Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume — Themes and Context

I. How the Princess Amasidia meets a bull. CHAPTER II. How the wise Mambres, formerly magician of Pharoah, knew again the old woman, and was known by her. CHAPTER III. How the beautiful Amasidia had a secret conversation with a beautiful serpent. CHAPTER IV. How they wanted to sacrifice the bull and exorcise the Princess. CHAPTER V. How the wise Mambres conducted himself wisely. CHAPTER VI. How Mambres met three prophets, and gave them a good dinner. CHAPTER VII. How king Amasis wanted to give the White Bull to be devoured by the fish of Jonah, and did not do it. CHAPTER VIII. How the serpent told stories to the Princess to comfort her. CHAPTER IX. How the serpent did not comfort the Princess. CHAPTER X. How they wanted to behead the Princess, and did not do it. CHAPTER XI. Apotheosis of the White Bull. Triumph of the wise Mambres. The seven years proclaimed by Daniel are accomplished. Nebuchadnezzar resumes the human form, marries the beautiful Amasidia, and ascends the throne of Babylon.

Approbation. Epistle dedicatory to the Sultana Sheraa.

I. The Blind of one Eye. II. The Nose. III. The Dog and the Horse. IV. The Envious Man. V. The Generous. VI. The Minister. VII. The Disputes and the Audiences. VIII. Jealousy. IX. The Woman Beater. X. Slavery. XI. The Funeral Pile. XII. The Supper. XIII. The Rendezvous. XIV. The Robber. XV. The Fisherman. XVI. The Basilisk. XVII. The Combats. XVIII. The Hermit. XIX. The Enigmas.

THE SAGE AND THE ATHEIST.

CHAPTER I. Adventures of Johnny, a young Englishman, written by Donna Las Nalgas CHAPTER II. Continuation of the adventures of John, the young Englishman; also those of his worthy father, D.D., M.P., and F.R.S. CHAPTER III. Summary of the controversy of the "Buts," between Mr. Freind and Don Inigo-y-Medroso, y-Comodios, y-Papalamiendos, Bachelor of Salamanca CHAPTER IV. John returns to London and is led into bad company CHAPTER V. They want to get John married CHAPTER VI. A terrible adventure CHAPTER VII. What happened in America CHAPTER VIII. Dialogue between Freind and Birton on Atheism CHAPTER IX. On Atheism CHAPTER X. On Atheism CHAPTER XI. Return to England--John's marriage

THE PRINCESS OF BABYLON.

I. Royal contest for the hand of Formosanta II. The King of Babylon convenes his Council and consults the Oracle III. Royal festival given in honor of the kingly visitors. The bird converses eloquently with Formosanta IV. The beautiful bird is killed by the King of Egypt. Formosanta begins a journey. Aldea elopes with the King of Scythia V. Formosanta visits China and Scythia in search of Amazan VI. The Princess continues her journey VII. Amazan visits Albion VIII. Amazan leaves Albion to visit the land of Saturn IX. Amazan visits Rome X. An unfortunate adventure in Gaul XI. Amazan and Formosanta become reconciled

THE MAN OF FORTY CROWNS.

I. National Poverty II. Disaster of the Man of Forty Crowns III. Conversation with a Geometrician IV. An adventure with a Carmelite V. Audience of the Comptroller General VI. The Man of Forty Crowns marries, becomes a father, and discants upon the monks VII. On taxes paid to a foreign power VIII. On Proportions IX. A great quarrel X. A rascal repulsed XI. The good sense of Mr. Andrew XII. The good supper at Mr. Andrew's

THE HURON; OR, PUPIL OF NATURE.

I. The Huron arrives in France II. The Huron, called the Ingenu, acknowledged by his relatives III. The Huron converted IV. The Huron baptized V. The Huron in love VI. The Huron flies to his mistress, and becomes quite furious VII. The Huron repulses the English XIII. The Huron goes to Court. Sups upon the road with some Huguenots IX. The arrival of the Huron at Versailles. His reception at Court X. The Huron is shut up in the Bastile with a Jansenist XI. How the Huron discloses his genius XII. The Huron's sentiments upon theatrical pieces XIII. The beautiful Miss St. Yves goes to Versailles XIV. Rapid progress of the Huron's intellect XV. The beautiful Miss St. Yves visits M. de St. Pouange XVI. Miss St. Yves consults a Jesuit XVII. The Jesuit triumphs XVIII. Miss St. Yves delivers her lover and a Jansenist XIX. The Huron, the beautiful Miss St. Yves, and their relatives, are convened XX. The death of the beautiful Miss St. Yves and its consequences

