The Ruins

C >> C. F. [Constantin Francois de] Volney >> The Ruins

THE RUINS,

OR, MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES:


AND

THE LAW OF NATURE,


by C. F. VOLNEY,

COMTE ET PAIR DE FRANCE. COMMANDEUR DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR, MEMBRE DE
L'ACADEMIE FRANCAISE, ET DE PLUSIEURS AUTRES SOCIETES SAVANTES.

DEPUTY TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF 1789, AND AUTHOR OF "TRAVELS IN EGYPT
AND SYRIA," "NEW RESEARCHES ON ANCIENT HISTORY," ETC.


TO WHICH IS ADDED

VOLNEY'S ANSWER TO DR. PRIESTLY, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE BY COUNT DARU,
AND THE ZODIACAL SIGNS AND CONSTELLATIONS BY THE EDITOR.


I will cherish in remembrance the love of man, I will employ myself on
the means of effecting good for him, and build my own happiness on the
promotion of his.--Volney.


NEW YORK, TWENTIETH CENTURY PUB. CO., 4 WARREN ST. 1890.




PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.


Having recently purchased a set of stereotyped plates of Volney's Ruins,
with a view of reprinting the same, I found, on examination, that they
were considerably worn by the many editions that had been printed
from them and that they greatly needed both repairs and corrections. A
careful estimate showed that the amount necessary for this purpose would
go far towards reproducing this standard work in modern type and in an
improved form. After due reflection this course was at length decided
upon, and all the more readily, as by discarding the old plates and
resetting the entire work, the publisher was enabled to greatly enhance
its value, by inserting the translator's preface as it appeared in the
original edition, and also to restore many notes and other valuable
material which had been carelessly omitted in the American reprint.

An example of an important omission of this kind may be found on the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth pages of this volume, which may
be appropriately referred to, in this connection. It is there stated, in
describing the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia, and the ruins of Thebes,
her opulent metropolis, that "There a people, now forgotten, discovered,
while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences.
A race of men, now rejected from society for their sable skin and
frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil
and religious systems which still govern the universe."

A voluminous note, in which standard authorities are cited, seems to
prove that this statement is substantially correct, and that we are in
reality indebted to the ancient Ethiopians, to the fervid imagination of
the persecuted and despised negro, for the various religious systems
now so highly revered by the different branches of both the Semitic
and Aryan races. This fact, which is so frequently referred to in Mr.
Volney's writings, may perhaps solve the question as to the origin of
all religions, and may even suggest a solution to the secret so long
concealed beneath the flat nose, thick lips, and negro features of the
Egyptian Sphinx. It may also confirm the statement of Dioderus, that
"the Ethiopians conceive themselves as the inventors of divine worship,
of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and of every other
religious practice."

That an imaginative and superstitious race of black men should have
invented and founded, in the dim obscurity of past ages, a system
of religious belief that still enthralls the minds and clouds the
intellects of the leading representatives of modern theology,--that
still clings to the thoughts, and tinges with its potential influence
the literature and faith of the civilized and cultured nations of Europe
and America, is indeed a strange illustration of the mad caprice of
destiny, of the insignificant and apparently trivial causes that oft
produce the most grave and momentous results.


The translation here given closely follows that published in Paris by
Levrault, Quai Malaquais, in 1802, which was under the direction and
careful supervision of the talented author; and whatever notes Count
Volney then thought necessary to insert in his work, are here carefully
reproduced without abridgment or modification.


The portrait, maps and illustrations are from a French edition of
Volney's complete works, published by Bossange Freres at No. 12 Rue de
Seine, Paris, in 1821,--one year after the death of Mr. Volney. It is a
presentation copy "on the part of Madame, the Countess de Volney, and
of the nephew of the author," and it may therefore be taken for
granted that Mr. Volney's portrait, as here given, is correct, and was
satisfactory to his family.


An explanation of the figures and diagrams shown on the map of the
Astrological Heaven of the Ancients has been added in the appendix by
the publisher.

PETER ECKLER.

New York, January 3, 1890.




TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

OF THE ENGLISH EDITION PUBLISHED IN PARIS.


