing but robbery and devastation, tyranny and wretchedness, my heart was oppressed with sorrow and indignation.

Every day I found, in my route, fields abandoned by the plough, villages deserted, and towns in ruins. Frequently I met with antique monuments, wrecks of temples, palaces, and fortifications, pillars, aqueducts, and sepulchres. By these scenes, my reflections were carried back to past ages, and my mind was absorbed in serious and profound meditation.

Arrived at Hamsa on the borders of the Orontes, and being at no great distance from the city of Palmyra, situated in the desert, I resolved to make myself personally acquainted with its boasted monuments. After three days travel in barren solitude, and having traversed a valley filled with grottoes and tombs, my eyes were, on a sudden, struck, in passing from this valley into a plain, with a most astonishing scene of ruins. It consisted of a countless multitude of superb columns standing erect, and which, like the avenues of our parks, extended in regular files until the eye gradually lost sight of them. Among these columns, magnificent edifices were observable, some entire, others half mouldered away. The ground was covered on all sides with fragments of similar buildings, cornices, capitals, shafts, entablatures, and pilasters, all of white marble, and of exquisite workmanship. After a walk of three quarters of an hour along these ruins, I entered the inclosure of a vast edifice which had formerly been a temple

THE TOUK. 15

dedicated to the sun ; and I accepted the hospitality of some poor Arabian peasants, who had established their huts in the very area of the temple. This I resolved to make my residence for some days, in order that I might examine more circumstantially into the beauty of so many stupendous works.

Every day I walked out to visit some of the monuments which bespread the plain; and one evening when lost in reflection, I had advanced as far as the Valley of Sepulchres, I ascended the heights that bound it*, from which the eye commands at once the whole of ih$ ruins and the immensity of the desert. The sun had just sunk below the horizon ; a radiant wreath tinged with a reddish hue still marked the place of his retreat behind the distant perspective of the mountains of Syria : the full moon in the east reposing on a ground of deep blue, rose from the smooth bank of the Euphrates: the sky was cloudless; the air calm and serene; the expiring lustre of day served to soften the horror of approaching darkness ; the native freshness of the evening breeze assuaged the heat of the parched earth; the herdsmen had led the camels to their stalls ; the eye was not accosted by a single motion amidst the monotonous gloom of the dusky plain; through the whole desert ail was solemn stillness, uninterrupted, except at intervals by the mournful sonnets of a few solitary birds of night, and the cries of a few chacals.* The dusk increased, and my sight

* An animal much resembling the fox, but less remarkable for cunning, and extremely ugly. It feeds upon dead bodies, and lives among the rocks and ruins.

could no longer distinguish through the grej twilight any thing besides the shadowy and

pale apparitions of walls and columns

The lonely solitude of the place, the peaceful serenity of the evening, and the majestic imagery of the scene, impressed my mind with religious contemplation. The view of an illustrious city deserted, the recollection of past times, the contrast with their present state, all conspired to elevate my heart with a series of sublime meditations. I sat down on the base of a broken column; and there resting my elbow on my knee, and supporting my head upon my hand, sometimes directing my eye towards the desert, sometimes fixing it on the ruins, I sunk insensibly into a profound reverie.

CHAP. IL

MEDITATIONS.

Here, said I in pensive soliloquy to myself, here an opulent city once flourished ; this was ihe seat of a powerful empire. Yes, the interior mansions of these stately ruins, now so desert, a living multitude formerly animated, and a busv croud circulated in the streets which at present are so solitary. Within those walls, where a deadly and lonesome silence reigns, the noise of the arts and the shouts of joy and festivity continually resounded. These confused heaps of marble formed regular palaces, these fallen pillars were the ma-

MEDITATIONS.

jestic ornaments of temples, these antiquated and ruinous galleries are the mutilated vestiges of public places. There a numerous people assembled for the respectable performance of its religious worship, and for the feelins: concerns of its bodily subsistence : there inventive industry, the fruitful source ot en~ joyments* solicited the riches of. every climate; and the purple of Tyre was commercially exchanged for the precious thread of Serica; the soft tissues of Cassimere for the sumptuous carpets of Lydia; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Arabia; the gold of Ophir for the pewter of Thule *

