corruptible individual, or of a prejudiced party, but in the grand forum
of mankind--guarded by all their information and all their interests.
Let the natural sense of the whole human race be our arbiter and judge.



CHAPTER XX.

THE SEARCH OF TRUTH.


The people expressed their applause, and the legislator continued: To
proceed with order, and avoid all confusion, let a spacious semicircle
be left vacant in front of the altar of peace and union; let each system
of religion, and each particular sect, erect its proper distinctive
standard on the line of this semicircle; let its chiefs and doctors
place themselves around the standard, and their followers form a column
behind them.

The semicircle being traced, and the order published, there instantly
rose an innumerable multitude of standards, of all colors and of every
form, like what we see in a great commercial port, when, on a day of
rejoicing, a thousand different flags and streamers are floating from a
forest of masts.

At the sight of this prodigious diversity, I turned towards the Genius
and said:

I thought that the earth was divided only into eight or ten systems of
faith, and I then despaired of a reconciliation; I now behold thousands