To offer the public a new translation of Volney's Ruins may require some
apology in the view of those who are acquainted with the work only in
the English version which already exists, and which has had a general
circulation. But those who are conversant with the book in the author's
own language, and have taken pains to compare it with that version,
must have been struck with the errors with which the English performance
abounds. They must have regretted the loss of many original beauties,
some of which go far in composing the essential merits of the work.

The energy and dignity of the author's manner, the unaffected elevation
of his style, the conciseness, perspicuity and simplicity of his
diction, are everywhere suited to his subject, which is solemn, novel,
luminous, affecting,--a subject perhaps the most universally interesting
to the human race that has ever been presented to their contemplation.
It takes the most liberal and comprehensive view of the social state
of man, develops the sources of his errors in the most perspicuous and
convincing manner, overturns his prejudices with the greatest delicacy
and moderation, sets the wrongs he has suffered, and the rights he ought
to cherish, in the clearest point of view, and lays before him the true
foundation of morals--his only means of happiness.

As the work has already become a classical one, even in English, and as
it must become and continue to be so regarded in all languages in which
it shall be faithfully rendered, we wish it to suffer as little as
possible from a change of country;--that as much of the spirit of the
original be transfused and preserved as is consistent with the nature of
translation.

How far we have succeeded in performing this service for the English
reader we must not pretend to determine. We believe, however, that
we have made an improved translation, and this without claiming any
particular merit on our part, since we have had advantages which our
predecessor had not. We have been aided by his labors; and, what is of
still more importance, our work has been done under the inspection of
the author, whose critical knowledge of both languages has given us
a great facility in avoiding such errors as might arise from hurry or
mistake.

Paris, November 1, 1802.




PREFACE OF THE LONDON EDITION.*

* Published by T. Allman, 42 Holborn Hill, London, 1851.

The plan of this publication was formed nearly ten years ago; and
allusions to it may be seen in the preface to Travels in Syria and
Egypt, as well as at the end of that work, (published in 1787). The
performance was in some forwardness when the events of 1788 in France
interrupted it. Persuaded that a development of the theory of political
truth could not sufficiently acquit a citizen of his debt to society,
the author wished to add practice; and that particularly at a time when
a single arm was of consequence in the defence of the general cause.

The same desire of public benefit which induced him to suspend his work,
has since engaged him to resume it, and though it may not possess the
same merit as if it had appeared under the circumstances that gave rise
to it, yet he imagines that at a time when new passions are bursting
forth,--passions that must communicate their activity to the religious
opinions of men,--it is of importance to disseminate such moral truths
as are calculated to operate as a curb and restraint. It is with this
view he has endeavored to give to these truths, hitherto treated as
abstract, a form likely to gain them a reception.

It was found impossible not to shock the violent prejudices of some
readers; but the work, so far from being the fruit of a disorderly
and perturbed spirit, has been dictated by a sincere love of order and
humanity.

After reading this performance it will be asked, how it was possible in
1784 to have had an idea of what did not take place till the year
1790? The solution is simple. In the original plan the legislator was
a fictitious and hypothetical being: in the present, the author has
substituted an existing legislator; and the reality has only made the
subject additionally interesting.




PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITION.*

* The copy from which this preface is reprinted was
published in Boston by Charles Gaylord, in 1833. It was
given to the writer, when a mere lad, by a lady--almost a
stranger--who was traveling through the little hamlet on the
banks of the Hudson where he then resided. This lady
assured me that the book was of great value, containing
noble and sublime truths; and the only condition she
attached to the gift was, that I should read it carefully
and endeavor to understand its meaning. This I willingly
promised and faithfully performed; and all who have "climbed
the heights," and escaped from the thraldom of superstitious
faith, will concede the inestimable value of such a gift--
rich with the peace and consolation that the truth imparts.
--Pub.

If books were to be judged of by their volume, the following would have
but little value; if appraised by their contents, it will perhaps be
reckoned among the most instructive.