And now what remains are there still subsisting of this opulent and powerful city, but a doleful skeleton ! What evidence of its vast empire, but an obsolete and obscure remembrance ! To the bustling throng which crowded under these porticos^ a death like solitude lias succeeded. The silence of the tomb is substituted for the buz of public places of resort. The opulence of a commercial city is metamorphosed into hideous poverty. The palaces of kings are become the haunt and receptacle of deer; the threshold of temples is converted into a fold for the flocks; and unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuaries of the gods. Ah ! how has so much glory become eclipsed! How has so much art and workmanship become annihilated! Thus, thus perish the labours of men ! Thus nations and: empires transiently pass away !

* See note (a) at the end of the volume,

IB MEDITATIONS.

The history of times past strongly revived arid crowded upon my thoughts. I called to mind those distant ages, when twenty celebrated nations inhabited the country around me. I pictured to myself the Assyrian on the banks of the Tygris, the Chaldean on those of the Euphrates, and the Persian whose power extended from the Indus to the Mediterranean. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea; of Jerusalem and Samaria; and the warlike states of the Philistines; and the commercial republics of Phenicia, This very Syria, said I to myself, now almost depopulated, contained at that period, a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets (&). Every where one might have seen cultivated fields, frequented roads, and enrwded habitations. Ah ! what are become of those ages of abundance, vitality, and population? What are become of so many brilliant productions of the hand of man? Where are those ramparts of Nineveh, those walls of Babylon, those palaces of Persepolis, those temples of Balbee and of Jerusalem ? Where are those fleets of Tyre, those dock-yards of Arad, those work-shops of Sidon, and that multitude of mariners, pilots, merchants, and soldiers? Where those husbandmen, those harvests, those flocks and cattle, with all that creative race of living beings, in which the luxuriant surface of the earth seemed to pride itself? Alas ! I have traversed this desolate country, I have visited the places, that were once the theatre of so much splendour, but I have met with nothing but desertion and solitude ! I have looked for those ancient people and their masterly works, but all 1 have found is no more than a faint trace of them, analogous to that which the foot of a passenger leaves on the sand. The temples are overthrown, the palaces demolished, the ports filled up, the towns destroyed, and the earth, stript of inhabitants, resembles a dreary burying-place. — Great God! from whence proceed such destructive and melancholy revolutions? Whence comes it, that the fortune of these countries is so strikingly changed ? Why are so many cities destroyed ? And by what fatality is that pristine population prevented from being re-produced and perpetuated?

Thus, absorbed in contemplation, an incessant torrent of new reflections poured in upon my mind. Every thing, continued I, misleads my judgment, and agitates my heart with pain and uncertainty. When these countries enjoyed what constitutes the glory and felicity of mankind, they were an unbelieving people who inhabited them : it was the Phenician, offering human sacrifices to Moloch, who brought together within his walls the riches of every climate; it was the Chaldean, prostrating himself before a serpent*, who subjugated opulent cities, ravaged and laid waste the palaces of kings and the temples of the Gods; it was the Persian, the worshipper of fire, who collected tribute from a hundred nations; they were the inhabitants of this very city, adorers of the sun and stars, who erect-

* The Dragon Bel, ed so many monuments of affluence and luxury. Fertile fields, numerous flocks, abundant harvests, every thing that ought to have been the reward of piety, was in the hands of these idolaters ; and now, when a believitig and holy people occupies the same countries, nothing is to be seen but solitude and sterility. The earth under these hallowed hands yields only briars and wormwood. Man sows in anguish, and the produce he reaps is sorrow and disquietude. War, famine, and pestilence, by turns assail him. Yet, are not these the children of the prophets ? This Christian, this Mussulman, this Jew, are they not the elect of Heaven, loaded with gifts of grace and miracles ? Why then is this race, so divinely privileged, deprived of those favours which were formerly showered down upon the Heathen ? Why are these lands, consecrated by the blood of the martyrs, now destitute of those blessings, which their ancient inhabitants enjoyed ? Why have they beeri banished, as it were, and transferred for so many ages to other nations and climates ?

