which led Mr. J. Hibbert to say, "I know not why English publishers
attribute this awfully sounding work to the cautious, not to say
timid d'Alembert. It was followed by Whitefoot's _'Torments of Hell,'_
now first translated from the French." [47:8]


Of Holbach's remaining works on religion two, _Histoire critique
de Jesus Christ_ and _Tableau des Saints_, date from 1770 when he
began to publish his more philosophical works.

8. The _Histoire critique de Jesus Christ ou Analyse raisonnee des
Evangiles_ was published without name of place or date. It was
preceded by Voltaire's _Epitre a Uranie_. It is an extremely careful
but unsympathetic analysis of the Gospel accounts, emphasizing all
the inconsistencies and interpreting them with a literalness that
they can ill sustain. From this rationalistic view-point Holbach
found the Gospels a tissue of absurdities and contradictions. His
method, however, would not be followed by the critique of today.

9. The _Tableau des Saints_ is a still more severe criticism of
the heroes of Christendom. Holbach's proposition is "La raison
ne connait qu'une mesure pour juger et les hommes et les choses,
c'est l'utilite reelle et permanente, qui en resulte pour notre
espece," (p. 111). Judged by this standard, the saints with their
eyes fixed on another world have fallen far short. "Ils se flatterent
de meriter le ciel en se rendant parfaitement inutile a la terre"
(p. xviii). Holbach much prefers the heroes of classical antiquity.
The book is violent but learned throughout, and deals not only with
the Jewish patriarchs from Moses on but with the church fathers and
Christian Princes down to the contemporary defenders of the faith.