In general, nothing is more important than a good elementary book; but,
also, nothing is more difficult to compose and even to read: and why?
Because, as every thing in it should be analysis and definition, all
should be expressed with truth and precision. If truth and precision are
wanting, the object has not been attained; if they exist, its very force
renders it abstract.

The first of these defects has been hitherto evident in all books of
morality. We find in them only a chaos of incoherent maxims, precepts
without causes, and actions without a motive. The pedants of the human
race have treated it like a little child: they have prescribed to it
good behavior by frightening it with spirits and hobgoblins. Now that
the growth of the human race is rapid, it is time to speak reason to it;
it is time to prove to men that the springs of their improvement are to
be found in their very organization, in the interest of their passions,
and in all that composes their existence. It is time to demonstrate that
morality is a physical and geometrical science, subject to the rules
and calculations of the other mathematical sciences: and such is the
advantage of the system expounded in this book, that the basis of
morality being laid in it on the very nature of things, it is both
constant and immutable; whereas, in all other theological systems,
morality being built upon arbritary opinions, not demonstrable and often
absurd, it changes, decays, expires with them, and leaves men in an
absolute depravation. It is true that because our system is founded
on facts and not on reveries, it will with much greater difficulty
be extended and adopted: but it will derive strength from this very
struggle, and sooner or later the eternal religion of Nature must
overturn the transient religions of the human mind.


This book was published for the first time in 1793, under the title of
The French Citizen's Catechism. It was at first intended for a national
work, but as it may be equally well entitled the Catechism of men of
sense and honor, it is to be hoped that it will become a book common
to all Europe. It is possible that its brevity may prevent it from
attaining the object of a popular classical work, but the author will be
satisfied if he has at least the merit of pointing out the way to make a
better.




ADVERTISEMENT OF THE AMERICAN EDITION.

VOLNEY'S RUINS;

OR MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES.


The superior merits of this work are too well known to require
commendation; but as it is not generally known that there are in
circulation three English translations of it, varying materially in
regard to faithfulness and elegance of diction, the publisher of the
present edition inserts the following extracts for the information of
purchasers and readers:




PARIS TRANSLATION,

First published in this Country by Dixon and Sickels.


INVOCATION.

Hail, solitary ruins! holy sepulchres, and silent walls! you I invoke;
to you I address my prayer. While your aspect averts, with secret
terror, the vulgar regard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious
sentiments--sublime contemplations. What useful lessons! what affecting
and profound reflections you suggest to him who knows how to consult
you. When the whole earth, in chains and silence, bowed the neck before
its tyrants, you had already proclaimed the truths which they abhor,
and confounding the dust of the king with that of the meanest slave,
had announced to man the sacred dogma of Equality! Within your pale, in
solitary adoration of Liberty, I saw her Genius arise from the mansions
of the dead; not such as she is painted by the impassioned multitude,
armed with fire and sword, but under the august aspect of justice,
poising in her hand the sacred balance, wherein are weighed the actions
of men at the gates of eternity.

O Tombs! what virtues are yours! you appal the tyrant's heart, and
poison with secret alarm his impious joys; he flies, with coward step,
your incorruptible aspect, and erects afar his throne of insolence.




LONDON TRANSLATION.


INVOCATION.

Solitary ruins, sacred tombs, ye mouldering and silent walls, all hail!
To you I address my invocation. While the vulgar shrink from your aspect
with secret terror, my heart finds in the contemplation a thousand
delicious sentiments, a thousand admirable recollections. Pregnant, I
may truly call you, with useful lessons, with pathetic and irresistible
advice to the man who knows how to consult you. A while ago the whole
world bowed the neck in silence before the tyrants that oppressed it;
and yet in that hopeless moment you already proclaimed the truths that
tyrants hold in abhorrence: mixing the dust of the proudest kings with
that of the meanest slaves, you called upon us to contemplate this
example of Equality. From your caverns, whither the musing and anxious
love of Liberty led me, I saw escape its venerable shade, and with
unexpected felicity, direct its flight and marshal my steps the way to
renovated France.

Tombs! what virtues and potency do you exhibit! Tyrants tremble at your
aspect--you poison with secret alarm their impious pleasures--they turn
from you with impatience, and, coward like, endeavor to forget you amid
the sumptuousness of their palaces.