I. A voyage to the planet Saturn, by a native of Sirius II. The conversation between Micromegas and the inhabitant of Saturn III. The voyage of these inhabitants of other worlds IV. What befell them upon this our globe V. The travelers capture a vessel VI. What happened in their intercourse with men

THE BLACK AND THE WHITE

MEMNON THE PHILOSOPHER

ANDRÉ DES TOUCHES AT SIAM

I. Introduction II. The study of Nature III. Good advice IV. Dialogue upon the soul and other topics

A CONVERSATION WITH A CHINESE PLATO'S DREAM PLEASURE IN HAVING NO PLEASURE AN ADVENTURE IN INDIA JEANNOT AND COLIN THE TRAVELS OF SCARMENTADO THE GOOD BRAMIN THE TWO COMFORTERS ANCIENT FAITH AND FABLE

Voltaire, by Houdon--_Frontispiece._ Voltaire, at seventy Ancient Writing implements, from Pompeii Voltaire in early manhood The White Bull Apis Silence Amasidia The Witch of Endor The Serpent Nebuchadnezzar Lot and his Family Daniel, Ezekiel & Jeremiah Egyptian Priests Winged Bull The Scape Goat Caravan approaching Babylon The Cup Egyptian Archer The Funeral Pyre Oannes--The Fish God Almona Zadig and the Brigand The Basilisk Zadig and the Queen Cador concealing Astarte The Combats The Hermit Freind and his wayward Son Don Jeronimo Bueno Caracurador Condemned by the Inquisition Epictetus the Slave Grand Entrance to Palace The Phœnix The King of Scythia rescued from the Lion The Shrine at Bassora Consulting the Oracle Religious Wars in Albion The Old Man of the Seven Mountains Kissing an Old Man's Toe Gaiety and Frivolity Preservers of Ancient Customs Dancing a _Tambourin_ Clio, the Muse of History The Tax Collector Barefooted Carmelites Entering the Convent The Rack The Priory Entrance The Huron Identified Baptism of Hercules The Separation The Confessional Father Tout-à-tous The Meeting Death of Miss St. Yves A Medieval Exploring Vessel Micromegas captures a Ship The Blank Book The Spiritual Rulers of Persepolis Burying the Dead in Churches Good and Evil Genii Young Memnon Memnon and the Distressed Ninevite Des Touches and Croutef Boodh supported by Serpents The Fakir The Sphinx The Study of Nature The Poor Clergyman Kwan-yin, Burmese, Buddha, and Chinese Ivory Figure The Birth of Minerva and Eve--Androgynous Deities Bacchus and Ariadne Envy Plato Visiting Seignor Pococurante The "Yawning Oysters" The School at Issoire Jeannot and Colin Religious Emblems Brama, Vishna, and Siva The happy Bigot The two Comforters The Winged Dragon

The object and significance of ancient Tauric and Phallic worship have been clearly set forth by Dupuis, Payne Knight, and other learned authors, and we have, even at the present day, a survival of the ancient faith, in the Mayday festivals of India and Britain, which were originally instituted to celebrate the entrance of the sun into the zodiacal sign Taurus, at the vernal equinox, when the god Osiris was worshiped in Egypt under the form of a bull called Apis.

"The general devotion of the ancients to the worship of the BULL," says the Rev. Mr. Maurice in his learned work on the _Antiquities of India_, "I have had frequent occasion to remark, and more particularly in the Indian history, by their devotion to it at that period 'when the Bull with his horns opened the Vernal year.' I observed that all nations seem anciently to have vied with each other in celebrating that blissful epoch; and that the moment the sun entered the sign Taurus, were displayed the signals of triumph and the incentives to passion; that memorials of the universal festivity indulged at that season, are to be found in the records and customs of people otherwise the most opposite in manners and most remote in situation;... that the Apis, or Sacred Bull of Egypt, was only the symbol of the sun in the vigor of vernal youth; and that the Bull of Japan, breaking with his horn the mundane egg, was evidently connected with the same bovine species of superstition, founded on the mixture of astronomy and mythology."

"In many of the most ancient temples or India," says Godfrey Higgins in the _Anacalypsis_, "the Bull, as an object of adoration makes a most conspicuous figure. A gigantic image of one protrudes from the front of the temple of _the Great Creator_, called in the language of the country, Jaggernaut, in Orissa. This is the Bull of the Zodiac,--the emblem of the sun when the equinox took place in the first degree of the sign of the Zodiac, Taurus. In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, the sun at the vernal equinox left Taurus, and took place in Aries, which it has left also for a great number of years, and it now takes place in Aquarius. Thus it keeps receding about one degree in seventy-two years, and about a whole _sign_ in 2,160 years. M. Dupuis has demonstrated that the labors of Hercules are nothing but a history of the passage of the sun through the signs of the zodiac; and that Hercules is the sun in Aries or the Ram, Bacchus the sun in Taurus or the Bull. The adoration of the Bull of the zodiac is to be met with everywhere throughout the world, in the most opposite climes. The examples of it are innumerable and incontrovertable; they admit of no dispute.