And here, pursuing the course of vicissitudes, which have by turns transmitted the sceptre of the world to nations so different in manners and religion, from those of ancient Asia down to the more recent ones of Europe, this general term, by retrospective allusion to my native country, awakened in my breast the warm feeling of nationality; and, transporting my attention to my natal soil, all my thoughts locally centered on its situation at the time I left it. #

My memory represented to me its highly cultivated lands, its roads so admirably executed, its towns inhabited by an immense multitude, its ships scattered over every part of the ocean, its ports filled with the produce of both the Indies; and, comparing the activity of its commerce, the extent of its navigation, the richness of its buildings, the arts and industry ofits inhabitants, with all that Egypt and Syria could formerly boast of a similar kind, I amused myself with the idea, that I had rediscovered in modern Europe the past splendour of Asia ; but the charm of my pleasing reverie was presently blasted and dissolved hy the last step in the comparison. For, reflecting, that the very identical places before me had once exhibited a picture of activity not less animated : who, said I to myself, can assure me, that the desolation I now witness will not one day be the lot of the nations in our own hemisphere? Who knows, but that hereafter some traveller, like myself, will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder sea, where now, amid the vortex of so many enjoyments, the heart and the eyes are not sufficiently capacious to take in the multitude of sensations that press for admittance; who knows, but he will one day sit down upon mute and solitary ruins, and weep over the ashes of the people, and the memorable records of their departed greatness?

* In the year 1T82, at the close of the American war,

The very thought shot tears into my eyes ; and, covering my head with the skirt of my mantle, I lapsed into the most gloomy meditations on human affairs. Ah ! said I, in the midst of my sorrow, man is horn to be unhappy ! a blind fatality sports with his destiny, (c) ! a merciless and cruel necessity governs by capricious chance the devoted lot of mortals ! No, I am wrong : it is the decrees of divine justice, that are now accomplishing! A mysterious God is exercising his incomprehensible judgments! doubtless, he has pronounced a secret malediction against this region of the earth ; he has inflicted a curse upon the present race of people to avenge himself of past generations. Ah! who shall dare to fathom the inscrutable depths of the Divinity ?

And, here my senses sunk into a motionless stupor, drowned in the tide of profound me-

Chap. III. The Apparition

Soon after a noise struck my ear, somewhat like to the agitation of a flowing robe, and the slow march of a foot upon the dry and rustling grass. Startled and alarmed, I gently raised my mantle; and stealing from beneath a timid glance around me, suddenly on the left, amid the obscure glimmerings of the moon, through the columns and ruins of an adjacent temple, methought I saw a pale apparition, enveloped in an immense drapery, such as spectres are painted issuing out of tombs. I shuddered; and, in this tumultuous state of frightful agitation, was hesitating whether to fly, or to assure myself of its reality, when a hollow voice, in a grave and solemn accent, thus addressed me :

" How long will the importunity of man assail heaven with unjust complaints ? How long will he vent his idle and clamorous accusations against Fate, the presumptive author of his calamities ? Will he never open his eyes to the light, and his heart to the suggestions of truth and reason! Truth, which every where presents itself to his senses with the most inviting effulgence, and yet he does not see it ! Reason, whose voice continually resounds in his ear; and yet his understanding does not hear it ! Unjust and thoughtless man! if thou canst only for a moment suspend the delusion, which fascinates thy senses; if thy heart be capable of comprehending the language and arguments of unsophisticated eloquence, interrogate these ruins ! listen to the silent lessons which they read to thy reason! . . . And you, ye sacred temples! ye venerable tombs ! ye walls once so proud and glorious, that have been the witnesses of twenty different ages, appear in the i) jured cause of nature herself! give your attendance at the bar of an upright and sound understanding;, and bear testimony before this tribunal, against a most unwarrantable and unjust accusation! confound the declamatory sorceries of false wisdom and hypocritical piety, and avenge heaven and earth of man, their calumniator !"