PHILADELPHIA TRANSLATION.


INVOCATION.

Hail, ye solitary ruins, ye sacred tombs, and silent walls! 'Tis your
auspicious aid that I invoke; 'tis to you my soul, wrapt in meditation,
pours forth its prayers! What though the profane and vulgar mind shrinks
with dismay from your august and awe-inspiring aspect; to me you unfold
the sublimest charms of contemplation and sentiment, and offer to my
senses the luxury of a thousand delicious and enchanting thoughts!
How sumptuous the feast to a being that has a taste to relish, and an
understanding to consult you! What rich and noble admonitions;
what exquisite and pathetic lessons do you read to a heart that is
susceptible of exalted feelings! When oppressed humanity bent in timid
silence throughout the globe beneath the galling yoke of slavery, it was
you that proclaimed aloud the birthright of those truths which tyrants
tremble at while they detect, and which, by sinking the loftiest head of
the proudest potentate, with all his boasted pageantry, to the level
of mortality with his meanest slave, confirmed and ratified by your
unerring testimony the sacred and immortal doctrine of Equality.

Musing within the precincts of your inviting scenes of philosophic
solitude, whither the insatiate love of true-born Liberty had led me, I
beheld her Genius ascending, not in the spurious character and habit of
a blood-thirsty Fury, armed with daggers and instruments of murder, and
followed by a frantic and intoxicated multitude, but under the placid
and chaste aspect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the
sacred scales in which the actions of mortals are weighed on the brink
of eternity.


The first translation was made and published in London soon after the
appearance of the work in French, and, by a late edition, is still
adopted without alteration. Mr. Volney, when in this country in 1797,
expressed his disapprobation of this translation, alleging that the
translator must have been overawed by the government or clergy from
rendering his ideas faithfully; and, accordingly, an English gentleman,
then in Philadelphia, volunteered to correct this edition. But by his
endeavors to give the true and full meaning of the author with great
precision, he has so overloaded his composition with an exuberance
of words, as in a great measure to dissipate the simple elegance and
sublimity of the original. Mr. Volney, when he became better acquainted
with the English language, perceived this defect; and with the aid of
our countryman, Joel Barlow, made and published in Paris a new, correct,
and elegant translation, of which the present edition is a faithful and
correct copy.




CONTENTS

Publisher's Preface
Translator's Preface
Preface of London Edition
Preface of the American Edition
Advertisement of the American Edition
The Life of Volney
A List of Volney's Works
Invocation

Chap.
I. The Journey
II. The Reverie
III. The Apparition
IV. The Exposition
V. Condition of Man in the Universe
VI. The Primitive State of Man
VII. Principles of Society
VIII. Sources of the Evils of Societies
IX. Origin of Governments and Laws
X. General Causes of the Prosperity of Ancient States
XI. General Causes of the Revolutions and Ruin of Ancient States
XII. Lessons of Times Past repeated on the Present
XIII. Will the Human Race Improve
XIV. The Great Obstacle to Improvement
XV. The New Age
XVI. A Free and Legislative People
XVII. Universal Basis of all Right and all Law
XVIII. Consternation and Conspiracy of Tyrants
XIX. General Assembly of the Nations
XX. The Search of Truth
XXI. Problem of Religious Contradictions
XXII. Origin and Filiation of Religious Ideas
I. Origin of the Idea of God: Worship of the Elements
and of the Physical Powers of Nature
II. Second System. Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism
III. Third System. Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry
IV. Fourth System. Worship of two Principles, or Dualism
V. Moral and Mystical Worship, or System of a Future State
VI. Sixth System. The Animated World, or Worship of the
Universe under diverse Emblems
VII. Seventh System. Worship of the Soul of the World, that
is to say, the Element of Fire, Vital Principle
of the Universe
VIII. Eighth System. The World Machine: Worship of the Demi-
Ourgos, or Grand Artificer
IX. Religion of Moses, or Worship of the Soul of the World
(You-piter)
X. Religion of Zoroaster
XI. Budsoism, or Religion of the Samaneans
XII. Brahmism, or Indian System
XIII. Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun
under the cabalistic names of Chrish-en or Christ
and Yesus or Jesus
XXIII. All Religions have the same Object
XXIV. Solution of the Problem of Contradictions


THE LAW OF NATURE.

