Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

repeat some of them, add to them, subtract from them, disguise them under a new form, or make them fit the opinion I might wish to embrace. I could, in order to explain the establishment of the cult of Fire, take—following the custom—men at the origin of the world, fabricate them according to my fancy, and paint them in that so-called natural state which never existed. I could suppose that the first societies, without arts, without knowledge, without industry, had no idea of Fire; that chance showed it to them; that lightning, in falling, set some trees ablaze; or that violent winds, agitating a forest and pressing the branches strongly against one another, managed to ignite it. This terrible phenomenon attracted the attention of these coarse and new men; the fire and its consequences, and the dangers to which they saw themselves exposed by the ignorance they had of its effects, threw them into consternation and dread. Experience rendered them prudent; they grew accustomed to this spectacle and learned the utility that could be drawn from this Element. Chance, which had procured it for them, then deprived them of it; they were ignorant of the manner of renewing it; they waited eagerly for some accident to return it to them; time brought it about. Instructed by the past, they thought of the means to preserve it; they erected a pyre which they ignited with the help that fortune had provided them; they applied all their attention to not letting it go out. Necessity, founded on a lack

of industry In this 18th-century context, "industry" refers to human skill, technology, or the ability to manufacture tools, rather than modern factory labor., therefore gave origin to the perpetual Fire; superstition then consecrated this custom, which finally became religious.

This idea, which is not new, might find success with some minds; unfortunately, it is contradicted by ancient history, both sacred Referring to the Bible and religious chronicles. and profane Referring to secular or classical histories.; it is not, however, that such a contradiction worries many today; most system-makers hardly bother themselves with it. But, as I have already remarked, new conjectures have little credit; it is no longer permitted to indulge one's imagination: it is to the imagination of others that one must recur—that is to say, to that of the Writers who lived before us. One does not pretend for that reason that they saw more clearly into the darkness of antiquity; but their opinions have been accredited for a long time, and a few centuries give great weight to an opinion. We know, however, that three thousand years more or less do not prevent an absurdity from being an absurdity. The truth is that the cult of Fire, according to the most ancient monuments, began in Chaldea An ancient region in the southern part of Mesopotamia, often associated with the origins of astronomy and early civilization.; that in this country, which was the cradle of mankind, the use of this element was not unknown; and that if it has not been found among some Savages of America, that means nothing to Asia, from whence the first peoples departed to spread everywhere, and where the first arts were born. I return to the Sacred Fire.