Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

It was in Chaldea An ancient region in Mesopotamia, often associated by early modern scholars with the origins of magic and astronomy. that it took its birth; it was established there even before Abraham. To make its origin known, it is appropriate to say a word about that of Idolatry; the one will easily lead to the other: and these details are not at all foreign to my subject.

In casting a glance over universal history, one sees superstitions, errors, and crimes showing themselves in the infancy of the world; absurd Polytheism The belief in or worship of more than one god. was already blinding humanity. How did Idolatry begin so early, and make such rapid progress? Men, scarcely existing, witnesses of the wonders which were constantly reproduced upon the earth newly emerged from nothingness, had abandoned the true God. The flood had punished impiety; it should have existed no longer except in memory; one could hardly think of it without horror and dread. How did the children of Noah, having escaped this terrible scourge, not profit from this lesson? How did they not prevent their descendants from surrendering themselves to the excesses which had kindled the vengeful wrath of the Divinity? How did they fall into it themselves? These questions naturally present themselves to one who traverses the history of men; several writers have tried to resolve them; but their efforts have resulted only in systems; I will pause for a moment on the most famous; it goes back, according to custom, to the creation.

Man had just disobeyed his God; punishment had followed the crime; he groaned

under the weight of misfortune; and the memory of the state from which he had fallen added still more to his regrets. The Supreme Being, infinite in his goodness even when he punishes, softened the rigor of his fate by promising him a Mediator. This promise was preserved from age to age by tradition; it was further confirmed to the children of Noah. Ham and Canaan original: "Cham & Chanaam" were deprived of the hope of being the ancestors of this restorer of the Human Race. Some Scholars have judged that they must have been affected by this exclusion; they have imagined that to annihilate this humiliating idea, they sought to distort the meaning of this promise, and to multiply the number of Mediators between man and the Divinity. They saw the Patriarchs visited by Angels who brought them orders and instructions from God himself; they perceived, in different places, altars raised in memory of these apparitions; they feigned similar ones, multiplied them, and applied themselves to prevailing by sheer quantity.

This explanation may satisfy some Readers; but it will certainly appear more ingenious than solid to the greatest number. If the descendants of the third son of Noah greedily adopted these chimeras, why did those of the other two also receive them? Should they not have preserved the tradition in all its purity? Those who count time according to the Hebrew Text A reference to the Masoretic chronology of the Bible, which suggests a shorter timespan between the Flood and Abraham than other ancient versions. have difficulty conceiving how they could have forgotten it in 400 years.