Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 02.djvu/314

282 always a secret hoard. He cries up the fine houses built by the monks, and it is precisely those fine houses that provoke the rest of the subjects; it is the very cause of complaint to all Europe. The vow of poverty condemns those palaces, as the vow of humility protests against pride, and as the vow of extinguishing one's race is in opposition to nature.

.—Bless me! Who can this be that advances so strange a proposition?

.—It is the friend of mankind [Monsieur le M. de Mirabeau, in his book called L'Ami des Hommes. It is against this marquis that the jest on the only tax is levelled; a tax proposed by him], or rather the friend of the monks.

.—I begin to think it advisable to be very distrustful of books.

.—The best way is to make use, with regard to them, of the same caution as with men. Choose the most reasonable, examine them, and never yield unless to evidence.

About a month ago the Man of Forty Crowns came to me, holding both his sides, which seemed ready to burst with laughing. In short, he laughed so heartily that I could not help laughing also, without knowing at what. So true it is, that man is born