Page:Voltaire (Hamley).djvu/68

 without doing such violence to belief as we have to complain of when we find these very abstract and unsubstantial conditions of social existence bodied forth with features, looks, and garments, taking part in battles, appearing in chariots, and inspiring courage or fear by actual words. Discord, greeting La Politique with "a mysterious air" and a "malignant laugh," flatters and caresses her. Together, they surprise Religion (another personification), and despoil "their august enemy" of her garments—disguised in which they proceed to the assembly of sages in the Sorbonne, where they create confusion and inspire wild counsels:—

The effect of the decree is seen presently, when all the priests issue from their cloisters, with arms and standards, chanting sedition—"audacious priests, but futile men-at-arms." Representatives from the different quarters of Paris join the tumult:—

they threaten the Senate, which still fulfils its functions in the name of the king, and seize the principal members.

Discord next proceeds to give effect to the decree of