"It appears from the book or history of the Exod, that it was on the leaving of Egypt that Moses changed the object of adoration from Taurus to Aries. It appears that the change took place on the mountain of _Sin_, or Nisi, or Bacchus, which was evidently its old name before Moses arrived there. The Israelites were punished for adhering to the old worship, that of the Calf, in opposition to the paschal Lamb, which Moses had substituted--'the Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world,'--in place of the Bull or Calf which took away the sins of the world.

"The planets were in later times all called by names appropriated to the days of the week, which were dedicated by astrologers to the gods who were typified by the Bull: Monday to the horned _Isis_; Tuesday to Mercury, the same as Hermes and Osiris; Wednesday to Woden, Fo, Buddha, and Surya; Thursday or Thor-day, or _Tur_, or Taurus, or Bull-day, to Jove or Jupiter, who, as a Bull, stole Europa; Friday was dedicated to Venus, Ashteroth or beeve-horned Astarte; Saturday to Saturn, identified by Mr. Faber with Moloch and the _Centaur Cronus_ or Taschter; Sunday to the Sun, everywhere typified by Taurus. All these, I think, must have taken their names after the entrance of the Sun into Taurus; and before this date all history and even mythology fails us.

"In ancient collections we often meet with a person in the prime of life killing a young bull. He is generally accompanied with a number of astrological emblems. This Bull was the mediatorial Mithra, slain to make atonement for, and to take away the sins of the world. This was the God Bull, to whom the prayers were addressed which we find in Bryant and Faber, and in which he is expressly called the Mediator. This is the Bull of Persia, which Sir. William Jones and Mr. Faber identify with Buddha or Mahabad. The sacrifice of the Bull, which taketh away the sins of the world, was succeeded by the sacrifice of the Agni or of Fire, by our Indians in, comparatively speaking, modern times; it was closely connected with the two principles spoken of above. While the sun was in Taurus, the Bull was slain as the vicarious sacrifice; when it got into Aries, the Ram or Lamb was substituted.

"M. Dupuis observes, that the lamb was a symbol or mark of initiation into the Christian mysteries, a sort of proof of admission into the societies of the initiated of the lamb, like the private sign of the free-masons. It follows, then, that the mysteries of Christ are the mysteries of the Lamb, and that the mysteries of the Lamb are mysteries of the same nature as those of the Mithraitic Bull to which they succeeded by the effect of the precession of the equinoxes, which substituted the slain _lamb_ for the slain _bull_."--E.

HOW THE PRINCESS AMASIDIA MEETS A BULL.

The princess Amasidia, daughter of Amasis, King of Tanis in Egypt, took a walk upon the highway of Peluaium with the ladies of her train. She was sunk in deep melancholy. Tears gushed from her beautiful eyes. The cause of her grief was known, as well as the fears she entertained lest that grief should displease the king, her father. The old man, Mambres, ancient magician and eunuch of the Pharoahs, was beside her, and seldom left her. He was present at her birth. He had educated her, and taught her all that a fair princess was allowed to know of the sciences of Egypt. The mind of Amasidia equaled her beauty. Her sensibility and tenderness rivaled the charms of her person; and it was this sensibility which cost her so many tears.

The princess was twenty-four years old, the magician, Mambres, about thirteen hundred. It was he, as every one knows, who had that famous dispute with Moses, in which the victory was so long doubtful between these two profound philosophers. If Mambres yielded, it was owing to the visible protection of the celestial powers, who favored his rival. It required gods to overcome Mambres!

Amasis made him superintendent of his daughter's household, and he acquitted himself in this office with his usual prudence. His compassion was excited by the sighs of the beautiful Amasidia.

"O, my lover!" said she to herself, "my young, my dear lover! O, greatest of conquerors, most accomplished, most beautiful of men! Almost seven years hast thou disappeared from the world. What God hath snatched thee from thy tender Amasidia? Thou art not dead. The wise Egyptian prophets confess this. But thou art dead to me. I am alone in the world. To me it is a desert. By what extraordinary prodigy hast thou abandoned thy throne and thy mistress?--thy throne, which was the first in the world--however, that is a matter of small consequence; but to abandon me, who adores thee! O, my dear Ne--"

"Tremble to pronounce that fatal name," said Mambres, the ancient eunuch and magician of the Pharoahs. "You would perhaps be discovered by some of the ladies of your court. They are all very much devoted to you, and all fair ladies certainly make it a merit to serve the noble passions of fair princesses. But there may be one among them indiscreet, and even treacherous. You know that your father, although he loves you, has sworn to put you to death, should you pronounce the terrible name always ready to escape your lips. This law is severe; but you have not been educated in Egyptian wisdom to be ignorant of the government of the tongue. Remember that Hippocrates, one of our greatest gods, has always his finger upon his mouth."