Chap.
I. Of the Law of Nature
II. Characters of the Law of Nature
III. Principles of the Law of Nature relating to Man
IV. Basis of Morality: of Good, of Evil, of Sin, of Crime,
of Vice, and of Virtue
V. Of Individual Virtues
VI. On Temperance
VII. On Continence
VIII. On Courage and Activity
IX. On Cleanliness
X. On Domestic Virtues
XI. The Social Virtues; Justice
XII. Development of the Social Virtues

Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestly.

Appendix: The Zodiacal Signs and Constellations





LIFE OF VOLNEY.

By Count Daru.


Constantine Francis Chassebeuf De Volney was born in 1757 at Craon, in
that intermediate condition of life, which is of all the happiest, since
it is deprived only of fortune's too dangerous favors, and can aspire to
the social and intellectual advantages reserved for a laudable ambition.

From his earliest youth, he devoted himself to the search after truth,
without being disheartened by the serious studies which alone can
initiate us into her secrets. After having become acquainted with the
ancient languages, the natural sciences and history, and being admitted
into the society of the most eminent literary characters, he submitted,
at the age of twenty, to an illustrious academy, the solution of one of
the most difficult problems that the history of antiquity has left open
for discussion. This attempt received no encouragement from the learned
men who were appointed his judges; and the author's only appeal from
their sentence was to his courage and his efforts.

Soon after, a small inheritance having fallen to his lot, the difficulty
was how to spend it (these are his own words.) He resolved to employ
it in acquiring, by a long voyage, a new fund of information, and
determined to visit Egypt and Syria. But these countries could not be
explored to advantage without a knowledge of the language. Our young
traveller was not to be discouraged by this difficulty. Instead of
learning Arabic in Europe, he withdrew to a convent of Copts, until he
had made himself master of an idiom that is spoken by so many nations
of the East. This resolution showed one of those undaunted spirits that
remain unshaken amid the trials of life.

Although, like other travellers, he might have amused us with an account
of his hardships and the perils surmounted by his courage, he overcame
the temptation of interrupting his narrative by personal adventures. He
disdained the beaten track. He does not tell us the road he took, the
accidents he met with, or the impressions he received. He carefully
avoids appearing upon the stage; he is an inhabitant of the country,
who has long and well observed it, and who describes its physical,
political, and moral state. The allusion would be entire if an old
Arab could be supposed to possess all the erudition, all the European
philosophy, which are found united and in their maturity in a traveller
of twenty-five.

But though a master in all those artifices by which a narration is
rendered interesting, the young man is not to be discerned in the pomp
of labored descriptions. Although possessed of a lively and brilliant
imagination, he is never found unwarily explaining by conjectural
systems the physical or moral phenomena he describes. In his
observations he unites prudence with science. With these two guides he
judges with circumspection, and sometimes confesses himself unable to
account for the effects he has made known to us.

Thus his account has all the qualities that persuade--accuracy
and candor. And when, ten years later, a vast military enterprise
transported forty thousand travellers to the classic ground, which he
had trod unattended, unarmed and unprotected, they all recognized a sure
guide and an enlightened observer in the writer who had, as it seemed,
only preceded them to remove or point out a part of the difficulties of
the way.

The unanimous testimony of all parties proved the accuracy of his
account and the justness of his observations; and his Travels in Egypt
and Syria were, by universal suffrage, recommended to the gratitude and
the confidence of the public.

Before the work had undergone this trial it had obtained in the learned
world such a rapid and general success, that it found its way into
Russia. The empress, then (in 1787) upon the throne, sent the author
a medal, which he received with respect, as a mark of esteem for his
talents, and with gratitude, as a proof of the approbation given to his
principles. But when the empress declared against France, Volney sent
back the honorable present, saying: "If I obtained it from her esteem, I
can only preserve her esteem by returning it."