What is this blind fatality, that capriciously sports, without rule and laws, with the lot of mortals? What this unjust, this merciless and cruel necessity, which frustrates and confounds the issue of actions, both of prudence and of folly? Wherein consist the maledictions and denunciations of Heaven against these countries ? Where are we to look for the credentials of the actual existence of that divine curse, which perpetuates this scene of depopulation and local desolation? Speak, ye monumental witnesses of past ages ! say, has Heaven changed its laws, and the earth itfr course? Has the sun extinguished his fare diffused through the regions of space? Do the seas no longer send forth their clouds ? Are the rain and the dew steadfastly fixed in the air ? Do the mountains withhold the water of their springs? Are the rivers dried up? and do trees and vegetables no longer bear fruit and seed ? Answer these queries, thou race of falsehood and iniquity; has God disturbed that, primitive and settled order, which he himself originally assigned to nature ? Has heaven denied to the earth, and the earth to its inhabitants, the blessings which they heretofore dispensed ? If the creation goes on upon the same principles as before, if they have the same powers and means within their reach now that they had formerly, whence comes it that the present race is not distinguished by the same traits of character and fortune with

THE APPARITION. 2- v J

their ancestors? Ah! how falsely do you accuse Fate and Divinity! How wrongfully do you make God the cause of your evils. Tell me, ye perverse and hypocritical race, if these places be desolate, if populous and powerful cities be reduced to absolute solitude, is it God that has occasioned their ruin ? Is it his hand that has thrown down these walls, sapped these temples, and mutilated these pillars ? or, is it the hand of man ? Is it the arm of God, that has carried the sword into the city, and set fire to the country around, thai has murdered the people, burned their crops, rooted up the timber, and ravaged the pastures ? or, is it the arm of man ? And when a famine has been the result of this devastation and waste of produce, is it the vengeance of God that has sent it, or the senseless intoxication and frantic fury of man ? When, under the pressure of such a famine, the people have lived upon unwholesome provision, and a pestilence has ensued, is this affliction to be imputed to the wrath of Heaven, or to human imprudence ? When war, famine, and pestilence united, have, by a torrent of evils, swept away the inhabitants, and the land has become a desert, is it God, who has depopulated it ? Is it his rapacity, that plunders the labourer, ravages the fruitful fields, and desolates the country ? or, is it the rapacity of those who govern ? Is it his pride, that creates murderous wars ? or, is it the pride of kings and their ministers ? Is it the venality of his decisions that blasts the fortune of families ? or, is it the venality

c of those who are the personal organs of the laws? Are they, again, his passions, that, under a thousand forms, torment individuals and nations ? or, are they the passions of men ? And, if in the anguish of their misfortunes, they are too blind of understanding to see the proper remedies, is it the ignorance of God that is to be impeached ? or, is it their own ignorance ? Away then ye fretful mortals, away with your noisy accusations against both the decrees of Fate and the judgments of Heaven ! If God be good, will he make himself instrumental to your punishment? If he be just, will he be the accomplice of your crimes ? No, no ; the caprice and inconstancy, of which man so loudly complains, is not the caprice and inconstancy of fate and predestination : the darkness, in which his reason strays, is not the darkness of God ; the source of his calamities is not seated in the distant heavens, but very near to him upon the earth ; it is not concealed in the latent bosom of the Divinity ; it resides in man himself, he carries it with him in the inward recesses of his own heart. But, thou murmurest and say est: Why have an unbelieving people enjoyed the blessings of heaven and of earth ? Why is a holy and chosen race less fortunate than an impious race of infidels? Deluded man ! where lies the contradiction at which thou takest umbrage and offence? — Where the enigmatical inconsistency, in which thou supposest the justice of God to be involved ? Take the scales in which mercy and judgment causes and effects, are weighed, into thine own hand, and then tell me — -When these infidels thou alludest to attentively observed the laws of the heavens and the earth, when they regulated their intelligent and industrious labours bv the order of the seasons and the course ot the stars, ought God to have disturbed the equilibrium of the world for the purpose of defeating their prudence ?