The beautiful Amasidia wept, and was silent.

As she pensively advanced toward the banks of the Nile she perceived at a distance, under a thicket watered by the river, an old woman in a tattered gray garment, seated on a hillock. This old woman had beside her a she-ass, a dog, and a he-goat. Opposite to her was a serpent, which was not like the common serpents; for its eyes were mild, its physiognomy noble and engaging, while its skin shone with the liveliest and brightest colors. A huge fish, half immersed in the river, was not the least astonishing figure in the group; and on a neighboring tree were perched a raven and a pigeon. All these creatures seemed to carry on a very animated conversation.

"Alas!" said the princess in a low tone, "these animals undoubtedly speak of their loves, and it is not so much as allowed me to mention the name of mine."

The old woman held in her hand a slender steel chain a hundred fathoms long, to which was fastened a bull who fed in the meadow. This bull was white, perfectly well-made, plump, and at the same time agile, which is a thing seldom to be found. He was indeed the most beautiful specimen that was ever seen of his kind. Neither the bull of Pasiphæ, nor that in whose shape Jupiter appeared when he carried off Europa, could be compared to this noble animal. The charming young heifer into which Isis was changed, would have scarce been worthy of his company.

As soon as the bull saw the princess he ran toward her with the swiftness of a young Arabian horse, who pricks up his ears and flies over the plains and rivers of the ancient Saana to approach the lovely consort whose image reigns in his heart. The old woman used her utmost efforts to restrain the bull. The serpent wanted to terrify him by its hissing. The dog followed him and bit his beautiful limbs. The she-ass crossed his way and kicked him to make him return. The great fish remounted the Nile and, darting himself out of the water, threatened to devour him. The he-goat remained immovable, apparently struck with fear. The raven fluttered round his head as if it wanted to tear out his eyes. The pigeon alone accompanied him from curiosity, and applauded him by a sweet murmur.

So extraordinary a sight threw Mambres into serious reflections. In the meanwhile, the white bull, dragging after him his chain and the old woman, had already reached the princess, who was struck with astonishment and fear. He threw himself at her feet. He kissed them. He shed tears. He looked upon her with eyes in which there was a strange mixture of grief and joy. He dared not to low, lest he should terrify the beautiful Amasidia. He could not speak. A weak use of the voice, granted by Heaven to certain animals, was denied him; but all his actions were eloquent. The princess was delighted by him. She perceived that a trifling amusement could suspend for some moments even the most poignant grief.

"Here," said she, "is a most amiable animal. I could wish much to have him in my stable."

At these words he bull bent himself on his knees and kissed the ground.

"He understands me," cried the princess. "He shows me that he wants to be mine. Ah, heavenly magician! ah, divine eunuch! Give me this consolation. Purchase this beautiful bovine. Settle the price with the old woman, to whom he no doubt belongs. This animal must be mine. Do not refuse me this innocent comfort."

All the ladies joined their requests to the entreaties of the princess. Mambres yielded to them, and immediately went to speak to the old woman.

[1] According to Eschenburg, Apis is the name of the ox in which Osiris was supposed to reside, rather than a distinct deity. The ox thus honored was known by certain marks; his body was all black, excepting a square spot of white on his forehead, and a white crescent or sort of half-moon on his right side; on his back was the figure of an eagle; under his tongue a sort of knot resembling a beetle (_cantharus_), and two sorts of hair upon his tail. This ox was permitted to live twenty-five years. His body was then embalmed, placed in a chest, and buried with many solemnities. A season of mourning then followed, until a new Apis, or ox properly marked, was discovered.--E.

HOW THE WISE MAMBRES, FORMERLY MAGICIAN OF PHAROAH, KNEW AGAIN THE OLD WOMAN, AND WAS KNOWN BY HER.

"Madam," said Mambres to her, "you know that ladies, and particularly princesses, have need of amusement. The daughter of the king is distractedly fond of your bull. I beg that you will sell him to us. You shall be paid in ready money."

"Sir," answered the old woman, "this precious animal does not belong to me. I am charged, together with all the beasts which you see, to keep him with care, to watch all his motions, and to give an exact account of them. God forbid that I should ever have any inclination to sell this invaluable animal."

Mambres, upon this discourse, began to have a confused remembrance of something which he could not yet properly distinguish. He eyed the old woman in the gray cloak with greater attention.

"Respectable lady," said he to her, "I either mistake, or I have seen you formerly."