Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire
page 44 of 338 (13%)
page 44 of 338 (13%)
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There was pronounced a sentence in favour of Aristotle's categories, and
there was decreed learnedly and equitably the penalty of the galleys for whoever should be sufficiently daring as to have an opinion different from that of the Stagyrite, whose books were formerly burned by two councils. Further on a faculty, which had not great faculties, issued a decree against innate ideas, and later a decree for innate ideas, without the said faculty being informed by its beadles what an idea is. In the neighbouring schools judicial proceedings were instituted against the circulation of the blood. An action was started against inoculation, and parties have been subpoenaed. At the Customs of thought twenty-one folio volumes were seized, in which it was stated treacherously and wickedly that triangles always have three angles; that a father is older than his son; that Rhea Silvia lost her virginity before giving birth to her child, and that flour is not an oak leaf. In another year was judged the action: _Utrum chimera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones_, and was decided in the affirmative. In consequence, everyone thought themselves far superior to Archimedes, Euclid, Cicero, Pliny, and strutted proudly about the University quarter. |
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